I've had it with her!

DustyVinci · August 2009

I've completely had it with my stupid mutt. I adopted her, I helped her 24/7 through heartworms, I've taken her out on a leash multiple times every day to do her business for three years because otherwise she runs away. One of these days just maybe I'll let her. I canNOT take any more of her! Her ENTIRE LIFE focuses on food and stuffing herself! She's already about 40 lbs over what she should be. We put her on healthy weight formula for three years - does nothing! She eats bowls and bowls of it anyway when she gets the chance! She also steals food from the toddlers and other kids, steals food off of plates when we walk off for 2 seconds, she eats out of the cat boxes. ARGH I'm done with her! Why do we all even bother stressing everyday over keeping the doors closed so that she can't run away like she so desperately wants to do and has done several times in the past! Once she pulled and struggled out of her collar and took off running down the highway at the vet and I had to jump into a stranger's car! Luckily this stranger wasn't in the mood for kidnapping. But what about next time? Just what am I risking for this dog who makes my life 90% harder? Not a family I've asked has wanted her. I just don't know what to do anymore. I can't take her to the spca or anywhere like that because I want her to go to a family I can trust. But if she drives me far enough, I may have no choice. Just less than 5 minutes ago I found her running from the laundry room where we keep the cat litter boxes, chewing on something. It's been three years and SHE JUST DOESN'T LEARN! I haven't mentioned that she's also extremely disrespectful of me, regardless of the long hours and hard work I've put in to training her out of it. And she thinks she's dominant over everyone! I hate it. Her last owner must have fed her people food and junk like that because she weighed even more when I adopted her (she was found on the street) and she had to have been abused by some dumb teenage boys because she's terrified of them and always acts as though my brother wants to kill her. Just had to rant. May end up in the nut house soon. :roll: sorry for that though, you probably don't care or didn't want to read all that anyway. But if you have any advice for me that might be helpful, please share.

DustyVinci · August 2009

edit: oh, her name's Kiara and she's a collie chow mix. Here's a picture - do not steal: <img src="http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9701/2qurtaw.jpg"; alt="http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9701/2qurtaw.jpg"; class="bb-image" />

Hibachi · August 2009

Well, considering she is a shelter dog it's hard to get them on the right track again. I had a friend who adopted dogs all the time, they always had issues with people and food, they never grew out of it. But they kept them in a confined area until they grew more and more out of their habits, it was like re training them like how you train a new puppy. My purebreds are even wacko sometimes, one of my dachshunds that we just got hates my sister, because she likes to play with him and shes only 8. Well, if he's sleeping and she trys to pick her up he growls and bites at her. I tend to avoid him because 1. he's my brothers dog and 2. he's freaking annoying. xD I know what you are going through.

iluvdogs111 · August 2009

She doesn't know you're trying. She doesn't realize all the work you do for her. Talk to your vet about a special diet for her. I think you're problem is that she's bored. She tries to run away which means she wants to explore, she eats everything, well, maybe she just has nothing else to do! Get a kong, and when you leave put treats in it. It'll keep her busy, and if she's eating treats, hopefully she won't eat out of the cat box.

iluvdogs111 · August 2009

Also, maybe you should consider getting a fence so you don't have to keep her on the leash everytime she goes out. If she's always on a leash, she can't run or explore. You should take her for a walk once a day, or more, take her to the doggy park, anything to get her tired out. Another thing that could work is agilty training. Just some basic stuff. You can make one out of stuff around you're house. Go out and by a hula hoop at the dollar store for her to jump through, take a tarp, wrap it around some wire, and tada!, you have a tunnel. It doen't have to look fancy, it just has to exercise her mind and body. If you really don't have time to keep her busy and get her exercise, you should probably find her a new home.

The main cause of running away is because they're bored. They've explore every inch of house or yard that they can, and they need more to explore, so they try to run away. PS: Sorry if I sounded like a bossy know-it-all, just trying to help.

DustyVinci · August 2009

Haha you don't sound like a bossy-know-it-all xD Thanks for the help! Firstly, huskies and malamutes have been known to run away - it's just what they do. Some dogs take off if they've got the chance, others don't caer at all and then others may be bored. Secondly, it makes me laugh to try and picture my dog on an agility cource. She's half herding dog and half nonsporting. She doesn't even run - she walks fast (she learned from our two shihtzus who like to slink around - no running and she thinks she's one of them - like a giant lap dog). Oh, and she's crate trained as well as our two shihtzus. And we can't put a fence in because we've got 2 1/2 acres and we already put a fence in around our pool (dogs can't go there). It would be WAY too expensive to put a fence around the whole property - not worth keeping her so that she can eat everything in sight - including the kids' food that my dad works to pay for. I just can't deal with all her faults that she refuses to let go of. Oh, and we have a kong (for my lab) but even if we gave that thing to her (filled with peanut butter), she would more than likely become even more obsessed with food, continue to steal anything that smells like peanut butter from the kids' plates and she would see it as a bonus treat - there's no way on earth she would stop eating out of the cat boxes! As I said before, she stuffs herself with anything she can consume...

iluvdogs111 · August 2009

Well, if you can't do any of that, you may just want ot find her a new home. It's not fun to have extra work piled on you because of a dog that runs and eats everything.

Good luck!

iluvdogs111 · August 2009

As I said before, she stuffs herself with anything she can consume...

