Our 9 Month old puppy, Sunny, is a female mutt. We think she has some English Pointer, Boxer, Brittany Spaniel, and possibly Beagle in her. She is about 25# and 16" tall at withers. We rescued her from a shelter in December. By January she was house trained and new most basic commands, or so we thought. We have hit two problems:
Problem #1: She seems to be reverting. She started wetting in MY bedroom about 3 weeks ago, so we started from the begining in house training her again. She seemed to be getting the hang of it again and then a few days ago I came into my room (my door had been wide open) after taking my shower and she was on the top of my bed urinating. She saw me, stopped, and rolled over onto her back. I was REALLY mad, but I kept my cool. I scolded her and placed her outside where she is suppossed to go to the bathroom at. I then found out that she had been outside about 3 minutes earlier playing with my younger sister. I cleaned my bed up and through my sheets in the washing machine. I talked to my vet later and he said since she is doing it in my room and on my bed, it's probably a dominence thing and that she needs to learn where her place in the "pack" is. Since then I have really noticed other signs of what he said to look for. Last night she tried to get on my bed when I told her to stay off. The first time I told her no and to get off. She did. A few minutes later she jumped up again and I told her no, I picked her up and made her lie down on her bed. The third time I told her no and she started growling at me. After I got her off my bed she didn't try again. I think that by not allowing her on my bed would help teach her where she stands in the family, wouldn't it? Any idea as to why she might have started it and how I can fix it? I looked up beheviorists and the closest one is about 2 hours away. There isn't a trainer (except for the bird dog trainers) in my town. Is there anyway I could start doing something myself? Training sessions daily possibly? I'm kind of stuck here...
Problem #2: Nowhere near as confusing as that one has been. This one has to do with the command "Heel", amongst others. She will listen when we are in the back yard or house, but she seems to not want to listen anywhere else. At other peoples houses she is very disobedient in every command and when I'm walking her, it is fairly difficult to get her to obey the "heel" command. Could this be connected to the first problem?
Problem #1: She seems to be reverting. She started wetting in MY bedroom about 3 weeks ago, so we started from the begining in house training her again. She seemed to be getting the hang of it again and then a few days ago I came into my room (my door had been wide open) after taking my shower and she was on the top of my bed urinating. She saw me, stopped, and rolled over onto her back. I was REALLY mad, but I kept my cool. I scolded her and placed her outside where she is suppossed to go to the bathroom at. I then found out that she had been outside about 3 minutes earlier playing with my younger sister. I cleaned my bed up and through my sheets in the washing machine. I talked to my vet later and he said since she is doing it in my room and on my bed, it's probably a dominence thing and that she needs to learn where her place in the "pack" is. Since then I have really noticed other signs of what he said to look for. Last night she tried to get on my bed when I told her to stay off. The first time I told her no and to get off. She did. A few minutes later she jumped up again and I told her no, I picked her up and made her lie down on her bed. The third time I told her no and she started growling at me. After I got her off my bed she didn't try again. I think that by not allowing her on my bed would help teach her where she stands in the family, wouldn't it? Any idea as to why she might have started it and how I can fix it? I looked up beheviorists and the closest one is about 2 hours away. There isn't a trainer (except for the bird dog trainers) in my town. Is there anyway I could start doing something myself? Training sessions daily possibly? I'm kind of stuck here...
Problem #2: Nowhere near as confusing as that one has been. This one has to do with the command "Heel", amongst others. She will listen when we are in the back yard or house, but she seems to not want to listen anywhere else. At other peoples houses she is very disobedient in every command and when I'm walking her, it is fairly difficult to get her to obey the "heel" command. Could this be connected to the first problem?
if it is a dominance thing then you may find this site useful. 