Puppies :jumping: Puppies :jumping:
All puppies are beautiful :jumping:
All dogs are puppies :jumping:
Nomad - yay, fellow Vet Slave...er...uh.. Vet-Tech!!
(Is it just me or do all Vets loose the part of their brain that doesn't have to do with animals when they graduate?? They can never find ANYTHING!!
)
As for the crate, yes yes, the crate is an excellent tool. It should NOT, however, be used as a punishement.
As Nomad said, it should be a place of refuge - somehwere they are comfortable, the place they can TRUST when you have to put them into stressful situations like going to the vet.
Punishement really doesn't work in our favor with dogs - if they learn anything at all from the experience it is merely not to do the behavior WHILE WE ARE WATCHING.
It's a better idea to ignore the bad behavior and praise the behavior you'd like to see instead... it is also a tremendous help to REPLACE a bad behavior with one you'd like to see.
For instance...if you'd like to get your dog to quit jumping on your guests when they enter the house, take some time to teach your dog to sit, roll over, or fetch something.
Then, any time someone comes over, work with your dog and tell it to sit, roll over, fetch the paper until your guests have safely entered the house. This way, your dog is too busy doing a desired behavior, to do the undesired one.
This works for a lot of things, and eventually the dog will alltogether forget the behavior you replaced.
If you've still got issues with a dog messing in the house - talk to your Vet. They'll want to eliminate any internal problems first, and then they should be able to help you behaviorally. Any vet worth their weight offers behavioral services!! :yes: