# Puppy 'blackmailing'



## Mattei (Nov 10, 2012)

Dear all,

first of all I would like to congratulate for this splendid forum. I have found many answers to our question.

So going to the topic we (me and my wife) have a splendid 13 week old vizsla boy. He's been with us since his 8th week.
Problem Nr.1 is sleeping. For 5 weeks we didnt sleep much as he was waking us and whining in his crate every hour and a half and we always took him outside for a pee, he did it and went back to sleep after arguing for 5 minutes, not more. If we would not go out he would scream like theres not tomorrow for an hour and pee in the crate. During the day he maybe had 1 incident (pee) inside per day. I thought it was normal - he is a puppy and cant hold it for long.

During the weekend we went to our house in the mountains and since up we do not have a crate he slept on his bed on the floor. Miracle, he slept all night non stop. I need to say that we did not sleep in the same room with him and the same is at home. 

In the last 2 days he has became a monster. Yesterday he peed inside our flat for 8 times.
He is doing it for purpose.

He is super inteligent - knows sit, stay, leave, down - but only when we feed him. After that he doesn't care anymore. 

So what can we do? Today he was exploiting my wife until driving her crazy and when I came home I looked at him like I wanted to kill him and he instantly knew he was wrong and he ran full throttle in the crate.

So bottom line he perfectly knows he is doing things he is not supposed to do but continues to do it. Since we didn't have a full night of sleep we are running out of patience.

I have never ever ever used any aggression towards him. Im starting to think that a firm NO is not enough. Pretending like he doesnt exist is quite the same, only works for 10 seconds.

Please help.


Thanks Mattei


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## threefsh (Apr 25, 2011)

He's a BABY & I guarantee he's not peeing on "purpose" just to upset you. Have you considered a urinary tract infection? Riley peed in the house & in her crate many times as a young pup due to a UTI. Also, how are you cleaning up the pee? If he still smells it he will go back to the same spot. 

A baby puppy should NEVER be physically punished. If you are frustrated, put him in the crate & give yourself a few minutes to calm down.

"Puppy has been in the home for approximately six weeks. This period is known as the "period of cutting teeth and apron strings." Pups will attempt to clarify and resolve where they fit in the group."

I found this website on development stages to be very helpful as Riley was growing:

http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/developmentalstages.html


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## luv2laugh (Oct 6, 2011)

Hi Mattei,

I think you should see if there is a home daycare that will take him off your hands for a day or two so that you and your wife can get some rest. Operating on little sleep makes patience run thin and with a puppy, patience is imperative. 

Let me give you a few suggestions for the sleep. It sounds like your pup has figured out that if he cries at night he gets attention (even if he doesn't need to go potty). I noticed this with Oso at a certain point. *1) *We limited his water before he went to sleep, I feel like it was 8pm or some time around that. Some will tell you never to limit their water intake, but many others said this was fine during potty training. * 2) *We only took him out once or twice (depending on his age developmentally and his ability to hold it). Just because your pup was able to hold it all night in the mountains, doesn't mean he always will be able to. I would think at least one potty outing is appropriate, depending on how long the night stretches (6 hours, 8, hours, etc.) * 3) *We would only respond to take him out when he _stopped_ whining for at least 10-30 seconds. If it wasn't realistic for him to stop whining for 30 seconds, we waited at least 10. So, we would be alerted to the fact that he needed out, but we wouldn't reinforce until he was quiet. * 4) *When we realized that he didn't have to go as much as he needed, we would, again, wait until there was a lapse in the crying, and then talk to him through the crate. Eventually, I just recorded my voice reading a book and we would play that for him through the night. 

**I would say the most important thing is to stop reinforcing his crying with attention. Another tip would be to exercise him heavily right before bedtime, so he is more tired before going in the crate. Did he get any more exercise when in the mountains? Could that be why he slept so well?

As for him peeing inside your flat and "exploiting" your wife, I need more information on that to help. 

