[Jehn]

Hi everyone... I am dealing with some annoying behaviour problems with my standard poodle, he is about 1 1/2 years old. He gets ridiculously excited when anyone so much as looks at him... He jumps up, paws, and runs around in circles. I'm finding this behaviour extremely annoying to the point where I don't even want to pet him anymore because he gets all riled up and won't stop until he is ignored completely.

When we started looking at different breeds, we chose the standard poodle for a number of reasons - I have allergies, we wanted a larger dog who doesn't shed, and since this is our first family dog, we wanted a smart breed who would be easy to train from a puppy. We adopted him from a breeder with no intention of showing him - we just wanted a nice family pet who would be good with our young daughter. For the most part, he is wonderful - a very loving, sweet dog who wants nothing less than to please us 24/7. He's very gentle with our 17 month old daughter, but gets careless when he is excited. I'm worried he will scratch her or knock her down when he acts like this, and I can't seem to correct this behaviour. I have tried positive reinforcement, but if I give him a treat he just goes haywire wanting more. He knows all the basic commands but when there are treats involved he will run around in circles instead of laying down, and it usually ends with us yelling at him because nothing else seems to snap him out of this excessively excited state.

I love him to pieces but I am finding it really frustrating that I can't even play with him without him going crazy and jumping up on me. I have had trouble walking him because when he sees another dog, person or vehicle he pulls and jumps around and becomes unmanageable for one hand while I am pushing a stroller. He is great when I walk him alone and have two hands, but I don't usually get out for a walk without my daughter.

Anyone have any advice? Anyone else have a dog that acts like this? My parents adopted his brother and he is the most laid-back dog you'd ever know.

Thanks in advance,

Jehn

 

[Jehn]

Thanks for your replies... I am not sure what is in his food, he is on Science Diet original... We had a lot of trouble finding a food that he liked, the first few weeks after we brought him home he refused to eat anything but the Iams soft chunks. We got a few samples of hard foods and the Science Diet was the only hard food he'd eat... He went from the Puppy stuff to the adult stuff all right but wont eat anything but the "Small Bites" ... I thought the whole prissy poodle thing was a myth, but my dog has proved that theory wrong a few times over!! Ha ha... I swear this dog would starve himself to death before eating something he doesn't like.

I have been working on getting him to settle down the last couple days... He is still jumping up, though. I have had him trained to sit for a while, he sits "on the mat" when he comes in the house and isn't allowed to come off until we say he can. He does tend to "Creep" a little but moves back when we shoot him a dirty look. He is really good with that, and sits before we feed him, before he goes outside or up or down the stairs, or into the truck. I just cant get him to stop running in circles before he sits... It's frustrating. I really hope you're right about the 2-year mark for growing out of the puppy stage!

 

[Jehn]

Really??? My vet recommended Science Diet and it costs about $60 for a 40lb bag... Can you tell me why it's one of the worst and recommend something better? What do you feed your dog(s)? Has anyone else hard bad things about SD?

And I actually figured it out myself that he was not getting enough exercise, guess it was just because it was winter, we didnt get out for as many walks and he did seem more energetic on the days that we didn't get out for a walk... We went camping for May Long and he was so good, and I can only assume it's because he got walked so much and had room to run around on his lead... Not to mention all the fetch and frisbee. He was so tuckered out by the end of the days he could barely get up to go to bed!! We have been more diligent about walking him and he has been a lot better. He also gets out to my parents' farm once a week and he runs around free with my parents' poodle and "jumps" on the trampoline with us... He loves that!!

He does tend to be tough to walk on a leash, he pulls a lot when he sees another dog... I have tried using a harness that is supposed to make it easier to walk him but it doesn't seem to help. The pet store recommended a spike collar but it seems really cruel to me to use one... Anyone know anything about these collars? My only other option I think is to take him to obedience classes to get some help teaching him to cool down around other dogs a bit and stop pulling because I have a toddler and I am worried he'll knock her over... Not to mention it's really tough to hang on to him while pushing a stroller.

Suggestions??

 

[Jehn]

Thank you... I checked out the Nutro link and all the pet stores carry Nutro so I will go look for a couple samples or small bag to see if Bauer likes it. The info on the site looks pretty good, and I love the idea of less cleanup! Bauer "goes" 2-3 X a day and I had no idea that was because of his food!! I like that I can get it in small bites, too... He doesn't eat as much of the bigger stuff, and I'm not sure why. Thanks for the suggestion, I will let you know how the switch goes!!

Jehn

 

[Jehn]

Oh, and he is not neutered but shows no signs of aggression toward other dogs or people... We thought we might leave him intact in case we choose to stud him in the future. We haven't really looked into it, does it affect the way they act around other dogs other than aggression?

 

[Jehn]

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/nutro.html

What do you make of this? A few people have accused Nutro of being the cause of death for their dogs... ???!!!

 

[Jehn]

New food

Bauer's food supply was getting low so we picked up a bag of the Nutro Max adult large breed... It's just a small bag so we can see if he even likes it but you are probably right about the different contributing factors being the issue and not the food... If it was really killing so many pets it wouldn't be on the market, right?

We'll start the 25%/75% ratio for dinner tonight and go from there... So far he really likes the Nutro tartar control treats, so here's hoping he likes the new food as well.