Wendy0704

My boyfriend and I have a basset hound/ golden retreiver mix. We do not know what to do with this dog anymore. Any training he seems to have learned it's like he just doesnt care anymore and wont listen and has totally regressed. He is 8 months old. We had him in an apartment for the first 3 months we had him. Then we ended up moving into my parents house for a few months because my boyfriend got laid off from his job and we had to leave the apartment. He really liked the house because they had a big back yard so he would always go out and play in it. We just recently got a new apartment and everything has gone down hill with this dog. He has had a tendency to chew things in the past but it has only gotten worse. We have been in this new place for 2 weeks and 6 days out of these 2 weeks he has chewed things. Every remote has been trashed, he got into the garbage twice, and the shoes another day. He has been house trained for months. The other night he went poop inside right infront of the door as I was taking him outside, and last night my broyfriend and I were in bed sleeping and got woken up to the dog jumping over us while peeing and leaving a stream of pee all over us plus the bed. He has always wined alot, but now if we do not give him are every second of attention it is constant whining and pawing and jumping at us to get us to give him love. We both do not know what to do anymore. This is getting so out of hand, we are both getting exhausted of this. We obviously aren't around as much but not much less then we used to be plus we have another dog to keep him company when we aren't here. Please if anyone has any advice let me know! Thank you

Mikey T

not sure you really want answers put here they are

Not the case never was, there is a big difference between a dog that is house trained and one that does not have accidents in the house. The latter only requires management of the dogs behavior and schedule to precvent accident, the formal requires the dog to learn "to hold it " when no appropiate place to go is available. to recognise what is and is not an appropriate place to go, and to reliable signal a human when it needs to go. The problem is dogs are very poor generalizers that is Just because they learn it is inappropriate to go in your apartment does not translate that it is inappropriate to go in your mother house, or a new apparment. Quite the contrary one when moving locations should assume the dog is not house trained at that location until it has satisfactorly proven that it is and treated as such. That means confining or other management techniques you used when first house training the dog.

This is normal behavior for a dog this age.
Dealing with Normal Puppy Behavior: Chewing
Developmental Stages Of Puppy Behavior
Most of the problem you are encountering are self explainatory in this comment. The dog now confined to the apartment is not getting enough exercise. This creates a fustration level in the dog that manifests itself in distructive chewing, out of bordom, and increase in neediness and attention seeking. Until this need is met you are going to face an up hill battle. Basset's and bassets mixes especially puppies are way more active and require more exercise than people are often led to believe especial by portrayal of bassets by hollywood.

One excellent means of provide dog an outlet for both chewing and his need for exercise in a confined space like an apartment is "tug"
[url=http://www.urbandawgs.com/articles/tug.pdf]
What have you been doing to stop this behavior? ignoring it? This is the most useless advice any one can give when dealing with attention seeking behavior. While it is a well established fact that over time not rewarding a behavior will extinguish a behavior there are c couple of things that always prevent this from happening in attention seeking behaviors.

1. The need of the dog is not addressed, and because this need is not met the dog will continual seek out haveing this need met. If the obnoxious behavior he is currently using fails to work, his need does not deminish it only increased. This leeds to finding even more obnoxious behaviors that are so obnoxious they can not be ignored.

2. Extintiction burst is a given when ignoring a behavior that has been previously been rewarded. That means the behavior gets worse much worse before it ever gets better.

What does work is what works with crying babies. When a baby cries do you ignore it or instead meet the babies need, i.e. food, dry diaper etc. What happens over time when this occurs in a timely fashion or proactively ( before being requested) the dog or baby is more able to handle a lapse in having this need provided and the attention seeking behavior deminishes.
see: harmmony Programme

With the moving every couple months and the dog reaching adolesents you have a perfect storm of stress, rebellion and the dog just trying to find out how it fits into the world. There is no mystery why most dogs are relinquished at this age.

Surviving Your Puppy's Adolescence
Puppy Adolscence - or Demon Spawn
Puppy adolescence: trials and tribulations

Elvismom

Excellen post, Mikey! Not a single thing to add.

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Chris
Foodslave, chauffer & doorperson to Elvis, Georgia, Ginger & Maggie, Crissy & Dart

5bassetbakery

He has to have proper exercise. Make a routine. If you work @ night take him out for a long walk before you go to work. If you work in the morning, same thing. Do it everyday. Same time regardless if you work or not. This should help a lot.

Miss Snickers

Wow! I just learned A LOT from this... and in perfect time! Snickers is reaching that adolescent stage.
Thanks also for the tug of war insight... my husband was playing w/her this evening, and was wondering if it was a positive or negative. I will let him read that then. When we are done playing, we both tell her "ok done, time to settle" and she does. So I guess we're doing something right.

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Everybody loves a Snickers!

Wendy0704

Mikey-

Thank you for trying to help I greatly appreciate it. Although some of these things we have been doing and this behavior is still occuring. I have had dogs and grown up with many puppies and I know how they behave at certain ages. A basset though is entirely new to me so this is why I am having such issues. I don't want you to take me wrong and think that we are not doing anything with this dog and that is why he is behaving this way.

As far as excersice I am fully aware that a dog needs it and if it doesnt get it they will be more of a nuisance. We take this dog for walks everyday and we take him to the off leash dog park every single weekend for 2 hours if not longer. On the day that we took him for a hour long walk he still caused havic in the house.

As far as tug goes I am not against it what so ever. I have played tug of war with all of my dogs growing up. This one on the other hand does not like to play tug we have tried but he wont. He does not even like to play with a ball. He likes to play with other dogs and with us. But like I said we have another dog here and he is still doing things like this.

