Please, please, please help me!!!!!!

[Gpalin]

Hi everyone,

I really do hope one of you can help me because my 11 month cocker is driving me mad. 

Floyd is my first cocker spaniel and I think I have made some mistakes with him and let him get away with too much. 

Well his behaviour is driving me mad for the past 2 weeks he keeps constantly barking just for no reason even if you egnore him he carrys on and the same if you dont ignore him. What can I do & why is he doing this? 

Also I am having terrible trouble toilet training him (yes he's 11 months and he still isnt toilet trained) I did what I was told when I got him at at 8 weeks paper in the kitchen watched him like a hawk and when I thought he was going to do something put him in the back garden then the whole praise thing, then over the weeks gradually moved the paper to the back door then none at all, but still struggled to get him to do something in the back garden. But now he sometimes does it in the back garden and sometimes he doesnt. When we go out shopping he usually holds it in till we get home, usually when we let him out in the back garden he does a wee but its not often he poos out there he does it in our kitchen instead but he knows its wrong because he hides when he's done it, sometimes he wees in the house as well even though he's just been in the backgarden for 20 minutes. What can I do? 

He doesnt come back to me when I let him off his lead on his walks so im currently working on recall, im also trying to get tips on the fact if hes got something in his mouth he shouldnt have he wont drop it I know theres alot here but I need help?!!!! 

A verry stressed out Gemma

[*Theresa*]

Gosh I have no advice but I just wanted to offer support as it sounds like you are severly stressed out. I will keep an eye on this thread and hope others can offer you useful advice. My Glen is useless at recall aswell and at leaving things if he has it in his mouth. We got him toilet trained pretty quickly as he is very food orientated and quickly sussed he only got a treat if he went outside,he acts like he is starved the minute the treat bag comes out.

Fingers crossed for you that things improve soon.

[Gpalin]

Aww thankyou I am getting really stressed now I just hope someone can help because hes driving me and my boyfriend mad.

[Naughty Pair]

Firstly, dont worry too much.  I know it is easy to say but break things downand combat them one at a time...

1.  I think he is barking for attention.  He probably is a spolit little cocker.  Cockers always try to get what they want.  Ignore him when he barks - make this a rule!  When he is calm and not barking praise him verbally and give him high value treats ie chicken.

2.  toilet training - leave him outside for longer.  Keep up praising him when he does go outside - keep at it.  Suddenly it will work and you will wonder why you worried.  Just keep pointing him to the right place, when he goes say toilet - he will then associate action of toilet with the word.  praise verbally and with treat.  patience is required, plus remain calm.

3.  recall is hard - maybe use a training long line - let him go off onthe line - call him, nudge him back to you with the line and treat!  lots and lots of practise.

4.  leave it command - when he has something give a command ie leave and try and EXCHANGE what he has - ie give him a toy or treat.

Once you have the basics under control you can fade away treats and give more verbal praise and pats.

Dont worry he is young and all pups develop at different rates.  It could be made a little worse if you have slighly spoilt him.  Put your foot down gently and really reward all his good behaviour when he does do it!  

Maybe you could go to a local training class for help, support and you will also realise that others are having the same problems but maybe with dogs or are 4 or 5 !  and are only just getting themself to a class.

I hope this helps and best of luck..

ps my 10 month old cocker did a wee on my bed the other day!!!!  i thought she was completely trained at 12 weeks - but sometimes a little relapse happens.  After having 2 cockers I have realised not to stress but take it as it comes and try and be positive

[LouiseAS]

Don't get stressed Gemma.  I know it's hard not to but I've found that when I'm stressed the dogs pick up on it and get stressed themselves.  They seem to be particularly sensitive to changes in voice.

I'm not an expert on toilet training as I trained Meg at 2yrs old when I got her but I just used to take her into the garden at regular intervals and say "have a wee".  When she performed I made a big thing of it with lots of praise and a treat.  The intervals got longer but I now have a dog that wees (or No. 2) on command.  Ignore accidents, just clear it up out of sight of the dog if possible.

With regards to giving up items he shouldn't have.  Again, I'm no expert but this is what I do with Jakey when he's got something he shouldn't have (usually dirty underwear  ).  Jakey doesn't know the "leave it" command yet.  Try ignoring him and pick up something that he values which, in Jakey's case are his tennis balls, and start playing with it.  Be REALLY interested in it.  I find that Jakey will come over to see what is more interesting than him with my knickers.  More often than not this will result in him putting down the naughty item and taking the allowed item.  When he first did it I ran around the garden and house after him which just resulted in him thoroughly enjoying himself and me very cross.

I expect someone will be along who has far more experience than me in such matters but just thought I'd share with you what works for my 2.

