Hi everyone,
My partner and I are the proud owners of a 5 month old Miniature Poodle, who we have had since the age of 8 weeks old.
He's a wonderful companion, very intelligent (possibly too intelligent), and affectionate.
We took him to puppy preschool when he was younger, but due to a variety of personal circumstances missed this year's obedience school classes (Our plan is to book him in as soon as we are able to do so in the new year).
Our puppy is well socialised, and spends his days with other dogs and people (we drop him with family and their dogs), and has met probably over 100 people including children of a variety of ages, and about 30-40 dogs. He is excellent with children (always supervised), and has never been aggressive.
He is a quick learner generally, in that he has known how to sit, lie down, shake hands etc.
Unfortunately we've got a few issues that we want to address with him, and whilst we would otherwise wait to have our obedience classes, in the interim a friend suggested we ask a few questions here (I hope that's okay!!)
Our puppy is great when he's with us, but struggles with being alone, probably because it doesn't happen often. He sleeps through the night without issue, and is happy to be put to bed most nights in the bathroom (which we have set up as his playroom, so it's always got food, water, toys, a comfortable bed, his crate and a pee pad so he can go to the bathroom as needed), so the issue isn't being alone at all, but if we put him outside and close the door (without other dogs there), or if we leave the room without him, or put him in his playroom when he it isn't his 'bed time', he barks, cries and paws at the door.
Sometimes he's also a bit destructive (ripping up toilet paper etc), even though he has all his favourite toys with him. We have done our best to try and ignore the behaviour and not reward it, but sometimes it is unavoidable (ie to prevent annoying the neighbours too much, because we have to take him somewhere, or because it's the morning, he's woken up, and if we don't get to him quickly he will pee inside). He is also incredibly persistent and will bark for an hour or more without break (so our plans to wait for a gap in his barking and reward him with treats has been difficult to achieve).
Other than trying to wait him out, and then rewarding him for being quiet, is there anything we should be doing?
Secondly, whilst he knows all sorts of commands, he will often simply ignore us, especially when we ask him to come to us, both inside or at the dog park. We have tried bringing treats to the oval, and trying to get him to run between us when we call him to come, and this works for a few runs before he gets bored and runs off. Part of the problem is that he isn't too keen on treats/food in general, and we have tried a number of options (dried liver, ruffs, roo sticks, pigs ears etc). We also try and take him out before his evening meal so that he is hungry when training, but this hasn't seemed to help a great deal.
He is interested in fetching a ball, so we always make him sit/come when he wants it to be thrown, but he will often just run off with the ball rather than bringing it back.
When we are doing this play/training, when he stops paying attention, should we stop trying and take him home, or should we persist? Also, is there any training technique we should be looking at in addition to what we are trying?
The next issue is he seems to have a fixation with other dogs' tongues. He will run up to them and try and lick/bite at the other dog's tongue. Fortunately he has only done this with family dogs who are far more relaxed than I would be if I had a puppy trying to grab my tongue, but we are worried he will try to do this with a less tolerant dog at a dog park, and we can't exactly spray the other dogs' tongues with bitter spray. Is there anything we should be doing to stop this?
I'm sure we will have other questions, but I thought I'd start with those.
Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much,
LL
