My APBT puppy just keeps whining

Bluebirdharmony · Post by **Bluebirdharmony** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 10:20 am

I have a new puppy, I was told he was 8 weeks old on the phone but upon picking him up I realised he must of been only 4weeks. I hate puppy mills and it seemed that thats where he came from although the lady had me meet her halfway between our towns. (I have never wanted to get a puppy from a mill because it makes space for them to keep breeding them) Anyway, I have tried so many different methods but the poor thing keeps whining whenever I leave the room. It is a piercing screaming sound and it is driving me nuts! I tried totally ignoring him when he did it so as not to reinforce the bad behaviour but when after a month that had no affect I have started removing him from the room everytime he does it but he just continues to scream and whine. He has been to the vet but there is nothing wrong with him. The only time he does not make a sound is when I am in the room. The neighbors are complaining everyday and I am losing my will to live. I love him so much and I will not give up on him like most owners would of by now, but I feel like i am missing something. I pressume it is because he was taken from his mother so early but I cannot undo that. My other 2 year old pit, Arizona, is lovely with him but he bites her and draws blood. He can be positively evil and I want to correct it I just dont seem to know how. If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be Victoria.
Please help. Radar is now 4 months old.

Radar:

Arizona:

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:00 am

Ahh they're both beautiful! Congrats.

Not that you can do anything about this now, but if you get a dog from a breeder you should be able to meet the puppy and pick him up from the breeder's home and not a neutral location. Good breeders open their homes up to adopters. But anyway, what's done is done. He's gorgeous so now moving forward...

Have a read at Mattie's post here for "puppy 0-2 years old". http://www.victoriastilwell.com/phpBB2/ ... php?t=1981

Your boy is a puppy and he cries when you go away because he needs to be close to you. He's like an infant who cries when his mother puts him down. He's not doing anything bad or wrong, from the sound of it. Also, he draws blood from Arizona because his puppy teeth are razor sharp and he can't help it. Arizona is giving him "puppy license" for now if she's not snapping or correcting him. When he gets older her fuse will get shorter and she'll start giving him lessons in bite inhibition.

There are a lot of great articles on this site that you can read:

http://dogstardaily.com/

There are lots of free downloadable ebooks here:

http://www.dogstardaily.com/free-downloads

And here specifically is a pamphlet for after you bring your puppy home:

http://www.dogstardaily.com/files/AFTER ... 0Puppy.pdf

I tell you what, if I had gotten my dog during a time with no internet I would have gone KUH-RAZY. Before and after I got my dog I spent tons of time doing research and found lots of great information (and not-so-great information). So while I'm sure lots of people here will have great advice for you (in particular I'm hoping that emmabeth, Nettle, and Mattie all chime in to help you out), check out some of the links that I gave you above and I hope that helps.

Best of luck!

Smillin'Sammy · Post by **Smillin'Sammy** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:04 am

Noobs' advice is correct. Good luck!

Bluebirdharmony · Post by **Bluebirdharmony** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:30 am

I have read them one by one. I am proud to say that he is potty trained and is well behaved on the leash so far. Anyway, I know you said that he isn't doing anything wrong by whining because he wants to be near me but I am still unclear on how I should respond (or not) to it.
Do you think he will grow out of it, or should I do something to try and stop it now. I give him raw hides and toys to keep him occupied and I even take him out for long walks everyday as I am home when my husband is at work. Maybe it is not enough im not sure.

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:10 pm

Be careful how long your walks are as he's just a pup. The guidelines are usually 5 minutes of exercise for every month of age. So if he's only 4 months, take him on maybe two 10-minute walks. Play clicker games at home like teaching him basic obedience 2-3 minutes a day.

Did you have Arizona from puppyhood and if so, did you have any of the same issues?

Bluebirdharmony · Post by **Bluebirdharmony** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:14 pm

yes i got her when she was 8 weeks old. I think she rather spolied me for well behaved puppies. She never made a sound or chewed anything. Even if I give her a treat now she is is ever so gentle and gets frightened when her teeth accidently touch my hand. She didn't bark or whine at all and so when she was a year old I taught her to sing. So now in if I give the command to sing she will make a little melody of whining however she only does this when I ask her to, otherwise she is as quiet as a mouse.
You see, Radar is the complete opposite, he is so naughty all the time that I wonder if he isnt a little simple in the head. He seems to have the memory of a goldfish. If I give him a command he will obey but within 30 seconds he has forgotten all about it, even though i have corrected him a million times. I can say stay with a treat ready. He will stay for as long as it takes to get the treat. However once he has the treat (sometimes I make him wait up to 5 mintues) he refuses to stay unless I offer him one. He is either not very bright or a complete genius.

