Loseing the battle for alpha dog with Toy Poodle

Question
QUESTION: I am a rather sickly older woman with a 5 mo old Toy Poodle. I have had several dogs in my adult life and only had a dominance problem with one, and that was my fault. So, when I decided to get a small dog to keep me company I did a lot of reading up on it first. *grin* Girl all those hours were unless! Ok, here is how my day goes at this point.

Tessy seldom goes outside, even though she loves it, because it is to hot for me. She came from the cheapest breeder I could find, and is already bigger then my last toy was also she is a little heavy, but her only exercise is in the house. She eats Beniful Puppy, 1/2 cup sometime before noon and then at 5-6pm another 1/2 cup with about 1/4 cup of wet puppy food in it.

Potty: She has the small bathroom floor covered with paper, usually this works well(unless she is bored and chews up the paper). The only real problem I have with her and the potty is once in awhile she will go *on* my bed where her and I sleep. It is not at night, it can be anytime she is on my bed with me there or not.. When this happens she will sleep in her create which she hates.

Behavior: She can be the sweetest most loveable baby in the world until I tell her no. She eats the rug, the furniture, hubbys dirty socks and all the dirty cloths, any and everything she can reach and since she learned to jump, that is most of the stuff in the house. I can stare at her face to face firmly,calmly, saying no, bad dog, growl at her, by this time I am screaming, and she will stare back, growling, bearing her teeth and will not relent. The little demon has learned I can't catch her so she will get something she knows she is not supposed to have and make me chase her all over the house.
*Groans* I have used the method of finely catching her and holding her out in front of me until she gives up and then petting her. The problem with this is she learned very quickly that this gives her back control, so after about 30 seconds she goes limp in my hands. So, now she knows she is faster and smarter then I am.

I don't want to have to give her up and can't afford to take her to a behavior specialist. She has to learn that when I say no she must obey. Take my word for it, its impossible to use the dust mop on the floor with a poodle hanging off of it.

Can you help me at all?

Thank you for your time.
Robyn


ANSWER: Robyn, what you have on your hands is a typical 5-month old puppy! I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but it's true. She definitely needs to learn some manners, and you should be able to do that. She is, after all, just a little thing! **laugh**  

The first thing I would recommend is that you keep her on a leash whenever she is loose in the house with you. Because of her size, I would go with a 6ft, or even an 8ft or 10ft, leash, so she doesn't have to be right up on you all the time. The biggest hassle with this technique is keeping track of where the leash is, so you don't trip over it. This is another reason a slightly longer lead may be preferable for you. I don't know how agile you are. ;^)

This technique, sometimes called "tethering," is helpful for a variety of reasons:

1. It prevents the dog from 'sneaking off' and pottying in inappropriate areas out of your sight.

2. It prevents the dog from snatching something inappropriate and playing a wonderful game of chase with it.

3. It allows you and the dog to bond more, because the dog has to pay attention to what you're doing so he doesn't get stepped on, kicked, or pulled around as you move about. A dog that's focused on his owner becomes more in tune with his owner, and learns to respect that person more.

4. You will begin to learn the dog's signals for needing to go potty, and you will be able to take the dog out, or to the papers and praise her for going potty in the right spot.


Of course, if the dog wants to nap, then you shouldn't just keep dragging her around the house; put her in her crate for a little while so she can rest. When she wakes up, hook her back up to the leash and take her straight to potty. Don't forget to praise her when she goes in the right spot!!

Tethering should curb her puppy antics of destroying your and your hubby's clothing and anything else she takes a shine to. Remember that she IS still a puppy, and she's probably teething, so she needs some toys that she can chew and gnaw on to alleviate the discomfort of teething. Appropriate chew items include a Kong, with peanut butter, cream cheese, canned dog or cat food, plain yogurt, etc. smeared on the inside and frozen overnight; Nylabones; and pressed rawhide. Make sure that the rawhide is large enough so that she cannot easily break off large pieces and swallow them. Rawhide is not digestible and swells when wet, which can lead to a dangerous intestinal blockage if too large a piece is swallowed. For this reason, I do not normally recommend rawhide at all, but pressed rawhide tends to be harder and less apt to tear off in large chunks.


I think the main problem with your dog is not getting enough exercise (and her diet, but I'll go into that in a minute). I know you said that you are unable to take her for daily walks, but are there any children in your neighborhood that you could get to walk her for you? You could offer to give them $10 a week, or make them some cookies, or something like that if they would walk your puppy for you each evening. If that's not possible, do you know of anyone else who has a dog that they can bring over to play with your dog? If she likes to fetch, could you maybe play several games of fetch with her throughout the day? That's something you could do inside OR out. Puppies have a lot of energy, and if they don't have an outlet for that energy, they can become destructive and hyper, like yours is becoming.

Her diet could also be contributing to her hyperactivity. Purina Beneful is a very low quality food, and is full of all kinds of 'nasty' ingredients. Corn is a main ingredient, and corn can cause hyperactivity in dogs, similar to a sugar rush in human children. Could you imagine if a child ate "Sugar puff cereal" for every meal? They'd be bouncing off the walls, literally! That's how corn affects dogs. I have composed a web page that goes into a little more detail about how to choose a better dog food. It is located at http://dogfoods.angelfire.com

Good luck!
Kristen

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so very much! Looks like light at the end of the tunnel! *grins* She has a red Kong already, I will clean the dog biscuit out of it and find the peanut butter. I thought Purina was a good food, glad I mentioned it to you. I will read your site and see what I can work into our budget. *Holds head! Oh the horrors, I have been making her hyper myself!* lol!!
Exercise: I live in a ruel area, no kids and lots of big dogs, hawks, that kind of stuff.. HOWEVER,,we can do the fetch. Ric already tries to get her to do that.. And in about a month it should be cool enough outside to take my hubby and lab with us and have a good walk.. Willow our lab is to old to put up with Tessy jumping all over her at this point but I could get them to walk together..
Soo, off to check on dog food, a longer leash(great idea!)and see if I can get my angel back!

Question: Kristen, how long will she be in the puppy stage? *wink* Can we just zap her with something and make her a well adjusted young adult? lol!

Thank you again,
Robyn

Answer
*laugh* Robyn, no, unfortunately we cannot just point and click our puppies to get them past the puppy stage, though I wish we could, sometimes!

Since she is little, she should mature faster than a larger dog, like a lab, for example. Labs remain puppylike for most of their lives, but once they settle down, what a joy they are! Your little girl should begin to settle down I'd say within the next several months, give or take, as long as she is given enough exercise and is put on a better diet. Most of the foods that I link to on the page I recommended you read have a 'distributor locator' that you can use to see if a particular food is carried anywhere nearby. If you are interested in any of the foods mentioned on that page, though, and need help finding out if they're available to you or whatever, feel free to e-mail me privately at blueridgerescue @ gmail.com (with no spaces) and I'll see if I can help you further. :^)


You may just have to adopt a young adult toy poodle from a local rescue to keep her busy!