Losing my mind with this dog!

[ccbloom 1]

Well, we've had Frankie for about a year now, brought him home at about 10 wks, so he's still very much a puppy. When he's good, he's very very good and oh, so sweet, but when he's bad, well, he's very very bad. And it seems like the bad outweighs the good far too often.

We have tried over and over again to potty train him. I am the only one who takes him out and I'm very consistent with it since I work from home. He goes out every two hours unless he's sleeping by my feet, and I don't wake him to go out. Sometimes he will pee, and sometimes he won't. We took him outside last night to play frisbee for about 30 minutes of solid running on his part, he did his pee, came in the house and about 15 minutes later went again on my carpet...the one I just replaced 2 weeks ago because he stained the other one so much that I couldn't save it. This wasn't marking, it was a very lengthy pee without warning. Lots of times he'll tell me he needs to go out and other times he won't. He's done the same thing to my dining room area rug. There is no option of not having area rugs on our floors.

Then there's the barking. It's constant. It doesn't stop. He's barking right now despite just going for a walk and me playing fetch indoors with his toy for 20 minutes. If I'm not paying attention, he will scratch my leg, my furniture, my doors, everything. I don't know what he wants. He has eaten, he has been given attention, he has water, he's gone out, I've played with him. He is basically destroying my house and my husband is at the last straw. He wants me to bring him to the shih-tzu rescue because he can't handle what he's doing to our home.

He's a smart dog and is cute as a button. He knows basic commands...sit, stay, paws, lay down, high-five. He is very playful and does get lots of attention, but I don't know what else he could want/need. Please help. I really don't want to get rid of him, but the last few weeks have been far too stressful in my house...and this is saying a lot as a former owner of a very stubborn pug.

[Laurence Pack 53]

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said "he is still very much a puppy". I am a new Shih Tzu owner (10 weeks) so, I am new to training a small dog. But, I have raised a lab from puppyhood and I do remember the trying times. I refer to them as the teenage years, where it seems like you take two steps back for every step forward in training.

Maybe, give him a new bone (chew toy) or new toy to keep him busy during off time. They have great interactive dog toys now.

Please give him a chance to grow out of this stage before doing anything drastic. I hate to hear of someone thinking of giving up a dog.

Hopefully someone else can chime in about the housebreaking accidents.

[mel 251]

Have you tried crate training? He doesn't need full access to your home until he is potty trained. I crate trained all my dogs. As for the barking. My Zoe went through that as a puppy. Would bark at in and everything. Even things that I could not see. I took her to the vet and the vet said dogs can hear what we can't and suggested a shock collar & tried to explain to me that it was not bad & that he trained his dog that way. He told me to put it on the lowest setting. Spoke to my mom about it and she did not think it was a good idea & I didn't either but as she came into adulthood she calmed down tremendously. I did try one of those collars that give off an annoying sound when the dog barks but after a week she got use to it. Good luck! I hope you can keep your pup. I'm use to training pups as I've trained 7 shihtzu's and 1 Lhasa all from puppies.

[Luna 8,676]

Crate training will give you a good start. As for the barking, I posted an article last week about how to put an end to that - you'll find it in the Articles section of the board.

Shih Tzu are notoriously stubborn and one area they often show this is in house training. I have yet to meet the Tzu that CAN'T be house trained (although I have met my match with Lowchen), but some of them just take a lot more effort than others. Good luck!

[MomToMarty 0]

Hi,

He sounds a lot like my Marty so I will try to help. Marty is just over a year old and the most hyper puppy I've ever met. I have a new 10 week old puppy now and Marty is way more hyper. For the accidents im not sure except to say that if he went outside but you played hard for 30 minutes be might have gotten thirsty and came in and drank a ton of water and that caused him to have to go again.

Most of the advice I can give is about the barking and scratching to get attention. He's hyper and even though you have given him everything he has too much excess energy. Marty can play non stop for hours. If you can afford it, take him to a doggy daycare once or twice a week. This gives you a break during the day and he will play nonstop all day and come home tired and be a good boy all night. I usually find this makes Marty tired the next day too. Around here it is $20 a day.

