Annoying Dog Behaviors (Part IV)

We have finally arrived at the last set of annoying dog behaviors and here is where the puppies will get some of the credit. By all means, this list isn’t exhaustive, but it gives you a fair idea of how often annoying behaviors show up in different dogs. It also shows you that one dog can encompass many annoying behaviors. I think those dogs are usually called problem dogs.

Quick Annoying Behaviors Overview

·?I – whining and crying, barking, and biting.

·?II – chewing, licking, poop eating, and everything eating.

·?III – begging, resource guarding, chasing squirrels, and digging.

·?IV – jumping, pulling, puppies fighting each other, and potty training.

Presenting The Popular?Pooches

·?Puppy, the predominantly American Pit Bull Mutt Mix.

·?Piper, her puppy, American Pit Bull-German Shepherd Mix.

·?Piper’s littermates, two females and four males.

·?Snowball, a Polar Bear Lab-German Shepherd Mix.

·?Chance, Snowball’s littermate.

·?Charlie, a Chocolate Lab, was found by an on-ramp of I-75 (GA, 2008).

·?Lady, a mixture of miniature Lab and Chow-Chow, with a tiny bit of Pit, but “not enough to spit at”.

·?Mawgane, the Shih Tzu Mutt Mix.

·?Princess, the Shih Tzu-Terrier Mutt Mix.

·?Her littermates, one male and one female.

·?Confetti, a Shih Tzu-Yorkie Mutt Mix, is still a puppy at the time of this writing (11/2020).

Jumping

Puppy was a lovable dog. Full-grown and skinny, she had the love of life in her. She literally bounced around as she went about her day. What Puppy loved most were people. She loved to greet them with exuberance. The only problem with her exuberance was that it involved jumping.

Puppy jumped up at everyone she approached. She didn’t realize that her breed had been marginalized and her jumping would be seen as a threat, not a warm greeting. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings or damage her joy, so I decided to approach the jumping in a gentler fashion.

All Four Paws Down

The command “Down” would be repeated as I took her two front paws and placed them back on the ground. At first, she rebounded right back into another jump. I repeated myself, remaining as calm and collective as possible. Not wanting to reward her jumping by being excited to see her, I had to give off a very relaxed attitude as I spoke. Puppy had a keen sense to learn and she picked up quickly. By the third day of repeated actions by more than just me, Puppy learned that we would be just as excited to be greeted when she kept all four paws on the ground.

Snowball

Snowball, however, was a different story. He didn’t learn as fast. Or maybe we didn’t clamp down as hard because he was still a small puppy. Jumping became not just one of the annoying behaviors, but a serious issue as Snowball grew to his full size. To Snowball, he was just a puppy that could double as a lap dog. To us, he was 70 pounds of weight in the air hurling toward us. Not a nice thought.

Double The Work With Half The Results

It took ten times more determination and likely a hundred times more effort to teach Snowball that jumping was unacceptable. Ha! It took four years before he figured it out. I’ve heard that Labs take the longest to emotionally mature. Can you imagine having a dog with puppy-like behavior for?four years? For three of those years, I seriously thought Snowball was going to be hyper-active and high-energy for the rest of his life. He wouldn’t listen to us; we wouldn’t be able to train and control any of his annoying behaviors. A huge relief came over me in his fifth year of life. He actually started to listen and obey us the first time.

The First Failure

Piper was the only dog we never really got a handle on. He was high strung and my sister and I likely encouraged him to be that way. He learned every trick we could teach him, but he never learned the important stuff. Piper wasn’t only full-sized, but he was also walking muscle. He would get a nightly massage from my sister every evening. This dog had toned muscles. You could see it when he walked.

Jumping had become not only one of his high-strung annoying behaviors but also a serious problem that he used to his advantage. When he wanted to, he would jump on us, using all of his weight and strength. A few times, he knocked each of us down. He knew how to catch us off guard and manipulate our balance in a negative way. I say that because it happened more than just once. The problem went away when we had to turn him over to Animal Control.

Pulling

Snowball, our starring dog in this feature of annoying behaviors, had a real problem with pulling. I think it’s because we started leash training too late. We started a lot of training much later than usual. For a time, he belonged to our brother, the youngest sibling, and we didn’t do any training during that time. Snowball was in his sponge-it-all-in stage and we missed it! Not that Snowball couldn’t be trained, we just had to work twice as hard to get half the results. Then there were some things we had to cope with because he just didn’t get it.

Pulling, thankfully, didn’t last the cut to the coping list. We managed, over time, and with lots of muscle-building training, to communicate to Snowball that pulling was unacceptable. He’s going to be 13 years old this summer and he actually walks beside whoever walks him without much trouble. He’s been doing that for almost 5 years.

