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Puppy pestering adult dogs in the house
Hi! I’m not exactly new to the group, but I’ve been busy launching my business since graduating from Catch, so sorry to say, I haven’t been active (trying to remedy that!). I’m starting to get inquiries now, and one of them was about a 10 week old female Pomeranian pup who is driving the current dogs “crazy.” The current dogs are “9 yo coonhound mix (Billy) and 7 yo poodle (Breaudy).” I haven’t spoken with the owners yet, they just filled out the pre-call questionnaire, so I don’t have a ton of info. On the questionnaire, when asked what problems they were experiencing, the owners said “Young and crazy, potty training, biting, common good manners”
When I have introduced new pups into my own crew, I always use management to give both puppy and adults some space. Direct interactions are kept brief and closely supervised until the puppy is older. I don’t like to put the adult in a position of correcting the puppy, and I don’t expect a lot in terms of integration for at least the first 6 months. I just expect puppies will be puppies and they grow up and quit pestering after awhile. But I know that approach won’t work with every dog. So any other ideas for helping the clients’ dogs integrate? (Or correct me where I’m wrong?)
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9 Replies
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Hi @grace – my apologies!! It looks like your post received no attention. EEP! That shouldn’t have happened. It’s been awhile since you posted. How’s the situation progressing?
It sounds to me like you were on exactly the right track! Management for the win.
Congrats on all your success in CATCH and starting your new business.
Sorry again about the oversight. Please let us know how the puppy is doing.
Thanks!
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Hey @catherine! So we have now had 5 lessons together and I can give a lot more details. When I spoke with the owner on the phone, he said they were concerned because the coonhound had put his mouth around the Pom pup’s entire body in what sounded like an inhibited bite (no damage done). I know. ???? After evaluating the dogs in person, I told them due to the age and personality of the older dogs, especially the coonhound, they may never be able to fully integrate and play together. Both older dogs were displaying fear and avoidance signals (whale eye, look away, ears back, turn away, etc) when the pup would approach. She was doing the typical relentless puppy jumping and chasing behaviors. I told them no unsupervised interactions, of course, and the pup should not be loose in the same room unless the humans are directly playing a game with her, giving her an alternate activity to chasing and pestering the adult dogs. No opportunities to practice undesired behaviors. I also said whenever they carry the pup into the room, throw treats for the adult dogs to build positive CER. They had already purchased an x-pen and set it up in the living room, and really liked that they could have her settle in there with a Kong. They seemed to be going back and forth between fear that the pup would be injured and wishing that the older dogs would teach her a lesson. They ended up giving the dogs way too much access to each other. The x-pen is used more as a time-out when she’s getting after the adult dogs too hard (not sure what they consider to be too hard). They also felt that she didn’t bother the coonhound as much outside, so they let them run the yard together at times. They began saying “no ma’am” as an interrupter when she is chasing the other dogs, and felt that she was responding to that (she stops and sits when she hears it). The husband had been telling me the chasing was getting less and less with the poodle and the puppy has started backing off as if intimidated by the coonhound so they feel that she has learned her lesson from him. But the wife, who is home all day, says the puppy chases the poodle all day every day. I wasn’t told this until the end of last weeks lesson. Aside from them ignoring me in that area, they have made a lot of progress teaching her good behaviors, and we still have a good relationship. Next week is my last lesson, and I’m going to have to read dress the continued access the dog’s have to each other, but I’m not quite sure how to get through to them.
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@grace , it sounds like you’ve been making great strides.
Sometimes I find it helpful to talk to the clients about how they’d feel if a person is relentlessly bugging them and giving them no space or peace. ???? It may help them appreciate the plight of the poodle. You may also want to carefully explain that a dog may finally exceed its tolerance threshold, and with the size difference between the dogs, the pom could ultimately be injured.
Since the pom loves to chase, have you suggested a toy on a rope for the person to drag around on the floor for the pup to chase, thus giving her a fun outlet? I like to attach a toy to a bungee leash for some tugging fun and so there’s some satisfying ‘give’ to the game. It can also be hung off of something to create an independent tug game.0:40
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@virginad we’ve talked about how, for the dogs, it’s like someone dumped their toddler on them. But I haven’t specifically talked about how they would feel someone was chasing them all the time. We talked about the different stages of dog relationships (adore, acknowledge, tolerate, aggravate, hate) and I explained that their adult dogs were fast moving in the direction of hate. They seemed to realize the danger, but I think they were hanging on to hope that the adult dogs would teach the pup a lesson without injuring her.
I’ve taught them tug with rules and search for treats. I’m glad you suggested the rope chase; I was thinking about doing a flirt pole but wasn’t sure if it would build the pup’s chase drive too much. It really helps to have a pro opinion on that. Unfortunately my device wouldn’t play the video so I’m not sure if you were demoing how to implement that properly?-
@grace , the video is just a cute doodle pup tugging on a toy-on-a-bungee that’s hooked to a stationary object. He pulls, stretching it, then lets go, it springs away, he grabs again. Just a bit of independent tug play.
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@grace -wow, great job! It sounds like you have really gotten a lot accomplished.
The human compliance piece is tricky. Have you tried asking questions like – “What’s the biggest problem with — (your specific recommendation)” or “What are you finding the most difficult about — (the task)’?
Sometimes asking them to say what’s bugging them about it can help clarify how to get to another level or to a different solution.
I feel like @virginiad will have some wisdom to impart here, too.
Anyone else want to chime in as well?
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haha – @virginiad and I were writing at the same time. Thanks, Virginia!
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Thanks for the suggestions @catherine! Your idea reminds me of when a dog isn’t responding and we take a look at what’s making it hard for them. I’ll definitely have to put that one into practice on the human side.
And thank you both for reminding me that yeah we have accomplished quite a bit in spite of everything. Especially when I consider that we were simultaneously working on severe housetraining issues, nipping, completely ignoring owners, hand shyness, stealing objects, plus the usual sit, down, recall, go to mat, leave it, and leash walking…..
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Exactly right! @grace remember to CELEBRATE THE WINS with the owner during your final session. Go back to the initial requests and then itemize verbally all the success you’ve made in each of those areas. Doing that with the owners together, not only will you remind them you know your stuff and helped them through all those issues, you can also clarify what is left to work on, and potentially book more sessions to complete their goals.
You are a TEAM!! Remember to use “We” when talking about the successes and what’s left to be done – Here’s a sample script for you to play with:
“Looking back at our original goals, let’s see what progress we have made – in the area of housetraining, we’re no longer having accidents. (smile!) With the nipping while leashing up, we’ve now got great patience and a pretty sit-stay.(smile!)…(etc.) Now looking at our remaining challenges, we can see that x, y, and z still need some focused attention. You’ve told me that your goals are (such and so – or ask them to say their goals again). If we had another (#) sessions, here’s what I think we can achieve….”
I hope that helps you craft the messages needed for your dialog with them! Please check back and let us know how it goes!
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