I have a lab who eats anything and everything. Once she got into the dog food bin, and she got so bloated, We had to take her to the vet and they took an x-ray. We saw it, and there was so much food in there that she just swallowed, you could barely see her intestines. :shock:

Hibachi · August 2009

That's one thing I learned never give a dog people food, my grandma has a shih tzu and it barks at you if your eating and he's not, and so my grandma feeds him while she's eating. xD I think any dog can be trained, some harder than others, and not all habits can be broken. And instead of putting a fence around your whole yard, why not a cut off section? Get her a kiddie pool so she can play in it, like iluvdogs said they need their minds to be active on something other than their habits.

reina__ · August 2009

Yes, some dogs are just not....... bright I guess. In my opinion, the more dominant, hard-headed dogs are the least intelligent, because they're more focused on dominating their human owner than listening and obeying their human owner. I mean really, if you live for no one but yourself you're not going to listen to anyone, right? I would very much suggest taking it on at least two 20-30 minute walks per day. If you guys have a treadmill, you can slowly wean it onto walking/jogging on the treadmill alone, with treats. That should spur it on. If you don't have one of those, that's fine. It wouldn't take the place of a walk though. The walk is an extremely important part of a dog's life--it satisfies the instinct to roam and wander. My idea would be to take it for a walk in the morning, and THEN allow her food. Keep the dog food safe away from where she can get it. She will recognize that YOU let her eat only when you want her to, not when SHE wants to. Meals are a very important ritual in dog packs. The leader eats first. Secondly, have periods in the day when she is fed. Put the food in front of her, wait 15-20 minutes, and then take the bowl away. No buts. She will soon learn she must eat THEN because she won't know when her next meal is coming around. That also satisfies part of the instinct.

Remember, with dominance, you MUST be consistent, because if you let one time slip, the dog will remember that if she keeps trying, one of these days she'll get what she wants. All the best!

DustyVinci · August 2009

Thank you guys for all the great advice

I may look up a dog pen/run thing for her to stick out in the yard (and the kiddie pool which she'll love) And reina, I like how you said I should put the food down at certain times of the day and leave it for 15-20 minutes then take it away. Ha I like that alot. And it seems like it should work. I guess I could also put the food back down for my shihtzus while Kiara's outside. woot xD

CallyKats Dachshunds · August 2009

actually-every dog should only have set times when they can eat. they'll get the idea if they don't and get hungry later.

most vets/trainers recommend it.

DiamondPuppy0809 · August 2009

I suggest trying all the things that seem able to be practiced. (Anything anybody said above that you liked). And if it still doesn't work out, try and find her the most suitable home that has time to give her physical and mental exercise, love, food, and a warm place to stay. If you can't find her a home, surrender her to your local animal shelter or SPCA and make sure to tell them ALL about her habits and what could improve them. Good luck! P.S. I am very glad you didn't give up on her in the first place! -whoots and claps-

Hibachi · August 2009

We only put our dogs on schedules when they are pups, as our older dogs have aged they eat less. One of our new pups loves to eat everything like your dog seems to. We have to put the cat food up when the cat isn't around, because that seems to be his favorite thing in the world.

EpikLove · August 2009

DustyVinci wrote:

 Firstly, huskies and malamutes have been known to run away - it's just what they do. Some dogs take off if they've got the chance, others don't caer at all and then others may be bored.

My husky has run away 11 -freaking- times. So yes, they do like to run away. Even when we walk her for a long time.

[/hijack]

Hibachi · August 2009

BlueIsis wrote:

DustyVinci wrote:

 Firstly, huskies and malamutes have been known to run away - it's just what they do. Some dogs take off if they've got the chance, others don't caer at all and then others may be bored. 

 My husky has run away 11 -freaking- times. So yes, they do like to run away. Even when we walk her for a long time. [/hijack]

To second this...xD One of my poodles use to run off every once in a while, but we lived out in the country with barley anyone around so I didn't have to go looking for her, and later on she would come back she liked to explore. But, I wouldn't recommend people letting their dogs roam, my dog knew the place and all our neighbors knew her. Anywaysss.

^Oriyana^ · August 2009

If a dogs food is left out all the time, as far as the dog knows, the floor feeds him. It's better to do set meals, it helps to enforce that you are the provider, the pack leader. With a dog with dominance issues, put the food in the dish on the counter while the dog watches. Put a human cracker or some other small piece of food in the dish, make the dog sit, take the human food out of the dish and eat it in front of the dog, then put the dish in it's regular spot and make the dog wait until you say okay before starting to eat. You have now made it clear that you eat before the dog and therefore are higher in the pack structure. Other small things to enforce your dominance; - you always go in or out of a doorway first, then they dog may follow you - don't allow the dog on furniture or beds, don't let it sit anywhere where it's head will be higher than yours (avoid sitting on the floor next to the dog when it's head is higher until it has recognized that you are dominant) - if the dog is laying somewhere you need to walk, don't step over it even though this may seem to be the easiest option, make the dog get up and move out of your way - no people food ever, don't even feed dog treats at the table or anywhere you eat - if she is stealing food at meal times, she may not come into the dining area while people are eating, leash her, shut her out, crate her or make her down/stay while people are eating, far from where the food is basically the people's needs should clearly outweigh the dog's in her mind also for the cat box issue, what about putting a baby gate on the door to the laundry room, put it a bit off the ground, then the cats can either jump over it or go under it. My dog will also get into the cat box if she has the chance, cat food is higher in protein than dog food so apparently the feces appear tastey :P The only way to ensure a dog doesn't do it is to block access to the cat box.

Howdy, Stranger!

I've had it with her!

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