Well, it's been one week exactly since we went to get our puppy from Bonham, and he has gotten quite comfortable in the McSpadden household. Okay, so don't get me wrong... I LOVE our dog, Myko. He has the cutest face in the whole world, it takes him about 5 minutes and all his strength and energy to bark, and he loves running back and forth. When I let him out of his crate, his excitement to see me is priceless!
With that being said, I have to ask my good friends, why they didn't warn me that I would want to pull my hair out on a consistent basis? Seriously, today, had to have a "come to Jesus" meeting with our dog because of the intense biting and growling... he doesn't do it to Mark, but he does it to me. I LOVE snuggling with him and throwing a ball for him to retrieve, but seriously, the biting!!! Granted, it's only been about 3 days of biting and growling, so maybe I should give it longer, but we'll see. Here are some things we've tried:
1. Holding his mouth and saying, "no bite"
2. Barely popping his mouth and saying "no bite" (see the trend here)
3. Saying no bite, holding his mouth, and then putting him in the laundry room for 30 sec (time out)
4. Screaming "ouch" and walking away (trying to ignore him, but he follows me and jumps at me)
.....and then there's the growling. He looks like a gremlin mixed with the personality of Old Yeller when Yeller gets rabies. I keep asking Mark, "Does our dog have rabies?" He laughs it off and says, "No," but I am still suspicious. I may ask for a rabies test when I take him to the vet this week. :)
ON A POSITIVE NOTE: Myko has slept through the night every night except for the 2nd night we had him, and even then, he only needed to go potty at 2am. I guess God knows I couldn't handle losing sleep AND having my flesh ripped from my skin at the same time. :)
In order to provide a visual to how my week started and ended with Myko. The picture at the beginning of this post was taken the day we got him, and the picture below is one of me right after I put Myko to bed this evening. Can you sense my frustration!
May I have patience with this pup, so that I can enjoy my summer and our dog! Any advice? Any anti-biting strategies? Help! At least pray for me to have patience with this dog. Babies are easier than dogs, right? :)
5 comments:
i gotta say, i think babies might be easier....true, you have to feed them every two hours, but they don't bite. HA! spoken just like someone who has no kids! after my first night with jaxon i wanted to take him back to the pound. it does get better though! i always held jdogg's mouth when he bit me/things. and spanked him (with a newspaper so he doesn't start to get scared of your hands). they're smart...they learn pretty fast.
we should definitely go out to dinner...you guys available this weekend at all?
Sorry you're having so much trouble with the dog. I can't offer any advice because our dog has never bitten at all. When he barks when we don't want him to, I'll put my hand around his mouth and say no barking. Just stay consistent and she'll get it. Kind of like with kids.
It's a phase that they all go through... definitely a puppy thing. Continue to be firm and well eventually he'll stop. Ya know, they lose their teeth and once he gets his adult teeth that biting won't hurt near as much. The baby teeth are much sharper. Anyway... he sure does look precious! Can't wait to meet him.
YOUR DOG IS SO CUTE!!!!!!
Hey girl!! When Daisy was a puppy she bit a lot too! If she started biting we would give her some kind of chew toy or tug rope to teach her that she could bite those things only. Hang in there, it will be over before you know it. I do have to say children are harder, but it's much different because it's your child!! HE HE HE It will pass, by the way, this is great training for parenthood, we did the same thing!!
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