Continue reading... "how this freaky site works..."

If you're trying to housebreak your little eenymeeny, it's a great-great idea to control when the dog eats and drinks. By this I mean get him-her on a schedule for feeding times AND watering times. Unless your dog is sick or overheated or you're out of the house for very long stretches, it doesn't need constant water all day long. So, why not pick 5-6 times throughout the day and give your dog the biggest bowl of water there ever was each of these times. Take the bowl away after 15 minutes until the next time. You'll be training your dog to drink when the bowl hits the floor. Then, you can keep a chart of each time you watered your dog and each time they peed it all out. After 3-4 days of consistently monitoring water, you're going to see a lovely pattern- you'll finally figure out how long it takes your dog to pee after he's drank water. If you know that much, you can predict when your eenymeeny is due to empty his sweet bladder, and this will take care of half of the mysteriousness of the housebreaking secret. do the same with food: monitor intake, monitor output. Constantly. if you do what I say here, there will be no more "surprise" poos on the new carpet and pees in front of your fridge.

guiltydog...

GUINEVERE

Hey there;
My girlfriend and I recently stumbled across your site while looking up information for our young
Italian Greyhound, Guinevere, born 5/31/05. She looks strikingly similar to the IG you posted about
named Swanky! She not only looks similar, but also seems to have many similar behaviors.

She is a terror when she starts play biting. She has learned to start barking at us incessantly when
excited. She gets very upset when place her in her kennel to leave the apartment...in fact, I'm very
concerned about that because she seems to be rubbing a spot on the top of her nose raw while in her
kennel. She will not sleep through a whole night in her kennel...she wakes up sometimes as many as 5 or 6 times (but lately we've been working on helping her be a lot more comfortable in there...she has
been waking up two or three).

She has made great progress in house training--she will relieve herself outside as long as we are near
and the backdoor is open. If the backdoor is closed or we are not near her (i.e., we leave the room), she will almost always relieve herself in the house seemingly out of spite (even if the door is open!).

We have tried many many things to calm her play biting. We have tried to tell her no and lightly
restrain her and hold her muzzle lightly, but she will become EXTREMELY agitated and fights harder and harder until we can't hold her anymore. We've tried (and currently maintain) saying "ow!" loudly and ignoring her, which worked at first, but now seems to entice her to bite more...or, when she wants us to leave her alone, she will start biting I think specifically because she knows we will leave her alone. We will sometimes spray our hands, feet, clothes, faces, ears with bitter apple to deter her when she gets too hyper. Recently we discovered getting down and growling/barking gets her attention quick, but she will jsut start barking when we do that now.

Ok...this message is certainly very long. Rest assured, we keep trying everything we can to condition her behaviors, but we're getting stumped. I'm tired of having scratched wrists and hands, tired of her barking, tired of waking up in the middle of the night to let her outside (she does not have a UTI, the vet double checked), and worried about her little nose when we aren't near her. Could you help? Any suggestions? Also, I would love to send you a picture of her, too...

Thanks so much for your time.

SWANKY

read my professional response here...

Continue reading... "questions from readers; "swanky's clone"..."

He's figured out that when he goes into his litterbox and makes the "I'm going to the bathroom" noise (moving around the litter pellets, shuffling around and coming back out), that he gets a treat just the same as when he actually outputs. Mother has caught on to the trick even when he presumptuously comes out of the litterbox and sits like a pro, waiting for the bit for his imaginary feat. I've only known of one other dog who has caught onto the possibility of faking a pee for a cookie. Swanky=specialness.

Continue reading... "Swanky #5. Smart enough to manipulate humans..."

He really is. It's rare I get to see an all-around good dog, since people call me mostly for problems that are making them tear their hair out. In this case, Sam is not one of those dogs. My first impression of him was this; he's just a happy puppy who gets a little too happy when people come over to visit. This is expressed through lots of bouncing around the visitor, and grabbing them on the way back down. His owner likes it that he's so ecstatic, but wants to stop the jumping altogether. Sam uses wee wee pads but sometimes misses when he aims to pee on them. I don't count these as accidents, but they're not to be ignored completely. He's at the age (adolescent pup) to start using only the yard as his bathroom. He has learned to ring bells hanging from the doorknob when he wants to go outside to play, which could turn into a signal for when he has to relieve himself. Right now, the backyard is his playpen where he becomes the greatest entertainer of himself. He loves to stuff his face deep into the snow and dig wherever he finds a suitable spot. When he is not tossing pine cones into the air, he is barking back and forth with the dog on the other side of the fence all day long.
He has a habit of running out the front door when the opportunity arises, to explore nothing in particular, and then to play "catch me if you can". He will steal if given the chance (a stray dish towel, stuffed animal, etc.) and he needs to learn how to walk on a leash without dragging his owner around the neighborhood.

Loveliest dogs ever. Except they were eating the entire kitchen while their parents were at work. Cabinets, linoleum tiles, chairs, tables, and even the replacement linoleum tiles. Throughout their six lessons, they both learned how to sit, sit-stay, lay down, stop jumping, stop playbiting, walk on a leash and stop using the rest of the apartment as a bathroom. They were both wonderful to work with and their parents were one of the few couples who practiced as much as they should've.
Mia and Stomper ended up having to be confined when left alone so they wouldn't run hog wild, shredding wee wee pads and the like. They have lots of pacifiers so as not to get too bored. Both respond well to a shake can correction when they're jumping or stealing. Overall, a great pair of dogs who happen to get along except when there's a pig's ear around. Love them silly.