[kin0kin]

I've got a 10 months old Schnoodle and his name is Smokey:

We went for vacation for 11 days and for the first 2 days, we left him alone at home but had seeked help from two friends who'd take turn to take care of him while we were gone. However, he totally couldn't live without human presence especially during the night and he started yelping and making all sorts of noises during the night. What's worse is that one of the neighbours (no idea who that is) started to make complaints about him. The same person had made a complaint some time ago exaggerating that he has been barking "all day" when I was merely gone for 2 hours (went for class). This time when we were away, the person made another complaint and yet again exaggerated the problem. The neighbour said that we were "abusing" the dog....and the dumb building management took the complaint "as it is" without any investigation and they, also, exaggerated the problem saying that there were "MANY" complaints when there were actually 1-2. The neighbour living beside me has been informed about us leaving the dog at home prior to our departure, the lady even told us that she didn't write the "mean" complaint. I had to trouble my friends to get the dog away and this had put tremendous stress on me during my vacation which I never really get to enjoy. Now here are some of the problems I desperately need to get fixed and I need all the help I could get:

1) Neighbours exaggerating problems, management siding complaints and say that if he barks and make any sort of noise again, we will need to remove the dog. I'd like to know what to do about this, particularly the stupid neighbour.

2) My dog is very very stubborn, he only obeys to the treats....not my command. When there's treat, he'd obey the command, when there's no treats or when he gets bored of the treats....he'd start ignoring me.

3) when I put the leash on, things get worse...he doesnt obey to command and he stiffens up. He is particualrly crazy about people, when he sees people, he'd start going crazy and ignoring me even if I pull his leash and told him to sit/stop/no...or whatever.

4) He likes to go out ALOT, once I take the leash out and if I'm near the door he'd start yelping and whinning...can't wait to get out.

5) If I leave him confined in his crate and ignore him for a little, he'd start making noise again.

6) The worst part is that nobody can be at home with him 24/7...and we don't know when he will start making noise when we are gone. I need to assure that he does not bark/make any sort of noise at all cost when we are gone. I don't wanna remove his vocal pouch or anything but only through behavioral modification.

We love our dog and we dont want to give up on him or give him away...If you know any particular secret recipe or help to these problems, please help me out, and please address the numbered problems individually. Thanks in advance....

 

[MrSlacker]

call the Dog Whisperer

 

[Publius]

Do you have any no-leash parks you can take him to? Some dogs just need to run every once in a while.

 

[kin0kin]

Gotta love south park.

im not sure if there's any no-leash park around...it's gonna be a big pain if he runs away...I have no car.

 

[hciman77]

It seems to me that your dog has three problems. The biggest one seems to be separation anxiety, two is a general lack of understanding that you are actually the boss, and three is that it generally gets its way. All are trainable, sometimes the issue is training the owner not the dog.

Our own pooch had separation issues, though these were manifested in chewing furniture not barking. What we do now is we fill a Kong Toy with treats before we leave and the dog happily chomps away and then settles down.

EDIT: Just found this site on separation Anxiety


http://www.wagntrain.com/SeparationAnx.htm

Quote:

Originally Posted by kin0kin /img/forum/go_quote.gif 1) Neighbours exaggerating problems, management siding complaints and say that if he barks and make any sort of noise again, we will need to remove the dog. I'd like to know what to do about this, particularly the stupid neighbour.

Even a mere two hours of constant barking could be a real nuisance. Your neighbour may be overegging it but I daresay there are noise ordinances so I would tread carefully.

Quote:

2) My dog is very very stubborn, he only obeys to the treats....not my command. When there's treat, he'd obey the command, when there's no treats or when he gets bored of the treats....he'd start ignoring me.

Training, one suggestion our dog behaviorist made was that you can make the dog earn its meals one piece at a time.


Quote:

5) If I leave him confined in his crate and ignore him for a little, he'd start making noise again.

