Jealous Mini - peeing on child's toys- to spay or not to??

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Beryl2016
Posts: 1
Joined: 15 Nov 2018, 14:52
First Name: Linda

Jealous Mini - peeing on child's toys- to spay or not to??

Post by Beryl2016 »

Hello everyone!

I'm new here, so hello from my Miniature Schnauzer named Beryl, too! :ymhug:

So I am having really hard times with my 1 year 10 months old Beryl. He lives with us since he was 4 months old and he has been jealous to my now almost three years old son ever since. He is not particularly aggressive towards him (although he does lightly bite his hand if he tries to take some toys standing near the dog. My son never does that now though, he knows he has to be careful around the dog). The biggest problem that is slowly killing me and our house is Beryls' peeing on everything that belongs to our son - all the toys, potty, everything that is left on the floor. Not just that, he also pees on the middle of our big dining table if someone forgets to push the chairs under it. He has stopped peeing on the table legs, which totally ruined our wooden floor, but he still keeps marking the toys and sometimes couch and other things that are left on the floor. There is pee everywhere, always. It is not easy to constantly keep the toys away with a 3y old, they are everywhere and I do not have the time to constantly look after every piece of lego. The dog does that ONLY when we are not present at that moment, because he knows that he is not allowed to do that, but I feel that his instincts are stronger than my training this time - he marks his territory. Have any of you had similar situation? I am considering spaying - might that solve the problem? I am also expecting another baby and I know that dog pee all over the place will be 100 times more annoying with a baby in my hands (plus Beryl might get even more jealous and if he will pee on baby's stuff I might just lose my wits at some point :D ) . What would you suggest?
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zeta1454
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Re: Jealous Mini - peeing on child's toys- to spay or not to??

Post by zeta1454 »

Hello Linda and Beryl :-)
Young dogs / puppies are rarely easy to raise with human babies / toddlers in the home as both need full time attention for much of the time and it is very difficult to fully train a puppy while your attention is on one or more babies.

Having said this, if you want to keep Beryl, you are going to have to manage your time to make sure that your mini gets your undivided attention for some time through the day and that when you cannot be playing / training / walking Beryl s/he is in a crate or playpen with toys or chew items so not able to pee on furniture or toys etc.

You mention "spaying" which is a surgical removal of the womb, ovaries etc of a female dog but your post refers to "he" so not sure if Beryl is male or female? In any event neutering a dog is never guaranteed to change a behaviour such as marking / peeing. It may reduce the urge in a male dog to mark territory but "provocations" such as feeling jealousy towards another animal or human may well mean the behaviour remains even after neutering.

Beryl obviously joined your family at a later age than is usual for puppies and, unless s/he came from a responsible breeder that put in a lot of training beforehand, you may have trouble establishing good house training but it is not impossible with careful planning and patience even now.

1) You definitely need to have a crate and/ or playpen where Beryl can play or sleep safely whenever you cannot be attending to him/her.

2) You also need to timetable periods of the day when you can let your babies sleep or when they are being looked after by other family members, so you can train, walk, play or in some way spend time with Beryl without other distractions. Preferably make these periods at the same time every day so Beryl will begin to know that these are the times when s/he will be the centre of your attention and you can start to train important behaviours too.

3) It is vital that you start to train Beryl not to "resource guard". When you say that Beryl lightly bites the hand of your son when he tries to take toys near him, that is "resource guarding" behaviour. Beryl is guarding / protecting what s/he thinks belongs to her /him. Although it is right and important that your children learn how to behave safely around dogs, it is just as important that Beryl learns not to react in any aggressive or hostile way to someone taking his or her toys. You need to start training Beryl to allow toys or food to be taken away by a human adult or child calmly. To do this, you need (in the periods of time when you can be with Beryl alone) to start letting him/her have a toy or food treat and, when s/he is engaged with it, offer a very tasty or exciting alternative reward for giving up the food/toy to you. When s/he has given up the item, you can return the original toy or food treat. This is not just a trade of one item for another but a reward for Beryl who gets the extra treat or special toy and gets back the item originally held. It may take a while to find out what motivates Beryl most to surrender a toy or food treat, but once you have, you must repeat this trade /reward process again and again with different items until you are confident that Beryl will not react to having toys or food taken by a human adult. At this point, carefully supervise your little boy to repeat this with him offering the tasty treat instead of you. If you have any doubts about Beryl's likelihood to react aggressively, do not continue, but it will certainly be better going forward if you can train Beryl to accept your child (and you) approaching toys or taking them without reacting in a hostile way.

If you are really struggling with the situation, it might be a good idea to find a good behaviourist to help you with managing / changing Beryl's behaviour.
Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

Magic - Silversocks Sharade at Darksprite
Trilby - Darksprite Rosa Bud


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