Need help with my dog!

[michal]

I need lot's of help/advice for my little dog, so that I can train it properly. First off, I have a 10 month old Shih Tzu, I did get it when it was a very little puppy but considering it's my first dog I didn't have a clue what to do with it which I now regret. Well my dog has TONNES of bad habbits...It bites so strongly and fiercly all the time (it bites me, my family, and others), it doesn't listen one bit and I even try buying books at pet stores how to teach it but they are all scams. The thing I hate most is that when I try to pick her up, my dog growls and bites so bad that some marks stay for quite a while, and she is a little shih tzu and nobody would suspect this from her. I can't leave my door because my dog will escape onto the hallway (yes I live in a building) and when I try to pick her up she will bite realy hard. All my neighbours are scared of my dog, and for now she is heading towards a bad life, literaly. Please, I need the best possible advice because when I look at other dogs and see their owners are capable of picking the dog up and seeing them call their dog and it will respond and it makes me quite sad that my dog can do none of this...


My questions are:

How can I stop my dog from biting?

Any best ways I can train it to listen, perhaps an online guide which is preferably free?

I also need to know, what is the best food I can feed my 10 month old shih tzu and what kind of treats are good for training. Sites that I can refer to would be appreciated.


Please I need help as soon as possible because my dog just gets badder at the minute and I truely do love her. If you even want to see a collection of pictures, here you will see how adorable she realy is: (I'll upload in a sec)

The last one is when she was a realy little puppy.

 

[Buddy'sParents]

Personally, if I were having this sort of trouble I would seek professional help right away. Your pup is still young and can learn a lot.

You must have patience and you must have be willing to put the forth the work necessary to train your pup.

Biting you is NOT okay and obviously your dog thinks she is the alpha, you need to run the household, not her. There are some trainers on here that I am sure will be able to give you sound advice, but you really must take this matter further by consulting professionals.

 

[Lizmo]

My questions are:



Any best ways I can train it to listen, perhaps an online guide which is preferably free?

Well I am not sure of one that is free but I bought one called SitStayFetch and it seems really helpful!!


what kind of treats are good for training. Sites that I can refer to would be appreciated. I use Puppy Crack...i.e. Lamb and brown rice dinner. Sorry I do not have a link to go with this but I know some one else may!!! But all the dogs that I have trained and be in training with LOVE this stuff!!!

 

[michal]

Ok thanks for the help guys. Buddy's Parents, I can't seek professional help because I understand it's rather expensive and anyway, I'm just 13 years old, no job, and I've asked my mom to get my dog to a professional trainer and she said it's too expensive.

 

[Melissa_W]

Are you sure you can't convince you parents to find professional help? It sounds like you have some pretty big problems...

If not, maybe you can read some books? Culture Clash and Don't Shoot the Dog are really good... there are lots of others too, that I haven't read yet.

There are some really great trainers on the board too, maybe they can give you some better advice.

 

[Buddy'sParents]

I'm sorry, but any dog who bites (especially its owner) is not a safe dog to be around. You must find help for this dog and I'm sorry, it won't be free. If you can not provide for the dog, perhaps you should find someone who can help you.

As far as food, what are you currently feeding?

 

[michal]

Well how much do you think this costs (approx.) in CND dollars? And anyway, I just had a nice conversation with my mom and it kind of convinced her. She said we'll try to find someone but I need to find someone who does professional training. Does anyone have any advice on where I can find a professional dog trainer?

 

[Buddy'sParents]

What does your mother think about the way the dog acts? Does she think its okay?

You have the dog sitting next to a baby, so is the biting really that bad? I certainly wouldn't put a dog that bites next to a baby unattended...

Can you give us more background, what training have you done? When did she start biting? Maybe we can help you further, but I really think you are going to need to consult a professional trainer...

Well how much do you think this costs (approx.) in CND dollars? And anyway, I just had a nice conversation with my mom and it kind of convinced her. She said we'll try to find someone but I need to find someone who does professional training. Does anyone have any advice on where I can find a professional dog trainer?

