a few "new" problems for oscar

[sakirby]

hi guys! been awhile since i posted. hope all of you and your frenchies are fabulous. ok, i am just going to lump a few questions into one posting. oscar is now 6 1/2 months old. he got neutered a couple of weeks ago. he has had a few issues developing and i am wondering if anyone has some suggestions.....

1) SUPER excitedness and peeing and jumping when he meets or sees SOME people. not all, and i never know which person he will freak out, pee on, and jump on. sometimes he sits quietly and lets them pet them. i try to get him to sit before anyone can pet him but, does anyone have any other suggestions? it is SO embarassing when he jumps on someone who is petting him, or when he pees on someones shoes! :o

2) attention barking. when i am sitting on the couch, and he wants to play (and he has already had plenty of exercise), he will bark at me and nip at my fingers. i say no, redirect him, or try to ignore him. anything else? he is getting worse at this type of stuff which is really starting to annoy me.

3) possible "aggressive" playing...i don't know if am paranoid or what, but i swear that since oscar has gotten nuetered (two weeks ago), he has become more aggressive. is this possible? he is humping other dogs for the first time, and this is AFTER he was nuetered. i know neutering doesn't stop this behaviour but, if he wasn't doing it before he was neutered, is it just coincidence that he is doing it now? he is just starting to get a bit TOO aggressive for my liking towards dogs that have ALWAYS been his buddies. some of his dog friends are not his friends anymore :( any suggestions?

sorry to bombard with all three questions. i know oscar is coming into adolescense and is probably going to challange me again but, MAN, just when things were SO peaceful :rolleyes:

[sakirby]

thanks lily for the referral to other threads. yes, oscar has been through 9 obedience classes. he is really good at it, as long as there are treats involved. i am thinking that maybe i should carry treats on me but, i don't know. he knows: sit, stay, down, off, speak, shake left, shake right, find it/hide and seek, heel, ok, come....he is very well trained. when he is being trained. :o when he isn't being trained directly, it is like he is a wild fire. he gets the crazies. he jumps, he doesn't listen, he is aggressive, he is annoying. when he does his "tricks," everyone thinks he is so cute, but i don't really care about that stuff. i just want him to behave when he meets people and when he is around the house. i would rather have a well behaved dog, than a well trained one. it seems that that stuff is the hardest to train :) anyway, thanks for your help. i will check out gmacleods posts. i have seen many of them....just wondering if there is any other advice?

[Jordy]

Hello,
I also have an Oscar, and it sounded like you were describing him in your post. That's a little interesting. Maybe the name does something to them, makes them into Oscar the grouch or something.

My Oscar is about 7 months now and he is always trying to test me. In our home, it is myself, my wife and Oscar. He doesn't much worry about my wife, I imagine he already sees himself as being above her in the order of things. But with me, he is always testing. If I discipline him, he'll come back and do these funny bounces and lunges at me (not really angry, but too aggressive for my liking). Also, he is very demanding, and he has the problem with new people. He plays a little rough and tends to be a little bit of a bully.

We have been trying the isolation routine. I really don't like to use physical punishments and I don't want him to listen because he is forced to ( I would rather he accepts his positions or understands it and acts accordingly). So, what we do when he is like this is put him away somewhere in isolation. We don't use his kennel to avoid any negative feelings he may have towards it later in life. Instead we close the door to a bedroom or kitchen and leave him in there. He doesn't like it, and sometimes it doesn't work, but usually he'll settle down.

Alternatively, he may need more exercise, some good running to get rid of that puppy energy. I have found that when Oscar is wound up from being in the apartment too long (or after he wakes up), he is most annoying and aggressive.

I hope this helps. Just know that I am with you on this one. We are experiencing many of the same problems. Good luck with Oscar.

[gmacleod]

Welcome to the wonderful world of adolescence :)

I'm afraid you've got a few months of this to look forward to, but with patience and consistency, your lovable puppy will emerge out the other end of it as a well behaved dog with manners that you'll appreciate.

The root of the problem is just that he's an obnoxious teenager who is testing the boundaries of how he is supposed to behave.

Soo - your problems:

1) SUPER excitedness and peeing and jumping when he meets or sees SOME people. not all, and i never know which person he will freak out, pee on, and jump on. sometimes he sits quietly and lets them pet them. i try to get him to sit before anyone can pet him but, does anyone have any other suggestions? it is SO embarassing when he jumps on someone who is petting him, or when he pees on someones shoes! :o

You're on the right track with the sitting thing, but you need to be more consistent. And that means being insistent with anyone who wants to pet him.

