Can a dog just be bad?

[leonalynn]

of course, the title must be wrong...only bad owners! I try not to be bad as I love all three of my dogs, but my third "child" is so bad, that I am beginning not to like her and I don't want that to happen.

I will be as brief as possible.

I got Julie, the beagle, at 8 weeks old from a family who bread their two beagles. I don't believe it was a puppy mill or anything as I visited their home and all seemed well, just a family who had puppies. Upon bringing her home, right off the bat she seemed very high strung and extremely sensitive. I chalked this up to just being a puppy. She was very difficult to potty train as she urinated at least every half hour. The vet put her on meds briefly in case she had some type of urinary infection.

I am (and was) home 95% of the time as I run my business from home. Yet she screamed bloody murder if I left to go to the store or did any daily activites outside of the home. I got this information from my neighbors. She had the company of my other two older dogs and didn't understand where this separation anxiety was coming from.

All of my dogs have been allowed on my bed (we all sleep together) and she would urinate on the bed at night. Of course, when this happened, I would immediately get up, yell "NO!" and take her outside (trying to get her to understand that she must urinate outside). I once had a friend sleep over and she stood on top of me (while we were watching TV) and urinated on me!

Okay, she is now two years old. She barks like a mad woman when anyone comes to the door. I have alot of people come over as , like I said, I run my business from my home. It is a fear response as her tail is tucked and she has so much anxiety. I have tried putting her in another room when guests arrive and she screams. I have tried putting her in a kennel, in another room, and she screams. I am at the point of muzzling her when people come over and removing when she has calmed down. I do not have the luxury to give treats to each guest to toss at her inorder to show they are no threat. When I remove the muzzle, after she calms down, she will jump on the couch or chairs where I am conducting business. Mind you, not in a loving happy way, but a nervous, needs to get in the middle of us sort of way. Very annoying to guests.

She is definitely housebroken as she will bark when she wants to go out. More often than not, the backdoor is always open for the dogs to go in and out as they please. That being said, on occasion, she will willfully jump on my bed and urinate where I sleep. My side of the bed, on my pillow. Just the other night, I was in the office (connected to the bedroom) and when I was ready for bed, she had urinated on my side. Yesterday, she defecated on my side of the bed (this was a first!). All I did was look at it and she ran for the hills...so I believe she "knows" what she is doing is wrong.

She bullies the other dogs as well. I have a huge Bernese and she bites her face and will not let her pass down the stairs without attacking her. It's not in an aggressive attacking way, but more of a bullying way.

She now has refused to eat (within the last two weeks). Maybe she was bored with her kibble. So I changed it. She refused. I thought she was ill, so I gave cottage cheese and white rice. She ate some and then refused. I added a little wet food and kibble. She ate some and then refused. Then just yesterday, she refused her food again. I picked it up, stuck it in the microwave, offered it again and then she ate it. I don't like assigning human emotions, but it's as if she is trying to see how far I will go to make her happy.

Can an animal be mean spirited? I almost think so with her. I don't know what to do. Victoria's article states as tip #1 to identify why the problem is happening. I don't know why she is doing any of these outrageous behaviors. I just don't even know where to start. If someone could point me in the right direction as this dog has zero respect for me and I am losing respect for her by the second.

[Sarah83]

She sounds to me like a very frightened, insecure dog. You need to stop shouting at her when she pees in the house, shouting at her will just make her even more anxious and make her MORE likely to pee. She also needs to have less freedom to wander off and pee in the wrong place Has she actually been checked for any infection? If not that's the first thing I'd be doing. She isn't being mean spirited, I'd say she's just extremely anxious.

The best thing to do is to give us a bit more information about a typical day for your dog. When does she eat? What does she eat? How much exercise does she get? What training has been done with her? The more info you can give, no matter how useless you may think it is, the more people will be able to help.

[ladybug1802]

ditto what Sarah said - poor little mite sounds really anxious and stressed. That is why she is urinating....thatis why she is barking at guests...and it could well be why she went off her food. As Sarah also said, stop shouting at her when she urinates.....this will make her MORE fearful and she wont understand it,. If you work from home, and know she urinates everyhalf an hour, take her outside every 20 mins or so. Teach her a command she knows to mean she must go to the toilet, and then when she does it, make a HUGE fuss of her.

