Nena's Life with Emmy!!! (Photos updated: 17NOV2010))

[Nena & Me]

Kian,
I am not sure if there is a leash law here. I will have to double check with the building manager. Many ppl take their dogs to the park in my community so I am always wondering if I should let Nena off the leash. Nena responds to my call, but I am not 100% sure that she will in that setting. I am afraid she will run off and I will have to chase her around the community.

I am also having a slight problem with her crating. She constantly barks and scratches at the door. She does this for about 20 minutes before she stops. If I had my own home then it wouldn't be an issue, but being that I live in an apartment it creates a problem. She barks pretty loud now and I sometimes hear her from downstairs on my way out of the building for work. She is out of the crate when I go to work and free to roam the laundry room and the back patio. Se still barks. If there are a few complaints then I'd be forced to find her a new home. That would be terrible!

I don't have anyone here on FB so I have not seen these shadow photos... Lol. Shadows are awesome. I like looking at them. Weird, I know... Lol

Any typos can be blamed on my iPhone

[Phyrie]

Hi Emmy,
I've enjoyed the pics and stories of you and Nena. I am having a few problems understanding what you're up against though. You say that you are having crate training problems, but then go on to say Nena is out of the crate when you are at work. When is she crated, if you are crate training her?

Kian's advice on using "sweetheart" is so valuable, we should all have it surgically imbedded in our memories. I forget, and my dear boy has been known to hear a sharp "Kiba!" on more than one occasion. I do my very best NEVER to yell at, or even say "No" to my dog, but sometimes you just can't stop yourself. If Kiba makes an error that needs to be drawn to his attention, I use "Uh!".

About telling Nena to get off the couch, you say you tell her three or four times. I would suggest stopping that practice. She heard you perfectly well the first time, and by repeating yourself you diminish the command. Once only, and insist that that one command be obeyed. Always follow a command with her compliance, or she will swiftly realize she doesn't need to take you seriously.

I completely agree with "pick up your shoes". I would go so far as to say, "Pick up your damned shoes, and stop leaving such enticing, fun, and delicious toys around for your puppy to play with!" I see you have taken many pics of her with your shoes. She obviously knows they're toys, and must be confused as to why you think it's so funny for her to play with them, only to change your mind after the pic is taken and taking her prize away from her! Do you see what I mean? You may be better served to think of her as a human child: would you leave undesireable toys out, and leave your electrical outlets exposed to your child? No, of course not. So, why not afford Nena the same safety? It doesn't last long, and soon enough you will be able to train her to leave dangerous things alone, or she will simply not feel the need to get into such trouble. Either way, you can do all you need to protect her, for this short puppyhood.

You're doing great, and I think you've made the right decision to keep her on leash. I'd be fearful that my excitable puppy could make a deadly error, and I would have no control over her, too. Well done.

[Nena & Me]

Phyrie,

The issue with the shoes has been resolved. They are no longer where my Nena can get to them. Also, I did/do not blame her for trying to play with them. I understand she follows my scent. I even got her a toy shaped as a shoe. She loves It. Lol.

Crating. Nena goes in her crate at night. I take her out 4 hours later to pee. In the mornings when I go to work I leave her in the laundry room where she can go outside. I am not able to leave work to take her out, or get someone to do it. I don't leave her in the crate while I work since she has been in there all night.

At night she will bark when she goes in the crate. This is where the issue starts. She barks really loud now and I am sure the neighbors can hear her. If they start to complain then she will have to go. I don't want this to happen, but no matter what I do she barks for a while. When I take her out to pee in the night she will start barking again when she goes back in the crate. This is at 1 in the morning. If I don't take her out then she wakes up and barks even louder than normal.

The sofas. When I tell her to get down she usually obeys, but then does it right back again. If I tell her once then she will try to climb up all the way. She is doing pretty good these last few days. She likes to lay down under the sofa now.

I call my Nena 'beautiful' when she acts up. She sits and waits for attention. She really likes that word now

Hope that explains things a bit better.

[Sadie G]

I'm enjoying all of the photos of Nena! She is growing

Phyrie, it surprised me when you said you try not to say NO to Kiba. Thats the ONLY word that Sadie will totally obey when she is doing something she's not supposed to. It stops her in her tracks (most of the time).

I have another wave picture if I ever get around to posting my pic's!! Its just been too busy, one thing after another. Yeah, who was I waving at???? Lol......

Keep the pics coming Emmy, I really like seeing and hearing about the changes in Nena as she grows.

[Kristen&Bailey]

I don't use "No" either, or at least I try not to. My form of no is a sharp "Ah!" sound to get their attention and then I will redirect with another command. It was funny because when Kimmie's new mom mentioned to the adoption coordinator via email about changing her name to Koda the adoption coordinator told her that changing her name was fine and that a lot of foster dogs tend to think their name is "no" so Koda would probably be good because of the same "o" sound. I just laughed inside because I don't think I ever used the word "No" with Kimmie once. A lot of "ah"s but never no.

[Nena & Me]

I use no a few times a day. I have now started to only give her one NO and I stand and fold my hands. Folding my hands now causes her to freeze and sit down. I like that! When she sits she lets me pet her.

