Depressed after getting puppy?

Question

I got a 3 mth old Cavalier. I got her coz I heard Cavs are great for 1st time owners and with children. I have nephews and nieces who visit a lot. She don't fit the breed standard. She's possessive, aggressive, keeps biting me, drawing blood, won't let go of summit, eg my t shirt I was wearing. can't play with her coz she gets really aggressive with her toys then moves onto biting other things including me. Walkies makes her aggressive too. I work from home and my work has suffered because I spend most of my time stopping her from eating something she shouldn't, being on the furniture, cleaning up her mess. I'm too scared to take my eyes off her when kids are with her. I wake up with a positive attitude thinking I'm going to train her but by night I am crying coz I can't take anymore. I've tried my best to train her following experts advice. I feel like I'm doing summit wrong but I'm doing all the experts say. I feel a failure. I'm sad coz I can give her a good life but I also want rid

Answer 1

Let me guess... she is from a puppy mill?

If not, you need to contact her breeder asap. If you are determined to make this relationship work you both need training. I suggest you find positive reinforcement classes in your area and sign up. Both of you will benefit from these classes. I do wish you luck.

Answer 2

Chewing, play-biting, general spazzing: all puppy behavior.

All puppies need to go to a puppy class at an obedience school, but you should especially go because you are a first-time owner. I don't know what training you are doing, but it is hard to learn from a book. And there are so many different books with different methods out there. Many are antiquated. Training is now moving toward positive methods/reward based. Especially with a puppy, you should only need positive methods.

You need to work on bite inhibition to get her play-biting under control. A puppy class should be able to help you. Basically, any time she bites you, get up immediately and leave the room. Close the door. Return after 1 minute. Do this every time she bites you. She will see that you do not see it as a game, and stop. She will see that every time she bites you, she loses you (and all the fun your bring). You might have to leave her 100 times the first day... but be consistent, and she will do it less and less.

As for "walkies make her aggressive." Do you mean she bites the leash? If she bites the leash, stop where you are and ignore her. You might want to even step on the leash so she has less to play with and pull on. Wait for her to stop, then continue on. When she bites the leash, just stop and be no fun. If she is not rewarded (with you pulling and "playing" with her) she will stop.

Also, get her a crate. Puppies need to be supervised all the time unless they're crated. Otherwise they poop, pee and chew up your stuff. That's normal. You just want to supervise her and teach her the right behavior, and then crate her while you work.

Having a puppy can be overwhelming at times, but don't worry. Stick with it. Try to prevent/manage behaviors you don't want, and reward those you do. Puppies are just babies that don't know any better.

Answer 3

True aggression at three months old is extremely rare, even in breeds that are prone to aggression. If this dog has been evaluated by a behaviorist and is truly aggressive at this tender age then you need to euthanize her...not rehome her and pass her along to become someone else's problem.

What is much more likely is that you are describing typical untrained/excited puppy behaviors and you are simply misunderstanding her. You say that you have tried your best to train her "following experts advice." Have you actually hired a professional trainer and gone to group classes or had one-on-one home counseling/training? If not, that would be my first stop. Sometimes just reading the words that experts have written and trying to apply the advice by yourself just isn't enough...even for people who are experienced puppy raisers. Having a professional who has delt with these behaviors sucssesfully in the past right there to not only explain but actually show you how to fix them is invaluable.

Answer 4

The puppy is 3 months old - it doesn't know how to be "aggressive" - this is NORMAL puppy behavior. Does that mean that you let them do it - NO, but you need to understand that a 3 month old puppy biting is the same as an 18 month old baby hitting you in the face when its excited.

You need a crate so when the puppy starts getting too out of hand (which happens when they get tired) you can put the puppy in there and give you guys a pbreak (similar to a play pen for babies)

Here are a couple of links you can read to help you deal with a lot of these normal puppy issues.

http://www.owningdogs.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=28
http://www.owningdogs.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13

