9mth old girl B- Kevin has lost the plot.

[eizenga13]

We have a 9 month old Basenji girl named… Kevin. We have mapped out her behavior issues and they are as such:

1. Still gets overly excited when people come to visit. She will be loving and ears back when the guests first arrive. And once guests are relaxed out come her teeth... She doesn't BITE she Mouths... If she gets to excited she will Mouth a little harder than other times... but eventually we have to crate her each time as she just doesn't stop. We try to distract with a game or with exercise and treats but that only works occassionally. Her favorite toy "Hippy" is used on occasion with a modicum of success.

2. She licks herself like crazy... I mean LIKE ALL THE TIME. Lick-lick-lick-lick... that is all we hear her doing... I know a clean dog is great but MY GOD!! Any ideas here?!

3. If she is sleeping on me and my lady tries to pick her up to crate her she snarrles and growls and will absolutely try to bit and is extremely vocals.. sounds like rubble-rubble-rubble, but LOTS of noise and teeth showing and again will certainly try to bite and will if you let her... and visa versa if she is sleeping on my lady and I try to move her.... Dominant much?!

4. She (Kevin) for the first time ever has chewed up not only our bed spread in the dead center of the bed but also a very expensive couch cushion, that I flipped when she tore it up 3 days again and today she tore up the other side...... This has never been something she has done (aside from her bed liners in the cage, but those go back to Pet Smart within 30 days and get an exchange so that has been an easy fix) and it has been three times now in the last week on OUR really nice stuff.

5. Loves to steal our socks and underwear and run around with it (since she was a baby she knows it gets a rise out of us so I am pretty sure I don't know how to NOT get a rise from this?). Now I know that if we don't go after her she would relax with it because it doesn't 'get our goat' but she has ruined too much stuff when we simply try to ignore it.

6. When she want to play we will but we make it on OUR terms not hers...when we want to stop, well that is when the mouthing starts up and we again... try to ignore it and she will simply go after any extremity she can... so she will go to time out.

We walk her nearly everyday. We also take her rock climbing with us when we go and we can even take her off leash and she is VERY good about coming when called when we are in the mountains... However for some reason she doesn't show that same respect to us when we are in the house... hummm..

SO we have a few major issues that have cropped up or escalated over the last few weeks and want to get right on this stuff... Only problem is that a Behaviorlist is not in our price bracket... I have trained two dogs in my life with perfect results but this breed perplexes me... Any help or additional info I can get you for help would be appreciated.

We live in Colorado near Denver so if you know of anything please let us know.

[tanza]

First question you will get, have you talked to her breeder?

[eizenga13]

yes and we have visited the breeder on serveral occasions prior to and after getting her and this animals are all quite calm and relaxed, that is also why it is so odd to us… We don't overstimulate her or make her 'crazy..." i Don't think

[lvoss]

When Pat asked have you talked to the breeder, I think she meant, did you talk to the breeder about these specific issues? And what did they recommend?

I would ask have you attended manners classes with your puppy? If not, I recommend signing up for a good positive reinforcement based class so you can start building up a line of communication between you and Kevin. The Certification Council for Professional Pet Dog Trainers is a good place to start, http://www.ccpdt.org/index.php?option=com_mtree&Itemid=16

Now to start going through some of these issues. It really sounds like your puppy is having impulse control issues. She has not been taught how or why she should control the wild puppy impulses. Its Yer Choice is a good game to start teaching your puppy that rewards come through self control, not through constant pestering. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipT5k1gaXhc

I would also start rewarding calm behavior when she offers it. Rather than having her meals out of bowls at set meal times, for awhile make her earn her kibble through good behavior. If she is laying down calmly on the floor while you are watching TV, toss her kibble. If she start to get excited or wound up, the food bowl goes away until she calms back down.

If she doesn't behave well when she naps on you then she shouldn't be allowed to nap on you. When you need to move her from a spot don't try to pick her though, instead call her off the space and reward her with a cookie for coming to you.

If she is chewing underwear and socks then you are not doing a good job of keeping them out of her reach. Get a better hamper or close the door to the room with the laundry. Basenjis teach us to be better housekeepers or to literally "pay the price" of our laziness.