Today we laid on the floor to relax but she got too excited and tried to chew on my face. She gave me a small cut on my chin. I yelped to let her know it was not ok, and I even managed not to say NO...lol.

[Phyrie]

...Then there's the story of the yokel who named his dog "C'mere!!"…

Seriously, though, about "no": when I was reading about dog training and raising, while I was searching for my perfect breed, I settled on the the school of Positive Reinforcement (ala' Karen Pryor). This was years before I found Kiba's breeder, and I read a LOT of books, watched videos, and searched dozens, maybe hundreds of websites. I was determined to raise the best, happiest, well-adjusted dog I could! Truly fanatical, positive reinforcement oriented trainers don't say no. They do NOTHING that would be construed as "negative" If a dog makes a mistake, re-direct without comment. This made sense to me, and I decided this would be the way Kiba was raised, when I found him!

Of course, reality is a bit different than theory in books. When your puppy is madly dashing out the door towards traffic, you tend to forget all your good intentions and yell your ass off! But I try. I have discovered that some sound of disapproval, or attention-getting, is needed on occasion while raising a puppy. I use "Uh!" or "Uh, uh!", but regardless of which sound we use (no, uh-oh etc.) they all mean basically the same thing: Stop that! Dogs don’t care WHICH sound it is (despite evidence to the contrary, dogs do NOT speak English! [Or whatever language is spoken in your homes]), and “No” tends to be the one we choose to indicate disapproval or error.

This can be confusing for a dog. Why should they stop? Dogs are not moral creatures, and it's very difficult to explain to them WHY they can't chew on your shoe, when it feels so good to them! It's been proven that it is easier to give the dog SOMETHING ELSE to chew on, and praise him for chewing on THAT item, rather than trying to convince him not to chew at all (which can’t be done. Dogs NEED to chew!) This is redirection. With diligent repetition, and lots of praise, eventually the dog CHOOSES not to chew the shoe. Amazing!

Think about when, and why, you say “No” to your dog. What is she doing that you want to stop, but instead of just stopping her (which can frustrate a puppy, and cause MORE acting up), think “What ELSE could she do instead, of which I would approve?” Try NOT saying “no”, and praise her instead for changing to the desired activity. Instead of thinking, “I want her to stop XXX.”, think “What else would SHE like to do?” Or even better, “What is she getting out of that activity that I can satisfy in another way?” It makes life much more pleasant, for you AND your dog.

Puppies nip, bite, chew, and generally gnaw on anything they can get their hands, er, teeth on! They seem to especially love to chew on us! This is a play behaviour, as well as a teething behaviour, and you can't stop it. But you CAN give her better choices. This is also the time of her life for her to learn bite inhibition. If you don't know what that is, I suggest you get a copy of Dr. Ian Dunbar's book "Before and After Getting Your Puppy". I don't know if he was first, but he certainly described it best, and he offers the best method for teaching this vital lesson to your pup. You can't teach a dog not to bite. Dogs bite. But you CAN teach a dog how hard she may bite in order to make her point.

If a child trips and falls on your dog, the best reaction she can have is to move away. Or she may yelp, and move away. She may make a move toward the child with her head, or may even snap in fear and pain. But without bite inhibition this scenario could end in a tragic disaster. Puppies need to be allowed to bite and chew, but they need to learn limits. This starts with their mother and siblings. An important reason that I advocate later adoptions (at around 12 weeks) is because the pup learns bite inhibition by playing with his mother and siblings. When he bites the mother too hard, what does she do? She yelps, moves away, and may even snap back at him! While I would NEVER advocated biting your puppy, yelping and moving away from an over-vigorous puppy teaches him a valuable lesson, “That HURT, and I’m not going to play with you anymore!”. Dr. Dunbar explains this much better than I can, so check out his book, if you can.

[Sadie G]

Phyrie, that is a wonderful post.

I thought about how I use "no" with Sadie all day yesterday

The only time I use it is on our walks and when she is skimming the kitchen counters. Its not an all the time used word.
When I want her attention I say her name and she always stops and looks at me no matter what she's doing. So I know she doesn't confuse it with her name .
On our walks she is a garbage collector. Yup, I'm sorry to say it, but she is. She now will ignore whats laying on the sidewalk or off to the side in the grass if I say "NO". She still looks at it longingly as we walk on by, but she leaves it alone. If I try saying anything else it doesn't faze her.
When we are in the kitchen and she tries to jump and put her front paws on the counter to see what I'm doing I can say "down" and she minds. But if we're at the table and she tries to skim the counters "down" doesn't always work so I have to revert to "NO" and she puts her front paws back on the floor.

I would never say no during play time with her or in any situation where it would confuse her. And I realized after I read your last post that I do give positive reinforcement after saying no, because when she leave whatever alone I always tell her she's a good girl. She LOVES hearing that!!

