I am at my breaking point, and I don't know what to do.
I wake up this morning to hear my puppy yelping and my roommates complaining on how awful a dog I have.
He is almost 5 months old and like any puppy, is chewing on things.
Since I've had him (3 months now) 3 of my roommates things have been chewed up. 2 chargers and now a DVD. All have been left on the floor. All have been warned about it.
I just need to know what to say to them. I keep hearing, "Train your dog!". Well I heard that a lot with potty training and now he rarely, if it all has accidents. When he needs to go he waits by the stairs and whines.
Also none of my roommates have raised a puppy. I have read about everything you can, and even taken him to 7 weeks of puppy school. If he chews on something, I replace it with a toy. They just yell at him, without positive reinforcement.
I have also tried explaining to them, you can't discipline unless you catch him in the act. This morning for instance my roommate finds his DVD chewed on, not my dog chewing on it. Then he reacts...confusing my dog which apparently made him show his teeth. My roommate says bite, but I highly doubt it since I've never seen him bite ever.
As soon as I try to explain to them how to handle my dog, I get attacked. They act as though he Isn't being trained since they don't see me sitting there with whistles explaining to him what not to do. Training a dog is about consistency all day.
Another issue I've had is the comments about me locking him in our hot tub room as though its animal abuse. I have to do this more often than I'd like since I can't trust my roommates. My female roommate, was better until just yesterday she says "I let him out and he ran straight towards the road...I just won't let him out anymore". This behavior I haven't personally witnessed but she says it's happened twice. Maybe he is looking for us. Either way, we have leashes. And again, the assumption I'm not training my dogcomes up. This attitude would probably be different if they understood the basset breed.
Back to the hot tub room. He has never been left for more than 4 hours. And its a great place to leave him. Plenty of room and nothing he can get into. Again, they are gone most of the day, and don''t know whats going on. This morning I was sick and my girlfriend put him in there so i could sleep in. Of course they will leave while he is in there, get home later this after noon and think he was locked up all day. Again, not the case whatsoever. He goes with me everywhere I can take him.
Raising a puppy is aggravating enough, and then to hear some condescending remark from someone who just doesn't know what they're talking about doesn't help at all.
They also aren't familiar with the basset breed, which makes his sometimes stubborn attitude look worst than it really is.
What do I do? This situation is making my house a very unpleasant place to live. I may even foward some of your responses to there email.
Thanks
I wake up this morning to hear my puppy yelping and my roommates complaining on how awful a dog I have.
He is almost 5 months old and like any puppy, is chewing on things.
Since I've had him (3 months now) 3 of my roommates things have been chewed up. 2 chargers and now a DVD. All have been left on the floor. All have been warned about it.
I just need to know what to say to them. I keep hearing, "Train your dog!". Well I heard that a lot with potty training and now he rarely, if it all has accidents. When he needs to go he waits by the stairs and whines.
Also none of my roommates have raised a puppy. I have read about everything you can, and even taken him to 7 weeks of puppy school. If he chews on something, I replace it with a toy. They just yell at him, without positive reinforcement.
I have also tried explaining to them, you can't discipline unless you catch him in the act. This morning for instance my roommate finds his DVD chewed on, not my dog chewing on it. Then he reacts...confusing my dog which apparently made him show his teeth. My roommate says bite, but I highly doubt it since I've never seen him bite ever.
As soon as I try to explain to them how to handle my dog, I get attacked. They act as though he Isn't being trained since they don't see me sitting there with whistles explaining to him what not to do. Training a dog is about consistency all day.
Another issue I've had is the comments about me locking him in our hot tub room as though its animal abuse. I have to do this more often than I'd like since I can't trust my roommates. My female roommate, was better until just yesterday she says "I let him out and he ran straight towards the road...I just won't let him out anymore". This behavior I haven't personally witnessed but she says it's happened twice. Maybe he is looking for us. Either way, we have leashes. And again, the assumption I'm not training my dogcomes up. This attitude would probably be different if they understood the basset breed.
Back to the hot tub room. He has never been left for more than 4 hours. And its a great place to leave him. Plenty of room and nothing he can get into. Again, they are gone most of the day, and don''t know whats going on. This morning I was sick and my girlfriend put him in there so i could sleep in. Of course they will leave while he is in there, get home later this after noon and think he was locked up all day. Again, not the case whatsoever. He goes with me everywhere I can take him.
Raising a puppy is aggravating enough, and then to hear some condescending remark from someone who just doesn't know what they're talking about doesn't help at all.
They also aren't familiar with the basset breed, which makes his sometimes stubborn attitude look worst than it really is.
What do I do? This situation is making my house a very unpleasant place to live. I may even foward some of your responses to there email.
Thanks