my 8 month old Puppy is very destructive

[saadoun81]

hello, I have two problems I need to adress, 1st; Xena my 10 months old female would chew anything on her way. I was wondering if there is anyway to teach her not to chew on furniture or patio sofas :)

my second concern is her barking, I am afraid that my neighbours don t appriciate her barking at 2 am on a tueday... what I noticed is that she will only bark when provoked, sometimes by other dogs barking or sometimes if she sees the garbage truck or something very unuasual to her.
is there anyway I can make her ignore other dogs and stay quite?

thank you very much for your help

[BostonRott]

I see you live in Morocco, very nice!!

Have you tried crate training with her at all?

When does she chew on furniture the most? When you're around? When you are not? At night?

The barking at night....is she inside at night? Outside?

[saadoun81]

she chews stuff usually when I m not around, I live in apartment so she is in the patio most of the day, she have her dog house there, and that is where she sleeps. don t get me wrong she is usually quite, it only starts if other neighberhood dogs are barking, they are pretty far away but seems like she can hear them fin and usually responds with some very very loud barks

[livertw]

I lost all patience with my dog at about the same age....8 months. She barked, she chewed, she "mouthed" everything. She was such a pain in the neck that I seriously asked a friend who has Rotties if she wanted another one. Gradually her behavior improved as she matured. We were strict with her, trained her constantly and were eventually rewarded with a very well-behaved and sweet dog. Be patient and firm with her.

Casablanca, Morocco -- WOW! What an exotic and wonderful place.

Does our forum master know how many countries we have represented on this board?

[saadoun81]

another problem is eveytime I pute a cusion, blanket or a Pillow in her dog house, she will have that disintegrated in no time!! she seems fine sleeping of the ground ( the ground of her dog house is made of wood) , but winter is coming, doesn t really get too cold here I ll have to guess the coldest would maybe be 40-45 degrees ....would she be alright in this kinda temperatures sleeping with no blanket?
thanx

[SABELLESMOM]

I'm not certain exactly how you can encorporate certain things in your home. Is the dog chewing while you are home? The easiest fix for this is to leash her to you. That way she must follow you around (12 foot) and you devert her from chewing, or reprimand her as you wish. It will give you the opportunity to catch her in the act.

If she's doing it while you are at work, then you need to figure out a means of confining her so she us unable to chew. My girl doesn't chew furniture or pillows, but she can find things that have been stored or lost years ago! You'd be surprised. She found wrist splints, candles, old makeup, and pencils. She never chews anything while I'm home. But I can NOT trust her when I am away for even just a few hours. So, I crate her, inside the house, where it's sufficiently warm or cool depending on the season.

The third idea is to involve her in using her mind. Games! Fun with you. Activity. A class. Some leash training. Increase her level of activity and solving problems. I incorporate some thru the agility training. I work with her to help her anticipate what I want from her at practice.

[debbiej]

welcome!
my girl has to be crated inside while we are not home because of complaining neighbors. I want to be a good neighbor, and make sure my dogs are too. basically, the chewing will happen if she is alone and bored. so, get everything out of her area that she can chew. give her things to chew like nylabones or kongs or raw bones. when you are at home, you can watch her and correct her for chewing the wrong things. play and train her, praise her when she is good. encourage her chewing HER things.

my dogs can't have bedding either. they tear it up and the male will eat it. I think rotties can be comfortable with a wooden surface in a dog house. they are such people dogs though, that I enjoy having them inside with me.

[TR Young]

Ok, here are a couple of things that you may want to try for these habits. These are both tools that we learned in Tara's Puppy Preschool classes.
You need to teach your dog the 'Leave It' command. This command is for telling your dog what it can and can not put in it's mouth. The way you teach this command is to take your dog's favorite treat in your hand, between your thumb and forefinger. Have your dog sit in front of you, and hold the treat down near her. When she tries to take the treat, say a very firm "Leave It!". YOur dog will still try to take the treat, because it has not heard this command before. When your dog tries to take the treat, repeat the command, but this time use the middle knuckles of your forefinger and middle finger to rap your dog in the area between her mouth and her nose. This is not cruel at all, and it WILL teach your dog to 'leave' things alone. You will have to do this a couple of times, and when she responds favoribly by leaving the treat alone, praise her with a nice "Good Girl!" and open your hand up and give the treat. Work with her a little each day with this, but only 3 times per session. I promise you that it will not take her long to learn the command, and the next time that she goes for something that you do not want her chewing on, you can use this command. Also, I forgot to mention that you may also want to add a sharp sound before the command, something like a quick, sharp "Ay!" before the command. That sound will get the dog's attention, and you will also be able to use that instead of the verbal "Leave It".
For the barking, get yourself a squirt bottle. Fill it with water. When she starts barking, calmly go to her and say, "SHHHH". If she continues to bark, give her a good squirt in the face and again say, "SHHHH". Now, if you want her to learn to bark at something, allow her to bark until you give her a command, such as, "It's ok now. SHHHH". Then use the squirt bottle. She will quickly associate the SHHH sound with being squirted. If the water does not seem to work, add a TABLESPOON of white vinegar to the water. Dogs do not like that smell at all, and it is a teriffic training tool. You may need to adjust the amount of vinegar.
Good luck!

