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Originally Posted by SeaNemesis  We adopted a male doberman,red about 2 years ago. He was 13 months old and lived his entire life at that point in a kennel. He had never even been in a house or climbed stairs. |
So he's now about three--and is the behavior and the related issues been getting worse or is this how he's been the entire time?
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Almost 2 years ago we heard about Panzer and purchased him. It was very difficult at first because of his many issues,but with a great deal of time,love and training he has come a long way,BUT...............He is naughty,when I say naughty,I mean very very much so. He needs supervision 24/7,if you walk away even briefly he will get into any kind of nono activity there is.
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About needing supervision 24/7--I think the first thing I'd start doing is to go all the way back to puppy type training. I'd have Panzer on a leash at all times--he'd either be attached to me or to some other responsible adult (your husband in your case--if he can't be trusted then he needs to be either in your view at all times or confined.
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If there is any food items he can get he will even open containers and boxes. He even knows now how to open cabinets. He does this ONLY when you leave.[
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Well, if you are keeping in him your view at all times or confined that takes care of getting on the furniture and getting into food--as far as cabinets go I can think of half dozens owner I've known over the years who have installed child proof devices on cabinets not for the kids but for the all to clever dogs. Digging in carpeting? If he's always with someone you can stop him before he does damage. Or confine him.
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If we try to kennel him or put him in the laundry room which is big, he goes nuts and barks,whines non-stop and urinates.He will still occassionaly urinate in the house even in front of you,even after he has been out,although uncommon it still is frustrating.
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OK--confining him--this is the point at which I'd be tracking down a really top notch vet behaviorist. Ask your regular vet where to find one. Sometimes even a single appointment will enable you to iron out some of these problems. But one of the things I'd be looking into, and a behaviorist can advise you on (actually some clinics have vets who may not be board certified as behaviorist but have some skill at it) the possibility of drugs. There are drugs that are actually used specifically for behavior modification as opposed to simply trying to tranquilize the dog. I would want to try to alleviate what appears to be over the top separation anxiety so that he can be confined and left so that there isn't this continual upset over the destruction he creates.
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If we go away and bring him with us,he is so miserable that he will whine constantly even if he is with us.
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How much experience has he had going with you? Is the vehicle large enough to put a crate in--he should be confined when in a vehicle and you can try things like first sitting in the car, then very short trips around the block and then longer trips--high value rewards for being quiet should, in time, enable you to modify that sort of behavior.
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He knows right from wrong and when he does things he will slink.
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You sound to me like you've had more than plenty of experience in dog training to KNOW that this is not the case--dogs don't KNOW right from wrong. What he's responding to that makes him slink is his reading of your attitude--you are angry and he knows it. That's all he "knows".
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I have been so desperate that I even used the spray training collar and even (cringe) the electrical one and used it when we caught him. However, he does NONE of this now if we are around.It is getting much worse. I can't let him out for long by himself or he barks,digs (VERY badly at that,under house,stairs,fence, etc) In the house he digs in the carpet or will find something to get into to. We have purchased many toys and even bones for him. We cannot take him anywhere and this is such a hardship now.We cannot kennel or contain him.
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I don't think the citronella spray collars are particularly effective. The electronic collars can be but I think you need more than this in your bag of tricks for this particular dog. The barking in the yard and the digging in the yard--well, I use a bark collar on one of my inveterate barkers but be forewarned that very barky dogs will bark through an electronic collar--you can do a combination of training and the bark collar that will make it effective though. Digging--digging is something I no longer try to control outside--in the one yard that wasn't a designated dog area I put in a 12 X 12 pen and if I wasn't in the yard with the dogs they went in that--they dug to their hearts content and I wasn't eternally upset because they were digging in places I didn't want them to dig. As far as the misbehavior in the house when you aren't with him--make sure he's not loose without you being there--if it means that he's on leash all the time so be it--the longer the behavior persists the worse it's getting evidently (I missed that the first time through your post when I was wonder if it was getting worse).
At this point I think you need to find a way to retrain the dog so that he can be crated (I would not simply confine him to a room--I think that just asks for further displays of bad behavior. I'd talk to my own vet first and discuss the possibility of drugs for behavior modification. And I'd ask about a behaviorist--specifically a vet behaviorists so that they can prescribe appropriate medication.
Good luck--I can tell you that although it won't be easy that dogs like this can be trained and retrained.
And by the way--are you still doing classes with him? I'd keep him in training for something I think--might be helpful and can't do any harm.
I just read your more recent post where you say that you don't think he has separation anxiety--I disagree on this--both his behavior when confined and the fact that he does not behave when loose and unattended suggests classic separation anxiety.