How do I get this puppy to shut up???

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This Sunday, we got our son a three month old German Shepherd puppy (ok, she’s really for all of us, but he thinks that she’s the best Christmas present ever.) Since she’s not toilet trained, we’re keeping her outside, and until I build the fence, she’s staked to a 20’ long lead. I know that she’s lonely out there, but she spent the last two nights barking and has been barking since I put her out an hour ago.

I assume that it will take some time before she learns to be quiet, but what’s the most effective way to train her. Should I:

  1. put her out at the same time every night and wait for her to accept where she is,
  2. go out every time she cries or barks, and hold her mouth,
  3. put a frigging roll of duct tape around her mouth and schedule the laryngectomy,
  4. or what???

Those here who have dogs, what would you recommend?

2

Geez, yeah, she’s lonely! She’s a living being, not a noisy piece of equipment that duct tape will fix.
[list][li]Keep her in the house, penned in to an area you don’t mind if she piddles a little in, until you get her fence built (with a doghouse to boot)[/li][li]Take her for frequent walks[/li][li]Take her (and you) to classes so she learns how to behave and you learn how to tell her to behave[/li]Figure out

3

First of all, I do not adivse leaving a puppy tied up in the yard. This is an undesireable environment for an adult dog, let alone a puppy! Puppies do not have a full immune system and leaving them out doors exposes them to all manner of diseases. They are also at a greater risk for having accidents that can result in injury. I strongly urge you to talk to your vet about behavior modification. Ask him about crate training to help in housebreaking. Get into obedience classes. There are some good books out there on training dogs. But please, don’t continue to leave your puppy tied up outside.

Michelle,
Resident vet tech

I crave an art that passionately transcends the mundane instead of being a device for self-deception.–Griffin, from The Griffin and Sabine trilogy.

4

One great book is Great Owners, Good Dog, by a guy named Brian Kilcommons. Amazon sells it. It is recommended by my teachers at tech school. Check it out!

5

Several questions:

  • did you adopt the pup from a litter, where she was with other dogs?
  • do you intend her to be an outide dog, or do you want to house train her?

Dogs are pack (i.e. social) animals. They’re hardwired to live among others, canine or humans adopted as canines. If she was used to being w/ other pups, she lonely and scared. She’s barking/crying for her pack because she’s abandoned and doesn’t know why.

If you want to socialize her and house train her at the same time, check out crate training. Dogs are fastidious and won’t soil their “den” (i.e. home) if given an option. It’s a communication thing. Ask your vet or check out any number of puppy training books. Once she associates “outside” with bathroom needs, and it won’t take long, you have that one solved.

Her crying/barking is another issue. You have to decide how much you want this dog to share your life. A well trained dog, happily crashed out on a rug or under a table, is one of the joys in life. But you have to decide now. If you don’t know, how is this poor 3 month old puppy supposed to know?
All she knows is that she’s alone and unhappy. She has no idea why her new pack isn’t accepting her.

My suggestion is to start crate training immeidately. Give her “her place” and gentle limits. A fluffy pillow, and a ticking clock can help at first. Once she knows that she’s part of your family, and what her rules are, she’ll be happy to observe them.

Babies don’t cry to be annoying. Puppies are baby dogs, and they are just as innocent of malice.

Hey, ask Michelle, she’s a pro and a lady of great heart and expertise. Just don’t get mad at the poor puppy. She’s scared and confused.

Veb

6

Whoops! Simultaneous post syndrome…

7

My God, that post made me want to cry!Outside all night because it’s not housetrained? How is it going to learn, then?

Take the above advice and get some training on dealing with a new puppy. That poor thing is outside scared and lonely, and probobly misses you terribly.

I’m trying to be nice here, as I assume that you just didn’t know any better. But doesn’t it make sense that no dog wants to be tied outside all night long? Sheesh, figure it out.
Zette

8

Damnit, that autofill drives me nuts…that post was from me (Zette) but if Santa were here, I’ll bet he’d say the same thing.
Zette

Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high.

