Home-alone-pup retaliates with face biting!
I started back at work and was pleasantly suprised how well Cheez-it is handling the matter. He doesnt fuss when I leave and he is quiet when I come home. I leave him out all the time when I am home and even let him sleep outside the kennel now for his many puppy-naps. (which have decreased in frequency by 300% since 8wks). I try my best to wear him out before I leave and before he goes to bed, but he is "always" awake now. I imagine because he sleeps all day while I am gone. After the 5 hour kennel sit-in he takes one serious bladder-movement, I'm actually sort of impressed at the amount of liquid-Tostitos he can produce on command.
He is now 11 weeks old, having the first 3 weeks of his life spent in 24 hour company I would say he is a very well minded pup. He still does ALL of the usual puppy things, biting, chewing, barking. He does them very infrequently though. I can count how many times I have heard him bark on 2 (well okay more like 6) hands. 14 weeks I believe and we can go do Man-Dog things such as take walks and hit the beach (I am exceptionally looking forward to that one, I am now a creamy shade of pale from all of the time indoors).
One thing has become sort of annoying. I spend time with him working on bite inhibition. He is free to smell about my hands and climb all over me and he does nibble and perform the occasional bite to which I "OUCH" and ignore him for a few minutes. That is working well, he is pretty courteous dealing with people-parts now, well except for the face. If he is near my face, he bites, and right for the eyes! Im not positive how I can handle that one. I do not plan on giving him face time to learn face-bite inhibition. That training effort would be painfull and possibly blinding. Any ideas? He see's a face within 2 feet of him and he bites it, plain and simple.
He has a few buddies in the neighborhood and he plays really nice with them. There is an Akita he see's alot and he does not bite her face or any of the other dogs for that matter. Im curious to know what is so desirable about the taste of my face?
My plan from here is to maintain his routine and basic tricks/behavior now until 14 weeks then work on the following listed in order of priority, tips on these would be great!
1.) Heeling, he simply must be good off-leash and heeling is the start for that.
2.) Come, he doesnt have this down pat outside yet. I bet because of his limited mobility until his shots.
3.) Spending the night(s) gradually outside his kennel until he can sleep the night without causing trouble.
4.) Spending a few minutes a day in the house alone (with a camera setup lol).
5.) Pee on command! This is hard for me to train now because of his lack of mobility. I cant walk him around a fun distance after he goes just yet.
6.) Swimming, he simply must. He hates baths but he's learning to swim, no If's or But's about it.
Also keeping his daily trick-time and play-time intact. He almost has all the basic tricks down, just needs to work on his patience.
Oh yes, I asked about adult-hair time estimates on my last blog because I thought he had a patch of hair possibly. It started out as a greasy spot on his lower back. Looking like the flea-treatment was applied. I washed him and it was still there, so I thought I left shampoo on him. Re-washed him and it was still there, so I brushed him out really good and checked for bugs/ticks ect. then Bitter-appled the area incase he was chewing.
Well he wasnt chewing, it's just big-boy hair coming in I guess. Like you guys said, slowly forming a faux-hawk up his spine. He's really un-groomed looking lately due to that and his grey puppy-hairs and receeding black beard. It's intresting how much he has changed in such a short period of time, but I think the worst part is over (the potty issues). He has not pee'd inside in about one and a half weeks, and even then it was only the occasional accident. I hear other horror stories about potty training and I am thankful that I spent such a huge amount of time with him from day 1 because he is learning the important stuff fast. Once potty-training and Behavior is pretty solid it's all about fun-play and exciting stuff. I think he will really enjoy it. I'm taking him hiking in the Carolinas in a few months. Hopefully he can sleep in a tent! (and mabye carry a small bag)
Am I forgetting something? If so let me know! I'm really trying to do things perfectly and document for use on friend for Cheez-it in a few months. I know I want a Shiba-Inu or another Corgi, still undecided on that, but I think her name will be "K.T."
Ah well, Good Night.
He is now 11 weeks old, having the first 3 weeks of his life spent in 24 hour company I would say he is a very well minded pup. He still does ALL of the usual puppy things, biting, chewing, barking. He does them very infrequently though. I can count how many times I have heard him bark on 2 (well okay more like 6) hands. 14 weeks I believe and we can go do Man-Dog things such as take walks and hit the beach (I am exceptionally looking forward to that one, I am now a creamy shade of pale from all of the time indoors).
One thing has become sort of annoying. I spend time with him working on bite inhibition. He is free to smell about my hands and climb all over me and he does nibble and perform the occasional bite to which I "OUCH" and ignore him for a few minutes. That is working well, he is pretty courteous dealing with people-parts now, well except for the face. If he is near my face, he bites, and right for the eyes! Im not positive how I can handle that one. I do not plan on giving him face time to learn face-bite inhibition. That training effort would be painfull and possibly blinding. Any ideas? He see's a face within 2 feet of him and he bites it, plain and simple.
