We are doing well now

Hello All, I just wanted to update you on how we are doing with our new puppy, Hadassah. We are doing well, few little issues that I will be asking if anyone could help me with but I do want to tell of the things that we have overcomed. YEA!

First, we have been socializing her and she is doing great! We take her where ever she can go, softball games, Petsmart and the other day we took her my Mom's house and they have a American Bull Dog/ Boxer mix puppy and they played so well together. I was just excited about that.

Second, I have gotten her to walk on her leash ( still pulls a bit) She is doing great with it. She is just coming by leaps and bounds from where we were with her.

Third, she is just fitting in with the family so well. She is getting to be such a loving part of the family. At first she was so timid and just skiddish around all us that it made me nervous of how she would be with us and the kids. But she showing us that we can start to trust her more also. We have shown her the love and attention that I think that she needed and probably didn't have before we got her because she is just opening up now.

That's why I haen't been on her much. My kids and I have been outside playing with her and taking her for walks and just spending time with her.

My question though....

Lastnight, after my husband and I just got her new toys and were playing with her a lot. Just saying what a great dog that she has become.....
it was time for her to get a bath and I kept calling her ( she knew what time it was) she was running to different places in the house and finally ended on our bed and I went to pick her up and she peed all over our bed.

What is the deal with this? Why would she do this? I wasn't yelling, I wasn't upset, I actually that it was funny that she knew what time it was. She hasn't done her submissive pee in a while. I was doing as you all advised that when she coward or peed that I should not get mad and ignore her when she behaved that way but lastnight that was hard because we were getting ready for bed and she peed on our comforter.

Sorry that this is so long, I wanted to share my good news with you all and ask you why, please help, she is behaving like this all of a sudden.

Thank you all so much, I appreciate the help and listening to go on about my sweet puppy.

Love you! Jenni

She was likely upset/conflicted. You were calling her-so she knew she should go to you, but it was time for a bath so she didn't want to go to you. I would catch her first and feed her treats then give her a bath.

^^^I agree, you should never call your dog when something they perceive as bad is going to happen. It will teach her to run away when you're calling!

Yeah in the future I would just go get her, don't give signs it's bath, just approach her normally. That way she won't run from you and like Dekka said won't have those conflicting feelings. Baths are no fun for dogs

The reason that I called her this time was last time that I called her to get off my bed she peed on it then also, I was trying to make my bed after I just washed it. I was trying to avoid her peeing on my bed again... and it still happened.

My husband and I never thought about it being conflicting to her, it makes total sense. Poor baby, I just never thought about that.

Thank you all for you help. I am just glad that there are knowledgeable people that I can go to with these kind of concerns.

Another thing you can try is to have some happy tub times. Put her in an empty tub, give her some treats, then get out and play. If every time she's in the tub, she gets a bath, she'll be sure to never want to go in. Have some really great, special tub treats for her happy tub times. Happy bathing!

Help me please

I am just thankful for all the help.

I am sadden to say that I have been taking a lot of wonderful help and applying these wonderful information to our dog but we are still having problems.

We have taken her to the vet and she told that she thinks that our pup was mistreated and is very timid. She reacts more to my husband and it does bother him because he is doing all that he can to show her love and that there is nothing to fear of him. My husband is the one that really wanted a pup, we all did but he really wanted a dog. We all love animals.

She cowards greatly to him. He doesn't yell at her, doesn't do anything that would scare her. He can call her and she runs to me or pees. I am feeling helpless in this situation. What are we doing wrong? What can he do to help her get over this.

We take her a daily walks, she does great. We take her to my mom's that has a puppy also, she does great. We take her everywhere that she can go with us and she does a great job. It is just when my husband calls her. He plays with her, gives her treats and takes her on walks. What can it be?

Thank you all so much for listening to me go on. I love my pup and we have doing everything that we can to build up her confidence.

Love, Jenni

Have you and your husband done any training classes with her yet? Those are great for socialization, but they're also really great to help build the bond between dog and owner. Plus you'll have a trainer who can observe you and your husband interracting with your puppy and see if you're giving her any conflicting body language cues or anything that might scare her (bending over her, for instance, is very scary).

We haven't just yet got her in the class, she just got her last booster shots to get her in the class and we have to wait for the next one to start.

I never thought that there might be conflicting body language... my husband was wondering if she could pick up on his moods? As much as he loves our dog he has been under stress with his job and other things.

We will be getting her into a class as soon as we can. We love her and she has times that she is just playful as can be and very out-going then somewhere her moods change and gets skidish and timid all over.

I just want to do the best thing for her. My children and my husband and I have grown very fond of her.

Dogs can ABSOLUTELY pick up on our moods! I have agility class with my dog on Monday nights - well, Mondays are really hard since it's the first day of the work week and usually the most difficult work day of the week. So I come home tired and stressed out from work, and then have to go to agility. My dog does TERRIBLY on the days when I'm most stressed out, so much so that it's just a lot easier to skip classes those weeks.

There's another dog that comes to mind - a spaniel mix that I used to work with a lot. She is a very happy, bubbly, cute little dog, but sometimes I get annoyed that she's TOO bubbly and doesn't train very precisely. As SOON as I start to get annoyed (not even mad, just a tiny bit frustrated), she shuts down and completely stops thinking. Which makes me MORE annoyed, making her MORE shut down.... it's a deadly spiral. I got very good at stopping before I got upset, take a minute or two to breathe deeply, and then try again.