Just a Vent

[rabernet]

So, my neighbors have this puppy (she's about 8 months old now). Sweetest girl. They got her thinking she was a pit, but I don't think that she is, she's far too small, and doesn't have that blocky look to her head. I think she's some sort of mix. So, their son, who is about 11 or 12 always comes and knocks on my door and asks if Diamond can come out and play - the two of them play beautifully together.

I get a knock on the door this morning, and poor little Adonis has tears streaming down his face and says "Ms. Robin, do you know anyone who will adopt Sasha? Mom says we have to get rid of her." I ask him what happened, and he said that she pooped on the floor, and his mom got mad and started calling places to get rid of her.

Well, I've talked to mom before about how important it is to crate train, especially in an apartment, when you can't put the dog outside in a fenced in yard while you run an errand. I even explained to her, when she described their crate that it was too large for this puppy. They also don't USE the crate like they should. She had complained to me before that Sasha only poops inside the apartment.

I told her to never use the crate as punishment, and if Sasha doesn't poop when they take her out, without any fanfare, when they come in the house - put her back in her crate. In another hour or two, take her out of the crate and immediately outside and repeat until she poops (or keep her on leash and tethered to one of them when she's out of the crate so that you can see when she needs to go potty and you immediately take her out). And when she poops outside, make a HUGE party out of it and praise her like she hung the moon.

Well, they don't do that. They bring the puppy back in the house and just let her run loose. It's a 2 bedroom apartment, and so they don't watch her like they should. Adonis said that she was in her crate this morning and was crying, and he let her out, but he was so tired that he didn't take her outside.

I explained to him that he shouldn't let her out of the crate without first taking her out first thing in the morning, as gently as I could. I told him - sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do (like get up early to walk the dog), but that's all part of being a responsible dog owner.

I told him that his mom was probably just mad right now, and when she calms down, she won't really mean it about getting rid of Sasha. He said "can you please talk to my mom????". I told him that he needed to let her calm down first, that now is not the right time for me to try to talk to her.

He asked if he could bring Sasha to come play with Diamond "one last time". Poor kid broke my heart - it's not HIS fault, it's up to the adults to make sure that they are properly training this dog. He's a child who depends on them to teach him how to train her. He ALWAYS has that dog outside with him and takes her for long walks. He adores that dog. Perfect picture of a boy and his dog.

Diamond is such an ambassador for keeping dogs, that I sometimes cringe when another family that has come to love Diamond and sees how well she does with their children (her favorite thing to do is play with children), goes and gets a puppy and expects them to behave like Diamond does (she potties on command). But she's also 10 years old, and we've put a lot of work into her. She doesn't have accidents in the house, unless she's sick (ie, Karl has snuck her some pork) and has the runs, and I don't blame her for that. That's not her fault. She's never been told she's bad, in fact, we assure her that it's ok, "mommy will clean it up" or "daddy will clean it up". And if she feels sick in the middle of the night, she comes to the bedroom door and whimpers until I hear her and I know that particular whine - it means - I need to go out mom, and I need to go out NOW! I may be stumbling out the door in the middle of the night - but Diamond knows that she can trust me to help her in those situations.

But then, these families expect these new puppies to magically be potty trained, or not to tear things up in the house. I try to help them and explain how we trained Diamond, and tell them that it's a lot of hard work and dedication, and that in MY opinion, accidents are completely the fault of the owner, not the dog. If you don't keep an eye on the puppy and see them circling and immediately take them out - who's fault is that? It's awesome to have a potty trained dog, but it doesn't happen overnight.

Oh, and then they also left the puppy loose one day while they went shopping. What a surprise when they get home and she's ripped up the carpet by the front door! Hello! You've set the dog up for failure! Don't get mad at her for that!

OK - this vent went on much longer than I planned!

[wolfy-hound]

Yeah, stupid owners always blame the dog, when it's THEIR fault the dog doesn't behave the way the want it to. Then it's out the door with that one, and in the door with a new one.. because maybe THIS puppy will come pre-trained at 8 weeks to be perfect!

I see it all the time, and you just wanna b-slap the idiots.

[tweets_4611]

Aww...

I hate it when people get a dog and don't bother to train them. People are always asking my b/f "How do you get your dogs to behave so well?!" when we walk them. And as they are asking their dog is barking/running/chasing/biting anything within the range of the leash.