Bluebirdharmony · Post by **Bluebirdharmony** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:23 pm

the roll of Arizonas eyes says it all.....

and here is the beautiful Arizona:

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:24 pm

He's not naughty, he's just a puppy. You were lucky with your first one - Radar sounds like the typical puppy.

You may be teaching "stay" the wrong way. You shouldn't have him stay for five minutes just yet, he's just a puppy. That's like teaching 6th grader long division. Set your expectations low and very slowly build from there. The great thing is that you are starting basic obedience training from a very young age, so by the time your boy is a teenage hooligan he'll at least have a good idea of how to have good manners. So good on you for that.

Do you clicker train? Try this for teaching stay:

http://www.clickertraining.com/node/868

And don't compare him to Arizona, that's a recipe for failure. I grew up in my A-student sister's shadow and was compared to her through my last year in high school. As you can imagine I hated it and resented her and my parents. Your dog won't have the cognitive thinking to resent you or your other dog, but it surely sets you and your training plan up for failure. Good luck.

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:25 pm

Thanks for posting those photos, I am really enjoying seeing them!! Lovely lovely dogs.

Bluebirdharmony · Post by **Bluebirdharmony** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:30 pm

I have been watching 'it's me or the dog' for a few years (im from england so I saw it there also)
and I wondered if I should try to call the show or go to one of the casting calls. However I am camera shy and I would be afraid of wasting their time. I wondered if anybody knows (or has been on the show) if this would be a problem, or whether I should just go for it. The worse that can happen is they say NO right?

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:35 pm

People have posted here that they'd be interested in seeing Victoria deal with puppies, so why not? Go to the site and see how you can do it.

http://animal.discovery.com/convergence ... sting.html

But even if they do say no, you've got great resources here on this forum. Do a search for your issues and see if it's been discussed before and what advice was given. Meanwhile I'm sure others will chime in here eventually with other advice to give you.

Bluebirdharmony · Post by **Bluebirdharmony** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:35 pm

By the way, Noobs, thankyou so much for the advice so far, I truely appreciate you taking the time.

Noobs · Post by **Noobs** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:39 pm

You're quite welcome! I hope it's helpful to you, and I hope that you don't get discouraged. We've all been sure our dog was put on this earth to annoy and outsmart us, so we can all relate on some level to what you're going through. I hope other people will post. It's Saturday though - I feel like most people post more during the week. Hang in there, it'll get better.

Bluebirdharmony · Post by **Bluebirdharmony** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:46 pm

I have always believed that 'where there's a will, there's a way'.
He is a challenge and I know that if I mannage to train him, it will be a miracle. I will look at the shows website now and see what happens. If I dont have any luck with him in the coming days or weeks I will check back here.

Leigha · Post by **Leigha** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 2:57 pm

Bruiser was a HORRIBLE puppy! He was really easy to potty train, but lord he chewed and bit and growled and was just really mean. He would literally throw fits that made him look like he was possessed by all sorts of demons. I'm absolutely not joking and the sounds he was making were just as scary. I would go to school (I'm an 8th grade teacher) and my students would freak out thinking my "husband" was beating me when they saw that huge bruises that were on my arms--I mean they would start at my wrist and go up to my elbows. When I told them it wasn't Jason, it was my dog they were astounded. He would bite and attack our other dogs, steal their food, and just in general bother the holy mess out of them. I cried just about every night because of him. He was SO MUCH worse for me than for Jason. He would mouth and play with J, but NEVER bit him the way he attacked me.

The best thing I did to start with was take him to training class. I made sure that I was the one who worked with him in class every week and every day at home, and he's so much better for me now. He listens more/better to me than he does for Jason usually. The second best thing I did was find the forums

He's 8 1/2 months old now and is a completely different dog. He can still be a turd sometimes--especially when he's bored or tired, but he's a million times better!

So we have two different breeds, but I understand how you feel

At one point we had an animal behaviorist/dog trainer lady come over to our house and she recommended we rehome Bruiser that he would require so much work to "fix" she didn't know if it would be worth it to us and much of what he did was probably overbred in him and would likely change little.

With A LOT of work and a ton of patience we have a really good and scarily smart dog. He's definitely not perfect and still has some issues, but is much much better.

Just try try try to not lose your patience through it all.

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My APBT puppy just keeps whining

My APBT puppy just keeps whining

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