Hello! I am currently raising (or trying to) my beautiful 4 month old, female, black and tan cavalier who has been at home with me since 8 weeks old. I am feeling very overwhelmed. I have always owned rescues that are 3+ years old. I was gifted my puppy by family for my birthday, as I have been grieving the loss of my two rescue soulmates over the last two years. This is my first puppy in 25 years. The last puppy I had was a German shepherd.
I love her dearly, but I am feeling very overwhelmed and exhausted and like I’m not doing anything right. Our main issue is defiance and chewing.. I have tried everything to stop her chewing on particular things (mainly I don’t want her to hurt herself 😩). I’ve watched every possible training video, read everything I can, we have been to puppy school. I think I’m a bit stuck with how to discipline her? She is doing fantastic at crate training and she has her own pen which is her chill out space. When she is doing something naughty, I will say “uh uh”, remove her from said item and redirect her with a chew toy or something along those lines. I don’t believe in discipline that causes fear etc or is aggressive or mean, as I don’t want her to fear me, but I wonder if I’m being too soft? My issue is there are things she’s chewing on that I’m scared will hurt her, eg. The ramp to my bed, corners of cupboard drawers, she loves to chew on cement or brick, the corners of walls… I have tried redirection, she has every chew toy in the world, I take her outside so she’s away from said thing and distract/play with her, I’ve put her in her pen with stimulating toys. I have sprayed the areas (ramp etc) with vinegar (diluted with water) to deter her, but that didn’t work either. I don’t know what else I can do? I will show her not to do it and sometimes she even looks at me like a petulant child and goes immediately back to it?!?! (Which I admire because it’s really quite amusing to see her look at me like that 😂) If anyone has any advice I will take it because I feel like a terrible dog mum and I’m doing it all wrong. I am trying really hard to do everything right by her but feel like I’m failing. I just want her to be safe, happy, loved and well adjusted and also having her behave well would be ideal, but I do understand she’s just a baby. I’m doing this all by myself and I think I’m failing her.
submitted by /u/jazzwiener
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