Post by akb3f7 on Jun 20, 2012 16:55:54 GMT -5
Hi all,
As promised per my intro post, I'm in desperate need of help with my unruly pit bull puppy.
She is about a 1/2 year old and at least 1/4 pit bull. Can't be sure on the mix because her mom was rescued and she was turned over, along with her siblings, to a local rescue for adoption.
The first few months with our puppy were GREAT! She loved to play with our other dogs and any puppy issues we had- like potty training and some slight food aggression, were quickly overcome with positive reinforcement training and patience.
Before I go on, I should explain a little bit about the routine our dogs have. They have a large (30x20) run area that is fenced with what you may call field fencing or hog panels (it has spaces that they can get their mouths and legs through but not shoulders). The area has 2 trees and is generally a good place for them to play and go to the bathroom. Sometimes, if the weather is mild and dry, we leave them out if we are going to be gone for 6-8 hours at a time. We are planning to change their backyard to a privacy fenced grass area that is larger next summer but absolutely do not have the money to do so until then!
When my dogs are not outside they are being supervised in the house or in the "dog room" which is a 4x10 room that they share (begrudgingly) with the stacked washer and dryer. We liked the idea of gating this room off and giving them that space rather than the kennels that they had during potty training.
My dogs also get to run down to the riding arena 1-2 times a day and run like crazy on the sand and grass for about 10-15 minutes. (This is a relatively new routine because we just recently finished building new piggy headquarters. She had the run of the property and she and the dogs were sharing parasites.)
Oh and my dogs eat Tractor Supply's new 4Health dog food. Its got lots of tasty stuff in it like salmon, chicken, veggies and fruit. I would like to feed Blue Buffalo, but with 3 dogs and 5 cats, it's just too expensive. This stuff is about $10-15 cheaper per bag and has similar ingredients.
So anyway, about a month ago we discovered one of our chickens in the dog area dead and mostly eaten. This upset us, but we knew that it was a risk since reading that dogs will sometimes attack chickens. Since then, no more chicken accidents. The pit puppy was the only one snacking on the chicken.
Last week, I was out of town in DC and got a disturbing phone call. The dogs had been outside and my fiancé went to let them in and our 3 month old (about the size of a scottie) pygmy goat was dead in the dog area. It did not have any visible teeth marks and it looked like it had fallen off the deck railing (about 10 feet above the ground) and landed on its neck. We accepted this explanation because it was easier than what we had to accept yesterday. We watched the dogs more closely, just in case.
Yesterday, I went to go let the dogs in after they had been out for 15 minutes. My pit bull puppy was eating the baby pygmy goat (1 month old and about the size of a jack russel terrier).
After talking about our options for a long time, this is what we came up with:
1) both our lab mix and pit mix will now wear cage muzzles when they go out to potty in their backyard or run in the arena, or are around the indoor kittens. I think the kittens will be safe enough from them when the dogs are kenneled. Hopefully this will not be permanent?
2) we are going back to a kennel system for night time, quiet time, or times when we are gone from the house
3) we are replenishing our "chew proof" toys and peanut butter
4) I ordered a dog whistle and a clicker to help teach better behaviors. I admit it, we thought since we don't have children and of where we live, we didn't need to train the 3rd dog extensively- she knows to sit and that's about it. The other two are a little better, but have gotten rusty.
5) Next summer, we are definitely going to a privacy fenced back yard to eliminate contact with the chickens
6) We are going to work on desensitizing all 3 dogs to the chickens and cats (not sure if this will help?)
5) I'm not sure if this will help, but I'm going to increase their food ration. We were feeding according the label instructions based on weight, but I think they are a tad too scrawny for my taste. They may be healthy, but maybe adding a little bit of fat (no worries, won't go crazy) will decrease these behaviors?
The other problem we've had with this puppy is she sometimes makes a play for dominance over me (but not my fiancé). She will run into me and body slam me and playfully nip at my arms. I guess we should have seen this as a warning sign, but we just thought it was puppy behavior and she would out grow it. We've tried a few different training things with this (i.e. ignoring her until she stops, which doesn't work because she just turns to something else; making loud, derisive sounds (which she ignores- or at least ignores for 5 minutes until she tries it again), etc). The only thing we've tried doing which seems to leave an impression is flipping her on her back in a "submissive" position until she calms down. Not sure yet whether this works. Perhaps more training overall will help decrease this behavior.
If you've had similar problems or you have good ideas, please feel free to comment. We are particularly looking for ways to find out if she (or the other 2 dogs) will ever be trustworthy around small animals or children, and ways to burn off excess energy (p.s. they don't like to fetch anything). If we can't get this pup to mind better, we are at risk of losing her and possibly the lab. We have to have cats around so we don't have a big mice problem and my dogs have to be compatible with the rest of my family's dogs at the lake house, not to mention toddlers. We've decided to try to work with her for 30 days really hard and then re-evaluate how we think she is behaving.
Oh and we don't have money or time to take her to a behaviorist or puppy classes. We have been to puppy classes before and remember the clicker techniques, just haven't used them on 2 of my 3 dogs yet, but they are all highly motivated by food.
Thanks for any advice.
