[Chris H]

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

 

[Nibbler]

For your crate a puppy should only be able to stand up and turn around in it she won't take to it right away as it has to become a safe zone for her example leave it freely open when not in use and let her go in and out of it as she pleases so she can make it her area add treats and a bed in there. Slowly work ur way to leaving her in it first time five mins with the door shut and work up words for longer frame periods. You can also put a ticking clock under her pillow as it will sound like her mommys heart beat. Don't forget to add toys that will keep her busy while in the cage like bones and kongs good luck

 

[Dragonrain]

Really most of your problems to me sound like pretty normal puppy issues. They take a lot of hard work and training at first, but believe me the work is well worth it

1) Puppies don't automatically like their crates. You have to teach them that it's a safe/comfortable place to be and with a new puppy it can take time. Remember that before you got her, your puppy was probably always with her mother and siblings. Having to sleep alone in a cage is most likely something very new and probably a bit scarey for her. Give her time to get used to things. Make the crate a positive as a place as possible. It sounds like you are on the right track if she's already using her crate on her own during the day. If you need help on how to progress, try doing a search on crate training. There are tons of websites out there on it.

2) If I where you, I'd choose either to have her go potty indoors or outdoors and stick to just one. If you want her to go outside, ditch the puppy pads and concentrate on training her to go outside. The key to potty training is consistency and usually to not let them make a mistake, and if they do to catch them in the act and correct them. Your puppy should not have the opportunity to sneak under the table to poop. One technique is to have the dog on a leash and attached to you at all times. Put her in her crate when you can't supervise. If she starts going to the bathroom somewhere she's not suppose to, or seems like she is looking for a place to go, calmly take her outside. If she does go outside, be sure to give her lots of praise and maybe even a treat.

3) Most puppys don't like their leash at first. It's something new and strange to them. What if you put her leash on, then tried to convince her to walk on it a bit by offering her bits of food that she'd have to walk towards to get? Try to make wearing her leash a really positive thing for her. When my dog was a puppy he didn't like his leash at first either, but he eventually learned to associate wearing his leash with getting to go outside, so it became a positive thing and he got used to wearing it.

4) Hm not too experienced with the eating issue. Is she really submissive or has she had issues with people taking her food before? What if you tried to hand feed her for awhile, maybe that would help get her more used to eating around people?

5) What kind of chew toys are you giving her? She may not like the ones you got, so you should experiment with different types of chews to see what she enjoys most. Also, puppy proof and supervision! Keep things you don't want chewed out of her reach, because puppies do chew and not always on things they are suppose to chew on. It ends when you find something she likes to chew on and train her whats proper to chew on and what's not. My dog is 3 now and he still loves to chew, but I keep him well stocked with things he likes to chew on (bully sticks, Himalayan chews, dried sweet potatoes, deer antlers, raw meaty bones are my dogs favorite chews if you need some ideas). Luckily he finds those things much more appealing to chew on than other things in our house.

6) Just because she's part lab doesn't mean she's necessarily going to love the things you listed right off the bat, especially since she's still a puppy and these things are most likely new to her. Have you done anything to make rides in the truck more positive for her? Try having someone sit back with her to pet and praise her, or offer her small pieces of treats if she's well behaved in the truck. Help to make it a positive thing for her, because right now it's probably new and scarey for her.

Good luck Puppies are a lot of fun and they grow up fast, so even though it sounds like Sophie is a lot of work, enjoy her puppy days while she's still little!

 

[Labman]

#3 If getting out in front and coaxing doesn't get a puppy moving, try dropping behind it and running by in baby steps calling ''Go, go, go!'' In a happy, excited voice.

#2 Take it out on leash. Walk around. They can only walk and hold it so long. When it finally has to go, lavish praise on it.

 

[Kendalle]

I would always have a leash on her for now, In the house she will move eventually, When mess was a babe he would only walk so far once he left the yard he would freeze and it took a lot of coaxing, then it was the end of the block and then it took more coaxing to get him to keep goin.

I would get rid of those puppy pads, keep the dog on a leash in the house and take out on walks, walk until they go potty, at first it might be awhile. And i would walk in the rain and jump in the mud puddles and play in the rain to teach that you like it and so the pup should too.

With the bath i would stand in the bath water with the puppy at first and get a few tub toys and not actually bathe until the puppy likes it.