About Charlotte B Expertise I can answer any question on raising and training dogs,the proper feeding, training, and behavior of animals.What I do not know for certain, I will take the time to research for the correct advise.
Experience My father was a veterinarian and taught me hot to take care of animals, starting at the age of three.
I have raised and trained purebreds, and mixed breeds.I participate in animal rescue groups in my area.
Up until my health made it necessary for me to stop, I have trained dogs.I have trained some dogs that could not be handled by their owners. They would bite their owners, but in 65 over 65 years of handling dogs, I have never been nipped in anger. The only times I have had skin broken was in playing with a little puppy, and they were not yet taught not to nip so hard.
Organizations SPCA of Irving Texas, several rescue groups.
My wife and I are at the end of our rope with our new 5 1/2-month-old American Cocker Spaniel.
We bought her at 7 weeks of age from a "backyard breeder." (My wife fell in love with her at first sight.) She was fine--the usual obedience/behavior problems--until around 4 mos. old. Something happened then, and she started snapping more than just teething, and began actually attacking and biting us.
We lost our first cocker in December, and she was near-perfect; not a mean bone in her body, a classic merry, loving cocker temperament.
We know all dogs, like kids, are different, so we didn't expect a parallel experience. But our new puppy's behavior has evolved to the point where we do not trust her. Instead of being a loving member of the family, she is sewing distrust and fear--and she's only 19 pounds!
She's loving and sweet and otherwise perfect 90 percent of the time. But the 10 percent she isn't occurs in a nanosecond, like flipping a light switch; she becomes for that moment a junkyard dog, biting and attacking with intent to hurt; a real Jeckyl-Hyde personality. In a person, I would call it psychotic.
We've talked with professional trainers--who we cannot afford--and with our vet, who says it may be genetic, and that our ultimate decision may be whether or not to put her down.
He just operated on her for cherry eye in both eyes, and we had her spayed at the same time. Either way, since we were still on the fence at the time, we figured it would benefit both us and her.
My wife and I have been bitten for no apparent reason as many as three or four times a day. I'm not writing to ask you how we can correct it or what may be causing it. We have decided we do not want this in our lives. Normal training we can handle; hard-core aggressive biting behavior training that may or may not work is too much a risk, too long an investment.
We are traumatized and devastated, but our decision has been made. We want a trusted companion, and we don't think that's too much to ask of a pet.
So the problem is how do we cut our losses, since so far I haven't found a rescue organization that will take a known biter. We do not want to put her down--wedon't feel it's our right to decide who or what lives or dies--but if it is our only resort, that is what we will do.
Afte ten years, our first cocker had become like our child; at five months, we have not developed the same kind of attachment to this puppy, and have in fact been demoralized and hardened by its behavior.
Somebody else may actually relish the challenge, a knowledgeable dog lover with special skills, perhaps, who believes they can manage the problem or correct it; or one of those expensive trainers that are so quick to assure us that almost any dog's behavior can be modified acceptably with real effort over time. With no guarantees of course.
So what do we do, now that we're running out of options? We want to begin again and have at least a fighting chance with a normal puppy. This may sound weak, but after the disappointment and all our grief (plus one bite that sent me to the hospital for three days with a very serious infection), we don't have to justify our decision to anybody. We've treated her with love and used positive reinforcement training techniques, and never beat or hurt her, and in it all seems to make no difference in the long run.
We don't want attempts to dissuade us; we want help in where to turn next.
This has become a nightmare. It is so against our being to take a step like this, but the next ten years of our lives are too precious (and life is too short at any rate) to spend with a pet we cannot trust and commit to.
We're in our fearly ifties. My wife is healthy, but I am on the fragile side with many challenges--heart, lung, bone and skin (another story) from long-term steroid therapy. She commutes to Manhattan (a five-hour r/t) every weekday and I am the day-long caretaker. Just putting her collar on and taking it off several times a day is risky for me. We really have no choice but to turn away from this relationship.
Thanks for any advice or suggestions, and thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Bruce & Marie
Answer Please do give him to the rescue group that is willing to take him.
At that age, it is one of two things. Either there is a hidden health problem that would require possibly extensive and costly testing, or it is just plain a spoiled brat that has decided to rule the world,
That does not mean you are a bad owner.
It could mean a nasty little personality streak that can most deffinately be trained out of him.
