Desperately Seeking Poodle advice

Question
Dear Labman,

I like your profile. I was hoping to find somebody with more than just the average obediance experience with dogs.

We are having lots of problems with our 7 month old female poodle. I will try to narrow the scope of my questions and be specific. Probably the most help you can give me is to recommend a book or method that I can stick to. As I've become more desperate, I've been buying more books and even gone through a puppy class at Petsmart. I'm swamped now by lots of information and am uncertain about any of it. My first problem is that I'm changing my technique every 2 weeks. I can't seem to settle on a method.

We have had some experience with dogs. We had a blind poodle that we rescued and had a private trainer help us. He died at only 2 years of age but he was quite manageable and we were devoted to him.

Our poodle now is Sparkles. She is really a lovely, exhuberant 7 month old standard poodle with a friendly disposition. I'm certain the problem lies with our handling of her and my inability to find a program that I can stick to.

Both the previous private trainer we used with our deceased dog and the Petsmart trainer use only positive reinforcement. I have found that this additional food causes accidents. She is not yet housebroken. This is the longest we've gone with a dog without being able to housebreak her. I've noted that when she gets excited she will urinate. For example, she got access to the upstairs and in her joy went running all over the upstairs rooms. Within 15 minutes she urinated. (she wasn't actually due to go). I noted also that she had frequent bowel accidents in the house and that there was an urgency to her bowel movements when we took her out. I reduced her food from 2 cups twice daily (4 total) to 1 and 1/2 twice daily (3 cups) and this has helped. But we are not confident that we have housebroken her.

So housebreaking is our first problem and I think it is at the bottom of all of our other problems. Namely, she has to be confined. We can't be with her all the time (when we are upstairs) and so will crate her. This causes incessant barking which we can no longer stand.

When I am home (which is most of the time), she can have access to the downstairs. But she is stealing food off the counters constantly. I do a lot of cooking and she has taken to stealing food if I even go to the bathroom!

We need to give her firm training, but I have little confidence in the reinforcement that relies entirely on food. We need to housebreak her and train her at the same time. To housebreak her, I feel I must restrict her feeding times.

Lastly, because she is big and boisterous, I have been taking her out to a local park for a 30 minute free run. She loves this and I feel it is so good for a dog to have this wonderful freedom. However, we had an awful incident where she got out of control and we couldn't get her back on the leash for a long time. In the meantime she upset some small children and terrorized a tiny dog. The incident caused her to be absolutely wild for the rest of the day. Instead of the wild freedom tiring her out, it had the exact opposite effect. She was wild beyond belief for the rest of the day. This was interesting to me and makes me realize how little I understand about dogs.Can you explain this doggie response? Why was she more excited rather than tired?

Can you help? To recap: can you recommend a good approach? Should I seek out a trainer or can I do it on my own? Can you advise about the housebreaking? I'm reluctant to crate her because of the awful barking.

Thanks so much. I apologize for the long email!

Regards,
Laurie
Princeton, New Jersey

Answer
I try to keep my training on the positive side, but is some cases, with more difficult dogs, a little correction helps too.  I do not use treats, but lots of praise and petting.  Your tone of voice is very important to the dog.  
Having a good pack structure reduces such problems.  The dogs see all the
people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in
the pack and a top dog.  Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members
outrank the 4 legged ones.  You can learn to play the role of top dog by
reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class
or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with
a treat.  Have any of the books emphasized giving the dog proper leadership like the Monk of New Skete do?  See http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/  I would recommend their The Art Of Raising a Puppy.  Try to follow it or a similar book you already have consistently.  Changing methods may leave her confused.  

To solve the housebreaking, you must let her loose when you can keep an eye on her.  Watch her carefully.  If she stops doing something else and starts carefully sniffing the floor, she may be ready to go.  TAKE her outside and give a command, anything, what ever works for you.  Walk her around a little repeating the command.  When she goes, lavish praise and petting on her.  If she likes it outside, let her linger a little more so she doesn't see urinating as ending her fun time outside.  Do the same thing the first thing in the morning and anytime she is released from the crate.  Praise her for going to the door too.

She may outgrow urination when excited.  Taking her out to relieve herself more frequently helps to.  They do it less on empty bladders.    

As for the food stealing, buy some mousetraps.  They work very well on some dogs.   A mousetrap is very effective in making a dog leave something alone.  Most dogs will stay away from anywhere they were surprised by a snap.  The best
part is that it is not you that is correcting the dog.  It works whether you
are around or not.  The mousetrap is very patient and is always on task as
long as you reset it.

At 7 months you can cut her back to one meal a day, and switch to adult chow.  It slows growth and can help develop steadier joints.  With her urgent bowel movements, I would go with one of the concentrated chows.  They produce smaller, firmer stools.  As for how much, see http://www.purina.com/dogs/nutrition.asp?article=292


Spay her now if not already.  Some of her current behavior could even be the result of hormonal changes.  Delay, and she may come into season anytime, and the vet will want to put it off until afterwards.  Her problems preclude using her as breeding stock.  

I reserve treats for major problems.  More incidents like at the park and people will be going to the authorities.  First teach ''Come''.
Start with a good 6' leather leash and a sturdy slip collar, the metal chain
ones with the rings on each end. You want the shortest one that will go on
and off easily. If you walk with the dog on the left, pull the chain through
one loop forming a "P". Facing it, slip it over its head. The free end
should come over the neck to the leash, and the other end should drop slack
when there is no pull on the leash..

With the dog at the end of the leash, call its name and "Come" in a firm
voice. If it comes, praise it lavishly and pet it. If it doesn't come, repeat
the command and give the leash a light snap. Keep it up with firmer leash snaps
until the dog does come. Do not forget the praise.  Then switch to a longer
leash or rope, about 25'.  When it comes well on the longer leash, you should
be able to go to
off leash in a fenced area, etc. Once the dog is doing well, introduce come,
treat. This is for emergencies only when the dog has gotten loose accidentally.
Use it routinely and you will have nothing to fall back on when your dog is
headed for a busy street. "Name, come treat!" is little different from the
regular "Name, come!", except the dog gets a great treat when it comes. We are talking a hot dog, cheese, etc. much better than any treat you use routinely.

I have covered quite a bit.  Work through this and try to put it to work.  Get back with me as needed to make things work.  No one method works on all dogs.  Don't be afraid to use as quiet, stern ''Bad dog!''.  I may have to give you some more effective corrections.  

Some dogs settle down as they become mature, and become boring.  For all the trouble you are having now, she should be fun for a long time.