9-Weeks Puppy behavioral questions

[LauSai]

Dear all,

 

It is very nice to reach here. I have some questions about puppy behaviors.

 

My puppy is a King Charles Cavalier 9 week puppy.

 

1) Food & Water

I find out that he is quite hyper when I prepare food and water for him. He barks a lot and I find out it is difficult to make him calm before giving him food and water. Should I wait for him to calm before giving him food and water? If not, how should I make him calm?

 

2) Playing

The puppy is quite full of energy. When I play with him, he finds no interest in toys. He ignores the ball when I throw a ball. He only wants to bite my finger or hand. How would you play with puppy usually when you cannot bring him out to the street?

 

Thanks,

Trevor

[Einstein the Dog]

Hi Trevor!

 

How have you and your dog been getting on with the training material?

 

Remember that "behaviors that are reinforced, tend to be repeated and strengthened, whereas, behaviors that are not reinforced tend to extinguish and weaken." This means that if you reward your dog with food and water when he is barking and acting hyper, the behavior will be reinforced. If you wait for him to calm down and then as soon as he is calm give him the food, you will be reinforcing the preferable "calm" behaviors instead.

 

As for his boundless energy, try working through the brain games in the Brain Training course:

 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/

 

Most of the games rely on food as a reward rather than a toy, and many of them are good for burning up extra energy.

[LauSai]

Hi Trevor!

 

How have you and your dog been getting on with the training material?

 

Remember that "behaviors that are reinforced, tend to be repeated and strengthened, whereas, behaviors that are not reinforced tend to extinguish and weaken." This means that if you reward your dog with food and water when he is barking and acting hyper, the behavior will be reinforced. If you wait for him to calm down and then as soon as he is calm give him the food, you will be reinforcing the preferable "calm" behaviors instead.

 

As for his boundless energy, try working through the brain games in the Brain Training course:

 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/

 

Most of the games rely on food as a reward rather than a toy, and many of them are good for burning up extra energy.

 

 

This is Oreo (3 months puppy) again. I am quite frustrated and would like to ask for second opinion here.

 

Recently I have found a local dog trainer (train the trainer approach) who taught us to reward (including giving responses, pet, food, etc) only if Oreo does the right thing, i.e. most importantly be calm. This is basically the same principle as your training approach.

 

The question is we have been taught Oreo needs to stay calm and hold, until we say yes in order to come out from the crate. Also, allowing Oreo run freely will make Oreo hyper. So we have been instructed to not to make Oreo hyper until Oreo learns how to listens and pay attention to us first. We asked the dog trainer but the answer is that he will get tired when learning from us patiently.

 

Question - should we allow him to run freely for a while (out of crate) even though he will be crazy?

 

The problem comes after dinner at night. Two questions:

(1) He wants to chew (since he is puppy), but if we give him chewing toys, he will get crazy (to the points of no return... barking, jumping crazily). What should we do?

(2) He likes to bark so much before he poo (only during day time, luckily not during mid night when we were sleeping). Is it possible to correct this behavior?

 

 

Thanks a lot, this really makes me very headache these days.:(

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello Oreo!

At 9 weeks it sounds like Oreo is engaging in totally normal puppy behaviors! Of course, with all things training, you will hear different opinions from one trainer and another. If you are looking for a second opinion though here are my thoughts. It is great your pup is being allowed out of the crate only when he is calm. This way you are reinforcing calm behaviors, great job!

 

It's totally normally for a puppy to want to run around, especially after eating! These are affectionately called the "zoomies." Now, some dog owners like to have a "no crazy playing in the house" rule and let their pups or adult dogs get rid of their excess energy outside in the yard. Others, accept the "zoomies" playtime in the home and even enjoy watching their pups have fun. So it's up to you whether you want to allow it in the home or not. If you are concerned about your puppy getting hurt by running around and bumping against furniture, by all means, let him run in areas where there's more room such as in a safely fenced yard or with a playmate in some other areas with open space.