I have trained quite a few Rule-the-world biters, and it really doesn't take that long, but it does take someone who is with the dog just about 24/7, and has a stronger personality that theirs (Read that "more bullheaded).
I could not do this now, as I too have heart problems, among others, and simply haven't the energy and stamina to deal with a problem child.
That little doll has read you both like a book, and he knows how important a loving dog is to you.
He has read your mind and your heart, and thinks "these are patsies I can rule.
Just like a little shin=-kicking kid, he needs to meet his match.
These rescue people will take him because they know thy can straighten him out.
We have taken Pit Bulls that have been trained for years to be mean, and turned them into good companion dogs.
As this rescue group to find you one that will be the kind of dog you want. they will do that also.
The groups I work with do this a lot.
There is also such a thing as a personality clash between dogs and some people.
This could very well be what is in play here.
Regardless of what you say, in your writing, I feel you sense that you have failed in some way.
DON'T!
The little Lhasa mix I have was like that. He read this place to be one where he was going to be king. Guess what? He abdicated. Momma don't go along with that stuff.
My daughter is a good floor mat for an animal.
Her cat knows she is not going to do anything no matter what he pulls on her, but he is not sure what her 16 year old daughter will do. He just knows Jenny can't be bossed, so he is a little love with Jenny.
Jenny is like her granny.LOL
Call the people and dump that little brat's butt off with them, and get you one that will not try to be a dictator.
Be satisfied. You tried your best, now give it to someone who can handle it, and get one that is closer to your needs. You have saved his life, that is a star in your crown.
I'll bet when your time here is up, and you cros the rainbow bridge, that little brat will meet you there, and apologize.
Write me and tell me how this comes out, and DO NOT look back in regret.
The rescue people will find him a loving home with people who can keep his little nastiness in check.
Charlotte
Dear Bruce;
i read your review.
thank you so very much for the glowinf praise.
I know about the patsie role because I have played it myself.LOl
Don't cnahgge breeds because of that.
there is a little Jewish mother in every breed, and they can all smell a sucker a mile off.
I have been suckered recently.
My 13 year old English Setter is doing iot to me regularly.
She has Artjhritis very bad, and get's accupuncture treatments for it. they help a lot. She has had problems with allergies etc, and she has always been very good about being independent.
But, she is a coouple of years past her life expectance, has these awful joints, and she knows mommy worries about her.
Sooooo, she will get in her bed, or on my bed, and when she gets attention she groans.
The first time she did this, she was just making a sound like a death rattle, etes looked glazed over, and I thought I was losing her. I tried to help her get up, and it was loke trying to lift wet speghetti.
I though she was dieing, and i was holding her, bawling my eyes out, telling her what a wonderful companion she had been.
This went on for the better part of an hour, and then apparently sge gad been Cammile lobg enough, so she got up and waddled out the doggy door to the back yord, and left me standing there like a boob.
I could have cheerfully rung her neck.
When you get a baby, treat it like a prewcious little gem, and spoil the heck out of it, but when it tries to didtate, give it a good scolding.
Just like with a child, You can't spoil them with love, but you can spoil themn with getting their own way.
Teach them what is and whar is not allowed. When they bite too hard while playing, sat things like "No, be a nice puippy, don't be so rough.
If they keep biting hard, a little tap on the mouth with a "no no" won't hurt them.
Use a sharp voice when you scold, use a sweet and proud voice when you praise.
If they get right down nughty, put it's little butt in time out.
Time out at our house is daddy;s bathroom. there is a 5X5 space between the vainty and the bathtub,and they stay in there with no toys, just a bth mat to lie on. No room to run and play. They don't like time-out.
Max, that little Lhasa dictator will start acting like a jerk with the other dogs, and all I have to say is "MAX! do you want to go to time out?" and he straightens right up.
I tell min, when I am training rhem, "THAT, is not allowed !".
When they are tiny babies, 5 weeks old etd, and new at the house, I soft pedal it, but when they have been here awhile, and they have settled in and have been tught the rules, and misbehave, mom chews them out good.
Raise them just like a child. Spoil and pamper them to love and attention, but demand they obet the rukles and be a good citizen, and heap onnthe praise when they do.
Remebre when Bugs would make a fool of Elmer Fudd, and where Elmer was standing there would be a big sucker?
Weeeel,,,,,, dogs can do that better than rabbits can.LOL
Good luck with fiture babues.
If you and your wife would like to write me, my email address is
charlotte34@verizon.net
