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chubbs

Member
I have inherited a 5 year old King Charles in unfortunate circumstances.His Owner passed away and I volunteered to rescue him.He is a beautiful dog with a lovely temprament.I have two problems with him.I walk him for three miles every day and he does his number ones and his number twos no problem.I let him out again before bedtime and he squirts away to his hearts content.Unfortunetly he also squirts on anything that takes his interest during the night.I have now to change the Carpet and I am wondering would anybody have any suggestions on how to deal with this little man.
Thanks in advance,
Kevin
 
It might be worth training him to sleep in a cage...they don't usually soil their sleeping area.

If you search for cage or crate there are a lot of posts giving advice as to how to train a dog to use one.

Congratulations to you for taking this wee fellow on...

It is worth also getting him checked over by the vet to make sure there is no physical reason for his behaviour - such as an infection - also remember that he's probably very confused right now, and trying to adjust to his new environment.

You could also try a DAP diffuser - you plug it in near the sleeping area - this gives out pheromones which help to calm the dog.

Good luck and please keep us informed as to how you are getting on.
 
you might want to consider crating overnight in the short term as he's less likely to go if he's confined unless there's a problem.

Does he ever go indoors when you are there? The best way to house train tends to be intervention and reward - reward him when he goes outside and if you catch him going indoors lift him and take him outside (a lot easier with a puppy!). You've probabably seen this already if you've browsed the board but never punish him (shouting, etc.) for this as all it will do is make him nervous.

Also, how long have you had him? It could be that he's marking his new territory. You need to use a good cleaner to clear it up - one specifically designed to remove urine as he'll still be able to smell his spot and go back to it even if you think it's clean
 
Thanks to everyone for your help.You will all probably gasp when you hear that he sleeps at the bottom of the bed.I have him over a year now and he has all shots and passport etc.I have terrible trouble getting him to eat any type of dog food.He will eat chicken and beef and once in a blue moon he will eat tinned fish.When we went on our holidays we put him in a highly reccomened kennel and the lady told us he point blank refused to eat for 5 days.He must have been treated like a king in his previous life.He is also addicted to chocolate,my partner was sitting watching tv eating a snickers bar when he came flying through the air and grabbed it.He growled when I tried to take it back.He is quite slim for a King Charles but the vet said not to worry it is just that he is getting a lot of exercise.Is there any particular food that I might try him on?
 
You will all probably gasp when you hear that he sleeps at the bottom of the bed

:lol:

have a look through the board. It seems like most cavs end up taking over the bed at some point. Don't want to sound alarmist but I'd be a bit more worried about the chocolate stealing and hoarding. Has he ever tried to take anything from a kid? Real chocolate can be quite bad for dogs so try and make sure he doesn't get too much

You might want to try a fresh diet if he's not into dog food. Poached chicken fillets and rice goes down well with our two. They also like cooked and raw veg. There's quite a few threads on the board about diet and some have recipes so check them out

What's his name by the way? Any pics?
 
I would like to Welcome you firstly, and just share my experience with a fussy fussy eater.

I own 2 Cavaliers, Dudley a Bleinham who is soon to be 3 a male.
Also Darby a Ruby soon to be 8 months.

Dudley was yes was a extremely fussy fussy eater when I brought him home, we have had Dudley since March 2004. I was going mad and out of my mind with worry that he would not eat, I tried every single kibble that was nutrious.

I finally just gave up and learned that it wasn't me it was Dudley manipulating me.
I now feed Dudley EVO I add a bit of Cooked Hamburger or Boiled Chicken to his kibble daily along with a tad of Cottage Cheese or Pumpkin.

At times he still chooses not to eat and I have now learned to accept this and not worry. If he so chooses not to eat, he will when he is hungry by me giving in to him in the past only taught him very very bad eating habits. I am not sure if this is the case with your boy but I was advised by
so many here that he would not starve himself. He is 17.8 lbs and actually needs to loose about 3 lbs. Stick to your decision on which food you feel is good for him and he has eaten in the past and add a little chicken.

In regards to him weeing at night, I have never had this problem but I agree with what everyone else has advised but maybe putting a Belly Band on him in the night would also help prevent this.

Good Luck and keep us posted.
 
My second problem is that Chubbs(his name)does not seem to have been trained properly.As this is my first dog I am very unsure as to what to do.He is running wild and ignoring us all until he wants something and then he is on our laps smothering us in Kisses.At 5 is he too old to be trained?Iam willing to try anything as any visitors to our home have to run the Gauntlet of Chubbs launching himself at them. h*lp
 
Hi Kevin,

Welcome to the board. Firstly, some very good suggestions above. If it were me and I had taken this unruly young man in I would first of all get him neutered as it sounds like he is territory marking and will continue to do so.

If you catch him peeing in the house say NO in a very firm voice and put him outside to finish. Stay with him until he's been & then heap oodles of praise on him and possibly a little treat (tiny bit of cheese, chicken or dried liver). You will need to keep at this but he will more than likely learn quickly - most cavs do, especially where food is involved :lol:

Do you really need to replace your carpet? Could you not hire a 'Rug Doctor' to deep clean the carpet and then spray it with an enzymatic odour remover? Just thinking of saving your pennies!

I would also recommend some good training classes for him. Cavs are wonderfully quick to learn and most of them enjoy training. You really do need to try and stop him stealing food and chocolate from your hands - chocolate can kill dogs as it is poisonous to them - it is also extemely addictive.

