Hello All,
I’m looking for some advice or general thoughts about problems we are having with our new mini poodle puppy, Finn. We got him when he was 8 weeks old and he’s now about 19 weeks. Finn is an absolutely gorgeous dog, extremely handsome but unfortunately we cannot seem to figure him out. We certainly are not dog training experts but we’ve had many dogs over the years and none were ever even remotely as difficult as Finn. Potty training has been extremely slow and difficult, for the first month he peed in the house 1-3 times a day despite us taking him outside 8-12 times a day. We’d take him outside, he’d pee, play for a bit and then we’d bring him in and within 5 minutes he’d pee in the house, often while making eye contact with us. He would also pee in his crate even if he had just gone outside within the last half hour although thankfully that seems to have stopped. Now we might go 2-4 days in a row without an accident in the house but that’s still not ideal for his age and for how much we watch him and take him outside.
The next thing we have noticed is his complete and total inability to calm himself down. He doesn’t nap outside of his crate and he needs constant redirection or else he gets into trouble by chewing clothes, furniture, pulling in anything he can find, etc. Keeping him out of trouble is a full time job. Admittedly our crate training hasn’t been a total success, he doesn’t really mind the crate and if we put him in there for a nap he usually doesn’t whine for more than a minute or two before he falls asleep but he does not like going in there on his own if he thinks we are going to lock him in for a nap. He’s very clever, he’ll stick his 2 front paws in to grab his toys Rather than fully walk inside. He sleeps well at night, usually 6-7 hours straight and I’d say he gets 4-5 naps a day.
Here is the strangest and most disappointing part... Finn cannot seem to handle any sort of human affection. As soon as you start petting him he gets more and more worked up until he’s totally unmanageable, aggressive, biting, mouthing etc.. and if you get down on the ground at his level it’s the same thing. He’ll immediately walk over and sit in your lap, and then things start escalating. He’ll start by chewing himself, then he escalates it to mouthing or attempting to chew on a shoelace/shirt/pants and next thing you know he starts aggressively trying to lick your face by climbing your torso. He’ll lick and lick forever, getting more frantic by the second. The only thing that seems to calm him down is totally ignoring him, if we ignore him long enough eventually he’ll calm down but it’s a struggle and also very disheartening. Our old mini poodle was a great cuddler so this really caught us by surprise.
We’ve taken him to the vet a couple times to have him examined and they haven’t found anything wrong with him. Our biggest concern is the fact that we literally cannot show him affection without creating chaos, and it hasn’t gotten any better in the almost 3 months that we’ve had him. Keeping Finn out of trouble is a full time job for 2 people and frankly it is not sustainable. We absolutely do not want to give him back to the breeder but we are at our wits end. Any advice or insight is appreciated.
Thanks
I’m looking for some advice or general thoughts about problems we are having with our new mini poodle puppy, Finn. We got him when he was 8 weeks old and he’s now about 19 weeks. Finn is an absolutely gorgeous dog, extremely handsome but unfortunately we cannot seem to figure him out. We certainly are not dog training experts but we’ve had many dogs over the years and none were ever even remotely as difficult as Finn. Potty training has been extremely slow and difficult, for the first month he peed in the house 1-3 times a day despite us taking him outside 8-12 times a day. We’d take him outside, he’d pee, play for a bit and then we’d bring him in and within 5 minutes he’d pee in the house, often while making eye contact with us. He would also pee in his crate even if he had just gone outside within the last half hour although thankfully that seems to have stopped. Now we might go 2-4 days in a row without an accident in the house but that’s still not ideal for his age and for how much we watch him and take him outside.
The next thing we have noticed is his complete and total inability to calm himself down. He doesn’t nap outside of his crate and he needs constant redirection or else he gets into trouble by chewing clothes, furniture, pulling in anything he can find, etc. Keeping him out of trouble is a full time job. Admittedly our crate training hasn’t been a total success, he doesn’t really mind the crate and if we put him in there for a nap he usually doesn’t whine for more than a minute or two before he falls asleep but he does not like going in there on his own if he thinks we are going to lock him in for a nap. He’s very clever, he’ll stick his 2 front paws in to grab his toys Rather than fully walk inside. He sleeps well at night, usually 6-7 hours straight and I’d say he gets 4-5 naps a day.
Here is the strangest and most disappointing part... Finn cannot seem to handle any sort of human affection. As soon as you start petting him he gets more and more worked up until he’s totally unmanageable, aggressive, biting, mouthing etc.. and if you get down on the ground at his level it’s the same thing. He’ll immediately walk over and sit in your lap, and then things start escalating. He’ll start by chewing himself, then he escalates it to mouthing or attempting to chew on a shoelace/shirt/pants and next thing you know he starts aggressively trying to lick your face by climbing your torso. He’ll lick and lick forever, getting more frantic by the second. The only thing that seems to calm him down is totally ignoring him, if we ignore him long enough eventually he’ll calm down but it’s a struggle and also very disheartening. Our old mini poodle was a great cuddler so this really caught us by surprise.
We’ve taken him to the vet a couple times to have him examined and they haven’t found anything wrong with him. Our biggest concern is the fact that we literally cannot show him affection without creating chaos, and it hasn’t gotten any better in the almost 3 months that we’ve had him. Keeping Finn out of trouble is a full time job for 2 people and frankly it is not sustainable. We absolutely do not want to give him back to the breeder but we are at our wits end. Any advice or insight is appreciated.
Thanks