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Questions about my new puppy

Posted : 11/12/2006 10:43:04 AM

I have a 6.5 month old daisy dog named Sophie who I have had for 1 month. Since getting her I am having two main problems with her behavior that I am hoping some of you can help me with.

1. We have lots of hickory nuts which fall in our yard on a daily basis which my dog loves to eat. These obviously aren't good for her to ingest and I'm not sure how to keep her from eating them other than towering over her at every moment. What can I do to stop her?

2. Sophie is also in the habit of refusing to go outside without me. No matter what time of day it is or how bad she needs to relieve herself she won't go out in the yard without me. Any hints as to how I can make her more independent when she needs to go outside?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Deb

Posted : 11/12/2006 8:02:02 PM

Welcome!

1. Yeah, there's no way to keep her from eating all kinds of silly things except to watch her all the time. But you can teach her "leave it" so you don't have to wrestle with her or pull stuff out of her mouth.

2. And yeah, she'll want you to go out there with you. Are you talking about exercise or just going to the bathroom? Dogs don't really self-exercise very well, she'll need you out there playing fetch or whatever.

jan buys

Posted : 11/13/2006 7:43:44 AM

Thank you so much for your response. It is so nice to hear from someone and what they think. We had a daisy dog for 16 years and lost her a year ago. Eventhough I have done this before Sophie is a puppy of her own.
She really does not ask to go out much hard to read. She only has had a few accidents in the house. I am just not use to having to take a dog out each time she needs to go potty. We live in Michigan and it gets pretty cold here.Yuck. We do take her out for walks and play time and that goes well.
The nuts that fall have been shredded by squirrels and she loves the leftover shells ,however, she does try to eat the whole nut if she finds one. They have been raked up but they keep coming up out of the ground after a rain etc. I have had some vomiting assuming it is from the nut shells. Vet said they are acidic and causes the vomiting. yuck.
Do you have any good suggestions for teaching leave it. Our breeder suggested a muzzle that was open enough to breath and pant through or a shock collar. What do you think?
Thanks again for your help

HKdog

Posted : 11/13/2006 7:55:12 AM

I don't think I would go with the shock collar or a muzzel just yet, (would you like to get zapped everytime you were putting something you thought was good in your mouth?) What I would do is watch her really good for a few days when you are in the yard with her. Bring a litlle bag of treats she likes, (for me it's boiled liver, stinks up the house pretty bad but the dog likes it) Everytime you see her go for a nut call her name, distract her a bit with a game and give her a treat. Don't give her a treat if you take the nut out of her mouth. She might think thats what you want. After winter is over ant the spring rolls around she will probably have forgotten about them anyways.
Shock collars do have uses but I don't think this is serious enough to warrant the use of one.

good god my spelling is horrid today