If she is so bad and stressed with guests, why are you keeping her in the same room as them in the first place. She sounds like she is no way ready to be in the same room with strangers. So when people come to the door, put her in a separate room with a yummy frozen kong or something that will give her something to focus on.....and for now dont let her in with guests. You say you cant give everyonie treats to toss ather, which is fine, but you also need to accept that without doing some work she wont get less anxious on her opwn so best to keep her out of the room. I have a dog that is fearful of strangers and i went through all different ways of managing him when guests come in. Mind you, my dog would have lunged and snap in the early days. I have found out the best thing for him is in a seperate room when people come in, or in his crate covered on all 4 sides. He calms down so much faster.....and doesnt bark as much to begin with....whereas when he can see the people come in he barks like a mad things and is so so stressed - its awful to see, poor little man.

Separation anxiety is all due to insecurity and anxiety.....leaving her to it and hoping she will get used to it wont help, and may well make it wortse. Similarly having other dogs doesnt necessarily mean dogs are going to be fine being left alone.

Her behaviour is not 'outrageous'....its pretty standard behaviour for a fearful and anxious dog. Its nothing to do with a lack of respect for you at all, but you need to accept she is anxious and start dealing with and managing that if her behaviour is to improve. You will get great advice on here and hopefully the experts will be along soon.

[doggymama]

Hi there and welcome!

Like the others already said, it sounds like your dog is very anxious and nervous. I have similar problems with my puppy but thanks to very helpful people on this forum, I am now managing and things are looking up. You just have to remember it's not going to happen overnight but with consistent, positive training it will improve. You just have to be understanding of your dog, and knowing that she doesn't do things to piss you off. Dogs just are - they are just reacting to whatever situation they're in at that given moment.

With the peeing in your bed - I would suggest to always shut doors to any room she may want to urinate in. Although my patio doors are always open (I spend a lot of time home too), if a door leading to another room is open, she will rather pee there than outside. My dogs have only got access to the kitchen (with plastic floor) and this is where their pen is, with their beds and toys, if I have to leave them unsupervised. I learned the hard way, that leaving my puppy unsupervised in the house only leads to accidents - I have a a cream carpet full of pee stains to prove my point! Another good thing is getting baby gates for the rooms.
My dogs have learned that their pen is their safe place, so when I leave them for a few moments or popping to the shops, I know that they feel safe there.
My puppy used to cry as soon as I left the room, but I just kept leaving the room, waiting a few moments, if she cried I waited longer - but as soon as she stopped I walked in and praised her with a treat. She has learned now - but it took around 6 months of training to gradually build up to this point. I am SO GLAD I stuck with it though, as I'm now able to leave the house without any drama. If I am about to leave the house the dogs know instantly and will literally sit on my shoes to stop me from leaving. But I tell them ''in your baskets'' and they will eventually give me a big sigh, and go to their baskets. I give them a treat as I leave. They are fine to be left for a few hours and I get the most heartwarming greetings when I arrive back Separation anxiety is difficult to deal with but not impossible. Remember - baby steps. Rome wasn't built in a day.

With guests - like the other people said, keep her away from the guests as they enter and until she is more settled. When she is calmer, she's in a better frame of mind. I ask guests to let my puppy come to them, rather they going up to her. I give them a treat to give my dog (treats can be cheap to buy - my dogs love gravy bones) and I get guests to chuck half a gravy bone in her direction. I have actually had a breakthrough experience in the past week with my puppy - just from doing everything HER speed. Ie not rush it the human way. Doing it at your dogs pace may seem slow - but is a lot quicker than you think. When you see the first sign of improvement you will know you're on the right track, and everything from there on will seem worthwhile - and the smallest improvement will appear big, you will feel proud and a sense of relief and hope, and your dog will hopefully feel calmer and more secure.

Good luck - I am sure you will receive some good advise from the professionals on here. Don't give up - she is not a bad dog - she just loves you very much!!