He has a few buddies in the neighborhood and he plays really nice with them. There is an Akita he see's alot and he does not bite her face or any of the other dogs for that matter. Im curious to know what is so desirable about the taste of my face?
My plan from here is to maintain his routine and basic tricks/behavior now until 14 weeks then work on the following listed in order of priority, tips on these would be great!
1.) Heeling, he simply must be good off-leash and heeling is the start for that.
2.) Come, he doesnt have this down pat outside yet. I bet because of his limited mobility until his shots.
3.) Spending the night(s) gradually outside his kennel until he can sleep the night without causing trouble.
4.) Spending a few minutes a day in the house alone (with a camera setup lol).
5.) Pee on command! This is hard for me to train now because of his lack of mobility. I cant walk him around a fun distance after he goes just yet.
6.) Swimming, he simply must. He hates baths but he's learning to swim, no If's or But's about it.
Also keeping his daily trick-time and play-time intact. He almost has all the basic tricks down, just needs to work on his patience.
Oh yes, I asked about adult-hair time estimates on my last blog because I thought he had a patch of hair possibly. It started out as a greasy spot on his lower back. Looking like the flea-treatment was applied. I washed him and it was still there, so I thought I left shampoo on him. Re-washed him and it was still there, so I brushed him out really good and checked for bugs/ticks ect. then Bitter-appled the area incase he was chewing.
Well he wasnt chewing, it's just big-boy hair coming in I guess. Like you guys said, slowly forming a faux-hawk up his spine. He's really un-groomed looking lately due to that and his grey puppy-hairs and receeding black beard. It's intresting how much he has changed in such a short period of time, but I think the worst part is over (the potty issues). He has not pee'd inside in about one and a half weeks, and even then it was only the occasional accident. I hear other horror stories about potty training and I am thankful that I spent such a huge amount of time with him from day 1 because he is learning the important stuff fast. Once potty-training and Behavior is pretty solid it's all about fun-play and exciting stuff. I think he will really enjoy it. I'm taking him hiking in the Carolinas in a few months. Hopefully he can sleep in a tent! (and mabye carry a small bag)
Am I forgetting something? If so let me know! I'm really trying to do things perfectly and document for use on friend for Cheez-it in a few months. I know I want a Shiba-Inu or another Corgi, still undecided on that, but I think her name will be "K.T."
Ah well, Good Night.
Comment
-
Comment by Karen & Bailey on May 19, 2008 at 5:02pm
-
Bailey's racing stripe is getting quite wide now, and its 17 weeks! =P 4 months old on wednesday (ok shouldnt that be 16 weeks.. but ok forget it).. hmm
as with the face biting, bailey does nudge at me when i lay flat on the floor.. as well as climb on my back.. he likes to lick my ears. its really funny. hahaha and of course ticklish.. but he hasnt bit my face yet - but has nudged at it and not to harm me of course.
oohhhh i love shiba inus. theres one in our puppy class.. i shall get a picture of him and bailey together. they are so pretty!
your doing a great job with the little cheese (you being the big cheese, right).. hehe =) cant wait to see a pic of him surfing one day!
-
Comment by James on May 19, 2008 at 1:42pm
-
^ Yup thats the one. No idea why I find her so unconventionally attractive. It's probably the awesome loop-pedal'd guitar skills?(see below).
-
Comment by Suresh on May 19, 2008 at 8:15am
-
My dog is the same way - with me he licks and plays, with my boyfriend, he's one big giant chew toy. I guess he feels he should be softer with females.
-
-
I like K.T. it sounds like it should. "Cheez-it and K.T." It works for me. Obviously after a yellow (Corgi-colored) snack food and amazing scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall who I am absolutely in love with lol. Sadly I will have to settle for a dog so aptly named :)
He's pretty much attached to me when I am home, and there is definately plenty of floor-time. What gets me is that he finds my face so delicious yet the other main-human in his life, well she just gets kisses. I think he forgot who feeds him hah.
-
-
Thanks everyone,
I got Cheez-it at the proper (so I am told) 8 weeks. The list of goals for him are from 14 weeks until 1 year so there is no hurry. I understand that it takes great patience and certain things dogs can be quite resilient against. The reason I set 14 weeks as a starting point is that he is potty trained (well with proper watch). Meaning he wouldnt go in the house and he lets me know when it's time everytime. (Occasional accidents are okay). Also he will finish his shots and be generally managable, meaning he has some basic idea of what I would like him to do and he "knows" what is his and what is not, though I am sure he will test that in the future :)
I think the reason he tries the face-bite is because of his lack of facial-contact sort of putting that part up on a pedestal that he cant reach so when he can he is overly excited. I'll figure something out for that!
