Puppy Problems

[BitVyper]

Originally Posted by B_real_shadows

Or you could do it the easy way after you try to teach it yourself. If the dog continues to pee and crap in the house give him away...for three days to the animal shelter. Thatll teach him. make sure they make the conditions as horrible as they can. You know small dog in a high cage. But make sure they feed him and give him water but by no means visit while your dogs there. They have an extraordinary sense of smell. Then after 3 days come back to get him. You will have to pay a fee, it was like 100 bucks for us, but it was well worth it. Our dog never crapped in the house again and he only peed on the newspapers we set out for him for the nights.

That's a lazy method that only ever works by chance. Your dog does not understand why it is being punished. You are not going to, "teach him," anything like that. Occasionally, something else happens that causes people to believe this has actually worked, and that's how it gets perpetuated. Your dog is not a human, and make no mistake, it does not have a human intellect. This is the same kind of misconception that leads to people thinking their dogs do things out of spite. Their minds just don't work that way. You think the dog remembers what he's just done more than thirty seconds later? Hell, we have trouble doing that. Unless you can remember the exact time and place of every crap you've taken over the past three days. Believe me, I've been dealing with people who don't understand why these 'methods' aren't working for years. Out of hundreds of people who come to me asking why outright punishment doesn't work, I have had one man tell me it did. I can almost remember the exact date.

If you aren't willing to take some time and be persistant with training, don't get a dog.

Edit: I'd like to add that correction isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you should never do it out of frustration, and only when you've actually caught the dog in the act of doing something it isn't supposed to. It doesn't have to be hard on the dog, just enough to communicate that it did something wrong. For instance, a common way to stop certain social behaviours is by turning around and pointedly ignoring the dog for thirty seconds. You never go longer than that because they forget.

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by BitVyper

If you aren't willing to take some time and be persistant with training, don't get a dog.

And that's my advice. If you can't, or won't, spend a shitload of time with him training him, teaching him, and playing with him right now, give him away. Give him away and get a cat if you MUST have a pet. Cats damn near train themselves just so long as you get them fixed while they're still kittens. Pissing and shitting in a kitty litter box is instinctual to them, so long as they understand that the house is your territory, and if you get their front claws taken out or just put a bunch of scratching posts around they'll do nothing untoward to your furniture.

And, if you do spend time with them, they'll follow you around and come when you call just like a dog. If you don't, they'll still sit on your lap when you're around and enjoy being petted.

They're much harder to train into doing anything impressive, because they have very very very bad vocabularies (so they'll only learn a few commands, if any), but you don't have to train them. They take care of themselves.

Also: just so people don't think I'm calling cats dumb, they may have a worse vocabulary than dogs, but their cognitive thinking is far better.

[BitVyper]

Also: just so people don't think I'm calling cats dumb, they may have a worse vocabulary than dogs, but their cognitive thinking is far better.

That's exactly right. You can teach them to do some very interesting things, but commands aren't really their forte. For instance, you can train a cat to crap in a toilet, or turn on a faucet when it wants water. It's actually very easy.

Hell, training is actually easier than declawing, or you can just get soft paws for them. The trick is to know the difference between marking, boredom, stretching, and exercise, so that you know exactly how to fix the problem. Usually it boils down to some double-sided tape over whatever they're scratching, and a post right next to it. Once they start using the post, you start moving it a few inches away every day until you have it where ever you want.

The hard part about owning a cat is how sensitive they are to changes in their environment. They get stressed much easier than dogs, and tend to be very finicky about everything. Some of them aren't, but most are.

Anyway, I'm going to give a short explanation of dog food for the benefit of anyone with questions. This stuff basically applies to cat food as well, including brand names, just with a few minor differences in what is actually necessary.

Basically, food is divided into three major categories; grocery, premium, and perscription. Grocery, as the name implies, is what you can find in a grocery store. You tend to see a lot more advertising for it as well. Basically everything good you hear about it is more or less an outright lie. Grocery brands of food may appear to have as much protein as anything else, but very little of it is digestable. In Kibbles'n Bits(which is about the worst food money can buy), for instance, one can actually see hair in certain pieces of kibble when they're held up to the light. They're also much higher in salt(which isn't required to be listed), fat, and filler. Because of this, your dog will eat more, digest less, and crap constantly. Ironically, although these foods are cheaper, you only save a few pennies per month due to how much more you feed.