 

Otherwise, your other option is to channel this excess energy in other ways. If this energy remains trapped in the body, there are chances all this kinetic energy may be released other ways (whining in the crate, excess jumping, chewing the bars of the crate etc). So draining this excess energy is important. You can take your pup for a car ride, let him play with a playmate (preferably a pup of close age who is vaccinated, a great way to refine bite inhibition!) have a fun pup party letting him meet many different people (at this age he is in the prime time of his socialization period, so make sure he meets all sorts of people of different age groups, remember that the socialization period ends at 12 weeks) and then of course, brain games! Rather than letting him romp around like crazy, since this happens reliably after dinner-time, why not take a portion of his kibble from his bowl (or even the full portion) and put it to use? You can use some kibble to ask him to sit, "yes!" then toss a piece of kibble or you can place all his kibble in a food-dispensing toy (like a Kong Wobbler) and let him work on it.

 

The chewing behavior is also totally normal puppy behavior. The toy stimulates his prey drive, so he likely loves to see it bounce in the air, chase it, stalk it and bark at it. Food dispensing toys may cause less crazy behaviors as the pup will likely focus more on getting the kibble out.

 

When he barks before pooping, do you know exactly what he is barking at? Are there neighbors outside or sudden noises that trigger the barking? Do you have a doggy door or is he out with you supervised?

Edited July 8, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli

[LauSai]

almost 5-months Oreo saying hi here - this is me again! Thanks for the reply and I research more and get to know more about zoomies. I worked on it a bit and found out exercises (2 or 1 walk per day) can help reduce zoomies times! I cant find any trigger for barking, but regular exercise reduce that barking, so we do accept it now :rolleyes: Now there are two issues that we are working on it, see if you have any ideas:

 

1. food

Since in the past 1-2 months, we did a lot of training (most of it is about teaching Oreo be calm, and now he is better) using the food. For example, when he is calm, we will give him reward. Sometimes when we feed, we will drop down the food, requiring Oreo to look at us. He can only eat if we say "OK". He can do all these well. The problem is now he refuses to eat if we give the whole bowl down. I guess he probably wants us to hand-feed him, out give him a small plenty of food each time, so that he can interact with us. Yesterday it was a bit weird -- we put down the bowl, he refused to eat. But he accidentally flips the bowl, and the food is scattered on the floor. And he surprisingly ate some of them. And once he stopped eating, then I made some movement for the food, then he ate some of them again. The question is why he has such weird behavior (not too make senses for me) and is it possible to correct this behavior?

 

2. walk (with Leash)

During the walk, Oreo is super hyper and pull the leash quite a lot. What we do here is to just stop moving when he pull, and move again when he is still. We are not sure that is it because Oreo is still a puppy and too curious about the outside world, so that he pull a lot. He will naturally behavior better when he grows? Or that's our problem and we should train him to have a structured walk right now, don't wait. We tried to use food to lure him looking at us while walking, but he will become a bit crazy jumping to our hand and bark for the food. So we stopped this luring at the moment, and would like to see what should we do.

 

Finally, I am really interested in knowing more about how dog thinks and why dog sometimes have bad behaves. I am reading the Cesar Millian "How to Raise the Perfect dog: Through Puppyhood and beyond". Are there any other book recommendations from you? Thanks!

 

By the way, such a good site and forum!

 

Thanks,

Oreo and Trevor :)

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello there, and thanks for the update.

It's great that Oreo has been learning so many things! Kudos to you! Let's see what we can do to fix the two issues you are facing.

 

1) Many dogs (and many puppies!) behave oddly when around food bowls. If this is a completely new behavior, there are a few things to evaluate. Are you using a new food bowl? Some dogs act weird around shiny food bowls as they see their reflections in it and get startled. Sometimes, it's an issue with the food. The dog may have simply gotten tired of the food or may be complaining if there's something missing (eg. dog used to get some canned food mixed in with the dry or has it topped with gravy). These dogs are simply hoping for a better food and then, once they notice no better foods arrives, once they find it on the floor they'll eat it.

