B!TC# IT OUT!

she's trying to get a rise out of you. You're ignoring her so her being mean is completely pointless now. I bet she's following you around so you'll get irritated and get mad. It's possible that she just gets a kick out of you blowing a fuse.
you can continue ignoring it (will possibly irritate her more), start being really nice (girls who are mean find it really difficult to be so when someone is being nice to them), or just outright ask why she's following you around.

Honestly I'd continue ignoring her or being nice. If it happens again just start of by say "Hi *insertnamehere*, Hows it going?" be chirpy and nice. If she's trying to be mean it'll break her resolve

Haha! Thanks! I'm gonna continue ignoring her and do what you said to do. It'll be hilarious! :lol:

Yeah, I've tried for a really long time to build confidence in myself, but it's hard. One minute I'm confident to the max and a few minutes/hours/days later it no longer exists. People have told me before I need to be more confident, and my significant other really tries to nail it into my head constantly that I have every reason in the world to be confident, yet it's still a struggle.

Really not quite sure how to fix that.. It's almost like my emotions have control over me and not the other way around. It's a constant uphill struggle.

UGH. The neighbor kids. I love kids. I totally love kids. Kids are great. But these kids are getting on my nerves. They keep trying to scare one of my dogs. They've been poking her through the fence, waving light sabers all around and screaming at her, calling her a bad dog for no reason, smacking her on the face when she nibbles their hands, U G H. I don't like our neighbors in general and these are just their grandchildren but I hate to have to keep my dogs inside. The oldest of 'em, Wilson doesn't give a damn about the kids so he doesn't bother (loves kids but he doesn't go far enough out in the yard to notice them), Louie just barks and tries to get them to leave Dax alone and Dax is just being really terrified and scarred by them. I've already gone out there and told them to please leave her alone and move on, but the little boys mainly keep coming back and harassing her. The kids have always been really...rebellious, I suppose? I don't think that's the right word. They cling onto our fence all the time and have thus pulled it down in the front. If we had $600 lying around then we'd sure as heck put up a nicer, taller fence there so they couldn't keep hitting her on the fence. Now I've got to go outside every time she has to and she's only a four month old puppy, so her bladder control isn't great. I'm just really sad that the little boys want to hurt and scare her. ): I know they don't know better and I tried to explain it to them that it isn't good to do that but still, not much of a response. They acted guilty when I would catch them at first but now they don't care. I'm just really angry right now at them. ):

Go knock on their door and tell the guardians that the children are torturing your dogs.

Exactly. This sounds like one of those "Where are their parents?" situations. If you know which houses those kids come from, honestly if it were me I'd march myself right on over and have a nice long talk with their parents. I'd even go as far as to ask for repairs on the fence that they knocked over, but that's just me. If their own parents aren't getting them in trouble for pestering animals on other peoples property then they're probably not going to pay much never mind to the owner of the pets.

When I went out there earlier one of the littlest boys said he wasn't allowed to come near the fence anymore but did so anyway. I suppose I could go over there and if the problem arises again I may, but I'm not positive. We have issues with these neighbors all the time unfortunately. They keep parking in our driveway when they have their big church gatherings such as these.

I can't believe this. I'm so immensely angry right now I could punch a hole through a brick wall.

So about a year ago I got my own Pomeranian dog. It was more my choice than my parents. The person who gave it to me was my teacher at school. I took him off her hands because most (well actually all) of the people at school smoked weed or lived on SSI and would rather hang out on the streets than love the dog. I took him and didn't give my parents much of a choice about it, but they seemed to love his cute antics and fluffy stature. He's only a year old so he's kind of badly behaved. He barks out the window often and he jumps on people a lot. I try to break him of his habits but he's a puppy, and a stubborn one at that.

Anyways, my 27 year old, drug addicted, alcoholic bum of a brother just moved back in with us. This morning I woke up to him throwing a bitch fit because he bought a (rather large) lab/corgi mix dog and my parents absolutely won't have another dog in the house. So what does he do? He tries to convince her that if he can't have his dog here, why should I get to keep mine? I'm absolutely infuriated right now. Mom admitted to him that she felt trapped into getting my dog because we didn't really discuss it when I suddenly brought it home and paid for it. I understand where she's coming from, but she always plays with him and laughs at how adorable he is, and she says her and my dad love him. I feel like I would be okay giving my dog to someone else if I could find him as good a home as he has here, but I've tried and I can't find one. I don't want him in an apartment because of potentially having to move. It might be stressful on him. I absolutely will not hand him over to the shelter. No. I just...idk what to do. He has a good home here and I just can't believe my own brother would be so selfish and try to turn my family against me.

