Joined
·
436 Posts
A little background: Jill and I used to live in an apartment where dogs weren't allowed, we spoke with a breeder who had a pup who was 9 weeks and when we went to see her she bonded with us, so the breeder decided she would hold her until we moved, and we visited weekly.
We moved into our new pet friendly apartment on saturday the 16th. We went and got Holley on the 17th. Holley turned 16 weeks this passed thursday. We feel that the shock of her new lifestyle along with missing her sister of whom the breeder kept for her own, is causing a lot of issues.
Our schedule is such. We wake up at 5:15 to take her out after hoping she slept through the night. She eats breakfast when she comes back in after getting her treat for going potty. I play with her a bit and relax with her while Jill gets ready for work, then when she is ready Jill takes over and I get ready. Jill takes Holley out for her second walk around 6-6:15. We both relax with the dog for a bit and take her on her final walk around 6:45. We then try and be positive and put her in her crate with a treat. She yells, and yells, and yells, as we leave. At around 11 one of us will come home, let her out, feed her lunch, play with her, and let her our again. At 4 Jill gets home, lets her out, and plays with her until I get home around 5-5:30. We then take her to the apartment's dog park, where she plays with many other dogs. Initially she was terrified of other dogs but the second she got let loose in the park she loved it. When we get home from the park, we try to let her go potty before bringing her in. When we come in, we feed her. After about an hour or so we let her out. at around 9:45 she gets her final walk and we bring her in and get ready for bed. We put her in her crate and pray she sleeps through the night.
Granted, it has only been a few days, but she hates her crate. I mean absolutely hates it. The breeder had started her in her crate for us, but she was always crated next to her sister. The first night with us she cried and barked for about an hour and was quiet until morning. Our second night she just would not stop crying. We know we are supposed to let her cry it out, but we are concerned about neighbors complaining. We ended up bringing her crate in our bedroom, and sleeping next to her in it until she passed out, at which we would get into bed. This has seemed to work ok for the next 2 nights but we still don't think that its the right way to approach it. During the daytime, we know she must bark a lot. We were told to try putting a blanket over her crate, and we did. Not sure if it made a difference or not, but I know she pooped in her crate today and covered it with her bedding. We were not happy. She also has many accidents inside despite how often we take her out. She tries jumping up on everything in the kitchen. we tell her no and down and put her back down, and then she just decides to try jumping back up again. We don't know why she won't understand no, but we won't raise our hands to reinforce it, we don't want to ruin her. Right now we try to keep her awake prior to bedtime so that she will sleep through the night, not sure if this is a good idea either. She loves relaxing on the couch with us and will pass out any time she is up there for long. This is why we try to keep her awake.
There are so many schools of thought on dog training, we just don't know which path to go down with her. Please! Any help is extremely welcome, we love Holley so much but at the same time we wonder if she would be doing better had she stayed with the breeder.
Thank you,
Jill and Dan
We moved into our new pet friendly apartment on saturday the 16th. We went and got Holley on the 17th. Holley turned 16 weeks this passed thursday. We feel that the shock of her new lifestyle along with missing her sister of whom the breeder kept for her own, is causing a lot of issues.
Our schedule is such. We wake up at 5:15 to take her out after hoping she slept through the night. She eats breakfast when she comes back in after getting her treat for going potty. I play with her a bit and relax with her while Jill gets ready for work, then when she is ready Jill takes over and I get ready. Jill takes Holley out for her second walk around 6-6:15. We both relax with the dog for a bit and take her on her final walk around 6:45. We then try and be positive and put her in her crate with a treat. She yells, and yells, and yells, as we leave. At around 11 one of us will come home, let her out, feed her lunch, play with her, and let her our again. At 4 Jill gets home, lets her out, and plays with her until I get home around 5-5:30. We then take her to the apartment's dog park, where she plays with many other dogs. Initially she was terrified of other dogs but the second she got let loose in the park she loved it. When we get home from the park, we try to let her go potty before bringing her in. When we come in, we feed her. After about an hour or so we let her out. at around 9:45 she gets her final walk and we bring her in and get ready for bed. We put her in her crate and pray she sleeps through the night.
Granted, it has only been a few days, but she hates her crate. I mean absolutely hates it. The breeder had started her in her crate for us, but she was always crated next to her sister. The first night with us she cried and barked for about an hour and was quiet until morning. Our second night she just would not stop crying. We know we are supposed to let her cry it out, but we are concerned about neighbors complaining. We ended up bringing her crate in our bedroom, and sleeping next to her in it until she passed out, at which we would get into bed. This has seemed to work ok for the next 2 nights but we still don't think that its the right way to approach it. During the daytime, we know she must bark a lot. We were told to try putting a blanket over her crate, and we did. Not sure if it made a difference or not, but I know she pooped in her crate today and covered it with her bedding. We were not happy. She also has many accidents inside despite how often we take her out. She tries jumping up on everything in the kitchen. we tell her no and down and put her back down, and then she just decides to try jumping back up again. We don't know why she won't understand no, but we won't raise our hands to reinforce it, we don't want to ruin her. Right now we try to keep her awake prior to bedtime so that she will sleep through the night, not sure if this is a good idea either. She loves relaxing on the couch with us and will pass out any time she is up there for long. This is why we try to keep her awake.
There are so many schools of thought on dog training, we just don't know which path to go down with her. Please! Any help is extremely welcome, we love Holley so much but at the same time we wonder if she would be doing better had she stayed with the breeder.
Thank you,
Jill and Dan