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Roommate's Dog Problems...
This is a novel. Apologies in advance for the length, and if I sound...snobby. I really don't mean to. I'm just fed up.
My fiance and I recently moved into a house with another couple. It's not the best situation, but we're students at a private school in Southern California, and it's the best we can afford. We've had a miniature labradoodle for about a month now. She's a year and a half, and fairly well behaved. The previous owners never obedience or potty trained her and just left her outside. She's already mastered come, sit, lie-down, and stay, is potty trained, and is learning to play fetch and other games. I grew up in a family that raised Airedale Terriers, one who was an awarded show dog, so I've always been around dogs, and trained and cared for them a certain way. Scheduled feeding, training at an early age, strict rules on jumping, etc. I have no problem with people who do it differently, so long as the owner is responsible and the dog behaves itself. This is the problem with my roommates.
They have some sort of Jack Russell Terrier mix. JRTs are extremely energetic and need a TON of exercise and attention, or they are absolute terrors. Like this dog. She jumps, LITERALLY to the height of my shoulders. I am not exaggerating one bit, and I am almost six feet tall. She jumps and scratches and runs all over the place, and doesn't listen to ANYTHING anyone says to her. She has so much energy that she can't sit still for even one minute. They apparently took her to obedience training, but that didn't work out. The owners work all day and leave her alone in the backyard. They let her come in at night for an hour or two, and then crate her all night. Clearly this is not the stimulation a JRT needs.
Now, if I try to take my dog, Sadie, outside to use the bathroom, train, or play, I can't get anything accomplished because their dog jumps all over me, and scares Sadie (who is normally very friendly with any other dog). If she's in the house and I call Sadie or try to feed her, the dog is all over the place and is very disruptive. She's also teaching Sadie bad habits...such as the jumping. She never did it until this dog was around. We're trying to train her out of it (it's becoming less frequent), but if the dog starts doing it enough, Sadie will join in. Roommates do NOTHING about it. And if Sadie jumps on them, they don't care. They make snide comments about how "strict" I am with my dog by not allowing her to eat the grass and people food, or jump on people, and that I feed her on a schedule. They've also started to comment that they're tired of people that don't like their dog because she's too energetic, but it's "not their fault or hers, because you can't tame something with energy".
I've tried working with their dog a little bit, but its no use because they don't enforce anything. If she gets "too fiesty", which is about ten notches above what a normal patient person would tolerate, they yell at her to "go lie down", the only thing she'll listen to - after you scream it ten times.
Again, I'm sorry this is so long and that I probably sound like a huge snob right now, but please, help. I'm afraid to say anything, because we're renting out a room for a really low price, and I don't know if there's anything else we can afford anywhere else. I don't want to piss them off.
Re: Roommate's Dog Problems...
Honestly, if you aren't willing to bring up their dog's bad behavior to them, there is nothing you can do about it.
Also, please see the FAQs about why using a term like Labradoodle is not the best idea. TIA!
I don't think there's much you can do that won't blow up on you. If I were in your shoes I might just start enforcing the idea that the dog couldn't jump on *me*, but it will likely be an uphill battle. You can't force someone to care.
What about taking their dog along when you go on walks or to the dog park? It will basically be under your control then, plus get some exercise.
I agree with everything above. It makes me feel sad for this dog. I would try to take her with you whenever you can, and get her to use up some of that energy. I have a pretty high energy dog as well, and if she is bored, she seriously looks for trouble. I find that 15-20 minutes of training wears her out as much as a one hour walk. She has to use her brain and do "work". This dog is likely highly trainable and would be a blast to work with. I love how fast my dog learns new tricks - it's like I can see the wheels turing in her head. One command that is super easy to teach and really helps with dogs that have trouble focusing is "touch". I use it all of the time. It's hard because she isn't your dog, but I would try to help this poor thing. Best of luck!
Me: 32 | He: 35
TTC since Sept 2011
DX: Unexplained
1st round of clomid: Jan 2013 BFP - M/C 8 weeks
surprise BFP Apr 2013 - M/C 9 weeks
IUI #1 clomid Jul 2013 = BFN
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IUI #3 injects Oct 2013 = BFN
IUI #4 injects Dec 2013 = BFN
IVF #1 March 2014 - 12R/12F, one perfect day 5 blast transferred
BFP!! Beta#1 = 431 Beta#2 = 914 Beta#3 = 2207 HB = 166!!
I totally get that you might not purchase from a mill/BYB/whatever, but when you use those terms in a very public forum and someone goes to google the designer name, those mills and BYBs are the first thing that pop up.
Can someone post me in the direction of these FAQ's because the ones I read through had nothing to do with this??
I also have a JRT mix, and he sounds a lot like your roommates dog. It does not matter how many times I tell him "Off" or "Sit", when someone (anyone!) walks in the front door, he jumps on them. He get's so excited that he runs circles, darts around, jumps... he acts like a JRT. When he gets dinner, he spins in circles. He's at 100% until he gets tired, and then he sleeps like a log.
That's just the way they are. You can train it out of them, but if my dog gets encouragement from ONE person that it's ok to jump on them, he thinks it's ok to jump on EVERYONE. He's been tough to train house manners into. It took a month to house break him and he still occasionally has accidents!
So yeah, you can try to train him not to jump, but if his owners let him do it, your work won't do much besides how the dog interacts with you.
Don't take him for walks without the owner's permission though. Maybe try to play ball or frisbee in the backyard? Maybe work on some tricks? The "Touch" command is great, as is "Target" (use the lid of a yogurt container as the target). Try clicker training too.
Thank you very much for the tips. We do have permission to take her for walks and out to the dog park, so I may try that. I have a huge soft spot for all terriers, I absolutely love them, and I feel so bad that I don't like this dog, because it's really not her fault, and I've never NOT liked a dog.
I'll see what I can do with the "touch" command. Thank you!
BTW, we use "target" all the time in agility training. Here's some info on how to do it: http://www.dogtrickacademy.com/blog/target-training
The target can be anything, but should always be the same thing. You train "touch" the same way except the target is your hand. Clicker training works great with this, but sometimes having another thing in your hand while trying to train gets cumbersome, so you can also try picking a word that you mark a behavior with, something short like "Yes!". I used target training to teach my JRT mix to play fetch beyond all the agility training.
Good luck on walks and the dog park!
1. Nobody is going to search Labradoodle because she used it to communicate a rough picture of her dog to us. Everyone and their mother already knows what the term means.
2. Assuming her post actually made someone who had never heard of this mix want one and then look for one through Google without doing any proper research at all, then yes, I suppose they could find puppy mills/BYBs. I suspect that any such person probably already buys pets in that way, however. Also, OP pointed out that her dog is a rescue, reminding people that there are amazing dogs in need of homes.
Highly doubt OP will accidentally lead someone to support puppy mills by describing her dog.