[Jerseypoo527]

Okay, so now were having real problems with Jersey. He is the most bizzare dog in the entire world. Our problem is that he is very bored. I have tried every trick in the book to make him less bored.
I try to walk him every day on the weekends. I cant on weekdays because I have so much work to do for school that it would be impossible, however I try to walk him every day on the weekends and it makes no difference.
My yard is fully fenced and he spends A LOT of time outside barking up a storm. We haven't gotten complaints about his barking yet bu we''ll see.
I try to play fetch or tug or war in our house but he is for the most part uninterested and will either not care or after the first throw he'll give up.
I've tried filling a kong and freezing it but after a few minutes he gets frustrated that he cant get it all and will start growling and whimpering at it and smacking it with his paw. Also, I cant be using up all our food anyway on him. Money is tight.
He has no interest in rawhide which I leave out for him all day and he wont touch it. I'm going to try taking it a way for a while then giving it to him.
I cant play outside with him: a. its below freezing now, b. he is uninterested outside as well.
I only have so many treats and even when I do do training sessions with him it has no affect for the rest of the day.

Also, hes obsessed with the garbage can, the bathroom garbage cans, food, and other stuff he shouldn't be obsessed with.
This is becoming extremely frustrating and I don't know what to do. The rest of my family HATES him and hes becoming a huge financial, physical and emotional burden to the whole family. I'm the only one who takes care of him and its affecting my life and how my parents and family view me. It seems that I'm blamed for all these problems, but I don't know what to do and I'm giving him all my attention and all my time and nothing works.

The reason I'm posting this now is because is Christmas vacation so I'm home all day for him. I thought it wouldn't be so bad when I'm home but its no different from when I get home from school and when I'm home all day.

 

[kendal]

sorry but the cant play outside bdcause its to cold is easily solved, rap up warm and run about with him, that will soon worm you up.

whos idea was it to get the dog. the reason nothing works is because you are the only one doing anything. if they want to make a difference him they need to chip in. onlh walking at the weekend is no good, now i hold my hands up and say there are some days i dont get my lot out a walk, but when i do i try to make it atleast 2 hours, most of which is off lead, but latley my lot have been playing up.

you need to sit down with your family and descus it with them because unless they help things are goi
g to get wors as im guessing your school work load will be getting bigger and at some point you will be wanting a part time job.

normaly i am the last one to sugest finding a new home, but in this situation it might be a idea.

but befor that talk to the family. work out if someone can walk him first thing or at lunch or in the evening.
get somone to come in the garden with you, stand at oposit ends and call him in turn, lots of praze he is the best dog in the world. teas him witb a tug bot dont let him have it, make him think its slmething he isnt ment to have. even do it in the house in different rooms call him.

reduse his dinner or take it away all together, sat aside whet he would normaly have as ond meal and make him work for it.
always train a dog on and empty stomoch(dog not you lol) it means you wont have to use human food. but he will still be getting the same amout lf food but not all at once.

like i said this wont work unless you have help. its not your falt he has problems its theirs because they arent making an efort, you are atleast attempting to help him, i just think you need a little help and hands on guidence. i know money is tite so i know going fo training classes isnt an option. but he needs more mental and phisical stimulation.

i realy dont want to upset you, and realy hope some of the stuff i have said might help

 

[Dylansmum]

I do think that whereas some small dog breeds may not need a walk every day, cockapoos seem to need a lot of exercise, so they are probably not an ideal breed for a busy household. I worry sometimes that I don't give Dylan enough, as he only gets about 40 minutes every morning, but all off lead and more at the weekends and I do try to take him out sometimes in the afternoon as well, but certainly not every afternoon. Once Dylan is walked, he is with me generally all day but is expected to amuse himself - I work from home and am really busy, but he doesn't cause any problems - he seems to have adapted to the routine, but if I didn't walk him first thing I know that it wouldn't work. So I suspect that if you maybe got up a little earlier in the morning and walked Jersey, not just on a lead but somewhere where he can run off-lead, it could radically alter his behaviour. If you can get him to fetch a ball while you are walking, that will give even more high-energy exercise - the ball-launchers are fantastic and ideal to maximise a short walk. My grown-up kids are equally typical in that they were desperate to get a dog, but then just can't be bothered with the day to day responsibility of looking after him - but I expected that so it isn't a problem for me. But dogs need to be loved and praised and if your family are not loving to Jersey, but maybe cross with him a lot, it is bound to adversely affect his behaviour - kind of "oh if everyone thinks I'm bad then I might as well be bad". They seem to have a natural love and pride in pleasing us and getting that feedback from us. I really hope you can resolve the situation. You should be enjoying dog-ownership and if it's all bad then maybe rethink. I took on a rescue dog a couple of years ago who was completely the wrong breed for me and suffered sheer misery and stress for 9 months before reluctantly rehoming her, and now I'm so pleased I did, even though it broke my heart at the time. Now, with the right dog, I love every second of sharing my life with him. Good luck.

