Recently, I adopted a 3 month old female lab/german-shepard mix. She's extremely adorable, and I love her to death. However, i'm having a couple of problems that i'm sure you great people at Paw Talk can help me with.
1) My puppy absolutely HATES her cage.
-I bought her a big cage, seeing as she's a big puppy. Occasionally during the day, she'll go inside the cage without being asked/told/placed and play with her toys. At night time, though, it's a completely different story. She whines, barks, growls, and throws a complete fit. I've been putting her in the cage at around the same time every night, and it's near my bed within plain sight of me. It has her favorite toy in there, her water bowl, and a puppy pad in case she has an accident.
2) My puppy won't usually eliminate outside.
-Occasionally, my puppy will pee outside, but she has never pooped outside. Instead, she poops in the dining room, usually under the table. I have a puppy pad placed in there, in her cage, and near her food/water bowls. To this day, she has not used any of them for elimination. She's very good at holding her bladder, since she is about 3 months old. I take her out around 6 times a day, but she just runs around the yard and lays in the bushes when she's tired. She won't use the bathroom out there.
3) My puppy hates her leash.
-I've tried everything I can possibly think of to entice her to embrace the leash, but nothing works. As soon as I put the leash on, even if i'm not holding it, she lays down and doesn't move until the leash comes off. When outside, I put the leash on her and start to walk away while holding the leash. Normally, when unleashed, she follows me everywhere I go. When I have her on the leash and try to make her move with me, she drops her entire weight on the floor and refuses to budge, no matter how much pressure I apply.
4) My puppy doesn't want to eat when there are people around.
-My puppy is extremely paranoid about eating/drinking. She will eat and drink if she's alone, but as soon as someone comes into her sight, she runs away until they're gone. I don't understand what the problem is, or how to fix it.
5) My puppy wants to chew everything besides her designated chew toys.
-As of this moment, she's chewed up two Xbox Live headsets, my Otterbox (indestructible...yeah right.), the power cord of a lamp, the printer USB cable, some Crocs, various shoes, cups, and a multitude of other things. She's a lab, and I know they're known to chew up everything, but when does it end?
6) Lastly, my puppy hates going for rides in the truck.
-One of the main reasons I wanted a lab was because they love the water, love riding in trucks, and are known to generally be fun, loving dogs. The opposite is true for Sophie. She hates baths, and water in general. I took her outside to use the bathroom while it was raining, and she ran back under the carport and wouldn't move. When she gets in the truck, she buries herself behind me and won't come out until the truck stops. (She is a fun, loving dog though. No signs of aggression towards new people, other dogs, etc. The only object she barks at his her tennis ball, because she doesn't like when it rolls away from her.)
We've been to the vet, she had worms and ear-mites, and the vet took care of them. She's scheduled for another appointment a couple of weeks from now, in which I will raise these concerns with him, but I wanted to see if there was anything you guys knew that could help me with any of these problems.
Thanks for reading up to this point,
Chris
1) My puppy absolutely HATES her cage.
-I bought her a big cage, seeing as she's a big puppy. Occasionally during the day, she'll go inside the cage without being asked/told/placed and play with her toys. At night time, though, it's a completely different story. She whines, barks, growls, and throws a complete fit. I've been putting her in the cage at around the same time every night, and it's near my bed within plain sight of me. It has her favorite toy in there, her water bowl, and a puppy pad in case she has an accident.
2) My puppy won't usually eliminate outside.
-Occasionally, my puppy will pee outside, but she has never pooped outside. Instead, she poops in the dining room, usually under the table. I have a puppy pad placed in there, in her cage, and near her food/water bowls. To this day, she has not used any of them for elimination. She's very good at holding her bladder, since she is about 3 months old. I take her out around 6 times a day, but she just runs around the yard and lays in the bushes when she's tired. She won't use the bathroom out there.
3) My puppy hates her leash.
-I've tried everything I can possibly think of to entice her to embrace the leash, but nothing works. As soon as I put the leash on, even if i'm not holding it, she lays down and doesn't move until the leash comes off. When outside, I put the leash on her and start to walk away while holding the leash. Normally, when unleashed, she follows me everywhere I go. When I have her on the leash and try to make her move with me, she drops her entire weight on the floor and refuses to budge, no matter how much pressure I apply.
4) My puppy doesn't want to eat when there are people around.
-My puppy is extremely paranoid about eating/drinking. She will eat and drink if she's alone, but as soon as someone comes into her sight, she runs away until they're gone. I don't understand what the problem is, or how to fix it.
5) My puppy wants to chew everything besides her designated chew toys.
-As of this moment, she's chewed up two Xbox Live headsets, my Otterbox (indestructible...yeah right.), the power cord of a lamp, the printer USB cable, some Crocs, various shoes, cups, and a multitude of other things. She's a lab, and I know they're known to chew up everything, but when does it end?
6) Lastly, my puppy hates going for rides in the truck.
-One of the main reasons I wanted a lab was because they love the water, love riding in trucks, and are known to generally be fun, loving dogs. The opposite is true for Sophie. She hates baths, and water in general. I took her outside to use the bathroom while it was raining, and she ran back under the carport and wouldn't move. When she gets in the truck, she buries herself behind me and won't come out until the truck stops. (She is a fun, loving dog though. No signs of aggression towards new people, other dogs, etc. The only object she barks at his her tennis ball, because she doesn't like when it rolls away from her.)
We've been to the vet, she had worms and ear-mites, and the vet took care of them. She's scheduled for another appointment a couple of weeks from now, in which I will raise these concerns with him, but I wanted to see if there was anything you guys knew that could help me with any of these problems.
Thanks for reading up to this point,
Chris