[jacksdad]

of course, the title must be wrong...only bad owners!

While the statement "no bad dogs, only bad owners" has truth to it for some people, there are also cases of "misunderstood dog, uneducated owner" that is more accurate for others. I think for the moment you fall into the uneducated owner. which isn't to say your completely clueless of dogs, just you have gotten your self a dog with some areas that need help that you may not be educated on how to address.

So if your open to some possibly "brand new to you" ideas/explanations I think we can help you.

Clearly not a bad owner because your asking for help here

right off the bat she seemed very high strung and extremely sensitive.

"extremely sensitive" is a VERY important piece to your puzzle. while you seem to see this, from the rest of your story I am not sure you completely understand how that plays out with your dog. If she really is a "extremely sensitive" dog it is going to very important to keep this in mind when you enter act with her, particularly when she is doing something you wish she wasn't. NOT saying you ignore/coddle etc, BUT you will need to modify your approach in dealing with "what it is you don't want her doing".

Yet she screamed bloody murder if I left to go to the store or did any daily activities outside of the home. I got this information from my neighbors. She had the company of my other two older dogs and didn't understand where this separation anxiety was coming from.

Separation anxiety/distress isn't always about simply being left by them self. Often it isn't even about being alone per say, but being separated from either a preferred human or dog.

Victoria in one of her US episodes helped a family with a dog who had crippling Separation issues when the other dog in the house was out of sight to the point they needed to medicate the dog to assist with the training. The fact one of the humans in his life was right there was of almost NO comfort.

My dog is the opposite. He doesn't so much mind being alone as me not being in sight. having another dog in the house or even the fact that my wife or kids are right there with him makes very little difference for him. all that he cares about is that I am not around. getting a second dog would NOT help my dog.

From your description, I suspect your dogs separation issues is about you being out of sight. The good news is that you generally do not have to medicate dogs to over come this. But you do have to work on building a tolerance for being away from you. there are people on here who have or are working through this very issue. I can also recommend a couple good books you can buy if you would like.

I used this book to help my dog. http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/produc ... on-anxiety Fortunately when he is healthy, just leaving him a food filled kong has made enough a difference that he generally is calm about me leaving and being gone to work now. he never progressed to the point he tears up the house or goes to the bathroom out of extreme stress/anxiety.

Another book to choose from is this one http://www.patriciamcconnell.com/produc ... -leave-me-

All of my dogs have been allowed on my bed (we all sleep together) and she would urinate on the bed at night. Of course, when this happened, I would immediately get up, yell "NO!" and take her outside (trying to get her to understand that she must urinate outside). I once had a friend sleep over and she stood on top of me (while we were watching TV) and urinated on me!

In her book, "Other end of the leash" by Patrica McConnell (excellent book, highly recommend it. it helps you understand dogs, what they are thinking, why they do some of what they do etc. it's easy to ready, understand etc. NOT dry or geeky at all) relates a story of a man who when and got him self a Chesapeake bay retriever if memory serves, and was told by the breeder that these dogs really need you to be forceful with them or they will run all over you. One of his issues was this dog was peeing in the house. The more the dog did this, the more the man became forceful, lots of loud NO! type stuff. the end result was he ended up by his actions teaching the dog to pee on the man's pillow/bed. what was happening was the more "angry/forceful" the man got the more his dog was trying to signal "I am not a threat". peeing is sometimes used as a "don't hurt me, not a threat to you signal".

When your dog pee's in the house there are a few possible reasons.

1. there are medical issues that have not been completely resolved
2. signalling "don't hurt me, I am not a threat"
3. leaving her smell around trying to feel secure. dogs LIVE through their noses, trying to leave a familiar smell might help your dog if she is stressed
4. just loosing control out of extreme stress/anxiety

For the peeing in the house, I would do the following as a place to start.

eliminate any medical issues
use a non ammonia based cleaner to really clean up her pee spots.

take her back to house training 101 if the peeing in the house seems "random" right now and make sure she isn't being asked to hold it longer than she is currently able. if she can only go 30 minutes without peeing, take her out at 25 minutes, reward for peeing out side with some super high value rewards. if she can go an hour, take her out at 50/55 minutes. or whatever it is she can go and then take her out a few minutes early. but do go with her, don't just expect her to use the doggy dog and go on her own at this time.