Credited As One Of Snowball’s Most Annoying Behaviors

Snowball, an intact male dog, retains all of his male instincts. Add to that, his dominant nature, and you have a problem on your hands. Pulling is one of the most annoying behaviors Snowball exhibited, resulting from a lack of training. Snowball really thought he could take the lead of his “people pack.” And he tried countless times to do that in walks alone. He pulled forward on the leash and I would yank back. My sister suggested switching directions. I tried it, but no foreseeable results any time soon. I’m talking about a timeframe of weeks turning into months. She offered to stop suddenly. I tried that too. Then I did combinational techniques; that brought some progress, but no real end to the problem. However, it helped me build and tone my arm muscles.

Possible Pulling Causes

After we did some searching, we learned that we had to take the lead role with Snowball and consistently show him we were in charge. That meant being first in everything. From the dog’s point of view, whoever gets to go first, eat first, get treats first, toys first, released first, walk through the door first, etc., is the first dog, the dog that gets everything first.

Snowball proved that ideology when we would give Lady preeminence. He got downright angry and upset that he wasn’t first. He was so convincing that Lady refused to accept anything until Snowball had it. And Snowball wanted everything to himself, for himself.

Implementing Change

My sister and I put it into practice and before two weeks finished, Snowball retreated to second place. At different times, we ate first and in his sight, before feeding him his meal. It may have just been a piece of bread or a cracker, but the idea was to let Snowball know that leadership roles were changing. We walked out of the house first. We let Lady leave the room first. Anything to let Snowball know he was no longer in charge, we aimed to do often. We made him wait. And it paid off.

It would take a little more time to convince Lady that we elected her as top dog in the pack. Lady, living up to her name, displayed mature leadership as a dog. Therefore, she was a suitable candidate for the position, the leader-elect. Both my sister and I voted for her and she took her position seriously.

Charlie’s?Curt?Case

Charlie also had a problem pulling. He had never experienced a leash before, so he wildly yanked the other way and fought every step. I had to work extra hard with him. His soon-to-be-owner came by one day and saw the spectacle. He then assured me that Charlie wasn’t ever going to need a leash and I could quit fighting a losing battle. I didn’t mind. Neither did Charlie.

Puppies Fighting Each Other

I know this is very common. Every litter I have had interaction with involved puppies fighting ferociously. I’m told that they are “playing”, but I have my doubts. Each of the instigators proved to be a high-energy dog. I guess they needed an outlet and they chose their littermates.

Piper And His Littermates

Seven puppies stood a better chance of forming little cliques or being loners, but there was always a puppy instigating a problem. In this instance, it was Piper. He loved getting on everyone’s case and he did a good job at it. The other puppies would defend themselves and some fighting would ensue, or should I say “playing?”

Snowball And Chance

Spending more time in Snowball and Chance, (Piper by now is fully grown and has other interests), I had the opportunity to scrutinize the dominant play that I see as fighting. It had a simple layout. Both puppies would start out playing. Then all of a sudden, snapping and snarling stepped in. Shortly after that, you heard growling. Turning around to see what was going on this time, I saw two white fluff balls rolling around on the ground. They would separate and lie down about six to twelve feet apart from each other. They waited two minutes in strained silence. Then Chance would rise and run to attack. And Chance would get corrected for starting a fight.

Upon A Closer Look…

After watching this a few times, I noticed their body language. Snowball actually instigated the reaction with his body language. Every time he twitched a certain way, Chance would leap to the opportunity and barreled across the yard to lunge in for an attack. Snowball was ready?every time. I realized that Snowball was the culprit, even if Chance was making the first noticeable move.

Usually, this isn’t irritating, but when you’re in the middle of something else and you’re trying to focus and concentrate, puppies fighting become a nuisance. You can separate them or let them tire themselves out. That is if you can tolerate the escalating noises and hazardous dog movements.

Princess And Her Littermates

Princess also instigated puppy fights. She didn’t just lie there and stare at her littermates. No, she actually ran up to them and started growling and biting them. She sounded dangerous, but only to the others. Then when they fought back, she would race around the room, as if she could escape their wrath. When things settled down again, Princess went in for another attack. They were only separated when things got too loud and distracting. When they reunited, they returned to the dominance games, but at a softer volume. Eventually, her littermates left and Princess continued to spat her attacks on her mother. Bad move; Spotty had no problem putting Princess back in her place. The problem was fixed, permanently.

Confetti And Her Littermates

Confetti, surprise, surprise, also instigates dominance struggles. She would attack her brothers without a second thought. Presently, her littermate, Gideon, has come to stay with us. He needs some extra training. When Confetti antagonizes her brother, Gideon responds with an attack. It’s pretty much the same as Snowball and Chance. One gives off a challenge through body language and the other responds by hurling an attack. Except, this time, I know it’s Confetti’s contribution, so she gets corrected?first.