 

In some cases, it can be a sign of mouth pain. At 5 months, your puppy is still teething, so maybe some gums are a bit sore. If you feed treats during the day, it could be he isn't very hungry yet. Some dogs are just plain picky. And the more you try to coax them to eat, the pickier they act. If he refuses to eat from the bowl at meal time and you make the mistake to hand feed him, he will quickly learn to wait for you to give in and hand feed him which can become a difficult issue to overcome.

 

It is great to train a dog to eat food only once you put the food bowl down and your dog is calm and waiting. This teaches your dog to be calm and not get in your way for meal preparation. If you ask your dog to "sit" before putting the bowl down and say OK, you have rewarded the calm sit. You mention though "Sometimes when we feed, we will drop down the food, requiring Oreo to look at us." I am guessing you are dropping a piece of kibble versus giving access to the whole food bowl during meal time and therefore let him eat only when he looks at you? If you have made this a sort of meal-time ritual, then he may be simply waiting for his ritual. Dogs have habitual creatures, so they like to repeat things.

 

It could simply be he just finds it more fun to "work for his food" once it's on the ground. Many dogs refuse food from a bowl and rather eat it from the ground. In such a case, you can try to skip the food bowl altogether and let him eat his kibble scattered around the home in a treasure hunt fashion or you can use the kibble to fill up an interactive toy such as a Buster Cube or Kong Wobbler. Many dog owners love to use snuffle mats. More and more dog owners are relinquishing their food bowls for more interactive games that meet a dog's natural instincts to "scavenge" and work in search of food. It falls under canine enrichment.

 

One thing you can do is try to transfer value from the floor to the food bowl by doing his looking at you training as usual, but this time instead of dropping the reward on the floor just strategically drop it into the bowl and let him get it from there. Then slowly start increasing the amount dropped into the bowl at a time until he's finally eating mostly from from his bowl.

 

As a very last resort, if it's really important for you that he eats from the bowl you may need to be strict. That would mean, putting down the food bowl, saying "OK," giving him 10 minutes to finish it up and then taking the bowl away, even if he hasn't eaten any or has left some. Then repeat in the evening. This teaches him that if he doesn't readily eat, he loses his opportunity until next leal time. You want him to be extra hungry so make sure not to give any food during the day. Sometimes, to increase saliency, it may help to place the food bowl behind a glass door or inside a closed crate. Your dog may visit several times in hopes of getting the food. Not getting the food makes it extra valuable. When you then open the crate or the glass door at meal time, your dog may feel more compelled to eat because he desired it during the day.

 

Possible solutions for issue number 2, coming up in the next post. ..

Edited March 23, 2018 by Adrienne Farricelli

[Adrienne Farricelli]

If Oreo is super hyper during the walk, you can try draining some pent-up energy before going on the walk. It sounds like walks are being used to disperse energy, and this is good, but if the energy is too much, this may lead to rowdy, out of control behaviors which are more difficult to tackle. Instead, try to play some structured games prior to walking such as fetch rewarding calm behaviors (puppy sits before ball is tossed) or you can do some fun Jazz up and Settle Down. Get that extra energy drained and start the walk with calm behaviors. Ask for your puppy to sit when you put the leash on and sit when you open the door. Look up the open sesame game here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/college/open-sesame/ If you start your walk with uncontainable excitement, it will persist in future walks. Soon excess excitability is associated with walks.

 

Stopping to move when he pulls is important and you really need to be very, very consistent. You will have to imagine your loose leash being your accelerator and the tense leash being your brakes. For consistency, always keep your hand in the same spot. Don't pull your arm forward when he pulls or he'll quickly learn that pulling gains him those extra inches. On top of stopping in my tracks when training good leash walking, I like to add the extra consequence of having the dog come back to me in "heel position" in order to free me up from being stuck in the "spell' that has glued me to the ground. Once back in heel position, I like to give two forms of rewards consisting of a high-value treat for rewarding being next to me followed by the life reward of moving forward. I have found that this leaves a stronger impression on the dog. This is discussed in detail here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/

 

With some dog owners with dogs eager to do things, I like to teach them to stretch their hands and ask their dogs to "target" them to get them back into heel position when their dog is ahead pulling and they stop in their tracks. Here is the part about targeting if you want to give it a try: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/ You will have to make targeting though an extra fluent behavior practicing a lot at home and in the yard beforehand before going on walks.