Not enough and you’re gonna die…
Click here for some GOOD news for a change Zettecity

9

Thanks guys. Sorry for the tone of the OP; there was more going on than the dog’s barking (yes, the duct tape was a sarcastic comment.)
As much as I hate to say it, she will stay outside. We don’t have the floor space in the house to keep her inside. My wife and I both want her to sleep outside most nights (no one in my family has kept dogs inside.) That said, should I set a “bedtime”, and not visit her after that, or go out now and then until I go to sleep?
I really do feel for her though. She’s from the pound, so I’m sure she’s really confused about where she belongs. The fence is a project for Christmas shutdown. At least she’ll be off the chain soon.

10

Cornflakes: I’d ask you to reconsider having her inside. My dog has a floor pillow which takes up practically no space. If you can’t do the crate thing, then can you temporarily block off the kitchen or a small area? It would just be for a few weeks; pups learn fast and then she’d just weave herself seamlessly into your lives.

If you are adamant about keeping her outside, then does she have a dog house? She needs a place that’s home, shelter, hers…what are you going to do when it rains or it’s cold? Kicking a dog outside for human convenience just confuses them unless they have their own “house” to go to. If she has a good dog house, she will have shelter at least.

But please reconsider. Her immune system isn’t up to this right now. Any wild animal out there will drink out of her bowl, prey on her at will, etc. She’s a puppy, but given a chance she will grow into the best friend your son ever had.

Veb

11

Perhaps dog size should have been a bigger consideration since you don’t have a lot of room in the house? Look, as a vet tech, I could talk for hours and hours on the dangers of keeping dogs outside. Even the best cared for outdoor dogs can be prone to more problems than an indoor dog. Keeping dogs out of doors also bothers me on an emotional level. To me, pets are members of the family, and they don’t belong outside. I know, I know, a dog is an animal and they do like to be oustide a lot but I still don’t like the idea of keeping them outside all the time. When people bring their dogs to the hospital, you can almost always tell the indoor dogs from the outdoor dogs. And you can almost always notice a difference in the attitudes of the owners. (Actually, I think you can even see the difference in the few posts here). I flat out do not agree with keeping a three month old pup outside. Period.

I say again: take the pup to the vet, talk to the vet about training, take the pup to classes, read some books. Going straight to the people who know best about such matters will help much more than getting 1,000 answers here (and a good percentage of the advice you get here will be questionable). Doing things the right way the first time round makes things a lot easier on everyone involved.

12

PS. I have only met two outdoor dogs that were kept as well as indoor dogs, and that was because these dogs had their own doggy mansion outside. The doghouse they lived in had running water, electricity, and air conditioning. Unless you are planning on keeping your dog this way, bring it inside.

13

In my experience people who keep their dogs outside do not have much of an emotional attachment, and the dogs suffer. My grandparents had two german sheperds they kept outside. Whenever I could go visit them I’d go play with the dogs, and they were so starved for attention it was pathetic. They literally could not calm down the whole time I was outside with them - they were just so excited that someone was finally paying attention to them.

I guess its better than the thing languishing in the pound or being put to sleep - but in a couple months your son won’t spend a third as much time with the dog, it will stop barking, and just accept the fact that it is going to be miserable and lonely for its entire life. I hate saying that because I don’t want you to feel bad, but I don’t want a 3 month old puppy to feel bad either.

I myself will not have a dog because I cannot stand the way it makes the house smell - and I live alone and cannot spend nearly enough time in the house with a dog. Maybe you aren’t right for a dog either.

14

Yeah, I’m a newbie and I should probably keep my nose out of this, but I just can’t help myself. With an attitude like yours, you shouldn’t own a dog. I don’t mean that to sound rude, it just doesn’t seem to me like you really want a “pet”. This post just breaks my heart. Please reconsider your position and bring that helpless and obviously sad and lonely animal in the house.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to
improve the world.” - Anne Frank

15

WHY THE HELL DID YOU GET A DOG??? You apparently just wanted a cool toy for you kid… get them a Nintendo or something. Christ!

Find a good home for that dog as soon as possible, PLEASE. You are not fit to keep a dog.

–
Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com

16

I am so upset, I just couldn’t get this topic out of my head.

cornflake, please don’t take this personally, as I obviously don’t know you at all, but what you’re doing really makes me angry. I have had this argument more times than I cared to with my own sister, too. And here’s why.