Really try and clue into things that are stressful to her and work on addressing them. If her peeing is stress related, address the stress and the peeing in the house should resolve. If she can't deal with strangers in the house at this time, no more strangers and Julie in the same room for now. things like that. If your not sure what to do about something specific that seems to be a trigger for stress/anxiety/peeing in the house I am sure someone here has dealt with something similar already and can offer advice.

If she has an accident in the house NO MORE yelling at her, IF she is a VERY sensitive dog you are more than likely making the problem worse by yelling at her.

... on occasion, she will willfully jump on my bed and urinate where I sleep. My side of the bed, on my pillow. Just the other night, I was in the office (connected to the bedroom) and when I was ready for bed, she had urinated on my side. Yesterday, she defecated on my side of the bed (this was a first!). All I did was look at it and she ran for the hills...so I believe she "knows" what she is doing is wrong. ....

she ran for the hills become of your "past attacks"...remember sensitive dog, you don't have to beat her to scare her or "attack" her. because she is sensitive even a disapproving look might be enough to cause fear/anxiety in your dog. Dogs pick up very small changes in our body language and some dogs have lower thresholds for feeling attacked or threatened by these changes. If your frustrated and upset when she pees in the house or on your bed, as understandable as that maybe, your response could be coming across MUCH, MUCH "louder" and threatening to her than you might realize. THAT is what she is reacting to, not any sense of "oh I did something wrong"

She now has refused to eat (within the last two weeks). Maybe she was bored with her kibble. So I changed it. She refused. I thought she was ill, so I gave cottage cheese and white rice. She ate some and then refused. I added a little wet food and kibble. She ate some and then refused. Then just yesterday, she refused her food again. I picked it up, stuck it in the microwave, offered it again and then she ate it. I don't like assigning human emotions, but it's as if she is trying to see how far I will go to make her happy.

Anthropomorphism (assigning human emotions to non human) can be helpful sometimes in relating to our dogs. BUT I think your going a little too far here. there are other much more plausible explanations for a dog not eating...may not be hungry. as crazy as that sounds, its a possibility. The food may make her tummy upset. May not taste good. A lot of the big name brand dog food is frankly poor quality. think eating McDonald's for every meal. She might be sick. Or she could be way to stressed to eat. The day I picked up my dog, I was told he would only eat every couple days. , since the day I got him, other than times when he was sick and it made sense to not feed him, he hasn't missed a single meal or ever turned away from food. when dogs are stressed they tend to not eat, but they will also not let them self starve. so which is in your dogs case? If the tension and stress in your house has escalated with the issues you are asking for help, being stress out would be my number one suspect for why she has stopped eating. but it could be medical or food quality related as well.

Can an animal be mean spirited? I almost think so with her. I don't know what to do. Victoria's article states as tip #1 to identify why the problem is happening. I don't know why she is doing any of these outrageous behaviors. I just don't even know where to start. If someone could point me in the right direction as this dog has zero respect for me and I am losing respect for her by the second.

I don't think you have a mean spirited dog, the feeling I have from reading your post is you have a high energy bred that is very sensitive and you and your dog are miscommunication.

I think the place to start is get a complete vet check. make sure there is nothing going on. work on understanding what her sources of triggering stress and anxiety and how to help her with these. make sure she is feed good food. make sure her physical and mental needs are being met. walks with just the two of you, maybe learn to do clicker training things like that. And if need be, take her back to potty training 101.

by the way, what are the ages, sex, bred of your other two dogs? and can you give us a glimpse what a typical day for your dogs is like. example, 6am we go for a walk, 7am breakfast, 12 we do some training etc that kind of thing.

[ladybug1802]

Greast post Jacksdad!

[leonalynn]

hello again.

I want to thank everyone for their responses to my problems/issues, especially Jacksdad. Thank you.