 

I would start practicing on a quiet road at first. If he becomes a bit crazy jumping to your hand and barking for the food, make sure you never give food at those times otherwise you will have rewarded those behaviors. You need to be quick here and reward nice heeling before he has an opportunity to jump or bark. Providing the treat lower may prevent jumping, and if he manages to jump up or bark as you are delivering, the treat goes quickly back into the treat bag. You can add a little bit of drama by saying something like "whoops!" every time you do this. This is called negative punishment. If done consistently, dogs learn fairly quickly that barking or jumping leads to no reward, while quiet and calm leads to rewards and moving forward. Some dog owners find tossing treats on the ground makes dogs less focused on hands and jumping. Whatever you do, make sure the food is quickly stopped being used as lure here, but is then used as a reward for coming to heel. In other words, you need to fade the lure as explained in the heeling section.

 

Now, puppies are easily distracted and have lower attention spans so it's OK to be a bit more forgiving for certain things. For example, I wouldn't ask long attention heeling at this age. I would also allow the puppy to sniff and explore a certain designated area of the walk by telling him "go sniff!" and loosening the leash. No pulling still allowed, you just give him a bit more freedom.

 

However, to answer your question, I am a firm proponent that behaviors that are not tackled by the end of puppyhood will persist into adulthood. Right after puppyhood is the challenging adolescent stage (for your puppy it's right behind the corner), and you want to have taught strong polite leash walking basics by then. Now, it's true that many dogs will naturally behave better as they grow. Many dogs at the age of 5 become much, much calmer. But these dogs are more often than not, the dogs who were imparted a good dose of training by that time.

 

As for book recommendations I have several written by great professionals. One of my favorites is "The Other End of the Leash" by Applied Animal Behaviorist Dr. Patricia McConnell, then "Inside of a Dog's Mind" by Alexandra Horowitz and "Do Dogs Dream?" by Stanley Coren.

 

I hope this helps! Good luck with Oreo!

Best regards,

Adrienne

Edited March 23, 2018 by Adrienne Farricelli

[LauSai]

Hi Adrienne,

 

This is Oreo again ! Finally Oreo becomes a 7-month puppy (or adult dog?!)!

 

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation. Oreo does learn a lot as he is a fast learner (thanks God!). There are some questions (that can hardly Googled) would like to ask you :)

 

1) When and How much for Treats?

As learnt from what you have taught, and some experiments with Oreo, we finally managed to make him eat again in the bowl. But the trade-off is that we give up all treats during the day except we gave him just very little amount of high value treats when he does his business on the street (poo).So basically we have done no training during the day.

 

But I am now thinking I would like to recall some tricks that we taught him, such as 'sit', 'settle', 'hand hand'; also new lesson such as 'brush teeth', 'heel' etc. Otherwise, I afraid that there will be no stimulation / boring for him.

 

So may I know how would you balance between giving out treats and the normal meal in terms of portion and frequency?

 

2) Expecting a New baby coming to our home in December!

It is expecting that a new baby will come to our home in December :) I learnt from some googles and forums that we should play some "baby crying" sound to him during the day to let him get used to it. Also, bring the clothes with the smell of baby to introduce to Oreo first. Pay less attention to Oreo before baby arrives to let him get used to. And give treats if Oreo shows good things to the baby. Any of the above is correct, and anything else? Much appreciate if I can have more references and readings for this topic as I am quite nervous about this, although I believe King Charles should be quite friendly. Just want to make sure that he won't be jealous and become the best buddy of us!

 

3) Dogs need stimulation. But I have taught what I knew...

That's just an interesting question to me... should we need to learn continuously for what to teach Oreo in order to keep him stimulated?!

 

and, thanks very much!

 

Best regards,

Oreo and Trevor

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello Oreo and Trevor!

