Saturday, March 7, 2009

6 months old and still a terror

Echo turned 6 months old on the 1st of the month. She seemed to be doing a lot better for a while but has turned into a real terror lately. Some days I'm at a loss as to what to do with her. She's a challenge for sure. Some days I long for that quiet and easy life that existed prior to her joining our family. It will get better, right? The little ones won't come out of their room if she's loose in the house. If anyone wants to sit at the table, eat, work on homework, play, well.....just about anything, she can't be loose in the house. She is a TERROR and mouthy, hyper, vocal, jumpy.....and exhausting to be around. This is Echo about a month ago. She's 86 pounds now. Please tell me it will get better......send some calming vibes her way ;)

14 comments:

River said...

We are hoping things get better as she gets older and slows down.

love & wags,
River

Lorenza said...

She is a puppy. A big one, but still a puppy. I am sure she will calm down.
Good vibes to you all!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza

Moose said...

awwww that is rough! I don't know how people handle puppies so I have no advice except that it must get better but if it is anything like with labs it will be awhile. Teddy my foster is around 1 yr old and he is not a terror but several times a day I find some small chewed up thing that I dont even recognize and the running through my tiny house with Moose is a lot to handle so I have a tiny idea of what you are going through. Hang in there.
Also sorry it is still hard about Zen. It was a sad situation for everyone I know.

mare said...

I can't tell you that it WILL get better, but I can tell you that it should. I, an experienced poodle mom - and standard poodle mom at that - met my match in Blue. I recall my neighbor coming over while I was sitting on my porch sobbing because the poop three feet up on the walls - all the walls - was too much for me to deal with having arrived home late from work and had to be scrubbed clean before I went to bed. I recall telephoning my boyfriend and saying this boy is going to kill me, but that I would not give in. Blue, the flying diarrhea dog almost was the death of me. And I don't want that taken lightly - he had *crazy* imbedded in his brain - has since calmed - I remember the moments of getting through - and is so very dedicated to me that I feel shame for not loving him best even if I am the only one who ever knows it. But I don't love him less for that, I love him more; he makes me laugh and reminds me that my heart can swell.

And I just babbled.

Ruby and Penny said...

She sounds like a handful or two handfuls. It will get better, once she's out of the puppy stage.
We're sending calming zen x2.
Love Ruby & Penny

Erin said...

Well I will go out on a limb and say it WILL get better!! :D
I have now had 5 puppies in three years, and 6 months old is the beggining of the "Teenage Stage" as you know. I should be insulted by this, but its all too true.
I will say it can last until she's about 12 months....if she's been spayed already then it shouldn't be as long, if not, then Heat will bring out some interesting behaviors as I'm sure you know.
Kudos to you! Keep up the good work!!

Noah the Airedale said...

Echo is just a big puppy. I hope you start to see her settle down soon.

tailwags
Noah and the gang

Amber and Nala said...

Ahhh Echo, I have faith that you will calm down....you are just going through a very natural stage. :)

Allison Walton said...

It will, it will! There was a time we reached the point you are at--it passes. Just keep persevering, being a strong, pack leader, and things will work out!

We'll be thinking about you.
Wuv,
Gus, Waldo, and Dog Mom

Jake of Florida said...

Sadly, we're not able to provide any good advice -- other than time. But we admire you for all you do for your canine family and for that endless love you show them.

But this comment has another purpose. As you may remember, Just Harry has had a crush on Princess Wilow since she first appeared on the scene. Now, it appears there will be a special virtual celebration on May 1st in Salzburg when Asta's wheelie, Myrna, and her love get together. Too shy to ask her himself, JH wants to know if the Princess wil be his date for this romantic occasion.

Yours wirely,

Jake, aka the mMatchmaker

Anonymous said...

I was a terror too at 6 months!! :-) They used to call me "The Honey Monster". My human wanted to cry (well, actually she did) - I didn't get better until I got older - around 18 months. Also, I got a lot better after my humans took me to see a really good dog trainer who showed them how to handle me when I got a bit naughty! :-)

I'm sure it will get better - my human says: just make sure, though, that you keep up your training, even though it feels like you're getting nowhere - Echo is entering teenage now and really starting to test her boundaries - so you have to stay really consistent and persistent! No need to get nasty or stroppy but just calmly repeating and persisting until she understands that she cannot get around you. Manage the situation and don't give her a chance to misbehave because everytime she is allowed to do bad behaviour, it will reinforce it in her head - and be harder to change in future.

Hey - take heart - my humans thought I was impossible but I've grown up into a nice, well-behaved dog! :-) Take a look at the latest post on my blog - there's a video showing me practising training with my humans - who would have thought that was once a monster puppy, huh? :-)

Good luck!
Honey the Great Dane

Lady Kaos said...

I'm sure as she gets older, she'll calm down. Mom said her mom's saint bernard had to be refocussed several times when she was coming out of her puppiness. She woudl do really good and then would drive everybody nuts and then all of a sudden would be okay again. I hope her crazy puppy phase finishes soon for you!!!
Lots of non-chaotic hugs to you.
Kaos

Raising Addie said...

It will totally get better!

When Addie was that age, I thought she might have been possessed! I didn't remember either Zoe and K-8 acting the way that she did when they were puppies. I have scars from where she snagged her razor teeth on me.

One time, we were all outside playing. She was acting ok so I picked her up for a little snuggle. Wrong answer... she turned to look at me and sank her big puppy front fang into my chin. It was in so deep that I could not pull her off of me! My husband stood there laughing at me. Finally, when he realized what was going on he came over and removed her from my face.

Now, I would not trade her for anything. She is the most caring and sensitive dog.

Hang in there. I can't image how much trouble Echo is getting into with as big as she is, but she will get better in time.

Lots of Luv & Kisses
Addie, Lucie and Staci

Sharon said...

Ugh, good luck! It's good that you're taking her to puppy classes; can you imagine how much worse it would be without those?

<3 S and D