![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dog help!
Who knows dogs? I brought home my pup today. He's very cute and playful, and is doing fairly well with the housetraining... but he's mounting me! He's only 8 weeks old, so it can't be hormonal. And I put him in his cage - which he was fine with while I was in the room - but as soon as I'm out of sight he whines and barks and howls. Which is more of a problem than the mounting, as it's driving me crazy. Mounting I can deal with - lots of judicious ignoring til he stops. Is the howling inevitable? Do I give him ten minutes to see if he shuts up, or should I be preventing this behaviour in some way? Act or react?
The cat, on the other hand, is an angel.
The dog's making my ears bleed. Will be patient. Will. Not. Panic about taking on a puppy when I really don't know what I'm doing. I read books and all... but the learning curve is steep!
Help me obi-flist! *headdesks*
The cat, on the other hand, is an angel.
The dog's making my ears bleed. Will be patient. Will. Not. Panic about taking on a puppy when I really don't know what I'm doing. I read books and all... but the learning curve is steep!
Help me obi-flist! *headdesks*
no subject
*hugs*
no subject
My mum's telling me childcare anecdotes about letting them cry and them eventually giving up and behaving. Am hoping it extends to dogs as well.
I love my cat. She's perfect! The dog.... will be more rewarding when he's learnt what's what. I'll feel all accomplished!
no subject
And your kitty sounds absolutely adorable, and if she wasn't lethal to me I'd totally come and steal her. ♥
(Also, your hearts are dropping their final semi-colons! There's one in your entry... Because I know what you really want to do now is edit more LJ posts. *g*)
no subject
no subject
no subject
NO HEARTS to LJ. Even if it's my fault. I'm anti-LJ tonight (usage notwithstanding!). They're getting the brunt of all my psychic waves of frustration.
no subject
Okay, hey, dogs. The mounting is an instinctive thing they do when they're testing for dominance, basically, or are confused and treating you like a fellow puppy. Our dog does it with my youngest kid, but not older ones or adults. I wouldn't worry about it, honestly -- it'll get straightened out as he figures out you're the source of food, etc. It would be highly unlikely he'd keep doing this to you. He's just confused right now I think. Ignoring it is a great plan. If he keeps it up after a week or so, you could begin trying to train him out of it -- right now he's just all messed up.:)
The barking when you leave the room and he's in his crate -- our dog did this. There are two approaches: 1) tough it out and after a few DAYS AND NIGHTS of him doing that, he will learn to be okay in his crate by himself; or 2) give in like we did and keep him in the room with you so you can get a night's sleep.
Basically, he's scared! He's all alone and in a new environment and is scared to death in his crate. :(
We are wusses, and gave in, letting the dog be in the room with us (and he now sleeps on our bed which we both swore would NEVER EVER happen, lol). Soft hearts!! Other people are stronger, and their dogs learn eventually to be fine with it.
If you're in a situation in which you have to leave him in his crate when you leave your place, he WILL have to get used to it. HOwever, you could try introducing it slowly, staying in the room with him, making it a cozy and comfortable thing, then gradually leaving for longer periods?
Dogs are a huge amount of work as puppies, as you are figuring out! You will do fine, it just takes time. And how fun for you!
no subject
Good to know about the mounting. Will ignore it. It's only happened twice - totally ignorable.
I'm attempting secret option 3 - have moved the crate from the kitchen to the lounge and will sleep down here with him. I'm giving him 10 minutes of yipping before I
spork myselftry something else. It's definitely subsiding...I was all about the gradual introduction to the crate earlier on today - I was there with the treats and the opening and closing and the shutting in and letting out... he was up to half an hour with no problems. But then I went too far and tried to leave him in there while we ate dinner in another room - bad idea! It's been disasterous (to my eardrums, my god!) since. Will start over tomorrow, when the parentals have gone home and I don't have to deal with being a good hostess on top of being a good dog owner. And it's less stressful when it's only me being kept awake, so I'll be saintly-patient.
OH THANK GOD. He's dozed off, what a relief!! I'll take him outside in a couple of hours and hopefully have better luck after that! At least the house training's going pretty well. And, tomorrow's a new day, and all....
Re: Big Bang... I'd rather read the whole thing through in one go, if that's an option? I'm home alone with the animals alllll week, so will be able to have a good long run at it. I'm not very good at tracking the pacing if I read in chunks. Does this mean you're practically done? \o/
no subject
Another thing to consider: I honestly have lost count on the words, because it's in Google Docs along with their comments, so I don't have an accurate count, but I think it's around 60,000 words, GASP.