Thanks so much for the update, it's nice reading about your pup growing and all the stages he is going through. Here are my answers to your questions:

 

1) Good to hear he is back to eating from the bowl! There are really no rules written in stone about when to give treats for training. Generally, best when dogs are a bit on an empty stomach considering that after meals, treats may be less appealing. Since your dog has had in the past the issue of not wanting to eat from the bowl, perhaps it may work best for you to do several training sessions at a time that is far away from mealtimes like during the middle of the day if your puppy is fed twice a day morning and evening. As far as quantity, a little goes a long way. You can give tid bits of treats (like pea size) and this will be often enough to reinforce desired behaviors. If you are concerned about calories, there are now several low-calorie treats sold in most pet stores. Otherwise, you can reduce a bit his meal portions to make up for the extra treats.

 

2) Congrats for the upcoming baby! Yes, what you have read is correct. You want to give your dog as many opportunities to create positive associations with babies even before the baby arrives. You want to get your dog used to babies crying and babies crawling. Getting your dog used to you pushing a stroller is another thing to consider. You also want to get your dog used to your new routines and yes, having less attention from you, although it's still important to dedicate some time with the dog otherwise this may lead to undesirable behaviors. If you have another family member/close friend that can take care of providing exercise, training and mental stimulation during your peak busy times, that's a big plus. Of course, getting this family member/friend to help out prior to baby's arrival is best so that your dog won't be dealing with too many changes at once.

 

I will be posting new material on the process of desensitizing and counterconditioning dogs to babies shortly. Will keep you posted as soon as they are up by posting an update here.

 

3) Learning never ends! Indeed, dogs learn all their lives and this includes desirable behaviors, but if we are not careful, even the undesirable ones. The more creative we can get in teaching new behaviors, the more dogs are happy and the more we increase the plasticity of the dog's brain. It does exist the phenomenon of some dogs getting bored from being asked the same behaviors over and over. This is especially a perk of the most intelligent dogs. Several dogs benefit from training sessions where several behaviors are asked in a row and they never expect what's coming next. Others need to be engaged in several different tricks, games (it helps to rotate games and toys so to add a touch of novelty every now and then) and activities (agility, nosework, Rally Obedience).

 

I hope this helps,

Best wishes!

Adrienne

Edited May 30, 2018 by Adrienne Farricelli

[Adrienne Farricelli]

As promised, here is an article on introducing dogs and babies:

 

Dogs are often stressed/reactive when hearing babies crying:https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/get-dog-used-crying-baby/

 

When babies start crawling: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/get-dog-used-crawling-baby/

 

Before bringing a baby home, it may help to socialize a puppy to children: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/socializing-puppy-children/

 

I will keep posted when we will be adding more.

Edited July 15, 2018 by Adrienne Farricelli

[LauSai]

Dear Adrienne,

 

It is very nice to read your article and gives me a very complete picture of what I need to do in the coming few months! Let me try that and start with baby steps! Looking forward for reading your article!

 

 

Just would like to show you my suddenly-become-naughty adolescent Oreo as a thank-you for so many useful advice! (and Oreo saying thank you for giving him treats! lol :))

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Awww, what a cutie! Sends pats to Oreo from me.

Keep me posted!

Adrienne

[LauSai]

Dear Adrienne,

 

Oreo is 1.5 years old!!! He becomes a much mature little doggie than 3 months old ;)

 

3 months before, I started to fence an area for Oreo in living room to live his daily life. I normally walk him 1-2 a day, with an average of 30-40 minutes. However, he doesn't walk freely in my home since we are pretty busy for newborn baby stuff.

 

Now we can squeeze more time out for Oreo and try to release him out more.

We did a few trail:

he played and destroyed our slipper - fine, I will do environment management - remove all slipper before

he still ate the corner of my furniture - fine, I will do environment management and say "No" to him - he will walk away while I am here

but now he brings his toys and jumps onto Sofa and play, which made me need to walk away ;):confused: - I think I could remove all toys before release him next time

 

I think his pattern is like this:

release from fence --> Super High Energy & Zoomies --> Tired and rest a while on Sofa / Ground --> Super High Energy to play toys and Run

 

Question: Would it be possible to sharp his behavior and make him more stable in energy? Also, is it possible to sharp him not playing on Sofa, only Rest on Sofa.. just play on the ground?

