Once I have established my pack leader status, the situation really improves a lot. Pepper understands that barking is not allowed and he became more obedient. Even though Pepper still make some noise asking you to play, I think we have made big improvement for the past few days. He is still a baby and he likes to play chasing.
A special thanks to Shayne from Happy Furry House. She taught me how to handle my dog. Without her advise, our dog-human relationship can't last long in this condominium. I deeply appreciate her help. In fact, I have also decided to board Pepper in her house during the Chinese New Year period. So far, this is the best cage-less home boarding I have found in Klang Valley area.
Today I managed to do 3 minutes away from home and Pepper has been behaving well. I will do this incrementally and see how it goes. It's an important lesson to me that I own a pet and not pet own me. I am a happy owner today :)
Thursday, 22 December 2011
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Day 3: Barking problem
Today is the third day since I bring puppy home. At 11:45PM, I am eating my breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's really hard to take care of puppy alone. Every time I leave Jim alone, he will bark. I stayed in a condominium. In Malaysia, all condominium does not allow pet. In my condo, as long as your pet didn't cause any nuisance to the neighbors, they are quite flexible.
How to train him to be alone? I asked a lot of experts and all of them gave me different advices. All of them said the same thing. I am a sucker! I gave in too much. The puppy is training me and I am not training the puppy. Below are the methods I consider:
1) Ignore the bark. After a while, the puppy will realise that no one is attending to the bark. He will understand that barking does not gave him anything. I tried that for 30 mins, I received a phone call from the management asking me to remove the pet. I am so depress. At the end, I gave in to the bark and I am sure it will make the situation worse.
2) Slowly let him get use to his lonely time. This is a very time consuming process. I need to do it slowly. So far, I managed to get away for 60 seconds only. Sometimes it's even shorter. The result is not good enough. I have taken 3 days holiday and I don't have many holidays to do this. I need to know if this will work.
3) Some people advise me to debark. I find it really hard to accept this. I am more like 95% NO and 5% YES. Like he said, it is better than you abandon him. I am really hoping that I don't have to do it.
4) Show him who is your pack leader. I do believe that Pepper (my dog) either thinks he is the leader or he is confuse about the leader. I need to do what I consider cruel to subdue him and show him who is the leader. I really hate to do this because I feel that is Inhumane but I have to understand that they are canine and they have their own rules. If I want this to work, this us probably the best option.
I will give option 2 and 4 a try and see how it goes. Stay tuned!
How to train him to be alone? I asked a lot of experts and all of them gave me different advices. All of them said the same thing. I am a sucker! I gave in too much. The puppy is training me and I am not training the puppy. Below are the methods I consider:
1) Ignore the bark. After a while, the puppy will realise that no one is attending to the bark. He will understand that barking does not gave him anything. I tried that for 30 mins, I received a phone call from the management asking me to remove the pet. I am so depress. At the end, I gave in to the bark and I am sure it will make the situation worse.
2) Slowly let him get use to his lonely time. This is a very time consuming process. I need to do it slowly. So far, I managed to get away for 60 seconds only. Sometimes it's even shorter. The result is not good enough. I have taken 3 days holiday and I don't have many holidays to do this. I need to know if this will work.
3) Some people advise me to debark. I find it really hard to accept this. I am more like 95% NO and 5% YES. Like he said, it is better than you abandon him. I am really hoping that I don't have to do it.
4) Show him who is your pack leader. I do believe that Pepper (my dog) either thinks he is the leader or he is confuse about the leader. I need to do what I consider cruel to subdue him and show him who is the leader. I really hate to do this because I feel that is Inhumane but I have to understand that they are canine and they have their own rules. If I want this to work, this us probably the best option.
I will give option 2 and 4 a try and see how it goes. Stay tuned!
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Bringing Puppy Home
This is tougher than I imagined. Everything said in the book somehow doesn't work and I can't remember a single thing. Before we bring Pepper (our puppy) home, we went to do some shopping. We bought the following:
During the road trip back from Penang to KL. Pepper vomited because this is his first car trip but it wasn't too bad. The absorbent pad inside the traveling crate helps.
After 5 hours of road trip, finally we are home. Pepper is very stress about this new environment. Pepper is about 16 weeks now. How I wish I could bring him home during ~8 weeks period when he is not too bounded with his litter-mates. When he arrives the new home, he is trying to play with his mirror image. He is so poor thing, he missed his litter-mates. Pepper is not a dog who is used to be alone. I will need to spend more time to train him. During the first night, I can't afford to leave him alone in this crate because he can't stop barking. At the end, I slept next to the crate. Maybe this is something I should not do but I can't afford the bark because I am staying in a condominium.
Today is the second day. It seems like a really long day. Pepper has around 10x potty accidents but I just have to clean up and slowly train him. You really need a lot of love, patience and commitment to be a dog owner. At this moment, when I am not around, Pepper will bark and whine. I realised that Pepper will bark for 2 reasons. Loneliness and separation anxiety. I am still trying to deal with it now. Hopefully in my next blog, I can share my method of solving this problem.
- Bowl for food
- Food (Eukanuba - Puppy all breed)
- Steel comb to remove entangled hair
- Normal comb
- Water nozzle
- Play pen (8 pieces)
- Bed
- Potty pad
- Toys, we do not know what to buy so we picked a few. We shouldn't get too big toy for puppy
- Treats, we are thinking to use this to calm him down if necessary and also for training
- Fan (on the floor)
- Kong ball, we are not too sure how to use them yet
During the road trip back from Penang to KL. Pepper vomited because this is his first car trip but it wasn't too bad. The absorbent pad inside the traveling crate helps.
After 5 hours of road trip, finally we are home. Pepper is very stress about this new environment. Pepper is about 16 weeks now. How I wish I could bring him home during ~8 weeks period when he is not too bounded with his litter-mates. When he arrives the new home, he is trying to play with his mirror image. He is so poor thing, he missed his litter-mates. Pepper is not a dog who is used to be alone. I will need to spend more time to train him. During the first night, I can't afford to leave him alone in this crate because he can't stop barking. At the end, I slept next to the crate. Maybe this is something I should not do but I can't afford the bark because I am staying in a condominium.
Today is the second day. It seems like a really long day. Pepper has around 10x potty accidents but I just have to clean up and slowly train him. You really need a lot of love, patience and commitment to be a dog owner. At this moment, when I am not around, Pepper will bark and whine. I realised that Pepper will bark for 2 reasons. Loneliness and separation anxiety. I am still trying to deal with it now. Hopefully in my next blog, I can share my method of solving this problem.
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