Jumping is an attention-demanding behaviour. It's quite natural for a dog, but not particularly pleasant for people. So in order to stop it, you need to (a) teach him an alternative behaviour that you do like (sitting); and (b) make sure that he never, ever, gets what he was demanding (attention) when he jumps.

So before anyone is allowed to pet him, make sure he sits first (and since he's so cute, that means you're going to have to insist that people behave also, and only pet him when he is sitting). Stand on his leash too, to make sure he can't jump up ;) And if he's being petted, and then starts jumping, the petting has to stop immediately and the person concerned stand up and turn away from him. If attention only ever comes when his butt is on the ground, and jumping is never successful, he'll stop jumping. If it works even sometimes, he won't stop. So consistency and vigilence are key.

Practice a LOT with willing friends, and be insistent with strangers. The kind hearted soul who "doesn't mind him jumping" just undermines all your training. Again, if jumping works sometimes, he'll keep on doing it.

2) attention barking. when i am sitting on the couch, and he wants to play (and he has already had plenty of exercise), he will bark at me and nip at my fingers. i say no, redirect him, or try to ignore him. anything else? he is getting worse at this type of stuff which is really starting to annoy me.
Ignoring is best, but you might have to increase that to what I think of as "actively" ignoring him. If he demands attention like that, and won't give up, then you can just get up and leave the room - shut the door so he can't follow. A few minutes solitude is usually enough to make the point, and don't acknowledge him when you return either. An alternative is to put him in a time out somewhere (done without fuss). Again, a few minutes is perfectly sufficient.

The reason that this works is because it is exclusion - and exclusion is a severe punishment indeed for a dog (so try standard ignoring and redirection first, only exclude him if other methods don't work). It is also the precise opposite of what he was trying to achieve. So again, if the demanding behaviour never gets him what he wanted, he will give it up.

Resist the urge to give him attention - negative attention included because that would mean he achieved what he wanted, and will continue the behaviour. Just calmly get up without acknowledging him at all (not even eye contact) and leave him alone in the room. That isn't what he was trying to achieve, and if it's a consistent response, then he'll give the behaviour up because it doesn't work.

Do make sure he gets plenty of playtime, and decide what is an acceptable way for him to ask to play too. Otherwise, you coud end in a situation where he can't ask at all LOL But that's just a matter of common sense - if he comes up with a toy and you don't want to play, redirection to something to play with on his own is the appropriate response. And ignoring only comes if he tries to insist/demand.

3) possible "aggressive" playing...i don't know if am paranoid or what, but i swear that since oscar has gotten nuetered (two weeks ago), he has become more aggressive. is this possible? he is humping other dogs for the first time, and this is AFTER he was nuetered. i know neutering doesn't stop this behaviour but, if he wasn't doing it before he was neutered, is it just coincidence that he is doing it now? he is just starting to get a bit TOO aggressive for my liking towards dogs that have ALWAYS been his buddies. some of his dog friends are not his friends anymore :( any suggestions?

That is typical obnoxious adolescent behaviour. I doubt it has anything at all to do with his neuter, though it is slightly possible that you'll see a decrease in his aggressiveness in the next few weeks. Neutering doesn't have immediate effects - it takes time for hormones to deplete. But the behaviour is very very typical of adolescents, irrespective of their intact/neutered status - so I doubt the neutering will have (or have had) any effect at all. It's just coincidental timing.

I know you don't get to choose what dogs are at the park - but what would be really good for him would be a few well socialised adults who can nicely but firmly put your snotty adolescent in his place LOL And who'll continue to play with him afterward. So if you happen to know anyone with a dog(s) that fit that bill, getting him out to play with them as often as possible is a good idea.

But do keep on socialising him - he'll learn. And you can help too. If he picks on another dog at the park, most especially anyone who has made submissive gestures, then you can intervene. No fuss, but just take him off for a short training session or walk down the other end of the park with you for a few minutes. Then let him rejoin the other dogs. The message here is that if you can't play nicely, then you don't get to play at all. And if he still behaves badly, you intervene again and even remove him if necessary. Do keep taking him out there though - some days there are bound to be more suitable playmates than others, and the best possible way for him to learn is by being put in his place nicely by an adult.

Humping, incidentally, is not a sexually-motivated behaviour at all. It is a display of dominance, usually employed by gauche adolescents. As dogs grow up, they learn more sophisticated body language, and the humping is employed less and less (it is very overt). Sonds just like human adolescents really doesn't it? LOL - well it is just like human adolescents, and they learn more subtle ways of behaving over time too.

Above all though, don't worry. This is just typical snotty adolescent behaviour, and it will get better in time. Just stay consistent and be patient. He'll get the idea in the end, and you'll have a well socialised and well mannered dog as a result. Good luck!