 

Personally, I think training a dog for a desired behavior (last for a longer period) is more difficult than a command. As some training advice may suggest, we can give treats / positive reinforcement when the dog does a desired behavior (calm). But after all they will need to drain up their energy and they will run around or play around. The Question is how to make the pattern more stable instead of a sudden-run and sudden-rest pattern which is more dangerous for me to carry a baby and walk around in the home.

 

 

Lastly, Oreo usually goes out to Poo (remove to trash immediately). But when he poo at home sometimes, I go to eat Poo before we removed it. Is there anyway to prevent this? He will also eat diaper (Pee Pad?!)... which made us afraid that this will cause problems in his digestive system...

 

 

p.s. I do think Oreo is a much better and lovely doggie. Just want to find a way to live with him happier together at home everyday! :)

Edited February 19, 2019 by LauSai

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi LauSai,

Oh my, where did time go, Oreo is already a teenager getting closer and closer to adulthood! By the way, if you haven't read the article on doggy adolescence yet, you can find it here. In smaller dog breeds it can last anywhere between the ages of 18 and 24 months. This read may explain some of the behaviors you are seeing. Here is the link: (you need to be logged in the course as a member to access this)https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/survive-dogs-adolescent-stage/

 

 

It sounds like you have been doing a good job juggling between a new baby and catering to your pup's needs (they're always eternal puppies to us, aren't they?). I can't imagine how overwhelming and challenging it may feel dealing with so much going on.

 

From what I can deduce based on what you describe, Oreo has been walked 1 to 2 times a day, but hasn't had free-run of the rest of the house since the baby's arrival-up until now, but now you are facing some issues.

 

I must admit, I am not too surprised, Why is that? For the simple fact that now that he has again full reign of the house, it must feel like a trip to Disneyland. Not only must he be super excited and happy to be again around his family, but he also has access to stuff that he may have not been allowed to have when he was in his confinement area. If this is all new behavior (he didn't do this before or if he did, it was not to this extent) I would attribute these behaviors to all the novelty going on.

 

It may just be that you may need to re-train him to respect your property (leave it/drop it command as outlined in the obedience 101 section of the course) or if you are too busy keeping all eyes on him for now, yes, you can simply manage and remove these items before he has access to them. Fair enough, it sounds like you are already planning to do this, which is great!

 

If he wasn't this way before, I assume that with time, he'll adjust to all this novelty going on and the extra room to stretch his legs and celebrate being around all of you and all the other great perks such as going on the couch. Yippee!

 

However, there may be chances that some of his behaviors you are seeing may be triggered by the need for attention. Just like a child dealing with the arrival of a new baby, dogs may start misbehaving just for the sake of getting attention, even if it's of the negative type. So grabbing those slippers, chewing on furniture may all be attempts to get your attention if most of your day is focused on the baby. For dogs like this, it helps to dedicate some time where they are given one-on-one attention and lots of praise for performing desirable behaviors (such as performing some obedience commands, tricks, fetching things, etc.).

 

Cavalier King Charles spaniels are dogs who are highly dependent on human companionship and thrive when given things to do and attention. They hate being left alone. They tend to have a natural predisposition to please as long as the training is positive, fun and upbeat. Many dog owners perceive them as lap dogs, but many are surprised by their athletic and outdoorsy instincts. If you have a yard, allow Oreo to play around and stretch his legs there when you take him first out of his confinement but make sure he is with you or another family member rather than alone.

 

I think as he stays less and less behind the gate/fence and the more he resumes being around his family, the less he should have these zoomies and the more likely he'll resume the normalcy he was used to pre-baby. I think these big shifts in energy reflect the difference between staying in a static environment (behind the fence) and then being exposed to sensorial overload (Oh, I am with my family, yay! Oh wow, the couch! Oh, this feels so nice, hello slippers, hello furniture! Hello everyone, can you just pay attention to me!"

