Annoying Puppy Behavior

We have a 20 week old miniature American Eskimo Dog who has recently developed some incredibly annoying habits.

We have had him since he was 8 weeks old and have crate trained him from the begining. He is totally housebroken, which is wonderful. However, in the last week or so he has started crying/barking/going bonkers in his crate around 4:30 - 5am. Every morning. He goes in his crate around 12 am (I take him out for a walk before he goes in) and he used to sleep until 6am with no problem. Lately, though, he's started up with this nonsense, which wakes everyone up. My SO is an internal medicine resident (his first year of training after graduating from medical school) and he only gets to sleep a few hours a night. The dog doing this is making him especially nuts. The dog also tends to bark a lot at him and bite at his pants more than he does to me (it really annoys the hell out my SO when he does it, too). I don't know why he's doing this, but the usual "No!"/spray bottle/dropping the can of pennies doesn't seem to be working.

Any ideas???


Thanks.

PS: And this morning I took him out, thinking all this business was because he needed to pee, but while he did pee, it wasn't a lot. And it took him awhile to do it (if he has to go bad he does it immediately).

I'm having a similiar problem with my 14 week old puppy. He barks and whines to go out every morning, but when I get him outside, he doesn't do anything but sniff the grass and try to play. I've found simply ignoring the bad behavior seems to be working, although I know this probably isn't the best approach. If he sees I'm not going to respond to his whining, he tends to lose interest.

Yeah, I hear ya. It's easier for me to ignore him (and he does get bored...eventually) than it is my SO. The high pitched barking is making him mental! And this business of doing it in the early morning is just maddening. During the day/evening, if he starts bugging us like that it usually means he needs to go outside NOW to do his business. But, like I said, dunno if it's just an annoying "teenage" phase - but I wish I knew how to stop it!

Actually, that is the best approach. Remove any attention or payoff, give an alternative thing for him to do and reward for that. Soon, he will choose which behavior works best for him and the unwanted behavior, having nothing in it for him will phase away. Consistancy is a must.

Remember, dogs don't think like we do. They don't know right from wrong in a moral sense like we do. They don't come pre-wired to understand how to live in a human's world. We have to teach them and teach them in a way where they'll trust and respect us. Throwing things, spraying things, startling them with loud noises only teaches them to fear and disturst us. Aversives have no place in training a dog.

I recommend getting some books on canine behavior. The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell, Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson, Don't Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor are all excellent. Culture Clash is the one I'd start with. I wish I had read it a lot sooner in my career.

Have patience. This is all normal puppy behavior. Being calm and confident helps your pup look up to you. Getting angry and emotional is the sign of a subordinant, not a leader.

Exercise (but not so much that you cause damage to growing joints and bones) but lots of romping outside, socialization, training basic obedience all helps a dog see you as the director (leader) and him as the follower. This all helps with behavior of all types.

Enroll him in a puppy class with a positive method trainer. That's a lot of fun for both owner and dog and very beneficial. I highly reommend it.

That's life. Just praise him and reward him with a treat the second he's done. You can give a cue word while he's going..."go pee" and eventually he'll go on command, that is, if he needs to at all.

The ignoring is the best way but might take a little bit longer. I found that mine got even more persistent with the behavior immediately after getting ignored. I guess he was trying even harder to get attention. It took him awhile to figure out that his behavior was why he wasn't getting attention.

Also, we tried to pennies in a can, and it didn't work. We had a behaviorist come over, and when the puppy was jumping on me and biting and out of control, he threw the can in our direction from another part of the room. The can landed at our puppy's feet and really startled him. He ran into another room and took a few seconds before he came back out. When he tried the behavior again, it only took the trainer picking the can up and him hearing it to make him stop. That cured him of the behavior. If he ever did it again, we would just show him the can, and he would stop. We never shook it after that...just picked it up.

I guess the can coming from nowhere kind of startled him more than us shaking it in his face. It didn't hurt that we put the can on a table just for convenience. It was a table that the puppy was not supposed to get on, and we didn't know he could get on it. We found the puppy hiding one morning. He had gotten on the table and pulled some papers off that the can was sitting on, and the can had tumbled down, too. He found out that can could get him without us in the room!!

I just did the can thing again (throwing it at his feet) and that startled him. He just sometimes get into these frenzies - and acts like a maniac.

Also, we're gone a lot right now (around 7-8 hours a day) so he's bored. He's getting 4 30 minute walks a day, though. He was spoiled because until he was 18 weeks he had a parent with him almost 24/7. The good thing is he's housebroken. The bad thing is he's a puppy and has lots of energy. Thank god he's only 12 pounds!

My experience

When Wrigley tried to pull this stunt when he was 3 months I would get up and without looking at him pick up his crate and put him in the pitch black garage where we couldn't her him (it was the same temperature as the house--in case anyone panicks)...anyways it only took about 3 trips out there...no more peeps from you Wrigster!

Baby Gomez is about to get the "smack down". If he pulls this tonight (like he did this morning - again!) I'm putting him and his crate in the bathroom. I don't know what's got into him. Maybe he's going through puberty and is trying to be a rebellious teen!

Sorry for a Grammy in put.... you are confusing the pup with your love for him, but wanting to please your SO. One needs time out for a while. I vote for your SO. Have him go elsewhere until your pup is established. Obviously they resent each other.

Sorry for giving that impression. My SO loves the dog to death. He calls him his son (this is our first dog) and adores him endlessly. The SO is just incredibly tired (this weekend he worked for 38 hours straight - and then had to go back to the hospital 10 hours later. He doesn't have a day off again until this Friday) and the dog is NOT tired. When my SO gets home the dog goes bonkers - which he doesn't do with me so much. My SO is also principally responsible for taking him out for long walks - so I think the dog bugs him more than me when he's bored.

I do tell my SO to go into another room when he's frustrated though, so neither one of them rile each other up.

I have the same problem. My 4 month old just suddenly started waking us up at 6am I would have liked to just ignore him but my husband (who is not a morning person) gets so angry and starts yelling which annoys me more than the dog so I end up giving in to both of them, I get up and take the puppy out. I guess I'll try the pennies thing. I need a book on training husbands!

First of all, I would not give in to your dogs crying in the crate. That is just going to show it that when she cries, she gets out.

Secondly, please ignore what she is doing to your SO. That is indeed the best approach. Your dog wants attention and stimulation, make sure you have plenty of "play times" with it.

Update: since the dog is fully housebroken (we leave him out of the crate for 8-9 hours during the day when we're gone with NO accidents - he's so good!) I no longer put him in his crate at night. Now he sleeps at the floor by the bed (he doesn't like sleeping on the bed with us, which is kinda good, since the cats sleep on the bed with us) and doesn't start barking at us until 6:30 am, when he needs to go out to potty. It's worked out well so far.