# Behavior problems with older spoo puppy



## rainyday (Dec 3, 2020)

Our standard poodle is almost two years old and still has some concerning behaviors. The worst one is when she gets overtired or overstimulated, she attacks whoever's around by jumping on them and biting their arms/tearing their clothes. She doesn't break the skin or anything but it HURTS and leaves bruises. Saying "Ow!" or "ah-ah" or "no" gets her more excited and has made it worse over time. Our only solution now is removing ourselves from the room or crating her but it has done nothing to get her to stop. 

The other big problem we have is that she constantly is looking for things to steal. When she enters a room, the first thing she does is scan for something she cant have. We have been very careful about closing the doors, keeping items hidden away etc but accidents happen. Once she has something in her mouth, she swallows it. If you have time to say "drop" you're already too late. She has already had several emergency visits from swallowing things like socks. She has also learned how to push indoor gates from the drywall.

Another problem we have is that she barks and cries...a lot. If she goes outside, she immediantly starts barking and yowling for the neighbor dogs. She will bark if you put her inside. She has learned that barking=attention because we have to keep her quiet while we work at home, and its just relentless. If her favorite person leaves the house she goes absolutley bananas.

Half of our family is very against shock collars (even if it's just a noise and not shock), so we have not tried that. We have seen questionable reviews about our local dog training places so we have not tried that either. She is a genius at basic commands when treats are involved, and is a very loving playful dog. Our vet has assured us that she will outgrow these things and turn into the perfect dog with time, but I'm not seeing any improvements. She gets plenty of exercise and attention throughout the day so I really don't understand where this behavior is coming from. 

Our last dog (a poodle mix) did not have any of these problems, so we're at a loss about what to do. Is this normal behavior for a spoo her age? Will she out-grow this? To me it seems like she either doesn't understand the "rules" or is purposefully choosing to ignore them. We have only done positive training by rewarding good behavior with treats etc. We did try a squirt bottle but she just thought it was a game.

One of our family members absolutley hates her and it just adds to all the stress. I would really appreciate any advice from people that have had similar issues. Thank you so much 😥


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

Welcome to Poodle Forum! She likely still has some maturing to do, but if she's not consistently being taught what's expected of her—in a way that she can understand—she's not going to wake up one day and be your idea of a perfect dog.

It sounds like she's rehearsing some very stressful behaviours—stressful not just for you and your family, but stressful for her, too. And also potentially dangerous. Gulping items can be a form of resource guarding (is that something you're familiar with?) and how you teach leave it and drop it can inadvertently make it worse.

Did you raise your previous dog from a puppy? What behaviour and training resources do you use (books, YouTube, etc.)? And have you explored all possible professional training options? Some trainers are offering remote consultations right now due to covid, so you aren't necessarily limited by geography.

If your poodle has a high drive to work, you may be in a little over your head. Just know that you're not alone! If you've searched the forum at all, you'll see lots of us begging for help. 

You'll get more personalized advice if you tell us, in as much detail as possible, what her average day looks like. Seemingly little things like what she eats (and when and how) can make a big difference.

And tell us her name, too! Maybe show us some pictures? We love getting to know new poodles. 

P.S. High fives to you for not resorting to aversive methods, especially without professional guidance. That's not something to mess around with unless you a) have exhausted all other options and b) are an expert or are being advised by one. Much of our trainer's business is helping people whose previous training methods resulted in fear and/or aggression.


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## Mufar42 (Jan 1, 2017)

Well I'm seeing a lot of this type of behavior lately with both poodles and doodles. Not exactly sure why, but I can say poodles mature more slowly in some of their behaviors, at least mine did. Since you have only used positive training I would continue. A e-collor will not help you, and should not be used as a punishment. For instance if your dog is off leash where he can't hear your command, a vibration will get his attention and he will look up and get back on track. They are for "learned behaviors", your dog already knows what he is to do. The barking really once you give her attention, even yelling at her to stop, you have re-enforced this behavior by rewarding her with attention no matter how small. I'm not sure what to do about this, I'm not a trainer. When my dog first started to bark at people going past our front door, I'd just call him over put him in a sit, reward him and tell him to stay. Perhaps teaching him to go to his "place" will assist you with that. You can google both the "place command" and "sit on the dog" command. Stealing and gulping the item down seems to be another issue. I personally don't see it as resource guarding but guess in a way far off it could be. I know what happened with me is I went quickly to the dog and grabbed it away, he learned if he would swallow it l couldn't take it. So clean stuff gets put away and dirty goes into a lingerie bag until wash time. Counter surfing or stealing from anywhere, if its not on the floor its not his..I would say "NOT YOURS" firmly when he ws little, if that didn't work we would put things on the counter and leave a empty aluminum coke can filled with 13 pennies (taped up well with duck tape) next to where he would steal and when it too came crashing down, he didn't like it. With one of my dogs we would throw it next to him (not hitting him) but its important that he doesn't know where that loud flying thing came from. He associated the noise with putting his nose on the counter The jumping on me and biting, well I never allowed the from the beginning. I would re direct his attention or hand him a ball or toy to bite on. If the jumping on me continued I reverted to my old school method (frowned upon today) and knee him in the chest. Just enough where he would get off me. Honestly my dog hasn't jumped on me since he was puppy. Now there are friendly jumps but they are when he is excited however (in those cases ) he is invited as we taught him " hug command". Having a two year old standard poodle jumping and biting me is not something I want. My guy weighs in at 68 lbs. As PTP said there are many options out there for you to train. At this point I'd probably find a certified trainer to come in and assist . In another year you will have a good dog. Mine just turned 3 yesterday. He has moments but overall he is now a good boy. Good luck and there are a few certified trainers on here that will give you some excellent advise.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

You should find yourself a good trainer or maybe even a behaviorist to help you effectively extinguish these behaviors (which are all quite manageable). There are three places you can look to find good trainers who because of their certifications are going to use a humane hierarchy and a training strategy call LI/MA (least intrusive/minimally aversive).

Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers ccpdt.org

Karen Pryor Academy https://karenpryoracademy.com

Association of Professional Dog Trainers apdt.org

All three of these organizations have tools to search for trainers. CCPDT and KPA also have their own certifications associated with them as well.

The other replies above are correct in noting that poodle brains can be slower to mature, but once grown up with good training under them they are so smart they become truly great companions.


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

It does seem like she is rehearsing some of these behaviors. A behaviorist should be able to help you break the cycles. 
I agree with Mufar that gulping an item down is a way to keep possession of it. My way of dealing with it is to never chase a dog when he had stolen a shoe, sock, whatever. I try not to even acknowledge that he has something I want. Instead I immediately grab a dog toy (I have them lying all over the house) and start playing with it. Usually I wave the toy at the dog, proclaim "Haha, I got your toy, it's mine now" and *run away* from the dog while tossing the toy in the air. Most times the dog will decide that my toy is better than what he has, simply because I'm trying to keep it away from him. With luck the dog drops the stolen item and comes after my toy. After a token resistance I let him have my toy and scoop up the sock or whatever while he's busy with his victory dance.


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## Basil_the_Spoo (Sep 1, 2020)

It sounds like you're doing the best you can. 

Over tired/Nap time

I know it can be challenging to enforce quiet time with kids at home, stay at home orders, etc etc, and it's easier said then done, but if you can be firm with everyone in the house to be in sync, and "be boring" during the time when you know your poodle starts to get tired, then it might help your furbaby settle down.

I found this problem & solution was more an issue of training the humans, then trying to train the dog. 

When my parents would dog-sit, my Dad (64, retired) was super obnoxious about wanting to play with Basil or squeak the toy lright when she would settle down. I caught him and was nice the first time before telling him to knock it off and explaining why it's not cute and counter productive because he doesn't experience my frustration when the demon spawn comes out when I take her back home and she's running on fumes. Now, Mom's quick to echo Dad to go read or go outside and Basil's content get pets with Mom while she works from home before napping in her office room.

I too have some holes in my northface jackets.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Any time a dog gets to do an unsolicited and intolerable behavior more than 2 times all the repeats are rehearsals. Since such behaviors are often very powerfully self reinforcing they become difficult to extinguish very quickly, so zero tolerance of the behavior becomes very important. I agree with cowpony that you should not chase or tug on a forbidden item once the dog has it. They will see that as a funny game.


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## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

Poodles need a basic education in obedience. From about 12 weeks of age I teach sit, down, and come. Later I work on the stay command, although a puppy, like a toddler, does not have the ability to stay for very long. I also make sure that the crate is a pleasant place for the puppy, not a punishment. 

Teaching tricks is also a way to keep the poodle brain engaged. Try "spin" (and if your poodle is very clever you can use "spin" to do a clockwise spin and "twist" to do a counter-clockwise twist!). Tricks as simple as "shake" and as difficult as searching for, finding, and retrieving a particular object are wonderful things to teach. Some of the toys now available on the internet are great - they are "dog puzzles". Zoe has a toy that has compartments that open in a variety of different ways. You hide a tiny treat in each compartment and the dog has to figure out how to get to it. These are available on Amazon and Chewy. There are easy ones and difficult ones. Google Nina Ottosson dog puzzles and Trixie dog puzzles for some examples.


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

Johanna said:


> Poodles need a basic education in obedience. From about 12 weeks of age I teach sit, down, and come. Later I work on the stay command, although a puppy, like a toddler, does not have the ability to stay for very long. I also make sure that the crate is a pleasant place for the puppy, not a punishment.
> 
> Teaching tricks is also a way to keep the poodle brain engaged. Try "spin" (and if your poodle is very clever you can use "spin" to do a clockwise spin and "twist" to do a counter-clockwise twist!). Tricks as simple as "shake" and as difficult as searching for, finding, and retrieving a particular object are wonderful things to teach. Some of the toys now available on the internet are great - they are "dog puzzles". Zoe has a toy that has compartments that open in a variety of different ways. You hide a tiny treat in each compartment and the dog has to figure out how to get to it. These are available on Amazon and Chewy. There are easy ones and difficult ones. Google Nina Ottosson dog puzzles and Trixie dog puzzles for some examples.


Can't like this post enough! Agree 100%.

Not only does basic obedience training (and beyond!) give you a well-mannered poodle, it really is so good for their genius brains. If I put off Peggy's evening training because I'm feeling lazy and the couch is soooo comfy, she will stand in front of me and stare or paw at me, or just generally be annoying.

Ten minutes of (fun!) training later, she's curling up for a snooze.


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