Used Omlet outdoor rabbit run Width 2.2m Height 2.05m Length 3.1m vgc.

[CatieB]

Coco our shih tzu has just had her first birthday. It seems to have coincided with bad behaviour.

 

Firstly she barks (and whines) so much more, at the cat, at us, when she hears noises, when she wants attention etc. And she doesnt stop. It very annoying particularly as we are campers and my husband is very sensitive about annoying other people. How can we tackle this please. Currently we do ignore her (as much as possible) or say Coco NO! in a low firm noise. Not sure either of these tactics are correct so all advice gratefully received.

 

At the same time she has become naughty. Two examples.

 

Eating things she shouldnt, its like a continual battle to prevent her getting toys, shoes and anything else (paper included -she will eat anything) She has lots of her own toys. The other thing is she keeps going upstairs. She has never tried before and now its an obsession despite always being told off. Last weekend she ran upstairs and into my bedroom and weed on the carpet within seconds. Its like she knows she is being a rebel and does it to deliberately annoy. I feel like she is trying to become the boss.

 

Our last dog was the most mellow, easy going well behaved dog in the world so this is all new. She is fine health wise so its not caused by ill health. Thanks in advance

[zakjon-98]

I know how you feel as my year old dog can be the same with barking at times so will be interested in any advice on that too. Mine is a cavalier cross a bichon and has endless energy so I find he is a lot better when he has had a big run around the woods. We are lucky with it being close but we don't have the chance to do this everyday as well as his twice a day walks on the lead.

I have never had any problems with chewing but if you buy her an edible chew from a pet shop this may help distract her. My dog loves a piece of deer antler which I bought from pets at home. It is quite expensive but has lasted a few months so far and he chews it every day plus it is good for helping them have clean teeth apparently.

[Lavenders_Blue]

Grrrrr, I just typed out a really long reply and lost it!

 

This is probably the dog equivalent of the 'teenage years' so the good news is that it will probably pass, even if you do pick up a grey hair or two along the way.

 

I was going to suggest the following (before my post vapourised )

 

Try and physically stop the problem behaviours - e.g. keep bedroom doors closed so she can't go in and wee or fit a stairgate, hide anything she might steal and eat/chew. If she can't get hold of things, she can't nick off with them! Easier said than done I know, but worth a go to minimise damage.

 

Give her things she can do as well as things she can't. I second zakjon-98's suggestion of a deer antler chew or a nylabone which is something she can legitimately have and chew.

 

Whining and barking - tricky, but ignoring is often the best way. Let her learn that whining and barking doesn't get her what she wants but when she is quiet, reward her with a game/chew/treat so she learns that it's nicer to be quiet.

 

She also sounds like a smart little dog who likes to use her brain (my dog is like this) so maybe spend a bit of time in training each day. It doesn't have to be anything formal, it could be learning a silly trick. Just something that gets her mind working. Yesterday I taught Tango a new game where I had a treat hidden in one of my hands, she had to sniff my hands and work out which one contained the treat and then tap that hand with her paw to get the treat. She worked it out really quickly and LOVED the game. I made the treats tiiiiiiiny so that we could play for longer.

 

Could you try occupying her in other ways such as feeding her meals in a kibble ball or kong. She would have to work harder for her food and it can be quite tiring for dogs.

 

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head which may/may not be useful. I am sure others will have some more specific training advice for you.

[kinsk]

Kongs are great.

 

I'd take away all her toys and only let her have a couple when you want to play with her, at the end of play time the toys go away. If she's got too many it'll be hard for her to distinguish which are hers and which aren't. After play time give her a chew, or the kong stuffed with whatever.

 

Barking and whining is definitely best dealt with by ignoring, it's attention seeking so any form of attention is rewarding the behaviour. If she starts I'd remove her from the room, without talking to her or making eye contact and leave her on her own until she stops, then let her join you again. It can take some perseverance but it does pay off.

[Mercedes55]

How nice to see someone else on here with a Shih Tzu, although sorry to read of your problems with her.

 

I would agree with all the advice about stopping her going upstairs and also the kongs and training too. Our Shih Tzu is still young but she rarely seems to bark. When we got her she was already 20wks old and totally untrained. She hated being left in a room on her own, but obviously when you have things to do in the house you can't just leave a young dog alone in a room unsupervised. We bought a crate and also a playpen and from day one I put Daisy in her playpen when I needed to go and do some housework and right away she started whimpering and crying. I would only come back once she had stopped doing that and would then praise her and she is now fine. We don't have a problem with barking as right now she doesn't seem to bark and I think in the couple of months we've had she she's only barked about 3 times.

 

I have heard from many Shih Tzu owners that as they get older they get a lot more difficult and will try to dominate.

 

The stag bars are very good, also the bully sticks are popular too and Daisy definitely prefers the bully stick and will chew on that for ages. Out of curiosity what food do you give her? I know some people believe some behaviour problems can be diet related.

[CatieB]

Thank you for the replies.

 

She does have her own chews, and toys. She regularly has raw hide chews and more recently fish skin chews from fish4dogs. Its definitely more naughtiness than lack of things to chew. I will get her a more long term product though like the deer antler as I've seen them in our local shop.

 

We do everything we can to avoid leaving temptation in her way but its amazing how she finds that lost toy or my blooming shoe. Grrr. We took the stair gate away months ago and there was no issue until this period of bad behaviour maybe it should go back but it will restrict the access to the rest of the house given the layout. She is most definitely an intelligent dog, she worked out the kibble ball quickly!

 

Lavenders blue how do you start that trick with the hidden food and tapping a hand. Just hide it and hope she gets it? We love tricks and have taught her various others.

 

We do ignore the whining but its hard on a campsite. She does have her crate which we've had from day one and she used to love it. In fact Mercedes she was like Daisy, until now, so I hope Daisy does not go on to develop this independent / dominant streak. We will have to persevere with the tactics we've used so far. We feed her Acana - have a google if you arent familiar, quite frankly as my best friend said...if only we could all have a diet like it!!!

 

Ironically tonight Coco is an angel and is sat curled up without a care in the world

[Lavenders_Blue]

It does sound like you are doing all the right things, so maybe it's just a case of sitting it out for a bit? So frustrating I know! The only other thing I can think is has Coco already been spayed and if not, could she be coming into season? I only ask because Tango's behaviour changed a lot when she came into season including weeing, whining and being clingy and just wondered if it could be the same thing? Obviously not with if she has been spayed already.

 

With the treat game, I put the treat into one of my hands, held them both out in front of me and let her have a good sniff. When it was obvious she knew which hand the treat was in (desperately trying to get my hand open) I asked her to give paw, which she already knows. As soon as she tapped the hand with the treat I opened it. It took about 2/3 goes and then she worked out the game. In the meantime she did quite a bit of sitting, lying down and rolling over as she knew she had to do something to get the treat but wasn't quite sure what! I guess you could also do the same game by hiding the treat under cups (Tommy Cooper style ) and getting her to tap the cup.... but I've not tried that so can't vouch for whether it works!

[bluekarin]

That's good to know re the find the treat in the hand game. I tried this with Neela a few weeks ago but she didn't really get it. I will try again though and persevere.

 

I tried the 'dog push ups' you mentioned in the magazine article on Neela this evenings. She did a few and then for the last sit laid down with her head on the floor and hurumphed I got her to sit one last time and rewarded her so I will try that again tomorrow.

 

So I don't go off topic, I am finding Neela is getting a bit attention seeking whiny recently and finding things she knows (I am sure she knows as she gives me a 'look') she isn't allowed; shoes, ED rubber, carpet, an old phone connections box attached to the wall..... She's only 5 months and I think she needs more mental stimulation - not sure how to do that so any ideas would be marvellous.

[Lavenders_Blue]

Could you try a scent/retrieve game with Neela? Hide a smelly treat in a room and get her to find it (make it easy at first so she gets the hang of the game) then make it gradually more difficult - hide when she's not looking, hide in a different room, garden etc with and without a trail of scent to follow. Or it could be a chew reward such as a nylabone (think they are pongy?) instead of a treat. Would need to be something with a scent that she could easily find I imagine. Or hide something that she has to retrieve to you and swap for a treat.

