Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:00 am Post subject: 6month old puppy problem
HI all
I have a 6 month old lab/husky mix and I think I am doing fairly well with him. I have one major problem however. At the moment it is just me and my mum in the house and he seems to love us both v much however he obeys me much more than her. I fear he seems to have put himself in the middle in the pecking order of authority.
THis leads to problems when I have to go out. I am out almost every evening due to work, and he always causes problems with my mum in that he bites - not proper biting just playful ones but he does it so often that he always hurts her once during the evening. I cannot really correct it because he doesnt do it to me ever, and he does stop when I tell him (when he s doing it to her).. so i think it must be her that does stop him.
However I have told her to be firm with him, and to show him not to do it.. we also tell him NO BITING.. all fails and now she is finding it really hard to keep him - he is my dog after all and it is my responsibilty. Anyone can give me suggestions what to do or tell her? He is my first dog.
Another thing, we have a problem in that he does not like it at all when left alone in the house. He has been with us 4 months now, and my mum was on holidays and I was in the house at all so we were almost always with him. THe occasional times when we left him alone he would bark non stop and destroy anything in my room where we keep him. We now take 10mins to clear my room before leaving him in it when we go out, but he still barks a lot and we live in a flat so he annoys our neighbours. how can I help him get used to the fact that we will come back and he hasnt been abandoned?
It sounds like you have a very beautiful looking dog with the Husky mix, however having Husky in your dog means you have one very headstrong pup.
You need to be laying down ground rules now, and enforcing a hierachy even at this tender age. Huskys as a breed are very willful dogs, very domineering characters and need to be kept active as they are primarily a working breed.
Firstly your mum needs to push herself up the pecking order, he needs to show her some respect, to do this she HAS to ignore him for at least 5 mins then when she is ready call HIM to HER during the following times (you need to be doing this also):
1. Getting up in the morning, always always greet the human members of the family first, then ignore the pup for 5 mins, then whent he pup is calm call hm over to you, if he doesn't come on YOUR terms DO NOT go to him, leave him.
Reuniting after leaving a room for longer than a few minutes
Coming home after a day out
And don't make a fuss of leaving either (see seperation anxiety)
2. Feeding time - ALways feed him after you, even if it means you both having a biscuit while you prepare his food and let him see you eat it.
3. Doorways - ALWAYS Humans walk through first, never allow him to barge through or go through first unless you give him permission to do so.
4. Never step over him if he is in the way, ask him to move everytime.
5. Seperation anxiety - If you follow the above steps this should go some way in helping with SA, he sees himself as an important member in status up there with you and your mum so in his mind he thinks he ought to be going with you.
Make Exiting and Entering as low key as possible, no long drawn out goodbyes, give him a tasty frozen paste kong and leave, when you come home use the 5 min rule. If you have room, invest in a crate (see crate topics)
Whilst you are doing this tell your neighbours that you are in the middle of training him and that you are modifying his behaviour and to bear with you.
If you are out longer than 4-5 hours then get a dogwalking service in.
Take care, would love to see some pics he does sound gorgeous, even if he is a little devil
____________ Natalie x
LAB LINK RESCUE Co ordinator and Forum Administrator for my sins
Jack, Molly & Maia, watched over by Tara Banana from the Bridge
Hi ndroo, welcome to the forums, Diego sounds a handsome chap if a little wilful
I can`t add to what Natalie has said, she has given you some very sound advice there and if you work with that you should see a change in Diego`s behaviour, once he understands he`s not in the middle of the pack but at the bottom , it won`t happen overnight, patience and perseverance is the key.
Also her suggestion of a crate is a great idea, I have one for CJ and popping him in there when I go out gives me peace of mind that both he and the house is safe
I agree with the other replies, I too would definitely get a crate. The largest one you can. Your dog will soon get used to going in it when you go out and he will quieten down eventually and just sleep. You have to be strong though and persevere with it. He won`t like it at first but they soon come round.
At least that way your home will be safe and so will he.
I have to admit I find it fascinating that so much emphasis is put on packs and alpha males - load of rubbish.
How can my dogs be a pack when they are dogs and I am a human, can they really tell that I am human though???? Maybe to them I am just a big dog.....who knows.