So let me know -- if you decide you want to go ahead and start reading parts as I get them ready, drop me a note? (I'll check back here, too).
I am kind of anxious to get your overall reaction to it, to make sure I'm not missing something big that someone not familiar with my whole thought process for the story would spot... so think about it, maybe?
But yeah, if you're home with animals all week, that *would* mean you'd have time to read it even though it's so long and even if I can't get it to you till later ...
Okay, cheers -- and best of luck with the dog! It seems like it'll never get better, but then after a few weeks they turn much more manageable.
no subject
Sixty thousand? Pah! Done by breakfast. *g*
no subject
It might be late in the week, realistically...but sounds like a plan! Ignore the email I just sent you -- let's get in touch mid week and see where I'm at.:)
no subject
no subject
You might kind of keep your Sunday afternoon free, lol, the way things are going on this end, but I'm working very hard and will try to get it to you sooner than that! I very much want your input specifically, and generally the input of someone who's completely unspoiled for the entire concept, etc., so will work hard to get something for you by wed. or so...
no subject
He was a good boy.
I just chucked it up to the "stupid male" gene and ignored it. Hopefully, your will outgrow it.
Saw his pic (and the kitty) they are so freaking adorable!
no subject
They are cute aren't they? I've got to agree that kittens are the best. They don't poo on the kitchen floor, for a start...
no subject
The mounting behavior is, in fact, a dominance/"what's your position in the pack" thing. If you plan on getting the pup neutered, the mounting behavior will drop off drastically after that. It's not serious unless he's doing it CONSTANTLY to everything and everyone, and it doesn't sound like he is.
As far as crate training goes: everybody says to make the dog think the crate is HIS place, and he'll figure out at some point that the crate = safety and security. It'll be his "den," and he'll eventually start to prefer it to sleeping elsewhere. Of course, I miserably failed at crate-training my own dog (Koji the Wonder Poodle, up there in the icon). He sleeps on the bed because his heartbreaking whimpering was, uh, breaking our hearts. Ahem. (Manipulative little bugger...)
If you want to pursue the crate-training thing, I'd suggest doing internet searches on the topic. There's got to be lots of people with professional-type advice on how to do it!
Good luck--and please keep us posted! :)
no subject
Koji looks awesome - our Shadow is a black standard. His pathetic whimpering had him out of the crate and on our bed within a couple of nights. We caved to him faster than we did to our own *children*. :) Aren't poodles awesome, though!
no subject
It could be that in my sleep deprived state I'm taking this all a bit too seriously....
Would you direct your attention to my reply to
It's blissfully quiet here atm... Dex is sleeping and the cat's chilling out. I might even risk going and mopping the kitchen floor. Which smells.
He'll be more fun soon, right??!
no subject
Ha! re: Koji. I WILL BE STRONG!! *whimpers*
My Problem Of The Day so far is with the dog and the cat. I can deal with him ok when she's not around - he comes when I try to distract him and I'm getting pretty good at pre-empting his chewing/peeing and preventing them. But when the kitten's around she is far more exciting than me. I tried physically restraining him when they first met, but figured they'd have to battle at some point... She's holding her own and winning some of their encounters, which is pretty cool for such a tiny kitty! But I'm worried it's teaching him aggressive behaviour. She seems fine, she even approaches him and pounces and is being pretty playful. She's fine with him until he barks too loudly in her ear, or stands on her head or something. But I can't tell between aggressive behaviour and playful behaviour in him. Bwuh?
no subject
1. children=meet their physical needs, follow your heart, give them tons of security and love, forget most "shoulds," all will be well.:) (those things are harder than they seem though, and our joke is, you can't lock a kid in the laundry room, whereas you can with a dog).
2. dog/cat: Well, hard to say for sure, BUT I've learned (I never had a dog before Shadow) that dogs' natural play looks pretty darn aggressive to us. My GUESS is that you should let them be together and work through their relative dominance, but for safety, for a couple of days/weeks probably make sure you're there, just in case it gets really nasty. It sounds likely that he's just doing normal stuff and it will work out? They have to figure out their relative positions and roles...
no subject
They've been pretty good this evening! I think they'll be fine. I do feel a bit bad for the kitten - she got my undivided attention Wednesday to Saturday, and now there's this brute in the house who's taking up all my energy and standing on her head. She's taking it well, though!
A laundry room! That's what I need!
I'm feeling much better about it today. Last night was the panic talking. The oh-my-god-what-have-I-let-myself-in-for?! I'm getting better at pre-empting him and distracting him, and he seems pretty good. Tomorrow: obedience training!
Thanks so much for the moral support, I really needed it!