The theme of this morning's post is brought to you by the fussy puppy to my left.
I may look cute,
but I'm a holy terror when I have energy!
but I'm a holy terror when I have energy!
It's now been 7 days since we brought Betty home and what a sleepless 7 days it has been. Don't get me wrong I'm over the moon that we have her, but right now she's going through this phase where she's acting like she has the terrible two's. She takes about 5 naps a day which is great because when she's out she's OUT, and I can get things done around the house, but when she's awake- whoa brother, let me tell you, she's into EVERYTHING and whines like a toddler who can't use her big girl words.
We knew she was a high energy breed but didn't think that would set in till she was older. Don't ask why we reasoned this cause it turned out to be completely wrong. The Plott Hound in her is also known to be headstrong and stubborn. That's also already kicked in. Trust me folks, after hundreds or thousands of years of breeding, people kind of know what they're talking about when they set breed standards for temperament!
Betty is basically at the stage where she wants what she wants, when she wants it and that was two minutes ago, so what are you waiting for!? Food, potty, play-time, you name it. I spend half my day trying to figure out what she's whining and fussing about. I'm pretty well in-tune with her potty routine at this point although yesterday she peed three times on the floor of the living room with no warning at all DIRECTLY AFTER we had taken her outside. I'm beginning to wonder if its due to the weather. I don't blame her, I wouldn't want to pee or poop outside in 40 degree, rainy, hurricane weather either. Just like a human baby/toddler who hasn't yet learned to talk she whines and cried whenever she's: frustrated, hungry, has to go potty, lonely, tired, wants to play, you name it. She knows at this point that if she cries she gets attention. I definitely want to nip this behavior in the bud.
Currently Betty has a case of the zoomies. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, zoomies is what happens when dogs get bursts of energy and go crazy running around trying to release that energy. She's racing around the living room like a thoroughbred. I just hope she tires herself out soon so she'll take a nap and I can get some housework done!
If anyone out there in Internet Land has any tips on how to get through this stage (specifically kennel training and keeping a high energy, low attention span dog busy) PLEASE share your thoughts!!!
Till Next Time
XOXO
Betty
Rachel & Josh
Hey, it's Alex, Veronica's bf. I have a lot of experience with all sorts of dogs, especially high energy types, so I figured I'd share some thoughts.
ReplyDeleteWhat's key with raising a puppy is that you need to put them in their place and give them a lot of tough love. It seems mean at times, and it's hard to be mean to them, but a dog requires a leader and an established order, and without that they're prone to act as the leader and give you all sorts of trouble. The main tool here is food. You have to make it clear to the dog that if they don't act accordingly, they go hungry. That will get through no matter how stubborn they are. Easiest way to get that through to her is to try teaching her a command (sit or down works fine), and only feed after the dog has willfully obeyed. In her early days try to keep food restricted. Giving treats too often will make food and being fed not much of a concern if they think it's going to happen regardless of their behavior.
If you think she's high energy now I may have some bad news haha, when she's about 10-14 months she's going to be about two times what you're seeing now. There's really no breaking the hyper-activity or zoomies, the dog is just going to require exercise to avoid that, at least an hour a day. Go for a walk, bring her to a dog park, have her swim, or if you have a fenced in area for her to tear around in that would be good too. Without regular daily exercise though, a dog like that is going to be extremely hyper-active pretty much all the time. They just need to burn energy, not only to relax, but to be healthy and happy.
As for reliving herself in the house, that's just something that has to be worked on and given time. Her bladder and bowels aren't fully developed yet so accidents are going to be inevitable at this early stage. Some tips I would give though, try to establish a phrase of some kind indicating you want the dog to go, and when the dog does go, give excessive praise and/or treats. When she goes in the house, scold her and bring her outdoors immediately. It's best to catch her right as she's going though. If you just find a wet spot or feces on the floor, and then bring her over and scold her, she won't understand. She'll just think it was bad to leave that there, and find somewhere else in the house to do it. Definitely best and most effective to catch her in the act and immediately punish. Bringing the dog out right before bed is also a good idea, so they won't have to hold it all night. Also avoid wee wee pads and stuff, you want her to think the only acceptable place to relieve herself is outdoors or she'll get confused.
Being that she's so young of course that's going to make things very difficult, but once her body and stuff develops a bit more, it will be a lot easier to train her and get her to listen. You've got the right idea with starting young though. Creating a routine of some sort also works very well. Set feed and exercise times, general window of when she usually relieves herself, sleep time at night, etc. It's hard work raising and caring for a dog but all things considered it's definitely worth it given the joy they provide. Good luck with everything.
Thanks Alex! Definitely a lot of good advice. We're trying to keep her on somewhat of a regular schedule. Her appetite is pretty small, she only eats a few pieces of food at a time, so whenever we see her eat or drink we try to get her outside right after. The past few days here have been kind of rough potty-wise since it's been so cold and rainy and she flat out refuses to go when we bring her out. Today was much better. She's going on longer walks and not tugging or sitting like she did at first. I realize it's going to take a long time for her to get fully trained so I'm not upset when she has accidents I just try to figure out what went wrong so I can fix it eventually. We're definitely trying to get her as much exercise and play as possible. I've been trying to clean the apartment for the last few days so it's been a struggle to play with her as much as she would like. She thinks that if she's not getting attention 24/7 she'll die, So I've been trying to ignore her a bit when she whines if I know its not an urgent whine. Within the next week or so she'll be getting her second set of shots but still has another 10 months till she's due for her rabies shot, so I'm not sure if we should take her to the dog park yet. I'd love to socialize her with dogs other than Tona and Bene but its getting cold and I don't want to expose her to diseases before she's been immunized. Anyway, thanks for the info and support! You, Veronica and Aurora need to have a doggy Skype playdate with Josh, Betty and I! Hope everything is going well down there!
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