[Anne]

If she is barking as 2am in the morning then bring her inside the house.

The fact that she is chewing things when she is alone on the patio all day iindicates she is bored. Do you have toys, bones etc., to give her something to do whilst she is alone?

TR Young: To rap/hit a dog on the face when it does not know or understand a command IS cruel. There are better ways to teach a command than the method you mention.

[TR Young]

(not trying to be confrontational here...) Anne, I am simply using a tool that my instructor (who is very well respected in the area by trainers and vets alike) taught the class, and it worked very well. The instructor taught us how to execute this command without being overbearing or punching the dog. It is a light rap in the front of the muzzle that gets the dog's attention. If there are better ways to teach this command, maybe I could give you my instructor's name and number and you could discuss this with her?

[Skip]

Originally Posted by TR Young

For the barking, get yourself a squirt bottle. Fill it with water. When she starts barking, calmly go to her and say, "SHHHH". If she continues to bark, give her a good squirt in the face and again say, "SHHHH". Now, if you want her to learn to bark at something, allow her to bark until you give her a command, such as, "It's ok now. SHHHH". Then use the squirt bottle. She will quickly associate the SHHH sound with being squirted. If the water does not seem to work, add a TABLESPOON of white vinegar to the water. Dogs do not like that smell at all, and it is a teriffic training tool. You may need to adjust the amount of vinegar.
Good luck!

I would not recommend to anyone that any concentration of vinegar be squirted in a dog's face....but then I wouldn't even squirt pure water....nor would I use the "shaking coins in a can" method. First..the dog needs to be in some kind of safe environment (crate, kennel run, puppy-proofed patio) where it can't destroy anything. The dog needs to mature and earn the privilege to have more freedom. Give the dog as many healthy energy outlets as you can...obedience training, long daily walks, lots of supervised physical activity...Also, rapping/hitting the dog on the nose should stop yesterday...very old, old school when there are a lot better methods nowadays.

[TR Young]

Well, I guess I am striking out here. Maybe I had better talk with my puppy preschool trainer and find out if these methods that she is using are accepted elsewhere.

[Anne]

Originally Posted by TR Young

Well, I guess I am striking out here. Maybe I had better talk with my puppy preschool trainer and find out if these methods that she is using are accepted elsewhere.

Puppy preschool trainer!! That seems to be a very harsh way to train a pup who is only at preschool level.

Your posts about the methods used by your trainer make me very grateful for the well respected and gentle training methods used by our trainer who is a well known and respected contributor to this forum.

These methods you speak of may well be acceptable to some folk. They would not be acceptable to me. My dog is corrected by me saying Ah Ah and she responds to that instantly. I have never and would never raise my hand to hit/tap her or squirt her in the face with vinegar water. It simply isn't necessary and I would run a mile from any trainer who suggested it was.

[TR Young]

Well, our trainer is great with the dogs, and the only 'hitting', as you called it, was the rap in the muzzle for the leave it command. As far as the water or vinegar and water, the squirt bottle is a large one, possibly a pint, and the amount of vinegar is one tablespoon to that pint of water. The concentration is so weak that there would be no stinging, but the dog can smell the vinegar, which they do not like. Those happened to be the ONLY 2 tools that would even be considered 'negative', and everything else she teaches is very positive. As a matter of fact, I checked into some other schools before I settled on the current school we are attending, and she is the only one who does not train with a slip/pinch collar, so that in and of itself, said alot to me. She's a great trainer, and we have learned alot from her, and again, she is very well known and respected by other trainers and vets in this area. I also use methods of training that are posted by certain members on these forums, and I simply wanted to help contribute what I have learned with MY trainer. Please forgive me; I thought that was what these forums were for.