blue tick/walker hound mix pup..please help!!!!

[skylarsmommy]

ok so here is the thing...i am not sure exactly of the age of my pup...i guess around 3 or 4 months...all of her adult teeth are in...and she just got them all in last month sometime...we got her in november 2011 she she was really small...i thought she was about 3 or 4 weeks old not sure though...and we really dont know is the breeds are absolutly correct either those are just what she looks like the most...she is about 20 to 25lbs and im not sure how tall...but i just had to move her up to a 16inch collar cause her other one was to small now...she is house broken finally....and she walked pretty good on a leash she pull a little...and im not sure how to fix that...but she seems to be really scared of things she neer seen before...like small children she will bark and bay at them...obbsessivly...we got her a harness but she ate it...she is also eating everything..and thats no joke she ate three packages of baby wipe the otherday and my wic paperwork..she has also eaten toys that our other dog favors and he gets sad and mopey cause we had to throw them out..i have no idea how to correct her chewing on stuff...she used to be food aggressive and seems to have grown out of it and does great with the other dog now...and does not attack him anymore...but she started chewing things up...she is walked at least 4 miles a day as i do not have a car and the only way around is walking...but there is only so much walking i can do as i am 28 weeks pregnant...i have bought her a muzzle for now that she wears when she has to be left home alone...(which is never long..the longest she has been left was an hour and a half and those times are for dr visits) but i need advise in how to correct this...i think she might suffer from seperation anxiety but i dont know...and i dont know if she is getting enough exersize..but 4 miles should be right?

[Jindo]

The toy issue can be solved by buying a tougher tough that can't be obliterated so quickly. And you should watch your pup a little more closely to make sure she isn't getting into things that can potentially be dangerous to her.
You shouldn't overdo exercising with puppies. 4 miles for a 3-4 month old pup is too overexerting.
And for things she is afraid of, can you explain what you do when she starts acting up?

[skylarsmommy]

well when we get home from our walks she will sleep for bout an hour...then she is running laps around my house and ready for another walk...and usually we are out on our walks just walking down the road...if i go down a road and take a different route on our walk she gets nervious and wants to be picked up and carried...i think she is scared i will abandon her...maybe a fear from when she was younger im not sure...(before i got her) but she barks and bays at everything if she sees people,other dogs,kids,cats, anything...but she loves it when people come up to pet her...she will stop barking at them and is all excited to meet them...she even jumps up sometimes but we are working on that and she is learning that thats not ok...but ya

[Sarah83]

Please, please don't muzzle her when you're not there, a muzzled dog should never be left unsupervised. What if she's sick? What if she attempts to remove it and gets caught up? You would be far better off crate training her to prevent the inappropriate chewing when you're not there and supervising and making sure things are out of reach when you are there. Unfortunately puppies need to chew so you also need to make sure she has access to things she's allowed to chew. Stag bars, raw bones, stuffed Kongs, empty cardboard boxes she can shred. My last dog was terribly destructive and my current dog is also a chewer. Crate training to ensure they can't make the wrong choice about what to chew when I'm not able to supervise and making sure there are plenty of things around they can chew really helps. All I do if I see Spen pick up something he shouldn't chew is offer him something he can chew instead and I praise him for chewing on his toys and other appropriate things. Some dogs chew more than others. Some dogs will have the same toys for years, some will gleefully destroy anything they're given.

What do you do with her other than walk her? I would agree with Jindo that 4 miles is likely too much exercise for such a young puppy. The general rules is 5 minutes per month of the pups life so at 4 months old she should be getting 20 minute walks. I don't stick to this rigidly with my pup if he's off leash and able to do his own thing and go at his own pace but I do stick to it for leash walking. Lots of mental exercise is the key imo. Check out the Exercise the Mind thread here viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1135

My Rupert Bear was scared of pretty much everything when I got him. With him it was a matter of keeping him at a distance where he could see (or maybe just hear) the scary thing but not be terrified. I'd feed him treats at that distance and then once he was comfortable we'd move a step closer and repeat. Spen on the other hand barks out of excitement and frustration that he cannot get to whatever he's excited about. Usually another dog or children playing.