 

[James Q]

Hi Dylansmum
Just wanted to say we gave up a rescue dog first, too, and its broke our hearts, but it was the right decision. We found her a lovely working home on a farm, with working gundogs. Now we have lots of fun and love with our lovely cockapoo puppy who is doing really well at 8 weeks, and we are reading lots of advice on this forum which is great for the little tips. Kate

 

[wilfiboy]

Hi Liz I have nt read peoples advice but Im sure there will be some helpful information. Im not offering you any... cos I dont know I just want to say that your post sounded very sad and that I really felt for you. Im sat here wishing I could help... you need a cuddle and a bit of support . I hope any tips motivate you enough to give them a try and if they work you feel brighter... its not easy and if as a last resort you cant do it then dont beat yourself up about it ........ Good luck and all the very best to you all :hug:

 

[parapluie]

This sounds like a difficult situation. I am sorry your family isn't being supportive. Hopefully some of the experts here will give you some good advice. I think one of the most important things to remember is that, in the end, it will work out the way it is meant to. If for some sad reason you cannot keep the dog, perhaps it is for the best and you will get another dog that fits you and your family better sometime in the future. If things do work out with the dog, I think your bond will be even stronger because of all the work you put in. I wish you the absolute best!

 

[Jerseypoo527]

Thanks everyone for your support.
I've started walking him everyday and I'm trying to elongate the walks as much as possible.
I can't really say much to my parents because I've already asked so much of them owning this dog that I don't want to push any more. However over the vacation I gently suggested that he needs more excersise that I can't give him without their help, and my dad said he would walk with me and Jersey at night if I have to on school days.
Since its vacation I've had a lot more time to excersise him and he seems a tiny bit better, but I'm worried for when school starts, however now that my dad said he'd walk with me it might be ok.
I'm trying to chase him around and play outside with him more which might be helping, but again I'll have less time once school starts again.
I really can't consider rehoming him because I have a lot of people who would be very upset with me if I rehomed him, and he's grown so close to me despite the effect he's had that I could'nt do it.
I think things might get better after he turns 1 in march, plus I have a lot of plans this summer to teach him recall so we can go to the dog park and to take him on longer walks and excersise him like crazy, plus socialize him better.
I think things might get better this summer wen I'll have more time and even once the weather gets warmer.
I'll leave another post once school starts again to let everyone know how it is, but as for now there has been a slight improvement. He takes a 15 - 20 minute nap each day now after his walks, and I've managed to get walks to be about 30 -45 minutes so I'll have to go twice around the block to make them longer.
Again, thanks to everyone. It's really important to me to make things better not just for us but for him.

 

[Dylansmum]

Glad things are starting to improve.You're obviously committed to Jersey and prepared to put the work in. You can start to teach him recall at home to save time in the summer. If you have had him from a puppy then it usually comes almost automatically - they tend to follow you anyway! I couldn't get away from Dylan if I tried. Just call him to you and treat when he arrives, they're really quick to latch on. One thing I found really useful when we started walks was to use a long training line - about 30 foot. I would just hold the end and let the rest drag on the ground. I'd call him back if he got a small distance away and that way if the line never got taut I could see that he was safe to let free and because it was always slack he didn't realise that he was on a line at all. And once you are comfortable with that, you can leave the line attached to his collar but just let go of the end, then if you did need to catch him it's much easier to grab the line than a dog's collar. I actually let Dylan free within a week of first walking him as it was obvious he was never going to run away! I found it was also useful to teach him to walk to heel off the lead (again you can teach this indoors at home) so that when we approached other people or dogs I called him to heel and walked past them with him at heel (a treat in front of his nose) so that he learned not to jump up or bother other people. Now I can keep him away from danger like that. I hope this is of some use to you - I am a complete amateur and I know that others on this site are far more expert than me at training issues, but these are just things that worked for me. Also you mentioned that money was tight for treats etc, so you could try either liver cake, which is really inexpensive and simple to make (loads of recipes if you google) or liver dried slowly in the oven. Just really tiny pieces are adequate and it lasts for ages. Never found a dog that didn't love these! Good luck!