I'm so sorry about that, Ayla. As for him barking out the window, may I offer a few training tips for you?

My own dog is a beagle mix, so we expected the barking. We saw a difference in how often it was after we began taking him on half hour walks every day. Is he getting enough exercise? I don't know anything about how much poms need so it's probably a good bit less than that. Also, the spray bottle is your friend~

He barks whenever someone walks by. He barks twice as hard if they have a dog with them. I haven't been walking him lately because its been very cold outside. Either that or its been super warm and all the snow is melting and everything is a dirty slushy muddy mess. I've tried playing fetch with him in the backyard for excersise. He doesn't understand that the second half of the game requires him returning the ball. =,,=
i hope to get him out and walking really soon, but for him, absolutely no amount of walking will wear him out. I've walked him 5 miles down to the lake, spent the day walking him around, letting him swim and chase birds, and he'll get drowsy on the bus ride home, but the second he walks through the front door, he's back to his energetic self.

Also, instead of a spray bottle getting everything wet, I blow on his face. It seems to have the same effect, he hates it. But I just can't break those two habits. Barking and jumping. I thought of investing in a small shock collar for a more severe and memorable lesson, but they're so expensive!

For the fetch thing, could you play a game of chase? Just chase him around the yard (or have him chase you)?
The way I play fetch though with my dog is throw the ball, when they grab it, wave around a rope toy. Don't let them have the rope toy until he drops the ball at your feet. Grab the ball and play with the rope toy. My beagle eventually figured it out but it did take patience.

I always forget about the snow up north, lol. For the price of the shock collar could you try a dog trainer? I have one where I live that does one session for $50 and will come to your house and work on up to three basic training problems such as yours. Don't know if you could find one in Duluth though. Trying to think of other things to help! D:

Puppies have endless energy, lol. My lab puppy is never tired so I know how that can be, seriously.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MerEmma

For the fetch thing, could you play a game of chase? Just chase him around the yard (or have him chase you)?

---

There's 5 feet of snow in my backyard. I suppose I could try chasing him around on stilts, but even then I would get exhausted pretty quick. Even in the summer, he takes off like a rocket. I play fetch with him now by just throwing snowballs. I have an almost infinite amount of them and he never has to bring them back.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MerEmma

For the price of the shock collar could you try a dog trainer? I have one where I live that does one session for $50 and will come to your house and work on up to three basic training problems such as yours.

---

I have about $5 to spend on a dog trainer. :P I was supposed to start work a few weeks ago, but the hotel I was gonna work at got flooded and the damage is so bad that they're closed until at least may 1st. So now I have no money coming in. :(

Right, right, sorry. Again, Floridian who's currently trying to cool off instead of warm up. xD

Ouch, I saw that on your Facebook. I'll keep thinking though.

You could always dig tunnels in the snow that are big enough for you and your pup and chase him through those. I used to do that with my dogs when I was younger

but that's so much work xD especially if you do it alone. :P

Personally I'd use the "My dog was here first" argument when it comes to him complaining about you having a dog.

Tried that. Dad gets all huffy and loses all sense of rational thinking. Also I could make that argument, but they'd say their dog was here before mine.

When your dog is barking at people walking past make a claw shape with your hand and hold him around the back of the neck to the floor. Not hard so that you're strangling him, but firm enough that he can't move. If you can do this and he stay quiet give him a treat.
The hand of the back of the neck is supposed to represent the mouth of the alpha dog (obviously you wouldn't hold him down with your own mouth around his neck). But basically you're showing him that you're incharge and that you don't approve of his behaviour. Giving him the treat once the people have finished walking past the house and he's stayed quiet helps show him that being quiet is a good thing.

Check out Cesar Milan's work. I've used his methods and so have my friends and they seem to work so much better than any other training I've looked into in the past.

All I do is schoolwork and I really need/want a break sometimes. For example, I was supposed to go to a dance on Friday, and I was SO excited because I go to an all girl school and I hate it and I REALLY wanted to see some boys. Well all of a sudden my mom told me I couldn't go and I had to stay home and do ap euro homework. I had just had a test in the class and I was doing really well in the class! This isn't the first time this has happened. Ok so I have never been on a date before and I finally got asked out. My mom refused to let me go!! Then she FREAKED and told me I wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend because I had to focus on my schoolwork. I know school is the most important but I'm a straight A student and I never have fun!!! GOD why is she so controlling all the time!!!! Sorry I just had to rage.

It's because she loves you. :P My sister turns out to be one of those moms. She feels bad for doing it, but she just cant help herself. She gets so worried she nearly looses her mind.