She and her husband live on an acreage in Alberta, Canada and thought it would be fun for their pets to have the “freedom” to play outside. At one time they had 7 cats and 4 dogs.

Every time one of her cats didn’t come home, she’d call me crying. I wasn’t the sympathetic sister that she apparently expected me to be. I chewed her out but good. What the HELL did she expect, letting her cats outside unattended? Four of them had to get eaten by coyotes before she finally decided to keep the last 3 indoors.

Then one of her puppies didn’t come home one night either. She was absolutely terrified that it had met the same fate as her kitties had. Nope. I don’t think you want me to describe the remains that they found on the railroad tracks after he’d been hit by a train, 4 miles from their house! He’d gotten lost after getting out of the yard and probably thought he could find his way home following the tracks because he knew the tracks went near their property. But he went the wrong way!

And that still wasn’t enough to make her keep her dogs inside. One of her neighbors didn’t like it one bit either. They had a pen out back, but they chewed through the fence. The dogs weren’t doing any damage to this guy’s property, he just didn’t want them there. So he shot one of them and dumped him on the side of the freeway to make it look like he’d been hit by a car. When her husband found the dog, took him home and buried him, the other dogs got sick on the ground where he’d been buried - even they were upset.

My sister couldn’t eat or sleep for days after that. Now her dogs are kept either in the house or in the garage when they’re not home (where the dogs have a cubbyhole that’s carpeted just for them). And when they do go outside, they’re either on leashes or supervised.

Sure, I can almost hear you thinking; you don’t have railroad tracks in your neighborhood. Fine - but you have cars, don’t you? No coyotes? You think those are the only animals that can attack your dog and kill him? Think again. (And he’s especially vulnerable TIED TO A CHAIN HE CAN’T ESCAPE FROM!!! Oh, but you say eventually he’ll be in a fenced in yard. I say so what? Do you think your dog won’t find a way to dig his way out under the fence or chew his way out like my sister’s did? You think a neighbor won’t get mad enough at the barking to shoot him even if he’s in your yard? Think again.

And then ask yourself this; how will you explain it to your son? And how will you console him if his dog is killed because you were too selfish with your space to keep him in the house?

[end of rant] Please forgive my bluntness.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to
improve the world.” - Anne Frank

17

Wow.

18

Shayna, you didn’t make an e-mail address available, so I will post a response to you here. First however, I would like to make it clear that I am NOT talking about cornflakes. At least, I hope I’m not.

You asked how he (or other pet owners in this situation) would explain the death of the pet, how the child would be consoled. It has been my unfortunate experience to know exactly how many people deal with this: they go out and get another pet. And the whole things starts over.

19

A dog is a living, breathing creature, not a lawn ornament. If you wanted something to enrich your life that would stay outside, require no effort on your part, and be quiet, you should have purchased a nice pink plastic flamingo.

Neenah

20

As mother to Copper the Amazing Beagle, I sympathize with you being a new puppy owner. (He’s named “amazing” cause it’s amazing my husband let him live after he chewed up everything in the house.) Puppies are tough under the best of circumstances because they are full of energy and not trained yet. Luckily, they have that sweet little puppy breath and needle teeth that I adore.

Anyway, everyone else is essentially correct that if you don’t want to welcome this little puppy into your home, and spend the time it takes to train her, then you should really find a new home for her. Being chained outside all day and night in the cold is cruel. Dogs are emotional, loyal animals. She’s trying to get you to love her. I can tell by your tone “How do I get this puppy to shut up???” that you aren’t really concerned with her feelings as much as you’re concerned with getting a good night’s sleep. (How can you listen to her out there without it breaking your heart?)

If you are going to keep her, and you want her to remain outside, then I’d suggest getting a second dog to keep her company. Dogs are pack animals. They aren’t solitary animals like cats. She needs company. And if you’re not going to supply her with the company she needs, you need to make an adult decision to either get a second dog or (preferably) find a new home for her.

Good luck! Happiness is a warm puppy.

Lisa, running to cuddle with Copper.