 

[Dylansmum]

Glad things are starting to improve.You're obviously committed to Jersey and prepared to put the work in. You can start to teach him recall at home to save time in the summer. If you have had him from a puppy then it usually comes almost automatically - they tend to follow you anyway! I couldn't get away from Dylan if I tried. Just call him to you and treat when he arrives, they're really quick to latch on. One thing I found really useful when we started walks was to use a long training line - about 30 foot. I would just hold the end and let the rest drag on the ground. I'd call him back if he got a small distance away and that way if the line never got taut I could see that he was safe to let free and because it was always slack he didn't realise that he was on a line at all. And once you are comfortable with that, you can leave the line attached to his collar but just let go of the end, then if you did need to catch him it's much easier to grab the line than a dog's collar. I actually let Dylan free within a week of first walking him as it was obvious he was never going to run away! I found it was also useful to teach him to walk to heel off the lead (again you can teach this indoors at home) so that when we approached other people or dogs I called him to heel and walked past them with him at heel (a treat in front of his nose) so that he learned not to jump up or bother other people. Now I can keep him away from danger like that. I hope this is of some use to you - I am a complete amateur and I know that others on this site are far more expert than me at training issues, but these are just things that worked for me. Also you mentioned that money was tight for treats etc, so you could try either liver cake, which is really inexpensive and simple to make (loads of recipes if you google) or liver dried slowly in the oven. Just really tiny pieces are adequate and it lasts for ages. Never found a dog that didn't love these! Good luck!

 

[embee]

Just a few ideas as I'm no expert, but I have used these with Flo...

If you feed kibble instead of putting it out in a bowl at mealtimes try putting it in a treat ball that he can push around. It drops out bit by bit. You Can adjust the opening so bits fall out quickly so he doesn't get bored. Or you could just throw the kibble over the floor so he has to find it. get him good and hungry first or you have to pick it up!

My dog will chew nylabones for ages and she uses lots of energy that way. They come in different flavours to get then interested. Try smearing something tasty in it to get him interested, peanut butter, meat paste, cream cheese. Sometimes it takes a while to find a delicious treat he'll work for. Mine loves dog sausage and strong cheese best.

If you haven't got lots of spare cash make toys. Fill an old sock with other old socks and tie at the top. If you've been wearing the sock first even better as it will smell great - to the dog. Get a long bit of rope and tie knots in it, smear stuff on it to make it smell good.

Put down a few ice cubes for him to push around and lick. If you don't want a wet floor put them in a bowl or on a tray.

Flo likes frozen peas so I sometimes throw a handful around the floor for her to search for.

Kendal is right about skipping a meal, a hungry dog will retrieve a toy or ball and bring it back for food or a treat if they are hungry - the over time it becomes second nature to retrieve.

Try putting a treat under an upturned cup so he has to knock it over to get the goody. When he gets the hang of it use something that is harder to push over.

Try constant training in tiny amounts to bond and use his brain. I'm always telling Flo to sit, down, come, wait etc throughout the day then tossing her a treat to keep her thinking. Once I got started I then reduced the treat to every second, third, fourth command etc to keep her guessing when it was coming and to keep her interested.

Hope some of these ideas help in a small way and good luck.

He looks gorgeous by the way...

 

[embee]

Glad things are starting to improve.You're obviously committed to Jersey and prepared to put the work in. You can start to teach him recall at home to save time in the summer. If you have had him from a puppy then it usually comes almost automatically - they tend to follow you anyway! I couldn't get away from Dylan if I tried. Just call him to you and treat when he arrives, they're really quick to latch on. One thing I found really useful when we started walks was to use a long training line - about 30 foot. I would just hold the end and let the rest drag on the ground. I'd call him back if he got a small distance away and that way if the line never got taut I could see that he was safe to let free and because it was always slack he didn't realise that he was on a line at all. And once you are comfortable with that, you can leave the line attached to his collar but just let go of the end, then if you did need to catch him it's much easier to grab the line than a dog's collar. I actually let Dylan free within a week of first walking him as it was obvious he was never going to run away! I found it was also useful to teach him to walk to heel off the lead (again you can teach this indoors at home) so that when we approached other people or dogs I called him to heel and walked past them with him at heel (a treat in front of his nose) so that he learned not to jump up or bother other people. Now I can keep him away from danger like that. I hope this is of some use to you - I am a complete amateur and I know that others on this site are far more expert than me at training issues, but these are just things that worked for me. Also you mentioned that money was tight for treats etc, so you could try either liver cake, which is really inexpensive and simple to make (loads of recipes if you google) or liver dried slowly in the oven. Just really tiny pieces are adequate and it lasts for ages. Never found a dog that didn't love these! Good luck!