 

More on some of the other issues you are seeing, coming next in another post.

Edited February 20, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli

[Adrienne Farricelli]

If you need to walk around with your baby (by the way, how has been doing with the novelty of the baby?) and you are concerned about tripping over him because he's always underfoot, by all means keep him temporarily confined but perhaps offer an interactive toy (food puzzles like Kong, Kong Wobbler etc.) so that he can discharge some energy and not feel frustrated by not getting the attention he may crave.

 

In regards to him bringing toys on the couch, yes, you may have to remove them before he is allowed in the room but that may leave him with little to do other than chewing up slippers or other inappropriate items and general misbehaving. We want him to make good choices and play/chew his toys is a good choice if he may otherwise get into mischief in other ways.

 

Perhaps you can find a middle ground such as providing toys that grab your dog's immediate attention and that require a more interactive level of interaction rather than passively chewing toys on the couch. A food dispensing toy such as a Kong Wobbler may keep your dog occupied, and since it's quite heavy and difficult to transport especially the larger ones), it will likely be destined to remain on the floor. However, please use caution with giving high-value toys/foods (if that means being around the baby) as you may never know.

 

Another option is to provide your dog with his own comfy place to call his "den." For example, you can invest in a comfy memory foam dog bed or use a playpen and make it extra appealing. Praise and reward your dog for using these areas. If your dog happens to show his intent to go on the couch, you can always redirect by training your dog to "go to his mat." As a temporary measure, when you cannot actively supervise if you're too busy, sometimes the best option is putting obstacles in the way (like large boxes) to prevent him from jumping up on the couch.

 

Poop eating isn't really harmful per se (unless the dog has parasites) but it can be an annoying habit and it puts roots the more it is rehearsed. It can sometimes stem from dogs being punished for going potty in the house (they ingest the evidence in fear of punishment), stress, attention-seeking behavior (if it grabs the owner's attention) and sometimes nutritional deficiencies or digestive issues. You can read more about coprophagia (poop eating) here: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/eating-poop/

 

You are right to be concerned about him eating his pee pads. The main concern with pee pads is that they are designed to be absorbent, so they can absorb fluids from the gastrointestinal tract and grow in size, making them a risk for getting stuck in the dog's intestines. So we want to curb this behavior. There are several options to try.

 

A good starting point is to make the activity of chewing up the pee pads a more difficult task. An option may be investing in a special pee pad holder (shaped sort of like tray) to help keep the pad in place and make it difficult to move. The pad tray acts as holder, considering that it has latches purposely designed to lock the pad securely in place and ensuring it stays flat. There are mixed reviews on these trays tough with some owners reporting success and others still reporting that dogs manage to shred them and chew on them.

 

Alternatively, you can try to invest in washable, reusable housebreaking pads. These are made of fabric and many like their ease of use since they help save money in the long run. However, not sure if he may chew these up too.

 

For very stubborn cases, I have seen some success using those "doggy litter boxes" but it may just take an adjustment period to transfer dogs to their use and I am not sure if there may be parts your dog may chew apart and swallow.

 

Ensure as always that your puppy has access to plenty of toys (rotate them every now and then as you have been already doing to keep his interest alive and invest in interactive food-dispensing toys that provide a mental workout) so he can make good choices. We want to make the pee pads look boring in comparison with these awesome toys.

 

Something to consider is whether the pee-pad eating is associated with the poop eating. If your dog has developed a liking for eating his feces, traces left on the pee pad automatically make the pee pad attractive to eat too. So managing the poop eating may help solve the pee pad eating by default. This would to a good extent entail removing the pee pad as soon as he poops on it.

 

Also, make sure there isn't much stress going on Oreo's life. I know, easier said than done, but with a new baby, things can get very stressful to dogs and this can lead to anxiety chewing and the onset of other undesirable behaviors.

 

I hope this helps,

Send pats to Oreo for me, and congrats on the new baby!

Edited February 20, 2019 by Adrienne Farricelli