Hello from Iowa!

[china_cat84]

Hi, everyone. I'm from a small town in Iowa. My name is Melissa and I am a stay at home mom and a part time nursing student. I'm married and I have a 2 yr old daughter. We currently have an 8 month old male pug (named Otis) and a female chihuahua (named Cricket) who will be 6 years old in June.

I'm here because we recently adopted Otis and now our house is in chaos! We had been thinking about getting another dog for a long time and known we wanted a smaller breed. We didn't want a dog that would be horse-sized compared to Cricket. So we were planning on going to the shelter to find a good dog that needed a home when we were notified that a lady desperately needed to get rid of a couple pugs. Apparently, she had been a breeder and had to quit. We went to her house and the dogs were all healthy and living in good conditions. We decided on Otis because he was the youngest and he seemed very calm. Boy were we wrong! He was calm for maybe a week and now he's a demon. He's afraid of my husband - and most strangers. He jumps ALL OVER ME when he's excited. He likes to jump on me when I'm eating. He licks A LOT. He doesn't listen to me - like when I try to get me to stop chewing my daughter's toys. I was using the startle method - when you make a distracting noise to startle them out of it - and it worked for awhile but doesn't anymore.. Now he just looks at me and keeps doing it so I have to find one of his toys and get him to chew that instead. He won't walk on the leash down the stairs or up the stairs or into new places. He also loves to chase Cricket and back her into a corner - then Cricket freaks out and nips at Otis and he runs away, scarred to death.

I also need to get Cricket to stop barking. I'm pretty sure she does it out of fear and to alert us. She barks when someone knocks or rings the bell. Then she barks at them until they sit. If someone tries to touch her, even after she's calmed down, she will nip (out of fear). Then she barks at them when they leave. She has this really high pitched howl-bark that feels like someone is jamming a needle in your ear.

I just want Otis to calm down and stop jumping on me all the time and stop being afraid of my husband and new places. And I want Cricket to be quiet and socialize with others.

[Fundog]

Hi, welcome. Please post your situation/problem over in the "Training Advice" section, where you will be more likely to get some help.