Saw that you just edited your post, good to hear that your mom is willing now... hopefully some of the trainers on here can help guide you to finding an appropriate trainer. We found a behaviorist awhile back and we found him online, but online is not always the best answer. Good luck.

 

[michal]

Well she's not a HORRIBLE dog that bites. The picture with the baby, well thats my little niece and my dog loves her and they have a great companionship going. My mom doesn't like it when my dog bites, she also thinks of solutions that's why I came here. And other ways that she bites is when we're walking, my dog always bites peoples pants and as I stated in my original thread she bites the strongest when I try to pick her up.

Do you think yellow pages, or some kind of business directory is a good way to find someone like this? Perhaps I can ask my vet aswell.

 

[Buddy'sParents]

I need lot's of help/advice for my little dog, so that I can train it properly. First off, I have a 10 month old Shih Tzu, I did get it when it was a very little puppy but considering it's my first dog I didn't have a clue what to do with it which I now regret. Well my dog has TONNES of bad habbits...It bites so strongly and fiercly all the time (it bites me, my family, and others), it doesn't listen one bit and I even try buying books at pet stores how to teach it but they are all scams. The thing I hate most is that when I try to pick her up, my dog growls and bites so bad that some marks stay for quite a while, and she is a little shih tzu and nobody would suspect this from her. I can't leave my door because my dog will escape onto the hallway (yes I live in a building) and when I try to pick her up she will bite realy hard. All my neighbours are scared of my dog, and for now she is heading towards a bad life, literaly.

Michal, I'm not trying to be harsh, but you said the above things about your dog. You say she is heading towards a bad life and bites anyone... and then you say it's not bad...

Your vet is a great place to start.

Can you tell us more background? What training have you done so far? And what training books have you used?

 

[michal]

Ok I've bought a book called "the book about Shih Tzus" (It's just a book I found at a pet store) I admit I've made my dog sound realy bad but at some times she acts so sweetly but when she's bad, you don't want to go in her way. I've tried training some things I have found in the book I purchased such as the "no" command and the "come" command. My dog realy listens to the "come" command but only at home and not around people. The reason I came here so urgently and I'm saying all this bad stuff about my dog is because she's been realy misbehaving lately. She always had some bad behaviours, but it's a puppy and we understood it was just for fun. For a while now she's been biteing realy harshly especially for the past few days when it just keeps going on and on. Also, I encountered some problems with my dog barking a lot yesterday and some neighbours came with complaints. At the moment I am looking towards professional help and do as much as I can in this situation.

 

[michal]

Man I just typed a whole summary that I wanted to reply here and accidently pressed something and all I just typed was deleted...

Edit: NVM!

 

[Buddy'sParents]

I appluad you for seeking the help, not many would.

Are you sure your dog is not hurt in any way? Is all of this behavior really recent? Maybe she hurt herself and doesn't want to be picked up because it's painful?

Also, in my opinion, training never stops. We will always be training our dogs.
I have a one year old puppy and a 7 month old puppy... and their training never stops. My husband and I trained Buddy ourselves (and Banzai too, but he is still young and learning, we got him older than when we got Buddy) and people always rave about how well behaved he is. Of course, he has his moments, but these moments is what I am referring to when I say much patience is needed.

As far as getting specific problems and questions answered, post your training dilemma on the training board, you will get quicker advice there.

I know I haven't helped much, but good luck to you and kudos for seeking the help!

-Nicole

 

[michal]

Thanks and believe it or not you've helped a lot. Well I can explain the picking up problem a bit... When Maya was a little puppy my stupid sister would always abuse this method and pick my dog up out of the way of the door when she wanted to go somewhere. At this time my dog wanted to go outside and usualy my sister left her alone at home. After that, my dog gets mad when someone tries to pick her up because she fears that they will just do it to get her out of the way. I've always told my sister to stop doing this but she wouldn't listen and I think this is a big reason why my dog has some of these bad behaviours. Well I'll post the whole text from my first post and ask some people at the training board forum to help me out. Thanks a lot Nicole!