I did want to clear a few things up though.
~~I believe someone implied (or maybe I just read it wrong) that I beat my dog. I assure you this is not the case. I would never physically harm my animal. Yelling? Yes, I am very guilty of that and to a sensitive dog such as I have, I can understand that it is one and same to her.

~~I have also taken her in for a complete physical on different occasions to see if she has medical issues. Again, not the case. She is physically a healthy animal.

~~When she was a puppy, she urinated every half hour, now that she is older, she still urinates alot, but not every half hour.

~~When guests come over, I have tried to put her in another room and she screams and cries. I have further tried to put her in her kennel but, again, she screams and cried. I don't "make" her be in the same room as the guests (as someone else implied)as I know she is stressed out by them, but what is the alternative here? Yesterday, after reading the suggestions here, I did have a guest. I filled her Kong Ball with chicken, put her in her kennel in another room. It worked! That being said, it worked for about 15 minutes and then she started screaming again. Later I went to retrieve her and her Kong Ball was still full. So she started screaming, not because she was done being occupied, but screaming because...well I don't know!

What I took away from the comments/concerns here is that I may very well be to blame for her anxiety. My pother dogs, I was very calm when training and they are relatively calm animals today. I did this with Julie, but it didn't work that I just kept raising my voice an octive and now we are an an evil cycle that I raise my voice when she does something wrong and she does something wrong because I am raising my voice.

I also think she is bored. We do not go on enough walks, so I am making that a priority.

I did want to ask a very important question that I cannot figure out. In the evening around 9 or 10 when everyone is winding down and there is no stress in the house, why is it would she climb on the bed and urinate? I mean, I cannot understand this and therefore I cannot address it. She is not stressed at this point. She has had her dinner and a little snack before bed. She has gone outside. A further question I need to ask is how do I react to this? Since everyone got mad at me for yelling (rightfully so, how do I react to let her know this is the wrong behavior)?

Again, thank you for the suggestions and the book recomendations. I will definately look into them.

[doggymama]

When you keep her in another room, remember to praise/treat her when she IS quiet. My guess (if she's anything like my dog) is that, after a while your dog is getting bored being another room so is yelling for your attention. Dogs (in general) want to be near their master. If you have a guest coming over and you need to shut her in another room, make sure you reward the behaviour you want, ie when she's quiet. 15 minutes is a long time for a dog to be quiet, and kept in another room (well it is for me anyway, my dog would go a maximum of 5 minutes - then WILL want to join in)

You can also get a baby gate for the room you keep your dog in when she is shut away. Start with closing the door completely, then after a while open it, so she can see the guest, but through a baby gate. If she is calm and you decide to open the gate to let her be part of your company, make sure the guest ignores her, and maybe get your guest to occasionally chuck a treat in your dogs direction. This has recently worked for me - my puppy has gone from barking at our guests, to almost climbing them showering them in kisses - wanting their attention. But with my dog, everything is on her terms at the moment.

[jacksdad]

I did want to clear a few things up though. ~~I believe someone implied (or maybe I just read it wrong) that I beat my dog.

I believe you are referring to my post. and yes you were misreading. the point I was trying to make was that if your dog is really, really sensitive you don't need to be beating your dog to cause over the top stress responses, one of which could be what is often refereed to as "submissive peeing". not sure that is the best description for it, but however you label it the action, if your dog is doing it, it's trying to signal it's not a threat to you.

[Gordiesmom]

I had issues with our cat urinating in our house and couldn't figure it out. It was to the point that when I was moving into another house that we had revenivated from a forclosure that was destroyed by animals, that I was going to have my beautiful 13 year old cat to sleep. I just didnt' know what to do. Our vet recommened using Comfort Zone, which secretes feline phermones. I AM THRILLED to say it worked amazingly. There was not one ounce of stress to our cat from the move.
I realize you have a dog and am happy to say that the Comfort Zone for dogs works just as well. I bought one for our new puppy a few months ago and keep it in the room with his crate. He NEVER even whined at night the first few weeks because the phermones it secretes are the same as a nursing female dog. I wish I had used this for my Golden but it wasn't available when she was a puppy. Give it a try and you will be amazed at the difference.