We had a similar situation. We had a doggy guest for a few nights. Our guest was used to sleeping upstairs with its owners. We do not allow our dog to sleep upstairs and so we prohibited Otis from doing so as well. Well, Otis didnt take kindly to this and started crying. However we just let him and after about 20 minutes he stopped and was quiet all night. Every time you let your dog's behavior affect yours it knows it is the pack leader not you. I know this is difficult, a dog's howl can be heart-rending and we hated hearing this plaintive cry , but it is a learnt behavior and as long as it works the dog will keep doing it

Quote:

6) The worst part is that nobody can be at home with him 24/7...and we don't know when he will start making noise when we are gone. I need to assure that he does not bark/make any sort of noise at all cost when we are gone. I don't wanna remove his vocal pouch or anything but only through behavioral modification.

Give the dog away rather than surgery. Our neighbour's dog had to have her vocal chords (?) removed due to infection and the poor dog cannot bark now, she is miserable with the change, there is just this pathetic little huh sound when she tries to bark

Quote:

We love our dog and we dont want to give up on him or give him away...If you know any particular secret recipe or help to these problems, please help me out, and please address the numbered problems individually. Thanks in advance....

Training and patience, we enlisted a dog behaviorist for a while but in fact most of our problems were from anxiety and the dog being new to us , she settled down within a few months. So dont depair.

 

[Tech2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hciman77 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It seems to me that your dog has three problems. The biggest one seems to be separation anxiety, two is a general lack of understanding that you are actually the boss, and three is that it generally gets its way. All are trainable, sometimes the issue is training the owner not the dog. Our own pooch had separation issues, though these were manifested in chewing furniture not barking. What we do now is we fill a Kong Toy with treats before we leave and the dog happily chomps away and then settles down. EDIT: Just found this site on separation Anxiety http://www.wagntrain.com/SeparationAnx.htm Even a mere two hours of constant barking could be a real nuisance. Your neighbour may be overegging it but I daresay there are noise ordinances so I would tread carefully. Training, one suggestion our dog behaviorist made was that you can make the dog earn its meals one piece at a time. We had a similar situation. We had a doggy guest for a few nights. Our guest was used to sleeping upstairs with its owners. We do not allow our dog to sleep upstairs and so we prohibited Otis from doing so as well. Well, Otis didnt take kindly to this and started crying. However we just let him and after about 20 minutes he stopped and was quiet all night. Every time you let your dog's behavior affect yours it knows it is the pack leader not you. I know this is difficult, a dog's howl can be heart-rending and we hated hearing this plaintive cry , but it is a learnt behavior and as long as it works the dog will keep doing it Give the dog away rather than surgery. Our neighbour's dog had to have her vocal chords (?) removed due to infection and the poor dog cannot bark now, she is miserable with the change, there is just this pathetic little huh sound when she tries to bark Training and patience, we enlisted a dog behaviorist for a while but in fact most of our problems were from anxiety and the dog being new to us , she settled down within a few months. So dont depair.

Great advice, all. Especially the separation anxiety.

I'll add this: You definitely need to get your pooch to charm school (training) and work with him on obedience. It's a bit of work on your part, but well worth the effort. Besides that, if your dog doesn't listen to you he is a danger to himself. Let's say he runs to the street, you need to be able to stop him with a voice command or he could end up dead.

Find a class that teaches through positive reinforcement. I did that with my Golden Retriever and she will sit, lay down and stay using only hand signals. I can walk her off-leash and she stays right beside me, with a little vocal encouragement. I was surprised how easy it was to train her.

Your dog is still young enough to be trained with a little effort. Do it now.

 

[plainsong]

Yikes, the dog's biggest problem is the OP. What were you thinking, leaving a social pack animal ALONE for two weeks?? Yeah yeah, people coming over to check... and you trust them to do it? Gee, I wonder why the dog wouldn't want to be alone in the dark at night.

