We Are In The 'fear' Stage

[CBL]

Ugh! Feels like we are going backwards with Oscar at the moment!

We can finally leave him in his pen (we upgraded from a wire crate to a huge puppy pen) during the day and go out with no fuss. However, in all other aspects we seem to be going backwards! He isn't settling in his little crate at night (in our room) and there have been a few times where we have slept on the couch with him and a couple of times he has slept in the bed (I know we have made things worse by doing this). His crate is really too small for him now so we have to upgrade.

I was away last week and hubby only tried 'stand' with him once - on the floor - I have tried since and can't get him to focus. He also now hates getting his coat on, it takes 2 of us to hold him still, and the same with the collar!

Hopefully this is just a phase, but what can we do to help him through it?

edit - btw - he is 14 weeks and we are starting puppy school this week

Edited July 16, 2008 by CBL

[sas]

Could you perhaps be giving too much of a reaction when puppy disapprves of different things?

He's pretty young, focus would be pretty much 2 seconds LOL

We used to have tantrums galore when putting coats on Dante but he was fine when he got them on, he grew out of that with some nice little corrections for his bratty behaviour.

Is he being fearful or is he being a brat?

He should be well and truely crate trained by now, but sounds like you've been giving in to the whining and tantrums? I think you have 2 options....you go back to square one with crate training and don't give in no matter what although it will take longer as puppy knows you give in or simply don't crate train, maybe use a puppy pen at shows?

Edited July 16, 2008 by sas

[Luke GSP]

Ugh! Feels like we are going backwards with Oscar at the moment!

We can finally leave him in his pen (we upgraded from a wire crate to a huge puppy pen) during the day and go out with no fuss. However, in all other aspects we seem to be going backwards! He isn't settling in his little crate at night (in our room) and there have been a few times where we have slept on the couch with him and a couple of times he has slept in the bed (I know we have made things worse by doing this). His crate is really too small for him now so we have to upgrade.

I was away last week and hubby only tried 'stand' with him once - on the floor - I have tried since and can't get him to focus. He also now hates getting his coat on, it takes 2 of us to hold him still, and the same with the collar!

Hopefully this is just a phase, but what can we do to help him through it?

edit - btw - he is 14 weeks and we are starting puppy school this week

Is your crate wire or the airline type? Molly never really sttled in her wire crate but settled really well in an airline crate, I believe this was due too her being fully enclosed and feeling safer when asleep.

[Dogsfevr]

It sounds like you need to take a step back for a week & do other related activities that still suit showing.

Playing outside & doing free stacks.Nice healing even if not attached to alead.

Just go back to basics & voice commands for fun

[puggy_puggy]

Sounds like he is being a brat and he knows that you guys fall for it. Dogs know when they have it over their owners.

Try a hot water bottle in his crate/bed and perhaps you could put in a piece of clothing that smells like you.

[CBL]

Sounds like he is being a brat and he knows that you guys fall for it. Dogs know when they have it over their owners.

Try a hot water bottle in his crate/bed and perhaps you could put in a piece of clothing that smells like you.

Yep think he is being a brat - he does it well. He is in an airline crate with a hot water bottle, special crate toy and blanket - but there isn't a lot of room in there - it is a bit short for him now so wondering whether that is part of it (as well as the fact that he loves people contact).

The coat and collar thing came out of nowhere, I don't think we were doing anything to encourage it, but we may well have. Once they are on, he doesn't care in the slightest.

We went for our first walk yesterday evening outside the house and he did really well - head down bum up though as there were so many new things to smell. Going to work on heel now.

Edited July 16, 2008 by CBL

[sas]

With the collar, you could try densentising with food perhaps? Have the collar on the ground and throw food near it, if the puppy does a runner and won't approach you can see if this is all fear based.

Don't get too discouraged if you don't feel you're making progress with training on the lead, it can be hard work, I'm sure the pro handlers out there can get a puppy to stand straight away and perhaps even accept a lead and collar but for the rest of us it can take a bit of time.

The crate should be big enough for the dog to stand and turn around and of course lay down if it's smaller than this you'd probably want to look at upgrading pretty soon but I don't think it's the reason why he's not accepting the crate.

[cwm]

Do you always intend for him to sleep in your room?

We just found it really easy to put Jemima out in her crate (and then in a cordoned off area when she grew out of it) in our back room and never had a peep out of her.

You have to do the 'tough' love thing though something I'm not so great at but it does work.

[CBL]

With the collar, you could try densentising with food perhaps? Have the collar on the ground and throw food near it, if the puppy does a runner and won't approach you can see if this is all fear based.

Don't get too discouraged if you don't feel you're making progress with training on the lead, it can be hard work, I'm sure the pro handlers out there can get a puppy to stand straight away and perhaps even accept a lead and collar but for the rest of us it can take a bit of time.

The crate should be big enough for the dog to stand and turn around and of course lay down if it's smaller than this you'd probably want to look at upgrading pretty soon but I don't think it's the reason why he's not accepting the crate.

Yep I used the food bribe yesterday - it took a bit for him to approach it, but he eventually did.

He basically has us wrapped around his little paw, we have had quite a few big things on in the last couple of weeks and have needed some sleep so have been caving more than we should. He is a dog that needs some sort of contact though, whether it is us or Patch but we do need to get a bit more independance into him.

We are happy for him to sleep in our room, Patch does. Our concern in the bed is that sometimes Patch decides to join us on the bed too and has come close to squashing Oscar.

Definitely going to upgrade the crate to a bigger size and just get back into the tough love. Would just love to work out how to make the crate more attractive than our bed He is a typical ig and so loves to burrow, so I think a sleeping bag might be an option.

I am looking forward to puppy school tonight so we can see how far behind he really is

[cwm]

Which puppy school are you going to? We went to Trevor at Balgownie Vets and he was really good.

The funny thing was, Jemima's been the wildest most exuberant puppy we've ever had - and I bumped into one of the guys from preschool down at Dapto obedience on Sat morning a few weeks ago - he said he just thought I was going to have so much trouble with Jemima and just couldn't believe what a change had come over her.. she's still a wild child, but...getting more control. They're just individuals after all! So if your baby seems a little bit worse than the others at preschool, take heart - they do get there...some quicker than others...