My dogs and I are NOT a pack, we are a family. My dogs dont look to me as their pack leader they look to me to love them, to care for them, to feed them and keep them safe.
I ALWAYS feed my dogs 1st in a morning, does this make them aggressive?? Hell no!!
I ALWAYS greet them in the morning - again does this make them dominant or aggressive, again NO
I frequently step over my dogs if they are asleep and in my way - are they aggressive/dominant because of this - again NO.....
We live together in harmony because we are a family, not because we are a pack. I train my dogs so that they have a good quality of life and enjoy various activites.
I think its more important to emphasise good reward based training as opposed to daft rules like ignoring your dog to raise your status in the pack, wolves live in packs - domestic dogs dont!!
Domestic dogs still have internal instincts, they are pack animals - wether they are family pets or not - they will still have this instinct inside them.
Nobody is saying a pack comes before the love an attention of a dog - somebody has come onto this forum asking for help with an issue which many have seen resloved through changing the pecking order of a pack - just like you or someone you know may have bullied a child at school as they they were 'below' you a dog can and will do the same. It is not harmfull for a dog to be instinctivly aware of a pecking order.
With most dog packs, it's easy to see who's boss and how the rest of the dogs fit within the order. Watch your dogs interact -- which one takes the best toy, goes out the door first, gets to eat first and takes the best sleeping place? This is the "alpha" dog, the leader of the canine pack. The alpha dog achieves his (or her) rank by being smarter, stronger or sometimes just more domineering than the rest. You will see that despite the fact you do not use any sort of methods for your dog to establish where he/she is in the human pack - he or she will still use one with other dogs - thus proving how instinctive it really is to them
I am not saying what you are doing is wrong - not at all - as I do not follow these pack rulls fully myself - I am simply stating that your comment was rather unjust in that nobody was saying a dog without a pack place would become agressive in that way at all. If you have a better suggestion for this user to help with a problem by all means help out - i am not attacking you so please do not feel that I am i'm simply sharing my own opinions with you as you are with us
I myself have 3 dogs - my parents who live next door have 2 dogs, they all spend a lot of time together as we share a very large garden. Therefore on the pack theory there are 5 dogs in our pack.
I can guarantee you that there is not 1 single pack leader. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses and what 1 thrives at the others dont, there is no leader - they dont need to have a leader.....they are NOT pack animals, they are domestic dogs!! All 3 of my dogs eat at the same time, they all play with their own toys - there are no best toys, they are all high value to my dogs and they play with them with me. The older 2 dogs sleep in the same big bed and the puppy sleeps in with us. Where is the pack order there??
I am sorry but there is just far too much emphasis being put on this pack mentality in this day and age. In the rules of the pack that Natalie outlined earlier in this thread, I do absolutely none of those things. My dogs are fed and greeted 1st thing in the morning, I have just stepped over Charlie to reach the computer, is this making him the Alpha? They only thing that they do not often do is go through doors before me, but that is a safety thing rather than a pack thing. I have trained them to sit and wait whilst I go through doors as 1 day something behind a door might be harmful to them, Ihave not trained them to make sure I am the alpha.
I definately agree that a crate is a good idea to make this the dogs den, he sounds as though he could do with some proper training, but please dont think that changing his place in the 'pack' will make much of a difference, it could infact have the opposite affect and make him think that you are ignoring him......
I don't really post much but felt i had to on this occasion
Everybody on here is expressing their own opinions, and the original poster wishes for some advice.
charliebrewer if that works for you then fine, but i would like to draw your attention to one major fact, who feeds your dogs?, you (or other members of your family) this is a major thing in pack order, the provider is always seen as one of the 'top dogs' so to speak. if you don't feed your dog it goes hungry does it not? also how do you train your dog? by rewarding when the dog does something correctly and by not rewarding when it doesn't again you are controlling this. if you left your dogs to do whatever they want then they would run riot.
I suggest you do some research theres plenty of evidence to suggest that even in this day and age domestic dogs still have a pack order.
To the original poster i agree with littlelab, your mother is lower in the pack order then the dogs and to correct it she needs to raise her status so to speak, theres plenty of advice on the forums and i'm sure a quick search on google will help you out
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