The dog was probably already prone to seperation anxiety, and you just made it a hell of lot worse. There are dog kennels around that have large outdoor runs and who have "doggy daycare" during the day so during the day they do doggie things and aren't just in kennels. I'm not saying the dog would be thrilled with that, but it's better than solitary confinement. And it leaves their heads as soon as you leave anyway.

For the rest, it sounds like just some consistency will do wonders. There's not the trust there yet, and you enforce that when you stop being consistent with the rewards, but a good trainer should be able to help you out much better. Someone has to be there to see what you're doing wrong. I don't think it would take long, someone just has to make sure you're being consistent and that will do much to calm the dog down. It may not completely solve it, but it'll be a good base to work from.

Don't cut the vocal chords when all you need is a Citron collar. These collars have a plastic thing that takes a camera battery (I forget the strength, sorry), and a lemon-fresh but dog-safe citron spray. It has a tiny mic in there to detect when the dog barks, and when it does, the dog gets treated to a lemon fresh sent.

The idea is you're supposed to say "no!" when the collar sprays, but in real world practice, what happens is that the dog knows it's "whearing the dog's collar" and respects that but not so much you. It does keep the sound down though. The bonus is your home gets a lemon fresh scent. It's annoying to the dog, but harmless.

The spray can also be a good indication of if your dogs are barking at all. A friend of our breeder-friend borrowed the breeder's collar to see if the complaint against her dogs was warranted.

It wasn't. When she got home from work, she brought over the house manager, and showed him what the apartment would smell like if they'd been barking all day. Case dismissed, turns out it was dogs two blocks away.

But please, take some obedience classes or something with your dog.

 

[kin0kin]

definitely seperation anxiety. Thanks for the link, I've created a to-do list to work on that. Currently my parents are staying over for a month so I have at least that much time to work on it.

 

[aphex944]

I'd highly recommend starting your dog on NILIF -- Nothing In Life Is Free(http://www.k9deb.com/nilif.htm). Also do a Google search on it if that page doesn't tell you enough. This is meant to position yourself as the leader -- meaning the controller of resources(food, water, toys, playing, outside, etc). Dogs respect and obey those who control their resources consistently. Some dogs will start displaying unbalanced behaviors if there aren't clear cut rules to the access of these resources.

It sounds like he is frustrated. Dogs need an outlet for their prey drive, almost everything in their life relates to it in some way. Instead of using treats, try using something like his favorite toy, anything that he really likes to chase. Get him very focused on it, and before letting him chase or get it, ask for a behavior(like sit, down, etc). I find this method satisfies not only the physical and mental side of the dogs, but the instinctual need to hunt(which all dogs possess).

 

[GAD]

99% of dog problems are the owner not understanding dogs. Do yourself a favor, and get a copy of "How to be your dogs best friend" by the Monks of New Skeet. Read it, and apply.

Get yourself to dog obedience. Dog obedience is about the owner WAY more than it is about the dog. You need to understand your dog better.

Your entire post is about you. How your life can be made easier, how your vacation was ruined, and how your problems can be solved. Start solving the dog's problems and yours will solve themselves.

As a point of reference I have two 160 pound Newfoundland dogs and run the Newfoundland dog forum online.

As a quick wake up, there are two things that your dog wants more than anything else in life. they are:

1) to be with you
2) to be with other dogs

Take that away without proper training and reinforcement, and you'll have a problem dog. Feel free to PM me if you'd like more books to read.

GAD

 

[kin0kin]

I'd definitely try using his favorite toy, he does response to that alot more than treats.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GAD /img/forum/go_quote.gif Your entire post is about you. How your life can be made easier, how your vacation was ruined, and how your problems can be solved. Start solving the dog's problems and yours will solve themselves.

I have no idea where you get that impression, please read the last two lines of my first post. I was stressed because I was worried about the dog throughout the vacation and the chances of the building management asking me to evict him. I appreciate your contribution but not your assumptions. good day.