Good tip: The liver idea works well. I got loads of liver from the butcher, microwaved it for 2 minutes, chopped it into pea sized pieces then froze it. Dogs love it and when I go training with Flo and I end up with all the dogs sitting in front of me with begging eyes! It was soooo much cheaper than commercial dog treats.

 

[wilfiboy]

So glad to hear you sounding brighter and committed to making it work ... the tips above sound great and as you see changes it 'll motivate you all the more . Your walks sound great and a fantastic start, lovely that your dad s helping out it'll probably be nice for the two of you as well. Hope you all have a great New Year and much continued success with Jersey, good for you for putting in the effort and not giving up x x

 

[James Q]

Hi Mandy, how old was Flo before you gave her the frozen peas? Sounds a great fun idea and would love to try it for Brontie. Also, the liver treats, is 9 weeks too young for those dyou think?

 

[embee]

Hi Mandy, how old was Flo before you gave her the frozen peas? Sounds a great fun idea and would love to try it for Brontie. Also, the liver treats, is 9 weeks too young for those dyou think?

Not an expert but...

I think frozen peas would fine any time as peas are used in dog/puppy food when you look at the ingredients. Would suggest you try a few then check it doesn't upset her stomach. They are also good in a treat ball as well as just chucked round the floor or hidden under cups.

With liver not so sure as some of the stronger commercial treats say not for dogs under 6 months. Liver treats, like the dried strips and freeze dried liver, even have to be given to adult dogs in moderation. Maybe wait with liver till 6 months unless someone knows better and says it's fine. Flo also like James Wellbeloved Crackerjacks which are little biscuits that can be broken up into little bits as treats - I think they are OK for young dogs.

 

[embee]

Hi Mandy, how old was Flo before you gave her the frozen peas? Sounds a great fun idea and would love to try it for Brontie. Also, the liver treats, is 9 weeks too young for those dyou think?

Did Brontie like frozen peas? Or does my Flo just have an odd pea fetish?

 

[parapluie]

Did Brontie like frozen peas? Or does my Flo just have an odd pea fetish?

That made me laugh hahaha I've never tried peas as treats but it sounds like a good idea. Good size

 

[wilfiboy]

Will have to try peas myself if they work its a cheap option .Been thinking about the liver ... when making barf patties for pups from whelping you can put liver in them.

 

[embee]

Will have to try peas myself if they work its a cheap option .Been thinking about the liver ... when making barf patties for pups from whelping you can put liver in them.

Flo loves frozen peas so much each time we open the freezer to get something out she is there waiting...

 

[Jerseypoo527]

Thanks again for all the advice. Recently he had an accident in my brothers room and everyone freaked out. My parents now say that there considering giving him back to the rescue we got him from. I was really upset by its not really for me to decide. They said there still considering however and will not decide until after january. This was really upsetting, but I'm still going to stic to the training to see if things may improve.

 

[Jerseypoo527]

I am sorry to say that my parents have decided to return Jersey back to the rescue we adopted him from. He will be fostered soon with another family with another foster dog which will give him chance to socialize. I'm really upset about this but I've realizd it has to be done. Jersey is very hig energy and we simply dont have the time or the yard space to provide him with the excersize he needs and deserves. Also, my brothers are very nasty to him and I feel like they would only get meaner and more dangerous toward him if time progresses. This was not my desision at all. It was my parents descision and I took no part in the process. I dont know when they will take him away and I don't want to know, I told them I would rather not be there when he has to leave. I know this is right and I know that there is a better home for him somewhere where he will be treated and raised correctly. I'm not as equipped to train a dog by myself as I thought. I also want to specify that he was a good dog. Were not blaming this on the fact that he was a rescue dog, I'm blaming it on myself not being prepared for him and not knowing they way my family would react to him. He has all the potential t be a good dog with proper excersize and training that I cannot provide him as hard as I try. Were really sorry, and we wont be getting another dog. Thanks everyone for your support and advice. I really wish it didnt have to end this way but it does.

Liz