[amandajean1]

so Maggie has taken to (or gotten worse) about her temper tantrums. If I am not giving her 150% of my attention she throws a barking, growling, biting fit. I have taken to putting her in a sit-stay or down-stay and putting the timer for 5 minutes. if she stays put the entire time, i release her and play with her....until she has another fit, in which i repeat the process. if she's so irritable that she does not stay put, then I put it back in the sit or down-stay and reset the timer with an added minute each time...sometimes it ends up at 20 minutes before she doesn't break the sit/down-stay. is this too much? I know she understand what I want from her when I give her the stay command, but is the adding minutes too much?

thanks for the advice.

 

[BigBrownDog]

I think you are confusing her with a 5 year old human child.

Way too long. After the first 10 seconds I doubt she has any idea what got her in that situation.

How much exercise are you giving her? This is the puppy you rescued in a parking lot at a too young age, right? I hate to say it, but this is part of what happens when a puppy is removed from the litter early. I'd up the exercise and wait this out. She will grow out of it eventually.

 

[Tanya]

I agree, 10 minues is wayyy too long for a 4.5 month old puppy to sit/stay. Heck, is the pup keeping the sit/stay? if so that is INSANE (good insane!). And I agree, the dog is not sitting there thinking about what they did wrong. after 2 seconds it is forgotten. You don't want to mess up your sit/wait training (which you should always stop BEFORE the dog hits the point they break and slowly drag it out with time) because of this.

The sit/stay or any other command is good as a distraction. I would personnally consider crating the pup if they were being a pest (as well as ensure they have appropraite amount of exercise and training). but if the command as a distraction works then go with that just don't go for long stays

 

[amandajean1]

hey,

yeah removed from litter way to early thanks to idiotic people. anyways.

okay so i had a feeling it was to long...but i know she will hold a sit-stay/down-stay for that long because I have been working with her in our daily training sessions to hold a sit/down-stay and she's up to 10 minutes easy....but she's a brat when she gets moody and irritable and...bratty.

so....i'll cut the time in half....and not increase the time.

Also, i tried crating her when she was being a brat, she just got worse and i hate crating her when i am able to watch her because she is in there so much when im at work or school.

usually after she finishes her stay session after being irritable she's much better, she is much calmer and i think she connects the dots in some way.

thanks for the advice.

 

[jebsmama]

Sometimes I think they are like overtired/overstimulated toddlers. We put Hampton in his crate for quiet time, NOT as punishment but just to decrease stimuli. The crate is in our bedroom away from the center of activity. It seems to work well.

 

[kaytris]

how much exercise is she getting? Does she have an opportunity to wrestle and play with other dogs? Bite inhibition is best taught by other dogs - ideally with their litter, but other puppies and well-mannered older dogs can teach it as well. If there is a local daycare in your area, they may offer drop-in puppy playtimes.. ask around

For attention barking, I like puppy push ups - sit. laydown. sit. sit. laydown. sit. laydown. over and over until you see that "omigod aren't we done yet?" look, then quiet praise and release. You can add stand to that as well. The idea being that you are giving them attention, but it's a boring and tedious attention.