If daycare is not an option, then my other suggestions are some very good things to chew on at night after playing. Marty will chew aggressively for a very long time burning energy. I keep his chew toys in a box and bring out one at night rotating them. I don't use rawhide because he gets it soft too fast. His favorites are deer antlers(last many weeks), sterilized real white bones you can buy at the pet stores with a filling then you can fill again with peanut butter etc and Marty also loves hard plastic nylabones not the soft ones but the real hard ones he chews forever. Try a few things out and see what he prefers. You can also try a kong with stuff inside and frozen so it takes a long time to get out. I do that sometimes using canned dog food or peanut butter and frozen. But I do find something like a deer antler that he can chew will burn off a lot more energy.

I really think his acting out for attention is excess energy he needs an outlet to burn. Sometimes Marty is so hyper he will do tue "zoomies" real fast run over and over for a very long time.

Good luck

[Sunlite 9,106]

You've already received much good advice and so I will not add much more. The best thing I can re-enforce is the importance of crate training/restrictions and also limiting the food & water to timed events since you do work from home. Some just do not fully ever get it such as my Emma who will be turning 10 this June. She will go on anything carpeted despite having emptied and being left alone for even 15 mins unsupervised...result of poor breeding if need be known, but thats another story...

Best of luck to you!

[ccbloom 1]

Thank you so much for all of this advice. We do crate train. I put him in there a few times a day, not as punishment, but just as a kind of "chill out" time or when I really need to concentrate on work and feel he may wander from my office. He always gets a treat for going to his "bed" when I tell him to, so he is smart in that respect.

As for the peeing after playing last night, he did drink a lot of water, so in that instance it's very possible that it was that.

I do think it may be an excessive energy thing, too, after hearing all of this advice. The poor guy just wants to play and play and play...LOL! I know his barking and scratching is trying to tell me something, but I can't imagine playing more than we do! He goes on about five 1/4 mile walks a day, plus we play fetch all around the house several times, and we've been playing frisbee every night lately for about 30 minutes with him and my 5 year old. I'm exhausted! Get this...he doesn't like peanut butter! He does like a bully stick every now and then, but most other bone-type chew toys don't interest him. I may have to give the antlers a try.

Thank you again for all of the advice. I just feel so defeated after we've had a great day of no accidents, very little barking and scratching only to have him pee on my new carpet and start scratching the paint off my door all within a 30 minute time span at the end of the day.

[luvmybabies 165]

I have 5 little dogs and a Golden. I think my Golden peed in the house once in her life. As for the little ones my first Shih Tzu (now gone) was like my Golden and my first malt (also now gone) was very well trained too. My troubles started when I got my Papillon. When we got him he was a year old and seemed to train fairly easily and we neutered him right away. Our next was a male Maltese who was also a year old. We neutered him right away too. He had been out with a handler and I'm sure left in a crate most of the time. Anyway he was not trained and not socialized either. He didn't know how to play. As the papillon lived to play he was upset that the malt wouldn't play. To top it off the malt would get in spats all the time with him. Well that eventually got our pap very stressed and then the pee wars started (marking). We managed to get this under control (malt and pap are best friends now) and then decided to do pee pads inside as it is so cold here in the winter and I have to put coats and boots on all them if they go outside. Then along came my black Shih Tzu. He started out very well and used the pee pads consistently. Then a year later we got our Benji, the youngest Tzu and he seemed to be using the pee pads very well and all would go outside in the summer. Then this past fall we lost our female malt who was the boss around her and so this little pack was leaderless. The pap feels he should be boss but no one really takes him seriously! So he is constantly starting little spats to show he is boss. Unfortunately he started marking and then the pee wars started again. I'm glad summer is almost here as outside they are going to go! I'm getting tired of the whole housetraining thing. I do use washable pee pads and they work better than the disposable ones but the grass works the best!! This winter we got another female malt who is five months old now. She appeared to be all trained to pee pads. She is pretty good with the pee but if she can find a quiet place (especially carpeted) she does like to poop there. Will this never end? I keep saying this is my last dog each new one I get but I guess this one will be my last if I ever want to get everybody on the same page!