Hopefully the boy will be able to keep his dog, and over time I hope they figure out that they need to step it up =/

[rabernet]

He stopped back by this afternoon with her to let her play with Diamond some more and said his mom isn't as mad this afternoon. I talked with him a bit about how he's going to have to help his parents help Sasha and ways to help her succeed. I told him if he can't keep an eye on her, because he's busy with something else, he should put her in the crate.

Told him that she'll tell them when she wants to go potty, to which he said "but she doesn't". I said - no, she probably doesn't go to the door, because she hasn't figured out yet that outside is the only place to go potty, but she'll show you with how she behaves right before she has to go.

And, it worked out nicely that she started to show the behavior that she needed to poo while we were outside and I said "like that, see how she's behaving and circling? She's about to go, so we're going to praise her like crazy when she's done!" and so I praised her like mad for being SUCH a good girl and he joined in.

I know that the crate that they have for her is way too big for her, and it's apparently missing the bottom tray, so basically, if she has an accident in her crate, it's right on the floor. Next paycheck I'm going to check out Craigslist for a more appropriately sized crate for her to be in.

He told me they were going to a baseball game later today and I said "you make sure you put her in the crate before you leave, don't leave her out - set her up for success! She hasn't earned the right to be loose yet." We'll see if I can't coach them to improve their relationship with her.

[ItsMichael805]

good, job on helping the little boy, hope it works out!

[Muze]

We trained our Chi to pull on a bell (bird toy) that we put on the door knob when he wants to go out. We would makes lot of noise w/ the bell before we would take him out & say "poopie" "poopie" and now he (usually...lol) rings the bell and sits by the door until we take him out.

[rabernet]

We trained our Chi to pull on a bell (bird toy) that we put on the door knob when he wants to go out. We would makes lot of noise w/ the bell before we would take him out & say "poopie" "poopie" and now he (usually...lol) rings the bell and sits by the door until we take him out.

I tried training Diamond that, but she never got it - she just runs to the door and looks back at you with a look of anticipation. The sleigh bells are still hanging on the front door, ten years later! LOL

[Muze]

I tried training Diamond that, but she never got it - she just runs to the door and looks back at you with a look of anticipation. The sleigh bells are still hanging on the front door, ten years later! LOL

Lol...yeah, he's the only one that got it. A friend of my BFs was here just a while ago & Cougan went up to the bell & the guy thought it was great. He said he was going to try it with his dog.

[Danounet]

Awww lol. Our family has a mixed Black Lab, "Shaki" smartest (is that a word??) dog we ever had. She plays, tells us if she needs go out, Barks a people that she never seen walk into the house before, I could go on, but she is older now too. My brother just adopted a white Lab for his kids, and comparing the 2 dogs is like day and night lol. I've helping my newphews/neece (oldest one is 4) to train the puppy. I do have to say is funny when the puppy does something bad and my sister in law starts screaming out the roof lmao!

[Jamie-n-Heith]

He stopped back by this afternoon with her to let her play with Diamond some more and said his mom isn't as mad this afternoon. I talked with him a bit about how he's going to have to help his parents help Sasha and ways to help her succeed. I told him if he can't keep an eye on her, because he's busy with something else, he should put her in the crate.

Told him that she'll tell them when she wants to go potty, to which he said "but she doesn't". I said - no, she probably doesn't go to the door, because she hasn't figured out yet that outside is the only place to go potty, but she'll show you with how she behaves right before she has to go.

And, it worked out nicely that she started to show the behavior that she needed to poo while we were outside and I said "like that, see how she's behaving and circling? She's about to go, so we're going to praise her like crazy when she's done!" and so I praised her like mad for being SUCH a good girl and he joined in.

I know that the crate that they have for her is way too big for her, and it's apparently missing the bottom tray, so basically, if she has an accident in her crate, it's right on the floor. Next paycheck I'm going to check out Craigslist for a more appropriately sized crate for her to be in.

He told me they were going to a baseball game later today and I said "you make sure you put her in the crate before you leave, don't leave her out - set her up for success! She hasn't earned the right to be loose yet." We'll see if I can't coach them to improve their relationship with her.

Thank God that boy and his dog have a dog savy neighbor like you to teach them how to try to properly take care of their dog, hopefully you have talked them into having her spayed too!!