I understand where you are coming from with the house training that he might be confused since he has been moving alot of his life, but at the same time every other dog i have ever had still knows that when you are inside you do not go to the bathroom no matter where you are you wait till you are let outside. But I will be more patient with him and try to retrain him if this continues to occur.

The past 2 days we have actually been ignoring him alot as far as when he whines because he wants attention and it has seemed to make a lot of difference today, he is not near as bad as he used to be.

Mikey T

a basset is not fundemental different than any other breed of dog. To start thinking like that is heading down the wrong path. There is one difference in so called
"harder to train" dogs than those that are easier to train i.e. border collies, goldens, labs, etc. and that is bidability, willingness to please. That is in so called easier to train dogs there is some motivation on the dogs part to please the owner in so called harder to train dogs this does not exist. Because much of more traditional dog training relays on bidability there in lies why using traditional training methods some dogs are harder or easier to train. But instead of focusing on the dog willingness or need to please as a reward and focus instead on what motivates the dog you are training the result become amazingly similar between hard and easy to train dogs. With bassets hounds which like all scent hounds have a propensity to always be hungry. IMHO this is a result of breeding for hunting drive, a hungry dog is more likely to hunt than a sated one so a dog that is alway hungry is always ready to hunt. So food is a powerful motivator for this breed. Use it to your advantage.

see the following Susanne clothier articles, requires signing up but cost nothing to do so. it is a control method to protect copyrighted articles

Hard to Train?
A look at "difficult-to-train" breeds and the reality of what shapes these canine minds.

Leadership Basics
simple guide to regaining your dog's respect in pleasant, non-confrontational ways.

Guidelines for Teaching Self Control

How Much Does Your Dog's Cooperation Weigh?

a walk on leash is not sufficient exercise for most dogs espeically 8 month olds regardless of the length. The normal human walking pace is not fast enough. A game like tug or fetch or off leash running in the park, jogging, bicycle mushing are energy burners but simple on leash walk is not much of one. basset or any dog is capable of sustaining a much higher energy level than walking, ie chasing bunnies in a field for hours on end.

While most bassets are not fundementally toy motivated it does not be they won't or can't be taught to tug or play with other toys as well and learn to love that play.
see tip below featuring macey


Tug toys that use food as a reward and incentive for tuging can be found at Clean run.com

Tug It Training Toy

Tug-N-Treat Dog Toys

in the January 2010 issue of clean run starting in page 29 Nancy Geyes inventure of the Tug-n-Treat dog toy has an excellent article on how to train a dog to tug using the toy and most important common error that lead to a dog that will not tug.
this back issue is available in both Digital format and
Traditional Printed format

in the March 2010 current issue of Clean run Helix Fairweather has an article on "A fail-safe plan to teach your dog to love toys"

some addition free resourse on motivation and toys
Motivation do and Don't

HOW TO CREATE A MOTIVATING TOY

Exercise Your Dog

Springer Dog Jogger

Fun with Your Dog: Mushing on a Bike



This is not something that gets better by itself, retraining and taking back control is the only way it gets better.


OF course he is he is eight month old and an adolescent. but at some point when the dog gets into the trash twice , destoryed multiple remotes etc when does it become the resposibility of the care taker to prevent such occurance in the first place. Expecting a well mannered addolescent is unreasonable it is important to control the situation by limiting the choices the dog has to make, When no wrong choices are available it is much easier for the dog to make the right one. I'm not saying it is easy because it is not, and every dog is different some are not nearly as challeging as others but keep in mind one thing in the end you can only control your own behavior. So taking the step to prevent problems in the first place is much more fruitful then blaming the dog after the fact. Also when you change your behavior it will effect the dogs behavior as well.

While I am not a big fan of the technique because it is artificial more ridged than it needs to be, for many the ridged structure of a NILIF (nothing in life is free) program can be very benefitial in reestablish clear boundries

murraysmom

Just a thought, I've used these and they're great- will keep the dog occupied for hours. A kong is a hollow rubber thing that you stuff with food, treats,cream cheese, etc: you can freeze it to make the dog work harder to get what's inside. You can get them at Petco and most other dog supply stores for about $11.

If you only give him the kong when you leave the house, the dog will asociate you leaving with something pleasant.

Extreme KONG Dog Toy at PETCO

Quote from above link:

"Today, most domestic dogs don't have to work for food. In nature, however, dogs are predatory meat-eaters. Hunting for food is physically and intellectually challenging. The hunt is their "work." Success on the job results in a well-earned "paycheck" – their meal. Eating meat off the bone satisfies their hunger, exercises their jaw muscles and keeps their teeth and gums clean. Extreme KONG® helps satisfy dog's natural instincts and assists in preventing: excessive barking, destructive chewing, soiling, digging and separation anxiety. Fill with your dog's favorite treats or food to keep your dog entertained the healthy way"

Beverly Anne

What in the world would we do without you, Mikey?
I pretty much have a problem free relationship with Francis but I'll occasionally read a problem that we've encountered and I can still use some of the information you've given.
Thanks

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Francis's Bevy

Nipsie

Mikey, wow!

I always learn a lot from your posts ... no matter how much I think I already know!

Good timing on this one too, Farmer (Beldin's new little brother) is just turned 7 months old - and completely different than how Beldin was at that age!

Thanks for all the info and links!

Wendy, good luck with your pup. I know sometimes it can be really frustrating ... and also I know sometimes Beldin (and earlier Mocha) did seem quite a bit more "hard-headed" than other dogs I've owned and trained successfully. --- But, like people, dogs are also individuals with their own unique quircks and attitudes. What works very well with one won't necesarily work with another (even though there are some general rules of thumb).

I hope you don't give up on him.