Your little guy sounds exactly like my Benji. He is a black masked gold Tzu and I decided (with encouragement from his breeder) to show him in Conformation last year. Well that means they cannot be given any chew toys as they may chew off the hair around their mouths. Well this not only drove my dog nuts it did me too. Anything that has wood on it in our house has chew marks on it as he attempted to find his own chew toys. He went crazy whenever he saw other people or dogs (not ours). If i took him to obedience or rally classes he spend 3/4 of the time allotted trying to get at the other dogs and handlers and paid absolutely no attention to me. In the conformation ring he chased the other dogs around the ring. I'm sure your dog is not nearly as hyper as he was! It was ridiculous. Now he is two years old and is now neutered (I ended his conformation career) and is starting to be almost normal. I'm heaving a great sigh of relief. Now the only thing is to get all of them to stop barking all the time. I recently joined a maltese forum (because of new puppy) and noticed they had a thread on "Pet Corrector" so of course I had to read it. It is pressurized air in a little red spray bottle. If they are barking you tell them to be quiet. If they ignore you (which they mostly do) then depress the spray on the tin and it makes a big noise. I got instant quiet the first time I used it! Tonight when I sat down to read the forum they wanted out of the kitchen where I confine them till they do their business so the whole lot were barking. Tried it again....instant silence. It tells you that you should treat them after but I didn't, just said "Quiet", then sprayed, then said "Quiet" again and peace blessed peace. I googled it as I live in Canada and never can get the same stuff at the same stores as the US posters. I found that in Canada it is sold at Canadian Tire stores in the pet section. I got some this past weekend. Apparently you can use it for unwanted behaviours like jumping up on you, stealing food etc. But you never spray directly at them, off to the side. Hope this is an effective method for some of you to try if you are having the barking problems or whatever. It cost me ten bucks but as usual it if probably cheaper in the US.

[MisterMom 11]

I have baby gates or exercise pens blocking off the areas of the house where I don't want them. Like skin kids, they are best if you keep an eye on them. I can tell, if I see them, when they need to go. (start running if they need to poop, or circling if needing to pee)

[Luna 8,676]

What you are doing isn't really crate training: crate training involves the dog being in the crate more than our while learning where they can and can't "go". Example: put dog in crate for two hours. Take dog out of crate, take to preferred potty area, wait for dog to go. Praise and treat. Take dog back in to a place where you can have an eye on him at all times (and if you need to use baby or pet gates to keep the dog in a small area, that's fine). After an hour (or even half an hour), dog goes back into crate for two more hours. Repeat endlessly.

The point of crate training is twofold: most dogs will not eliminate in their crates, so the dog learns to "hold it". The other point is that a dog needs to be able to be in a place where he/she can't get into trouble if you can't watch him. Most dogs will eventually catch on and get the privilege of being out most of the time. (This does not apply to Lowchen: wonderful breed but every one I've ever met is an absolute pig that doesn't mind messing the crate and then banging around in the mess.)

The more dogs you have, the harder it is to train. We have a LOT and at this point only Jack can truly have free run of the house 24/7. Gus, Katy, Drake and Corbin can be out as long as they are right there with me. The rest of them...no way! They are confined to my (huge) kitchen garage and the run out back (they run freely between the kitchen and the run...the garage is just the connecting point). Allowed on the carpet it immediately becomes PeeFest 2012.

[betty5762 0]

hello,ive had bruno for only three weeks now and he is exactly the same,so i do know how it is,Ive never crate trained as I dont like it,but I have heard from lots of people how good it is and has worked for them,just to say hang in there and good luck,im going to steal some of the advice as well and get bruno the antler as he seems to like to chew,at the mo he is chewing my bed post,ive got a kong which seems to work,good luck carys