Put it this way, if you had a child would you give him heroin? No? Well chocolate is just as dangerous :yikes Sorry to sound like a scaremonger but I almost lost my eldest dog after he got into one of my kids' rooms and helped himself to a bar of chocolate :(

If he is still peeing at night then I would confine him to a smaller area than your bed, like Nicki has said, a crate or even a child playpen with his bedding in it. You can always put a pee pad or some newspaper in there too in case he gets caught short. I would also get him checked out for a UTI which can be quite common in Cavs as well.

Good luck and let us know how you are getting on :flwr:
 
Hi, Chubbs, welcome to the board.

It is definitely terrific of you to take care of this inherited dog. It sounds like you're on your way to building a strong relationship!

A few bits of advice:

PLEASE never let Chubbs have any chocolate. While bakers chocolate is more dangerous than milk chocolate, it is better to be safe than sorry. Chocolate, grapes, and other types of foods can be a heath risks to dogs. There's more information in the reference section. Its definitely worth looking into!!

No dog is ever too old for some training. A basic obedience class is a place to start. Your vet can probably recommend a class or a trainer. Joining a class not only will give you the instruction on training, it will be great fun socializing Chubbs with the other dogs and their owners!

If you want to get a start on some training, generally the first commands in training are the "watch me" and the "sit". The watch me command is a way to get the dog's attention. Using a treat (a tiny treat that the dog doesnt have to chew), give the dog the command "watch me" while you hold the treat up by your nose. When the dog looks at you/the treat, give the treat to the dog with verbal praise. Continue treating the dog immediately when he makes eye contact. When he immediately looks at you when you say "watch me" (or whatever command you use), you can make him hold your eye contact longer before you give the treat. Eventually, using the "watch me" command when the dog is overly excited, barking, or doing other undesireable behavior will shift the dogs focus from naughtiness to you.

The other basic command, sit, is super easy to teach. Again use a small, tiny treat. Hold the treat just over Chubb's head. Say sit, as you move the treat backward. Chubb's will sit down to move his head up and back to get at the treat. When he puts his butt down, give him the treat with verbal praise. Continue this action until he sits when you say sit! it generally just takes a few times with some tasty treats. You can use sit for all sorts of things, but one great use is to stop unwanted jumping. Tell him to sit whenever he jumps. You can also have Chubbs sit before you give him his food. That reinforces the behavior as well as keeps him from getting food excited.

Have fun with him!

Cindy

PS--a large number of us share our pillows every night, not just our beds. ;)
 
ditto on the chocolate. If you're interested, you can search the web and learn about the toxicity to dogs, can be life threatening.

Another member of cavaliertalk, kosmo's mom Sara, sent me some dog chocolate. It looks and smells like chocolate, i didn't actually try it, but it's for dogs. you might try that, maybe Sara will tell what it's called.

i bet you will be pleased with the results of obedience training. You can take a class, and you might want to look into clicker training, do a web search on clicker training, there are free downloadable videos to show how it works.

You can also have a trainer come to your home and address specific behaviors if you want, and in my case, i had a trainer come to my house and train zack in basic stuff.

I had tried to teach him Watch Me and was a total failure at it, following the instructions above as best i could. Zack never seemed to get it after zillions of practices, although he learned sit and stay very quickly at a young age, but Watch Me and Come Here were not things he accepted until i had a trainer come out and train him, also Heel. He's good at those now.

my first thought on the house training is to crate him, but because he's used to sleeping on your bed, that sounds like it could be hard, but still is do-able, and if he's going to pee freely in the house, i think you pretty much have to. Karlin often recommends a book called How to Housetrain Your Dog in 7 Days, which i bought on Amazon.com when Zack had a couple of mistakes in a month's time, but the mistakes stopped and without reading it, i ended up giving the book to my daughter who has a cavalier who was having some accidents at the time, but i looked through the book and it's great, it's short and simple and is right to the point. It goes into litterbox training as well as outdoor training, it addresses a range of options.

As a result of counsel on this forum, i am now a believer in the idea that it's ok for a dog to refuse to eat indefinitely, although 5 days sounds excessive. But i would try just putting down a dog food you choose twice a day for 15 minutes, and let him decide whether to eat it. I'd weigh him, and weigh him once a week if he seemed to be refusing to eat most of the time, just mainly for your own reassurance, or maybe you can do it in consultation with a vet. But you want to communicate to him that it's not a big deal to you if he eats or not. You just give him whatever you want to givce him, homecooked, store bought, raw, whatever, but if he doesn't eat it after a little while, take it away and then offer it again after a couple of hours briefly, and just repeat that and don't let him see if you're worried about it.

you dog sounds wonderful and cute and smart and strong willed, photos of him would be fun to see. however, peeing on the house is a real problem. I hope you can get some help with that.

Neutering often helps with the peeing/marking problem, it did with my dog zack, and it also can help a dog to be more able to focus on you and listen to you, and to be obedient and to learn good behavior. Neutering helped my dog in this way. But it had no other effect on his personality, he continues to be frisky, exuberant, active and crazy. Neutering is also a good idea because it will make the dog less at risk to run off and get lost, not to mention, removing the risk that he could impregnate other dogs and create homeless puppies. A smart strong-willed dog may be particularly at risk of figuring out a way to escape if he smells an appealing female in heat.
 
Thanks to Everybody for your advice and good wishes.Chubbs is starting Training next week,so hopefully he will start behaving himself. :D
 
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