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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Animal biologist here. It seems you got a pet without having any interest in learning about the psychology of the species you were taking in. This is necessary if you are planning to live indoors with any other animal, including your own human family.

Peeing indoors is never acceptable, not even for puppies. When she has an accident inside, you raise your voice and do your best to have a very displeased tone. Dogs are very sensitive to tone, but don't have good memories, so you need to catch her in the act, or a few seconds after. That's when she'll make the connection between your anger and her peeing on the floor. You also need to use enzymatic cleaner on all the spots she's peed to get rid of the remaining molecules, otherwise she might believe it's OK to pee there.

The dog should not be so anxious and/or excited when it meets strangers. You need to train her to greet more strangers, outside, and reward her on the spot when she doesn't pee. In the meantime, if someone she doesn't know is planning to visit, they need to meet the dog outside first, to avoid her peeing indoors. You can wait for your guest outside, encourage her to pee before they arrive, then have the meet-and-greet outside before coming in. Reward her every time she meets someone without peeing. If that works (she doesn't pee for about 5-10 meetings in a row), you can give her a potty break before they come, bring her in, then ask that they come in very quietly, and you reward her for a well-behaved greeting. If that's successful, try an indoor meeting without a prior potty break.

As you can see, training a dog means immediate negative feedback when they do wrong, but gradual adjustments to the ultimate correct behavior, with lots of rewards along the way for incremental progress. Your goal is to always put them in a position to succeed, because timely food reinforcement is an extremely powerful tool.

I can't help you with your annoyance that she's always "there" - you can just ignore her, OP. But is there anything else that you think is not normal and that you need help with?

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OP here. OMG, can you come to my house? Do you have a company you recommend to help train or learn about her? This has been amazing. I will admit that we do not have her around many other animals or people and I have no clue what her life was like before we got her from the shelter. She does this thing though, which I would love your input about. When she meets other dogs on a walk, she lays down, her ears are back, tail tucked and she just lays on her back. Is she scared? I mean, obviously, but what should I do? If they are  not near her, say like across the street, then she growls and barks. I do have the enzyme spray. Your idea about having guests meet her outside is something I never even thought of, so thank you. I guess I feel bad for just ignoring. [/quote]

Ha. Thank you, PP. No pet business, I'm a research scientist. Your dog lies down and presents her belly as the ultimate sign of submission, which is on par with the peeing when she meets strange humans at home. You can use a gentle soothing voice and caress her when she lies down like that (no treats). She has a submissive personality, which in itself is fine, but the barking and growling is an aggressive response that also originates from fear. You need to keep an eye on that, because she's still a puppy, and might develop more aggression as she matures into dog teenage-hood. She badly needs to socialize with an older, calm, well-mannered dog, one on one. Ideally, they would go for walks together regularly. Do you know of any? That will work wonders. Right now she sees the entire world as a threat. If you don't take steps now to show her that dogs and humans can be safe, she might grow up to be permanently clingy, develop destructive behaviors when left to her own devices (like bark incessantly or chew up your stuff), or become more aggressive.

I hesitate to recommend a puppy socialization class or doggy daycare, because the classes are full of poorly trained dogs, and the daycare will be entirely overwhelming to her in her current state. No dog parks either.  Maybe you could ask around if any dog training operation works with a trained dog as "mentor" to the dog students. If you don't know of friends with really calm dogs, then maybe you could pay someone to borrow their super chill dog regularly. [/quote]

OP again. Geez, you are amazing. I just signed her up for doggy daycare thinking that will help but I will NOT do it. I do have a family member that has a dog that is so calm but it is a large breed (a doberman). She was terrified or submissive to a small yorkie. Would the doberman be ok? He is very chill and calm. She does seem submissive. I was on the phone and took my eye off of her for one minute and she pooped on the floor. I could not raise my voice because I was on an important call but she knew it was wrong and walked right to her crate. She never willingly goes to her crate. As if she put herself in time out. It was my fault she pooped on the floor, I should have had her near me or had her go to the bathroom before I got on the phone. Would someone coming to the house to train her be ok? I just want her trained for safety reasons, nothing major.[/quote]

I'm not the PP, I'm the one who just recommend Paw Mind Body.  Ask the Dobies owner what he/she thinks.  They know their dog.  Mine are Rotties and they are actually very good with other dogs.  I've had friends bring puppies over to socialize with them, even much smaller dogs.  They tend to know how to behave and one-on-one with a calm dog would be much better.  Off leash in a neutral area is best if possible.

NEVER a dog park.  It's the worst place to take your dog, especially a fearful one.[/quote]

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