A & M
As promised per my intro post, I'm in desperate need of help with my unruly pit bull puppy.
She is about a 1/2 year old and at least 1/4 pit bull. Can't be sure on the mix because her mom was rescued and she was turned over, along with her siblings, to a local rescue for adoption.
The first few months with our puppy were GREAT! She loved to play with our other dogs and any puppy issues we had- like potty training and some slight food aggression, were quickly overcome with positive reinforcement training and patience.
Before I go on, I should explain a little bit about the routine our dogs have. They have a large (30x20) run area that is fenced with what you may call field fencing or hog panels (it has spaces that they can get their mouths and legs through but not shoulders). The area has 2 trees and is generally a good place for them to play and go to the bathroom. Sometimes, if the weather is mild and dry, we leave them out if we are going to be gone for 6-8 hours at a time. We are planning to change their backyard to a privacy fenced grass area that is larger next summer but absolutely do not have the money to do so until then!
When my dogs are not outside they are being supervised in the house or in the "dog room" which is a 4x10 room that they share (begrudgingly) with the stacked washer and dryer. We liked the idea of gating this room off and giving them that space rather than the kennels that they had during potty training.
My dogs also get to run down to the riding arena 1-2 times a day and run like crazy on the sand and grass for about 10-15 minutes. (This is a relatively new routine because we just recently finished building new piggy headquarters. She had the run of the property and she and the dogs were sharing parasites.)
Oh and my dogs eat Tractor Supply's new 4Health dog food. Its got lots of tasty stuff in it like salmon, chicken, veggies and fruit. I would like to feed Blue Buffalo, but with 3 dogs and 5 cats, it's just too expensive. This stuff is about $10-15 cheaper per bag and has similar ingredients.
So anyway, about a month ago we discovered one of our chickens in the dog area dead and mostly eaten. This upset us, but we knew that it was a risk since reading that dogs will sometimes attack chickens. Since then, no more chicken accidents. The pit puppy was the only one snacking on the chicken.
Last week, I was out of town in DC and got a disturbing phone call. The dogs had been outside and my fiancé went to let them in and our 3 month old (about the size of a scottie) pygmy goat was dead in the dog area. It did not have any visible teeth marks and it looked like it had fallen off the deck railing (about 10 feet above the ground) and landed on its neck. We accepted this explanation because it was easier than what we had to accept yesterday. We watched the dogs more closely, just in case.
Yesterday, I went to go let the dogs in after they had been out for 15 minutes. My pit bull puppy was eating the baby pygmy goat (1 month old and about the size of a jack russel terrier).
After talking about our options for a long time, this is what we came up with:
1) both our lab mix and pit mix will now wear cage muzzles when they go out to potty in their backyard or run in the arena, or are around the indoor kittens. I think the kittens will be safe enough from them when the dogs are kenneled. Hopefully this will not be permanent?
2) we are going back to a kennel system for night time, quiet time, or times when we are gone from the house
3) we are replenishing our "chew proof" toys and peanut butter
4) I ordered a dog whistle and a clicker to help teach better behaviors. I admit it, we thought since we don't have children and of where we live, we didn't need to train the 3rd dog extensively- she knows to sit and that's about it. The other two are a little better, but have gotten rusty.
5) Next summer, we are definitely going to a privacy fenced back yard to eliminate contact with the chickens
6) We are going to work on desensitizing all 3 dogs to the chickens and cats (not sure if this will help?)
5) I'm not sure if this will help, but I'm going to increase their food ration. We were feeding according the label instructions based on weight, but I think they are a tad too scrawny for my taste. They may be healthy, but maybe adding a little bit of fat (no worries, won't go crazy) will decrease these behaviors?
The other problem we've had with this puppy is she sometimes makes a play for dominance over me (but not my fiancé). She will run into me and body slam me and playfully nip at my arms. I guess we should have seen this as a warning sign, but we just thought it was puppy behavior and she would out grow it. We've tried a few different training things with this (i.e. ignoring her until she stops, which doesn't work because she just turns to something else; making loud, derisive sounds (which she ignores- or at least ignores for 5 minutes until she tries it again), etc). The only thing we've tried doing which seems to leave an impression is flipping her on her back in a "submissive" position until she calms down. Not sure yet whether this works. Perhaps more training overall will help decrease this behavior.
If you've had similar problems or you have good ideas, please feel free to comment. We are particularly looking for ways to find out if she (or the other 2 dogs) will ever be trustworthy around small animals or children, and ways to burn off excess energy (p.s. they don't like to fetch anything). If we can't get this pup to mind better, we are at risk of losing her and possibly the lab. We have to have cats around so we don't have a big mice problem and my dogs have to be compatible with the rest of my family's dogs at the lake house, not to mention toddlers. We've decided to try to work with her for 30 days really hard and then re-evaluate how we think she is behaving.
Oh and we don't have money or time to take her to a behaviorist or puppy classes. We have been to puppy classes before and remember the clicker techniques, just haven't used them on 2 of my 3 dogs yet, but they are all highly motivated by food.
Thanks for any advice.
A & M
if they try to jump it and the dogs will get 
I look forward to learning much here