Premium foods can be found in any pet store. Some examples include, but are definitely not limited to Nutro, Hills Science Diet (company I work for), and Nutrience. Aside from them being everything the grocery brands aren't, you'll find that they come in a greater variety to suit specific needs. In the case of a husky pup, you want to feed large breed puppy until they're about a year. Large breed puppy foods help to control growth so that there is less weight on the hips when they get older. At about a year, you switch to a large breed adult food, which will contain glucosamine and chondriton from hip and joint health, and then at six or seven, large breed senior. However, there are other formulas to address any minor problems you might have, like sensitive stomach, allergies to a specific protein source, or skin and coat issues. Once you've chosen a premium brand, stick with it unless you have problems. Premium foods are complete diets and do not need to be supplemented. Your dog does not require variety in its food, that's another human thing. We have much more discerning tastes than they do. If you really really want to add something, sprinkle on a little bit of garlic powder. I usually only suggest this if the dog is sick and hasn't eaten in days though, as spoiling them only results in expensive habits.

Perscription foods are only obtained from a vet. Make no mistake, premium foods do not compare with them. Regardless of price, if your dog has a problem, and the vet says it -needs- that food, then that's what you feed it. If you're concerned, get a second oppinion, but don't try to find the same thing in a premium food because the vet food is too expensive. It's unfortunate, but they're called perscription foods for a reason.

Now, if you're looking at labels, the ingredients can get a bit tricky, and this is where people get really polarized. The main thing to remember is that there is no best dog food. I often find that people will think this because their dog did well on a particular food, but didn't do well on others. That's fine, but your dog isn't necessarily the same. If you're on a premium food, and your dog is healthy, that's what is important. Which isn't to say that all premium foods are equal, they just all have different means to reaching the same end; a healthy, long lived pet. You'd be surprised how defensive people get about this stuff though, so just watch out when someone is giving you advice, and try to evaluate it objectively, even if it's a vet(they're actually among the worst offenders). One thing people will tell you, is that the meat should always always always be listed first, which really isn't true, but I'd make sure that there's a protein source within the first two ingredients. I'll list some common ingredients that are a little bit tricky:

Chicken Byproduct Meal: This is probably the ingredient that takes the most flack. If you are looking at a grocery brand of food, then chances are, it's all non-digestable protein; ground up bone, nails, teeth, whatever. However, in a premium food, like Science Diet (I use it as an example because I know it best), it's going to be organs. Organs are actually higher in digestable protein than the other meat.

Corn: If you ever talk to a representative from one of the, "hollistic," foods, this is the first thing you will hear about. They will tell you that it's a horrible thing, attack the other foods for it, and then that it isn't in their food. Corn is a good source of fibre, it's good for colon health, and despite what they say, it does contain digestable protein, more than some other fibre sources. You don't want too much of it, but the main thing I would watch for is if it's listed twice in the first three ingredients, like, "corn meal," and, "corn." If it is, don't automatically write off the food. Most bags have an eight hundred number you can call for information on them. If they can't answer your questions in a satisfactory manner, then you have your answer.

Corn Gluten: The exception to what I wrote in the previous paragraph about multiple listings of corn. Corn gluten is only the digestable protein. It is extracted from the corn, so you don't have to worry about it.

Chicken/lamb Meal: Like byproduct, there are low grades, and high grades. The main difference between chicken and chicken meal, is that it's dehydrated before the food is baked. They do this because it allows more be put into the food. Proportions to be listed in the ingredients are taken before baking. Chicken is about 66% water, so when it gets baked, it loses all that weight it had when the proportions were taken. That's basically the reason chicken/lamb meal is typically used instead. Unlike chicken byproduct meal, chicken meal uses the meat, not the organs.

There's a big trend in the market toward natural, or hollistic foods right now. They are no better or worse than any other food. Often, they ignore useful nutrients in favour of appealing to consumers, however. Just remember that, AAFCO has no definition for what makes a food, "natural," yet, so anything can be sold as such.

That's a really basic run down on food. If you have any questions, I can answer them.

[Nikose Tyris]

I have had many dogs pass through my home, and most of my family owns at least 1 husky. once trained not to chew or crap in the house, they should be allowed to wander throughout your house. also, they enjoy the company of any other dog. maybe volunteer for dog walking and walk another dog at the same time you walk yours? it will cheer up the husky.

another thing, letting it wander where it wants in the house once it is trained is a very good thing. My uncle just rescued a dog from some guy's garage and named it lily. it was showing all the same signs your dog is. we walk it with my other uncle's lab 4 or 5 times a week, and Lily doesnt chew at all, so is allowed to wander wherever she wants in the house. that is where I base my recomendation.