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Damn, Bo was the star of that elite tweet :
https://twitter.com/ObamaWhiteHouse/status/367301180910624768
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Here are my two cats, in an allegory of capitalism :
(although to be fair, given the pecking order, it may well be that in cat $, cardboard box >>> 3 mattresses 
)
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Pretty pathetic box IMO. What’s the point of you can’t hide inside and then pounce at passerby?
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Our pandemic addition James has turned out to be a terror. His first several weeks I think he was nervous so he seemed pretty chill. Once he got his feet under him he started letting his freak flag fly. He attacks the children (it’s play, but very unwelcome and constant), destroys household objects, barks a ton (mostly when our other dog or the kids aren’t playing the way he wants them to play, which is almost always), etc. We are currently looking for some hard-core dog whisperer-style trainers to come to our house and save us. It’s bad enough that if we can’t change him he can’t stay here, so we’re going to drop some real money on this (big time dog trainers are expensive!). Anybody who has any experience with this sort of thing, I’d love to hear it.
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I don’t have any tips, but good luck - I am sure that’s a hard spot to be in. The pup I posted above has been really difficult, but not as much as yours. Somewhat similar story - we visited the shelter, I didn’t want a pup (she was 4 months old), but she was by far the most calm dog there, she was super happy just chilling with us. I knew she was a herding mix, but I’ve seen calm versions of those (though rare).
Get her home and more of the same, when she’s playing she’s playful, but when I sit down to work or watch TV, she’d just flop over and chill out. Her first vet visit, they spot the cause: a horrible case of hook worm. They were sapping her of all her energy.
That got cleared up and without worms she became another dog, a complete psycho. I couldn’t leave her unsupervised. Extremely bitey during play, putting everything and everyone in her mouth. Biting and pulling my daughters hair, biting her rump to get my daughter to play (no blood of course). She went through a phase of always trying to hump my leg. Really challenging on walks - she learns tricks well and would walk with a loose leash but any distraction and she’d immediately forget what she was supposed to be doing. We’re almost a year in and she’s slowly getting better, almost all of her bad behaviors are there, but less frequent and less severe. I at least have hope.
The training thing that really helped the most was I would have treats and I would just sit, she’s on a leash. Not say anything, not do anything, I would just sit. Eventually she would lay down on her own, and I would (again without saying anything) toss her a treat - ideally without her seeing me do it. She still struggles with it some times but on the whole she understands that me sitting is a signal for her to chill out.
That’s probably not helpful, but it’s the best thing I’ve done with this maniac. Best of luck with yours, it’s hard inviting these knuckleheads in sometimes.
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My dog is a kelpie and he pretty much had no manners and no training at 6 months old that we got him. The best thing I ever did to get him in line was to insist he drop and wait before eating his meal. If he’d been a bit naughty during the day I would increase the time until I said he could eat. Also taking treats to the park so it encourages them to come when you call, obviously not giving them a treat everytime but they know there’s a chance. Exercise is also crucial, wear them out. The making him drop and wait for his meal was critical though as it enforced who the boss is. If you could get your kids to make him drop and wait for a treat that will help him understand the pecking order in the house. Consistency is also key. Good luck.
Totally agree with your post but I don’t think the typical dog can make this connection. They won’t associate the “punishment” at dinner time with their behavior earlier in the day. I think it works better to immediately reinforce positive behavior with rewards, so they make the connection.
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Yeah you’re probably right. It did make me feel a bit better though sometimes lol.
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This is from yesterday.
Updates
Jake (IG). Continue to drop steroid dose for intestinal issue. Probably will stay on low dose trying to balance benefits and side effects. Overall he is doing great. Salivary gland deal is mostly a non issue. Flares up for a day or two then goes down. Hard to justify a pretty delicate surgery (lots of nerves in the area) as long as his body his coping ok.
Poppy (chiahuahua). Her bed rest seemed to help her back a lot. Having some success w the trainer but she has good days and bad days which is probably more due to how her back feels. Bad days thi/fri she didn’t want to be touched. Gave her the pain meds for a couple of days and today had a great day. Got her gear on and she went w Jake to the groomer (only Jake got his nails ground). She was happy to have her harness and leash on. Let me pick her up into the carrier in the car. Enjoyed a short walk at valley forge. A little shredded chicken goes a long way.
Clearly tired at end of day. Going to go with pain med once a day and see what regular vet thinks in a couple of weeks at check-in.
Tough balance, though. As soon as she feels better she starts jumping around and then apparently gets sore (if we interpret her moodiness as discomfort).
Wish we would have figured this out in the winter months. She def has lower energy when it’s cold outside. Hopefully we can do some kind of low dose meds and try to meter her activity level over the summer and then she will really get a chance to fully heal when it gets cold.
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Quick question for puppy owners. Our pup is ~7.5 months old now and out of nowhere her eating has slowed to a crawl. She used to inhale food, so we bought a puzzle feeder to slow her down. Over time her feeding slowed, but she would still finish each meal in one pass, taking maybe a few minutes. Starting a few days ago she displays no urgency with eating. She’ll ignore the food even after we’ve placed it down, and when she does eat it’s just a few bites and then on to something else. Is this normal in puppies? Our assumption is that it’s some sort of maturity or comfort thing, or maybe her growth is slowing down and she doesn’t have as strong an urge to eat. Thoughts?
Edit: another theory I saw is that dogs will lose some appetite when it’s hot out. It hit 90 several times in the past week so this wouldn’t be surprising. We’ve also texted her litter mates and their dogs are displaying similar changes in feeding habits so I’ve gone to basically zero concern and assume this is normal. Other than this feeding change she’s been her regular self lately.
I think as long as she’s eating the recommended amount of food per day she’ll be fine.
The dog can make the connection (animals are way, way smarter than we ever imagined) but it’s still way better to do positive reinforcement.
Go absolutely nuts with the positive reinforcement. Like, literally every action that you want to reinforce no matter how slight it seems.
The reason this 100% effective method doesn’t always work is that, and you might want to sit down for this, humans are among the more stupid and cruel species of animal. People see the dog being a holy terror and they get angry and resentful and lizard-brained and thus shy away from the positive reinforcement, because punishment is more satisfying.
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Its my understanding that this is not true if there is a temporal gap between action and punishment. You can’t punish a dog for what it did yesterday. It won’t know why you’re mad.
The way Rexx described it was a matter of hours, but yeah the dog won’t know why the thing happened the first time but it will grasp the pattern quickly.
I mean, if you, a human, had to wait for your dinner without explanation you wouldn’t figure it out until a pattern formed, likewise with somebody being mad at you for something you did yesterday. What we’re really describing are the limits of non-verbal communication. Your dog would understand he was a “bad dog” for something he did yesterday if you could effectively communicate to him what that something was.
Olive turned 10 a couple weeks ago. Still acting totally normal. We’re about 2.5 months past the splenectomy and she eats her mushrooms every day. Maybe it’s working, but I’m preparing myself for her to go South at a moment’s notice.
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Enjoy the time whether it be weeks months or even hopefully longer.
It’s nice that she allows you to live there. It’s clear from the pic that she owns the place.
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This was now. Enjoy.
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