My name is Joan--Harper is the almost 5 month old puppy who stole my heart and who is the reason I'm here (well partly--I also have a husband who couldn't resist Harper's brother, husband is Pilot, his boy is Colt
) They pups are kind of a crazy mix of breeds--Jack Russell Terrier and Miniature Greyhound on Mom's side, Labradoodle on Dad's--Mom is about 12 pounds, dad is 60!!! Both of the puppies are going to be closer to Mom's size--Harper was 10 pounds last week when she went for her spay, Colt about 13. I've read here and there that adopting litter mates is not a good idea, but our vet says that problems with raising the two together are actually pretty rare and to be honest we are finding it easier in many ways to raise two than one (AND we get twice as much exercise 
) We are in our late 40's and both have major back problems that are actually getting better from walking the dogs. We also share life with two cats who are slowly getting used to having babies in the house. One of them (Sampson) has instituted his own training program with them--more dominance style but for him it works--he's very firm 
but surprisingly gentle and he actually has invented some games that he can play with them that don't involve him becoming a chew toy. He's smacked each one exactly once, just hard enough to establish who is the boss and now all he has to do is hiss to back them off.It has been many years since either of us has had a dog but we both grew up with them so we thought we knew what we were getting into and Colt is everything I remember but Harper is so fearful of everything--especially of everything outside the house. We are crate training and that is all going really well. I work part time so two days a week they are in the crate for about six hours (other than bed--we all go to bed at 10, up for potty, breakfast, play and potty before work--they get about an hour and a half out then). It generally get home by 2:30 and we spend the rest of the afternoon doing lunch and walks and play until Pilot comes home at 5. Harper's fears are getting worse and I am getting worried. It seems to be about noise and people. She is not aggressive--she hides!! Yesterday I was outside with her when 4 loud motorcycles blasted by and she freaked out--
she shut down completely--refused dinner and water and wanted nothing but to hide behind me in a chair for the rest of the evening after hiding in her crate the whole time her brother was eating. Today she won't stay on the floor, won't play and is has been trying to hide behind me every chance she gets. I think that she's got a nervous disposition to start with and I don't think she had ever spent any time outside before we adopted her. They were born in December, so their taking them out as pups would not have been easy (we get tons of snow here). We started taking them out immediately and also took them with us to the pet store and to other places, at first together and then apart as it became apparent that although she's less nervous with him around they also both completely lose focus on anything but each other which makes it impossible to even get them to potty much less work on any training with them.That's the long story short. I've been looking online and had friends recommend places to find ideas for how to help her to get through this. Someone suggested that I watch Victoria's show on Animal Planet and I REALLY like her training methods--we've been using rewards with them from the beginning and it fits in well with our thinking on how to raise the two of them. She's going to the vet to get the stitches from her spay out tomorrow and I'm going to ask for a recommendation of a trainer to work with us who uses the reward method.
I hope I haven't gone on too long here!!
Joan
Thanks
Joan
