Hello everyone, I have a question in that I wonder if I am crating Jenny too much. Here's a routine day, John takes her out at 6:30 a.m. For pee and poop and then back in crate until 7:30 or so. She goes back to sleep without aa whimper or sound. Then at 7:30 a.m.John takes her out agai, usually poops and pees again. Then it is eating in kitchen and playtime. We have sectioned off the deck outside the back door so we can let her out there safely, we just keep our eyes on her. She is usually I sand out numerous times. She goes to door when she wants to go on deck and vice versa. At 10:30 a.m. Or so, I give her a Kong and crate for nap. She shows tired signs, really bitey and sometimes winey, but walk first for pee. Usually she will sleep for hour or so. Then playtime and eating again. I usually go thru some trainings, "drop it" with her favorite ball and treats, etc. Around 3:00 p.m.,nap time again for about an hour. About 4:00 p.m. She is playing, etc. I try to get her out in yard and throw sticks which she loves to fetch. She usually eats again around 6:00 p.m. And at 6:30 p.m. She is ready for crate without a whimper. John takes her out around 11:00 p.m. For pee, and back in crate where she is good until 6:30 a.m. Se has been very destructive in the kitchen, pulled trim boards around cabinets up in one long spot, keeps trying to chew the kitchen chairs and table which are solid oak, chewed thru drywall in two spots, this morning chewed a big hole in her crate liner which I removed and replaced with two pieces of fleece fabric which she doesn't like to chew on. She was four months old the sixteenth and no let up on chewing yet. I use the bitter Apple bite deterrent but as soon as it dries, she is right back to where we don't want her chewing. If I treat her, she will stand and beg for another. If I. Don't respond, she will jump up and bite me in leg or butt!! She has never had an accident in her crate since day one. She will go to door and wine also if she needs to go. But when she is not in crate, she is into EVERYTHING!! Is this normal or do I just have a hyper pup? We love her to death but really tries our patience. Any suggestions welcomed with open arms. Oh, also, we take her for lots of car rides which she seems to enjoy.
She seems very normal to me. You sound like you've done a really job with with her toilet training and she sounds likes she's very bright. Unfortunately at this age they can get a little pushy. They are really interested in everything usually in a destructive way. all you can do is be extra vigilant and remove things they can destroy from her environment and use more interactive toys. When mine were this age I would always crate when I was out of the room so they don't sound different from your girl. They are such loveable idiots especially when they are tired
It's a bit difficult to work out from your post how many hours a day plus nighttime she is in a crate? I'd say from what you say you could do with doing more training around the house. She won't learn to behave around the house unless you train things. So you could add things like 3 x 5 minute going and lying on a mat training, then you need to proof that against food, stacking the dishwasher, people eating and so on. If she is biting you when you don't give her a treat, you could add a lot of impulse control and frustration tolerance exercises and so on.
that was my mistake with the drywall, I popped into the bathroom which is just off the kitchen leaving her in the kitchen. She headed right for the drywall as soon as I was in the bathroom, I should have crated her.
She is in the crate for total of about two hours in daytime, from 6:30 to 11:00, taken out, then is in crate until 6:30 in a.m. She doesn't wine or bark ever. What do you mean about impulse control and frustration tolerance exercises? Could you explain? Sounds like something I would be interested in and thanks.
I know....They are so quick, Rory ate one of my earrings. I had to wait till it came through when I wear them It makes me smirk no one else knows
That's funny! Jenny swallowed a rubber plug she chewed off one of the lawn chairs which were covering the screws. We took her to the vet to have her checked out and she is fine after she pooped it out. Of course, we had to count all the screws and remove the rest of the plugs, we finally just took the whole table and chairs off the deck.
I have showline Labradors, and both have come with what I think is a very low natural level of impulse control. They are very much 'if I want it, I'll take it' dogs. They have also both been quick to become frustrated if prevented from doing what they want - my older dog in particular finds it extremely difficult to watch any activity that he is not involved in. I'm sure you know the basic beginner exercises - they are things like back away from a treat to get it and putting 'leave it' on cue. People build up these exercises until they can put treats on their dog's paws and the dog won't eat them until the owner says 'take it' (or whatever). But these are just the first tiny steps, and you shouldn't stop with these things, they are just the first few steps. You should build on these exercises. First, by expecting this behaviour always, around the house, garden and outside. Work on exercises that involve the dog leaving what he wants in order to get a reward - whether that's food, a toy, access to another dogs, whatever and do this in loads of different circumstances and in different places. The less he wants the thing you are working with, the easier it is for him to turn away from it - so you want to work up to things that he wants very, very much. You can also build up the value of things to use in these exercises. One way of doing this has been called 'zen bowls'. You build up the value of the thing in a bowl, and then you communicate to the dog that he only gets this thing if he leaves it. At first, he might only turn his head away, but then his body, then he might be able to walk away, then do something else - and so on. Until you can confidently put down the bowl full of food and he'd run by it, and ignore it, in order to do what you have asked of him.
In terms of frustration tolerance - this is about calmly observing exciting things when the dog is not involved, mainly. This has been a terrible struggle with my older dog (we are getting there!). It depends what your dog finds frustrating. Charlie finds any action that doesn't involve him very frustrating to watch. He used to be quite extreme, he couldn't sit by a tennis court, watch another dog run, let alone watch another dog chase a ball, and so on. My new puppy doesn't find these kind of things as frustrating by half. She very quickly accepts that we can watch exciting things and she'll be rewarded for calm. My older dog though, it took weeks, months, of desensitising him to exciting things before he could even eat (and I'm not convinced that even today he really finds food reinforcing in these circumstances).
