Help with fred...

So fred is 9 months old and he is good for the most part.

The problem is when we tell him no.. he barks really loud at us and sometimes tries to bite our pants, shirt etc. When he does bite it is never hard enough to hurt but I dont want this to turn into an agression problem.

He has to constantly be around people is very spiteful if we leave him in the kitchen and we are in the den etc.


What can I do? Its almost like a little kid when they dont want to hear their parent yell at them they will scream really loud. He does that with barking.

When I move out after the wedding I dont want him destroying my house. He constantly goes back to want he is not supposed to do.

Any helpful hints??

I really dont have any advice, but i just wanted to tell you that we are in the same boat. Missy gets nuts when we tell her no. and its not the pants or shirts she bites, its our hands!!! She has never bitten us hard to draw blood but i do have bruises on me. Sometimes the biting is playing i think but nothing works at all. Im looking forward to what advice people have to this post.

Sorry I have no advice for you.

Our Cosmo was like that, and sometimes is like that with me. When I yell at him, he barks back - and we start to argue. At first, DH didn't believe me, and our arguments woud continue I yell, he barks, I yell he barks.. it would be very frustrating if it wasn't so funny. When he finally believed me we did something about it.

What worked with us is teaching him 'no'. We taught him the command with treats.. when ever he did something we didn't like we said 'no' and as soon as he stopped he got a treat. Than.. we tought him when he barked at me, I'd say no! ONCE and as soon as he stopped gave a treat. Eventually, I would say 'no' and he would stop.

In terms of destroying the house, there is nothing we could do about it. We tried all the tricks. Going out of the room and catching him in the act - screaming no! and nothing worked. He ate 9 pairs of my shoes - ONE of EVERY pair!!!!! Eventually we learned that its not him being spiteful, he is just bored. And being puppies, they have lots of energy and they wake up from their naps and start looking for things to do. We, afraid that he would hurt himself and distroy everything in sight, lock him up in a small room - where we clean everything so he can't reach it. He thinks of that room as his and doesn't distroy everything in sight.

When we first got Lucy she would bark at me when I yelled at her. It was so hard not to laugh. I personally think it was a respect thing. Once she realized that I wasnt just playing she stopped. Then she started doing a submissive roll. I never taught it to her. At first I thought she was doing it just so I wouldnt hit her butt. Anyway, now if she agrees that she did something bad she will do the roll and lie on her back until I tell her to go away.
She still barks sometimes when you tell her to do something and she doesnt feel like it! Now its more funny, its a part of her personality!

With the biting, I think you might need to be forceful with Fred. Let him know you are boss. When we are really upset with Lucy she gets locked in the Kitchen with no toys. She hates this but we only do it when she is really bad so she knows when that happens she really did it- and if she has to sleep in the kitchen boy watch out (she becomes the worlds best kiss up)! Lucy will nip at my DH when I see her do that I hold her head down to the floor so she cant move and tell her no. It shows her who it boss! She takes me more much more seriously than DH (his theory is Lucy doesnt like being yelled at and he doesnt like yelling at her)

With destroying the house, I wont lie, Lucy has gotten into her fair share of trouble. But she isnt even a year old and we sometimes leave her for 12 hours alone. So I dont completely blame her. We dont really contain her, she has access to the main living area all day. The biggest thing if you do not contain them is to make sure they dont have anything that could really hurt them around. When we decorated the living room, we didnt plug any of the lamps in for about 2 weeks until we were sure she wasnt bothering them. And when I first put a table cloth on the dining room table, I didnt put the big crystal bowl on top in case Lucy pulled it off. However she has destroyed an area rug, eaten 2 shoes, and probably 3 welcome mats. You wont know how your dog will respond until you test them.

Personally I do believe dogs can be spiteful, it all depends on the dog though! Lucy is without a doubt spiteful. We can go to work come home 12 hours later and the house is perfect, then a hour or 2 later go to home depot for 20 minutes and when we come home it looks like our house was ransacked! You just have to learn what your dog will do and try to figure out why and how to help them. Lucy hates heat so if its hot we have the AC on (she is spoiled I know), we need to really run her around at night, and give her alittle attention before work, and make sure she has toys and a rawhide before we leave her. These things have really worked for us!

Sorry this is so long but Lucy was also like that with being around us. We used to make her sleep in another room when we first got her assuming she would have an accident in the middle of the night. Well she was the worst sleeper, 2 days after we got her we let her sleep in our room and its been clear sailing ever since, no accidents ever, sleeps from 11 until 6:30. She is really protective so even while DH and I are watching TV she will come in and out of the room to check on us! Dogs love to be part of the family!