[ali]

hi gemma

my pup is only 12 months old so i'm sure others will be able to offer much more experienced advice, but i just wanted to say that barkley went through a very similar phase with the barking a couple of months ago. when i asked on here i was told about a second fear phase that pups go through at about this age. basically, all of sudden, things which haven't bothered them before suddenly really do. barkley was awful for a good few weeks- barking at the slightest noises, especially in the evenings, and it was true that he was reacting to things that hadn't bothered him in the slightest before- noises on the television, cars going past, the postman and so on.

if floyd hasn't been like this before, and it is a real change in his usual behaviour, then maybe that's what it is. in which case, it does pass, and i definitely agree with the advice to just ignore the barking (not always easy!). we would try to distract barkley with games and make a huge fuss of him as soon as he had calmed down again, and eventually he seemed to grow out of it as a phase and is now much more relaxed again. our evenings are much more relaxed too!

on the other training issues, i'd agree that if you aren't already going to classes, that's the place to start. recall is something that can get worse in their adolescence, which is about where floyd is now, but i'm sure consistent training will help. barkley has wonderful days   and awful days   .

good luck!

[sanderling]

if your garden is fenced in, why not try a dog-flap? it worked for us, although it took an awful lot of sausage to tempt him through it but now he flys in and out. We made sure he saw us leave one of his poos in a discrete place in the garden and it worked. Now he goes out during the day and night no problem. just a though!

[Gpalin]

Your all so helpfull and I feel better already I actually cant wait to get home to him now so I can start with all these good training tricks.

When they do something wrong are you supposed to shout or say sternly no or just ignore the bad behaviour and praise the good?

[Naughty Pair]

ignore the bad and REALLY praise the good - thats what i learnt at class....and mine arent too bad!

good luck!

[CarolineL]

There's been some fab advice here and hopefully you should be able to see progress with Floyd.

I just wanted to re-iterate that when you do take Floyd out for the toilet and he goes outside then praise like mad and give him a really high reward like a piece of ham or chicken. He will then associate the reward with going outside to the toilet. If he does have an accident inside then just ignore it and clear it up, as you said in your previous post, ignore the bad and reward the good....

A great book to read is the Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson - in there is an excellent article that explains *thought process* behind an unhousetrained dog really well.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

[AnnieM]

Definitely ignore the bad behaviour and praise the good behaviour like mad.  I can't really comment as mine are only 8 months old and at the moment are really good.  I would definitely recommend training classes mine have really benefited from them.
Good Luck and don't get too stressed, take it a step at a time.  

[Jenny]

Barney used to bark like a crazy boy and ignoring didn't work so we used to get up and walk out of the room leaving him there until he stopped.  Once he had stopped we praised him with yummies for being quiet.  It drove us mad for a while because we couldn't even sit on the sofa and watch Eastenders together but now he is super.  Make sure you have a handy filled kong or something to keep him occupied.  He might also be barking becaase he wants some attention as he is bored    As for toilet training i would go right back to basics.  As someone else said, don't try to tackle everything at once.  Go for the barking and toilet training first and the rest can come once this is mastered.  Don't be so hard on yourself!  We all go through it at some stage!!

[Scootysmum]

Well, all of the above is fantastic advice and I can only reiterate the importance of praising good behaviour! Scooter's recall was absolutely dreadful up until the age of 15 months. I really thought at one point he would be walked on the lead forever!. The only way I could get him to come back was to use a long line and reward with high value treats...over and over and over again. Only when I was satisfied that he understood the command "this way", did I let him off...and he comes back now (although if a bird in flight is in sight, he turns into a little  .
I did all his training in an enclosed field, which makes escaping difficult and immediately puts you at your ease, which in turn makes the dog less wound up.

As for toilet training, that has never been a real problem, but he does have the odd relapse (funny, he weed on my bed a few weeks' back and he'd never done that before!). Always stick to a routine, I find "lapses" can occur when there are changes in routine (Xmas 2005 I seem to recall a six month old boy leaving me an extra parcel under the Xmas tree, wrapped in his own special "brown" paper)  

One problem I so relate to though is the incessant barking, Scooter is dreadful when he hears any movement outside the house, or when the poor, stressed out postman dares to post anything through the letterbox. I have tried spraying pieces of paper with bitter apple spray (which he doesn't like) and "posting" them, then saying "leave" and praising. This works in test, but is difficult to replicate in a "real life situation" ie with me, trying to sign for a delivery in one hand and fight off the crazy cocker with the other!
Anyway, good luck with little Floyd - you will get there in the end, believe me!!!

[Bluebell]

Poor you - so many things to tackle at once!! But loads of good advice there.
2. toilet training - definitely back to basics, just like an 8 week old pup, but, without the newspaper! Think of it from his point of view,' indoors on paper', is the same as 'indoors'.To him it is OK, that  is what he was taught,now he may be confused, which is why he hides

[PennyB]

Poor you - so many things to tackle at once!! But loads of good advice there.
2. toilet training - definitely back to basics, just like an 8 week old pup, but, without the newspaper! Think of it from his point of view,' indoors on paper', is the same as 'indoors'.To him it is OK, that  is what he was taught,now he may be confused, which is why he hides

I agree with this and just take him out at regular intervals (after he's eaten, played, woken up, that sort of thing) but make sure you go out with him and praise him for going