As for the chewing other stuff, restrict her access to those things either by closing doors or using gates, ex-pens, or crates. If you cannot be in the room to supervise then she shouldn't have access.

Use toys and play games that work her mind. This will help to tire her out and make for a more relaxed dog. You can feed one of her meals from a Kong while the other is being used to reward calm behavior. You can play the muffin tin game, go wild and freeze, or other games that will help burn excess energy. http://dogtrainer.quickanddirtytips.com/play-games-bad-weather.aspx

[agilebasenji]

Can you make it up to Greeley this weekend? We're having the basenji specialty there now. Who is your breeder? Is she local and able to see Kevin inherent home environment? Personally I'd recommend a positive training class and impulse control exercises. Pick up a copy of Contol Unleased. It's been a great help for me

[tanza]

What is she licking? Any particular body parts?

And as for chewing your bed spread and/or couch cushions, fix is easy… do not let her in those rooms without supervision... same with socks and underwear.... as lvoss stated you are not doing a good enough job of picking up after yourself....

I have two 8 month puppy bitches... and they will steal anything.... if not watched... and not like they doing have 100 toys (and I do mean 100!).... especially TP... since their doggy dog is in the laundry room off the bath, they have clear access to the bathroom... If "I" forgot to remove the TP from the holder and put it someplace they can't reach... and it gets plucked everywhere... it is "MY" fault... I didn't do my job....

[CanisBasenjius]

None of the problems you have described warrant a behaviorist. A good trainer yes, and probably a basic obedience class too.

@eizenga13:

1. Still gets overly excited when people come to visit. She will be loving and ears back when the guests first arrive. And once guests are relaxed out come her teeth… She doesn't BITE she Mouths... If she gets to excited she will Mouth a little harder than other times...

The moment she puts teeth on anyone, she needs to get a 10 second time out. Every single time. Once you've marked the naughty behavior (I like "too bad") say nothing else to her. Just calmly collect her and time her out. You must be absolutely consistent. This works.

@eizenga13:

2. She licks herself like crazy… I mean LIKE ALL THE TIME. Lick-lick-lick-lick... that is all we hear her doing... I know a clean dog is great but MY GOD!! Any ideas here?!

Is this a problem? Is she causing damage to herself? If so, see your vet. Otherwise I'd leave her alone.

@eizenga13:

3. If she is sleeping on me and my lady tries to pick her up to crate her she snarrles and growls and will absolutely try to bit and is extremely vocals..

This is a problem with either resource guarding or body handling. You need a trainer to help you with this. For now, don't move her bodily. Call her. When she arrives have her do a sit or a down and then, give her a food reward. Then ask her to crate up. I assume she goes in willingly. If not, that is a whole separate issue. You should never force a dog into a crate.

@eizenga13:

4. She (Kevin) for the first time ever has chewed up not only our bed spread in the dead center of the bed but also a very expensive couch cushion, that I flipped when she tore it up 3 days again and today she tore up the other side…... This has never been something she has done

She should not be allowed access to things things that will upset you if destroyed. You know now she has a propensity for it, so manage her.

@eizenga13:

5. Loves to steal our socks and underwear and run around with it (since she was a baby she knows it gets a rise out of us so I am pretty sure I don't know how to NOT get a rise from this?). Now I know that if we don't go after her she would relax with it because it doesn't 'get our goat' but she has ruined too much stuff when we simply try to ignore it.

See above. If you cannot ignore it, don't allow her access to socks and underwear. See a trainer to teach you how to train her to "drop it".

@eizenga13:

6. When she want to play we will but we make it on OUR terms not hers…when we want to stop, well that is when the mouthing starts up and we again... try to ignore it and she will simply go after any extremity she can... so she will go to time out.

When play time is over, say a phrase like, "All done!" and then totally blow her off. The second her mouth so much as touchs your skin or clothing, say "too bad" and time her out for 10 seconds. Every. Single. Time.

It also sounds like your dog isn't getting enough exercise. Dogs should have 40 min to an hour of cardio. A walk is not cardio. Also try enriching her environment by feeding her out of work to eat puzzles and take her to training class. The destruction sounds like a bored dog, the rest is adolescent stuff. Mostly very normal stuff that any decent trainer can help you with.