Thanks!
-
Comment by CaptainCorgi on May 17, 2008 at 2:00pm
-
You sound like you are doing a very good job with Cheez. I bet he will be a grand Corgi. My Corgi doesn't really like baths, but she LOVES water outside. So I'm sure if you introduce him to the beach he'll love it. Since we live in Vegas, the closest beach to us is in California. We've taken her there once when she was about 7 months and she loved it to death!
I bet that little spot on his back is his adult fur coming in. He'll still be gray for a while until he gets it all in. Then after that, he'll start to get those hind quarter hair and a ruff around his neck. About the face biting, well eye biting, I've never heard of that before. When I got on the ground with Eowyn when she was a pup, she went straight for my hair and started to dig in it. I just wouldn't give him a chance to bite your eyes and if he does, yell "OUCH!' and ignore him. Get up and turn your back on him. Kind of like the same technique you do when he nips your hands or something, but probably a tad bit more forceful.
Good luck! I hope you can take your Cheez swimming with you soon!
-
-
For peeing on command, with Roscoe, every time we went outside when I wanted him to go, I kept saying, Go pee! Go potty! And when he would go, I would say Good pee! Good potty! over and over respectably. Now when we're outside and I think he needs to go all it takes is "Go pee!" and whoosh the gates open. Same thing for potty ususally, but he needs to have to go. We have our schedule down now, so I'm pretty good at knowing when he'll need to go. I have to leave him alone all day when I'm at work as well, and he's holding it while I'm gone all day - really helps for keeping an elimination schedule.
-
Comment by Sam on May 17, 2008 at 8:15am
-
Dear James,
Sounds like you have some good plans ahead but I will offer you one word of advice.....patience. Your goals are great but you also need to consider reasonable time frames. Regarding solid elimination habits I wouldnt expect a young corgi to be well trained until they are about a year. Yes they may go fairly long periods where they do quite well but most have a relapse or two along the way. I find most are able to stay clean during the night long before the day time hours. The lack of activity at night is the contributing factor.
Day time alone does bring dogs to wish to amuse themselves. Most are going to find inappropriate things to chew on. Once again they may have periods where they dont destroy anything.....only to relapse. This is all part of raising a pup.
Regarding training - while it is great to start now keep in mind that he has a very short attention span at this age. Several short sessions will be much more helpful then long ones. Loose lead walking is the beginnings of the heel position. This would be my first goal.
The come command is the absolute most difficult to proof. Patience and practice will be the ticket here as well. Remember to ALWAYS make coming to you rewarding. NEVER call him to you to do something he may not like. Using little treats is helpful, call him at dinner time. Think of anything he really likes and call him to do those things. Use this command only when you are able to reinforce it. I have had great successes with tying a dog to me as I go about my business, especially when I start out and about. This defines the space I wish them to be in and is self correcting. Works like a charm.
Swimming - Some corgis love to swim and do well. Others sink like a stone. Exposing him to water is a great idea but always make it a pleasant experience. Make sure that you can keep him safe and make sure he doesnt get too tired as he is learning. A life jacket is highly recommended.
Face biting - Not a good behavior which you already recognize. As I recall you got him at the age of 6 weeks which really cut him short with his dog to dog learning skills. Many of the reactions pups have to humans is developed with their litter/mom interactions early on. This is a crucial time to develop bite inhibition and general respect toward other beings. This will make your job a bit more difficult. There is a big difference between teaching "commands" and working with behaviors. While the "ouch" is a good redirect in his case it may not be strong enough to stop these interactions. My first thought would be not to interact with him in such a way that he has access to your face. If he is not approaching other dogs this way it shows me that he currently has more respect for their space then he does for yours. Dogs learn so much quicker from other dogs then they do people as they speak the same language. It may be you are unconsiously staring at him or the movement of your eyes is encouraging this behavior.
Coat Change - typically I see this begin at about 16 weeks. Yes we see what we call a "racing stripe" down their back. The hair is much courser and more of a uniform color.
Keep up the good work and keep your goals high. Just remember he has to mature in order to be reliable with many of them. Enjoy the puppyhood while you have it, it is gone much too quickly.
Rescue Store
Stay Connected
FDA Recall
Canadian Food Inspection Agency Recall
Groups
We support...
Badge
© 2024 Created by Sam Tsang.
Powered by
You need to be a member of MyCorgi.com to add comments!
Join MyCorgi.com