 

Perhaps feed her breakfast/dinner that way sometimes if she has kibble - scatter it in the garden so she has to find it.

 

It can be hard work sometimes keeping all these smart doggies entertained can't it? There are occasions when I wish Tango was a little dimmer and not so switched on all the time

[Mercedes55]

 

We do ignore the whining but its hard on a campsite. She does have her crate which we've had from day one and she used to love it. In fact Mercedes she was like Daisy, until now, so I hope Daisy does not go on to develop this independent / dominant streak. We will have to persevere with the tactics we've used so far. We feed her Acana - have a google if you arent familiar, quite frankly as my best friend said...if only we could all have a diet like it!!!

 

Ironically tonight Coco is an angel and is sat curled up without a care in the world

 

I do hope Daisy doesn't get like that

 

I have heard of the food that you feed Coco and I know it's a very good one. I bought a trial pack of Orijen as I had read good things about that but for some reason Daisy can't manage to eat anything larger than the tiny Royal Canin kibble and I know that's full of rubbish so for now she is just on the Nature Diet food and I make sure I clean her teeth every day and give her plenty of things to chew to hopefully keep her teeth clean.

 

I'm in no doubt that this breed can be quite naughty, I've heard it tons of times since we got Daisy. I've already had 2prs of very nice M&S slippers shredded by Daisy and like you I have to make sure everything is kept up high so she can't get at anything. However our other dog is a labrador and although she is now old I can still remember how bad she was as a puppy, far worse than Daisy

 

One of the people we know at puppy classes has already warned us that the adolescent period of 9mths to 3yrs is the hardest. Can't wait

[Chucky Mama]

She is at a really difficult age where dogs do start testing boundaries and you have to stand firm. Make sure that you don't raise your volume when she is barking, it is better to used hushed tones. Try distraction and then reward when she is quiet. I have found a water pistol rather handy when this doesn't work. followed by praise when quiet and perhaps a treat. She sounds like a bright little dog that may respond to more mental stimulation rather than increasing exercise. Search games are great and you can work on sit/stay exercises in the house plus leave/retrieve type games. You could make her sit and stay and then go and hide her favourite toy, go back to her and release her to find it and bring it back. You can get brain training toys but you can make up perfectly good games for her yourself. Make sure also that you are doing things like making her let you go in the door first, eat before she does, not letting her on the sofa or bed. Make sure you can sent her to her bed on command and call her to you to play rather than her coming to you and telling you to play. Subtle things like this can make quite a difference. Don't let her follow you everywhere you go in the house, it will make you feel good but will contribute to any separation anxiety she may have when you leave her at home. If she gets used to you leaving a room without getting stressed, leaving the house wont be such an issue. Having all toys available at all times makes them less interesting. Try having a box that you keep some toys in and bring the box out at times when she is likely to be difficult. She can then raid the box instead of things she shouldn't. Have a rotation of toys that you put away and bring out again. It is a bit like when you pack up children's old toys to go to the charity shop and all of a sudden they want to play with them! You do tend to have to go back to basics a bit with your training at this age and you will have to be really firm and consistent.

[Mercedes55]

The trouble with shih tzu's is that they are thought of as little lap dogs and I'm sure there are some that are, but the more I read up on them the more I find out that these are little dogs with a huge personality, although they aren't necessarily as clever as some of the other breeds. I have to say I don't agree with shouting or disciplining too harshly with this breed as they seem to respond better to praising for good behaviour and ignoring bad. Daisy has the awful habit of eating not only her own poo, but also the poo of our lab, which isn't much fun. At first I used to tell her off and all that did was make her go and poo somewhere I wouldn't be able to catch her, so I now just follow her around till she has done what she needs to do, praise her and distract her at the same time then quickly clear up after her.

[Chucky Mama]

the more I read up on them the more I find out that these are little dogs with a huge personality, although they aren't necessarily as clever as some of the other breeds.

You could well be right I don't know the breed well enough to be honest and so my advise is very generalised rather than specifically for this breed. I do like them as a breed, I think they are cracking little dogs with bags of personality