I do have to share. Yesterday I went to lunch with friends from work and on the way back to the office we passed a guy walking his dog. We got to a crowded part of the sidewalk and the dog started toward me tail starting to wag. The guy said one word. "NO". And and the dog stopped put its head forward and kept walking. I couldn't help it I burst out laughing because I'd been thinking about it all day anyway from this thread. And heck, I wanted to pet the dog!!!

Ok, Emmy - back to what a great job you're doing with Nena . Sorry to hi-jack your thread

[lynners]

Emmy - it sounds like you need to go back to crate training basics 101. Also - there is no harm in crating her during the day and a night time. ALL of fosters dogs have been crated over night and during the day when I was at work for 8-9 hours. Even wee puppies! Tahsis was originally a foster, and I brought her home at 10 weeks old. She was miraculously able to hold it all night without having to go out, as well as all day while I was at work. I never came home to a messy crate.

I'm sorry if I've missed it and you've said elsewhere, but what are you doing so that Nena associates the crate as being a good thing?

In the mean time, have you talked to your neighbors? Before the complaints start rolling in, be a responsible owner and make a point of talking to those near by so that they know this is a temporary problem and you are working on correcting the situation.

[Madi P]

this is a very interesting thread, ive learned a lot from reading what everyone has said! Excuse me for poking my head in ~ Great advise/thoughts Phyrie!
How/ what would you do to "redirect" a puppy from jumping on the couches?
Emmy it sounds like you've got a great group here with some very sound advise! Im new and a first time puppy raiser (had dogs growing up, but i didnt do the "raising" just the playing ) so any adivse I would have probably wouldnt be worth anything! Ha But I agree with the crate training! its been working really well for us ~ keep up the hard work! And I would approach your neighbors before they come to you...

[Nena & Me]

Hello...

Well, I got home today from work to be greeted by a complaint from one of my neighbors. Apparently when I left for work this morning at 4AM Nena started barking for a while. I really don't have an answer to solve the barking issue. If she is in her crate she will bark. If I leave her crate open in the laundry room then she goes out in the balcony and barks and constantly scratches at the door. If I leave her crate and the laundry room door open it will be disaster in the apartment.

Phyrie, thank you for all the advice. It is much appreciated!

Lynners, I have put some treats and toys in her kennel. I also put food and water in there on occasion so that she likes being in there. Her kennel is the wire type. She can clearly see me and I play with her while she is in there. If I am in the laundry room then she is fine. When I leave, that's another story...

Madi, thanks for stopping by! This group is great. They have really helped Nena and I understand each other better. I would approach my neighbors, but they are Sicilian. We cannot understand each other, and it also seems like they have no patience, Especially when it comes to pets. The lady upstairs has two dogs. I never hear them and she is a stay at home mom. She is always outside walking her little dogs. I have gotten a nasty glare from her on several occasions. I would have thought that she would be more understanding being that she has two dogs, but no.

I am going to start looking for a place where Nena and I can have our place. This apartment is not doing the trick and I would really hate to lose her. Hopefully my family comes out here soon to watch over Nena while I am away at work

[Oliver & Henry's Mum]

Emmy, is there any way you could befriend the upstairs neighbour with two dogs, and ask for her "advice, help and suggestions". Use your charm. Do you know how long it will be before your family is able to be there with you, or is that a "wishful thinking - open ended plan"? What about Doggie Daycare, or is there such a thing available where you are?

I'm trying to think of a way to obtain an extra pair of hands for you. I'm sure you have already thought about all of your options prior to bringing home a puppy, so now it's just a matter of choosing one. I wish you the very best. You are in a bit of a tough spot.

There will be more pearls of wisdom from our other members who are far more knowledgeable and experienced than I.

[Nena & Me]

Thank you all for all the advice... I am still doing my best to help her relax and not bark so much while I am working. I do really want her to stay...

On another note... When I go to do laundry Nena freaks out. When I roll my hamper over to the laundry room she runs like crazy...lol. If i stop she will come and investigate, but as soon as the wheels start turning she is gone! Just a few minutes ago the same thing happened. Her kennel is in my living room now (Kennel training 101 again) and she ran into it in order to hide. I went to check on her and she was just sitting there staring at me... Two seconds later I hear an all too familiar sounds. She started going pittle....

Moral of the story: scared puppies pee on themselves while sitting...

[kian]

Your moral is correct and funny I might add! The reason I asked you about the leash law, not to let her off, but when I was in Spain last year dogs were all over with no leash. I as curious if it was the same there.

With the crate, can you leave a radio or tv on by her crate? Finding another place sounds like a wise thing to do. Don't want to tick off the nationals there. Does she seem to quiet after awhile?

[Nena & Me]

Hello, everyone!

Here is an update... Nena is still with me!

There's been a few more complaints so I have been trying to find her a good home It breaks my heart to let her go, but there is not much I can do. I am military and cannot just move. My lease is for 3 yrs where I am living. Unless the landlord allows me to break it I am stuck.

Nena needs a home where she can run and be as loud as she'd like.

Today I let her in the bathroom while I showered for the first time! She was going nuts when I closed the shower door and ran everywhere in the house trying to find me lol. It was the weirdest feeling when she was licking my legs trying to get water. lol.

I like the memories she creates