 

[Edwood]

Need more background on Smokey. Is he a rescue? or did you raise him from a pup?

Debarking does not work. It only changes the "pitch" of the dog bark, it will inevitably come back. My dog is a rescue, and I found out that she was debarked, but since she barked so infrequently anyways, I never really noticed until my groomer mentioned it. But she can still bark.

Leaving a dog home alone for that long was a mistake. If you are going away for more than a day, you need to make arrangements to either have a house sitter that will stay at your home the whole time to care for your dog, or have your dog kenneled. Merely having a friend "check in" once a day or a couple of times is not enough. If there are any problems, all that will happen is you will get a phone call saying your dog is sick, or worse.

Definitely look into "NILIF" as mentioned before and watch the Dog Whisperer if you can, your dog does not see you as pack leader.

Also, look into and try crate training. It may seem counter intuitive, but a dog can be far more calm in an extremely confined space for a longer period of time alone, than in a larger space. It all has to do with dog's instincts of sleeping in a den. But you need to be patient and properly introduce your dog to crate training.

Also, how long are your walks? One of them needs to be a long walk. At least 30 minutes, 1 hour would be better. Just letting the dog out to use the bathroom is not enough. A large part of the benefit of the walk, is to reinforce your dog's role as a submissive follower in your "pack".

-Ed

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GAD /img/forum/go_quote.gif 99% of dog problems are the owner not understanding dogs. Do yourself a favor, and get a copy of "How to be your dogs best friend" by the Monks of New Skeet. Read it, and apply. Get yourself to dog obedience. Dog obedience is about the owner WAY more than it is about the dog. You need to understand your dog better. Your entire post is about you. How your life can be made easier, how your vacation was ruined, and how your problems can be solved. Start solving the dog's problems and yours will solve themselves. As a point of reference I have two 160 pound Newfoundland dogs and run the Newfoundland dog forum online. As a quick wake up, there are two things that your dog wants more than anything else in life. they are: 1) to be with you 2) to be with other dogs Take that away without proper training and reinforcement, and you'll have a problem dog. Feel free to PM me if you'd like more books to read. GAD

QFT. That is a very good book. My wife's brother lent us that book to read when we adopted a problematic rescue dog.

-Ed

 

[plainsong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood /img/forum/go_quote.gif QFT. That is a very good book. My wife's brother lent us that book to read when we adopted a problematic rescue dog. -Ed

MoMo says "And who is this problematic rescue dog of which you speak? You told me about the poodle, but I wasn't aware she was rescued."

Yeah that citron collar I mentioned is hardly a training aid. It's a lazy-man's device and yeah, ok, I'll admit, it's handy. It shouldn't be, but it is. Also an excellent way to see if it's really your dog doing the barking. If your house isn't lemon fresh, it's not your dog doing it.

Your dog just wants to be with you and doesn't want to be alone in the dark at night, and probably isn't so sure you really have things under control. Most dogs I think don't want to be alpha. It's stressful being in charge of everything. Is the dog really being alpha? Only the dog knows right now I think, but I also think there's no conistency there yet, and once that's there, it'll be much easier to figure out.

 

[Jeff E]

I am going to be blunt but I am hoping you won't react defensively. Try to really think about what I'm about to say for Smokey's sake.

the situation
You have chosen a (half) barky breed. Wikipedia-"Miniature Schnauzers are extremely vocal dogs, and are known for their barking" You have placed him in a home where he is bored, lonely and probably underexercised. So he is acting true to his nature and you are considering surgery? Please!

my suggestion
If you really care for Smokey do what's best for him. Either:
• Place him in a more suitable home.
or
• Change your lifestyle to make it more appropriate for him. Companionship, living environment, vigorous activity and training are all parts of this change.

Please, think about Smokey as a member of the family whose welfare comes first. Please don't take offense at my lack of tact. I wish you and Smokey the best.