Only listening for food is typical, if trained in a certain way. You will need to fade him off of that. So, once he knows how to sit (sounds like he already does), you will want to tell him to sit - treat. tell him to sit - say good boy. tell him to sit - treat. So, before, he used to get treats every time, now he gets it every other. After that, give him a treat every 3rd time, 4th, 5th. Then vary it. Do this in different settings. You may need to carry treats with you when going in the car, to the pet store, etc. Rewarding him intermittently is key. Even if it is a treat every 20 times. 

As for using aggression, I don't recommend it. I think it is a matter of you and your wife being pushed to your limit. V's are prone towards timidity and are a "softer" breed. Once I wrestled with our boy to trim his nails and our relationship suffered for about a week. In the long run, we survived the nail clipping incident, but you want your V to trust you.

Something we DID use which is *not* recommended, but more than no is time out. You are not supposed to put him in the crate, but we did. This was for the sofa. We kept telling him off and then we he jumped off, rewarding him with a good boy. He realized that the only way to get the good boy was to keep jumping on the sofa. So, he would be jumping on probably 20 times a day. We decided to pretend jumping on the sofa, meant he wanted to go in the crate. Every time he jumped on the sofa, we said "crate?" in a happy voice. "Crate!" (in an excited voice). We'd pick him up and put him in the crate. Wait until he stopped whining for 30 seconds and then let him out. We only had to do this twice. I know the crate is supposed to be a happy place, so I wish we'd used a different area.

Reading your post, it sounds like you have a typical little red monster puppy on your hand. We'll help with training ideas, but if you haven't already, you may look into a local good training facility to help with the basics. Puppyhood can be a nightmare, but if you are consistent it gets sooo much better!


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## luv2laugh (Oct 6, 2011)

oh, I just wanted to add on to my epic post, that I agree with threefsh wholeheartedly. Both about getting the pup checked out medically and giving yourselves breaks when needed. 

Also, look into "After you get your Puppy" by Ian Dunbar (free e-book) to see a crate training schedule. It is for day and night. It could be helpful in preserving your sanity and getting your pup ready to spend longer periods of time in there (like night time).


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## Shivangi (Jan 19, 2010)

I want to add that any dog, be it a pup or an adult, should NEVER be physically punished. No dog, in my opinion, deserves it. Training is an important part of bringing up a pup and more often than not, it is our failure to train that results in a badly behaved dog. No dog does it "on purpose". 

Having said that, I agree with threefsh. He's a BABY! And the problems you're facing are part of the process. Start by taking him to a good vet. All of us are here to help. Look for forum members in and around your area. You'll find that the members on this forum are not only great sources of information and guidance, but that they can be an amazing support group, especially for those 'growing up' months. 

Patience is key! Lots of it.


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## born36 (Jun 28, 2011)

Your pup will test you like nothing you have ever experienced and this will continue for two to three years but the first year is a tough one.

One thing when reading your post is that I question how often does he go out? 

If you have some one there with him all day then he should be going out at his age every hour to hour and half also straight after any meal and first thing of course when you come home or anything exciting is about to happen. Full bladder control for a pup doesn't happen til 16 weeks so don't be too angry at him. 

Also anywhere that he has peed in the house you need to clean with a scent killing cleaner.

I wouldn't give up on the crate training. It is the best tool for house training both on weeing, damage control and misbehavior or timeouts. 

You are right your pup is smart and what he is doing is trying to figure out his bondaries. Don't be too harsh or think he is being evil. He is just trying to find out what he can and can't do and this takes a long time for him to figure out. The best thing is to be consistent and firm but not angry.

Good luck.


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## datacan (May 15, 2011)

Hi, first of all, you need to find a few good puppy books or articles. Read up on crates and crate training. Crate training a puppy is of great value if you don't have 100% time to supervise. 

They really need to be supervised 100% of the time. They need to be taken out often (every 30 min) and crated during the night. This is the time to establish a solid foundation for later training ... either house pet or professional purpose.

http://www.amazon.com/My-Smart-Puppy-Effective-Training/dp/044657886X


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