Answer 5

you know this puppy sounds just like .... what is the word .... oh yeah .... a puppy

this is what puppies do ... I have had over the years a few dogs, and some of my pups acted like they had been raised by wolves .... puppies from hell -- the devil himself wouldnt have wanted any part of them

you need to get a trainer that will come to your house and show you firsthand what you should be and not be doing
this puppy is establishing himself as the boss, see when i had my puppies and they would do this stuff, they learned right away that the position of top dog was all ready filled, so dont even bother filling out an application

dont be upset, look up some dog trainers and try and see if they have some reviews you can read to make sure you are getting a qualified trainer ... give him or her a call and talk to them

explain to them what is going on

we have all been there, believe me, I have been there, puppies hanging off of the back of your bathrobe, just swinging along as you walk, eating your ankles, stealing everything in sight and wanting to chew on anything they see. If you bent over to correct them, they would grab you by the head of the hair and just try to shake you to death. I remember one of my puppies minutes before my mother in law was due to arrive, managed to steal a dozen of eggs from the frig when i had the door open and was running around the house with them, eggs cracking, oh good lord .. talk about a mess .... nasty ... puppy was having a grand old time, i can tell you that

also housetraining takes some work

until they are trained, they should be confined to one room and one room only. They should have their crate with door open during the day. They learn by being corrected when they do something wrong so you pretty much have to be with them the entire time

puppies unfortunately do not come pre - trained

so the person that needs training right now is you, and I am not being mean by saying that, we dont know what to expect, when you first bring them home. You get trained so that you can apply that training to your new little fur baby

I always felt that every mistake we make in their training, the dog will eventually pay for it

you have to establish yourself as top dog, and by this i do not mean you have to be nasty and ugly and hit him, of course not, it is just in the matter of your corrections that will show him that he is not the superior commander ... dogs have to know there is a boss,someone in charge, a leader in their pack and if this pup does not see you as a fit leader he will take over the position

so all good luck to you and you will see you will come to love this little guy and this horror show will someday become amusing.

And the day will actually come when you can speak of him in a positive light without the word, monster, or I am going to kill this dog, get rid of him, sell him, give him away, demon ... I hate him ... well you know what i mean

he will become such a part of your family that you will wonder how you ever managed to get along without him. I love mine more than I can begin to tell you

be thinking of you ...

it is going to work out just fine, you will see :)

Answer 6

sounds like my puppy. I got him when he was 7 weeks old and tried to train him to be good. He isn't mean but sure does chew on everything and bark at everything. He is now 1 year old and 70 lbs and is my best friend. He still nips but not hard and sometimes eats a shoe but I keep a supply of doggie bones and toys for him to chew on. Also the carpets used to be cleaned almost every day and now he goes outside like he should. Give it time and be firm and tell him NO. If he stops the bad thing then pet him and tell him wheat a good boy he is. It takes time but with me it was worth it.

Answer 7

First, you MUST take her to a vet for a check up. Tomorrow, Monday at the latest. It sounds like normal puppy behavior. He's just been separated from his mother and litter mates, and he IS sad. He's in a brand new home, where everyone is a stranger, and he doesn't feel safe there. You just have to give him time. Trust me, he will be bouncing off the walls in a few days, and you will WISH he was lounging around again!

Answer 8

This is because you purchased idea and image of a breed, and what you got was an individual animal. Actually all members of the spaniel family are said to be nippers and snappy.

This sounds like typical puppy behavior of a high strung dog. What you perceive as aggression may not be malicious, just misdirected. You need to puppy proof your home, double her exercise, and go to training lessons together.

Answer 9

Why don't you try taking her to puppy training? I think that's ur best help there so that they can work on her problem and can help you to control her too..Don't give up when I got my dog from the shelter at first I thought I was never ever going to make any accomplishments with him and now he's getting better..Not really where I was expecting but then much better..It all takes time and she's still young.

Answer 10

Im sorry your so sad... and having such a bad time w/ your puppy. Im no dog expert. But what i would recomend is first thing in the morning id get up feed her/him, and then take the puppy on a 2 mile brisk walk. once home id put the dog in a kennel box. then maybe u can get some work done early in the morning. Then around 1ish id take her for another walk and once she is tired then u try and get her to listen to you and what your asking of her. Yelling doesnt wk, spankings dont wk. but if your consistant and make sure she is tired enough not to put up a fight and not wanting to play. you might have better luck in training her. good luck

Answer 11

Calm down. All puppies are this way. It will take her some time to understand the rules of proper behavior. Usually at about a year old, she will calm down.

she's only playing when she play bites. Puppy teeth are sharp. Just supervise her when she's playing with the kids. My kids have learned real fast that a puppies teeth are sharp. We haven't lost any fingers yet.