Three bad Habbits I (we) cannot Break.

[astrocrep]

My wife and I have two dogs, a 2 ½ yo male Chihuahua (Bowser) and a 1 ½ yo female Beagle (Daisy). Bowser lived with us alone for about 1 ½ years when we got him, and then Daisy came along. They have been living together with us for about 1 year now. The get along pretty well, cuddle a lot, and play fight.

He (Bowser, chi) is generally very good (and very non-Chihuahua like). He is very loving and affectionate; if you walk towards him he rolls over for a belly rub. He hardly ever barks, and has no problem with strangers.
She (Daisy, beagle) is eager, loving, and playful. I know she thinks she is top dog, and doesn’t always listen to us.

However, among the two, we have three running problems we cannot beat.

1.) Whining - At night, and now when we are not around (see below) they are penned up together in a baby play-pen, it’s about 4ft x 4ft. They are given blankets and two bones. The lights are turned off, but they have night lights. When going to bed, Bowser (chi) whines, a lot, and scratches at the gate, endlessly, for about an hour. We have tried discipline, ignoring, anything you can think of. My wife believes he just wants to sleep in our bed, I believe he hates being penned up. One night I didn't pen them up, and they both slept fine on the couch. However, which brings me to the other part of this problem, Daisy (beagle) starts to whine the moment she hears someone wake-up. Even the alarm clock will set her off. I know in both cases it’s not a potty issue. Daisy’s whining is really problematic if you wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, she’ll hear you and start whining. The night I let them sleep on the couches, Daisy started whining outside the bed-room door (closed) at like 6am. As a side note, Bowser used to never whine, I think he picked it up from Daisy.

2.) Chewing - In our living room, we have hard wood floors, and an approx 5x8 area rug. We are currently on our 3rd rug. They constantly are destroying the throw pillows and the area rug. Nothing else. We used to let them roam free around the house when we went out, but we would come back to torn pillows and a disheveled and torn rug. What appears to be happening with the rug, is they chase each-other around on the wood floors and slide on the rug. The rug folds over itself and causes bumps, and the bumps are then chewed. They never chew the pillows or rug when we are watching them, which leaves me with no way to teach them against that (cannot catch them in the act).

3.) Licking - This is the least of our problems, but is still an issue. Daisy (beagle) licks us (or anyone) like crazy. Non-stop. We physically have to hold her back for a couple of minutes before she will calm down. Even then she will just start liking again, and we must restrain her. My wife and I really don’t care, but the problem is people who are not dog friendly sometimes come over and get disgusted.

I personally hate penning them up at night, I wish to give them space and freedom, but I cannot trust them, and I do not know how to discipline them when there are not doing it in front of me. At one point I gated off the kitchen, but the Beagle started scratching through the wall!

I am sorry for this long first post, but it’s been driving us crazy and we are in need of some good advice, I am in no doubt that we are doing things wrong, I just don't what to fix and correct.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this, and tips, experience, or anything is appreciated greatly!

Thanks again,
Rich

 

[Chaoslillith]

Hey there....

If they did fine the one night being on the couch you could try it again. You do not say where the pen is that they are penned up in, maybe move it into your room and make it smaller if you have to. That way they are by you. Perhaps take them on a walk and tire them out before bed.

Try spraying bitter apple on the throw rugs. You can get it at any local pet store, dogs tend to not like the taste of it. This may discourage them from chewing on the carpet.

 

[Herschel]

1.) Whining - At night, and now when we are not around (see below) they are penned up together in a baby play-pen, it’s about 4ft x 4ft. They are given blankets and two bones. The lights are turned off, but they have night lights.

Ignore or keep them in your room.

2.) Chewing - In our living room, we have hard wood floors, and an approx 5x8 area rug. We are currently on our 3rd rug. They constantly are destroying the throw pillows and the area rug. Nothing else. We used to let them roam free around the house when we went out, but we would come back to torn pillows and a disheveled and torn rug. What appears to be happening with the rug, is they chase each-other around on the wood floors and slide on the rug. The rug folds over itself and causes bumps, and the bumps are then chewed. They never chew the pillows or rug when we are watching them, which leaves me with no way to teach them against that (cannot catch them in the act).

Remove the rugs and the pillows.

3.) Licking - This is the least of our problems, but is still an issue. Daisy (beagle) licks us (or anyone) like crazy. Non-stop. We physically have to hold her back for a couple of minutes before she will calm down. Even then she will just start liking again, and we must restrain her. My wife and I really don’t care, but the problem is people who are not dog friendly sometimes come over and get disgusted.

If they lick, remove all attention. Calmly stand up and turn your back, or place your dog in its pen/crate. Teach your dog that lick = no more attention. Any reaction from you positively reinforces the behavior.

Problems solved.

 

[ihartgonzo]

1.) Whining

Why can't the dogs sleep in your bedroom? I understand, if there's a particular reason, but my dogs sleep in my room fine and only get on the big bed when they are invited. Otherwise, they sleep on their beds or in their crates. Have you considered crate training them? They can sleep in your room in their crates at night, and still be "with" you, even if they aren't sleeping in your bed.

2.) Chewing

Do your pups have appropriate chew toys? Not just toys... things like nylabones, bully sticks, stuffed kongs, etc etc? Dogs of any age and any breed have the instinctive desire to chew. You should have a toybox filled with their stuff. Rotate the toys in the toybox, or the toys that are out of the toybox, to keep them interested. Buster cubes (and other treat balls) can also be given to distract from chewing on inappropriate things. I would recommend crating them, until they fully understand that they can chew on their toys, but not on the furniture.

3.) Licking

Excessive licking can be caused by LOTS of things. Sometimes, the dog is just super-submissive and lacks confidence. Sometimes, it's from being encouraged to kiss all the time, especially as a puppy. You need to teach her when it's ok to lick, and when it is just too much. You should teach a very solid "leave it" command (click for instructions, at the bottom of the page. treating without a clicker works fine!)... so you can tell her to back off, when it gets excessive or annoying. If nothing else works, covering your hands in bitter apple spray might.

Since, as you said, you are not right there every second to watch your dog... I recommend crate training, for when you're gone, and cannot correct the dogs for bad behaviors. The KEY to teaching a dog house manners is to AVOID setting them up for failure, at all costs. That means, you need to prevent them from even having the opportunity to misbehave.

 

[astrocrep]

Thanks to all who replied. There is a ton of good advice in this thread and in the forums themselves.

I will begin slowly making changes to the way we interact with out pups. I think I will move there pen into the bedroom at-night, and then eventual remove to pen, so they can sleep freely on the floor (in dog beds, at night).

I was thinking about going through basic training with my dogs via clicker training. Ive done it once when Bowser (chi) was about 1yo, but didn't keep up with it.

Thanks again everyone!

-Rich

 

[Brattina88]

Thanks to all who replied. There is a ton of good advice in this thread and in the forums themselves.

I will begin slowly making changes to the way we interact with out pups. I think I will move there pen into the bedroom at-night, and then eventual remove to pen, so they can sleep freely on the floor (in dog beds, at night).

I was thinking about going through basic training with my dogs via clicker training. Ive done it once when Bowser (chi) was about 1yo, but didn't keep up with it.

Thanks again everyone!

-Rich

I love clicker training, in fact, even before I read your last post I was going to post a link to this post . Its advice I got when I had a licking problem, and it worked very well from me, and pretty fast too

 

[lizzybeth727]

With the chewing, you can tack down the area rug (I know they have stuff for that at hardware stores, or you could even use a staple gun or something). If they only chew it when it wrinkles, you won't have to tack it down very much, just a little to keep it from sliding. But definately crate or pick it up while you're gone, at least for a few weeks until they forget about it.

With licking, I taught my dog "enough." This means that you can lick me, but when I say stop, stop. She'd lick, I'd say "enough," and as soon as she licked after that, I'd get up and leave (or push her off, if she's in my lap). If she stopped licking, I'd praise that.