# I've created a monster



## Deanna (Jan 14, 2005)

Well maybe monster is a bit of an over statement!









When Molly wants something she slaps her paws on the floor, huffs and then barks. Whenever she did this I would pick up whatever she wanted - usually a chew or a toy- and give it to her!!!!







I did it without even thinking! She is just so cute when she does that! 

For the past couple of months she has started demanding things (by slapping her paws, huffing, and barking), even things she can't have! It's gotten really annoying! Well I finally realized it's all my fault- I taught her that's how she gets what she wants! I can't believe I didn't realize what I was doing! 

So for the past two week we will not hand her anything when she demands it. It's been a long two weeks, let me tell you!









When she demands something we tell her "get it yourself". I also tell her to "show me", and then she touches whatever it is with her nose. If she touches it without the dramatics I will help her get it. I know part of this is because she has a hard time carrying her treat or toy up the stairs to the sofa. Also- if she carries something up the stairs to the sofa- which is hard for her- Wilson will wait until she gets it up and then take it from her, if I hand it to her he doesn't bother her. She is a bit frustrated with us, but it is working. 

I feel so stupid- I should have realized I was rewarding her bad behavior, but she trained me well!














They are so smart! 

What "bad" behaviors have you accidently taught your furkid and do they still do it, or did you put a stop to it?


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## louis' mom (Jul 7, 2006)

That is so cute - but I can see how that can be annoying








When louis paws/scratches my legs, chair, sofa, I pick him up.







It is been really annoying when he wants to be held ALL DAY - I am pretty strong but I can't be carrying a 9lb big baby all day when I know he has 4 good feet (lol) that he can use.







My husband yells at me - you spoiled him and when I can't carry him but he still wants to be carried, I try to convince my husband that Louis loves him and that Louis wants him to carry him.







That works for about 5 minutes and then my husband puts him down and Louis is back at my legs. - so obviously I don't have a solution yet for this issue.


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## Julie718 (Feb 17, 2006)

LOL! Oh no! I'm sorry to hear about your little monster.







I have created one too. Tillie just barks and stands on her back feet until I pick her up.







I've been trying to stop this by just ignoring her...of course I feel bad!







I hope someone has some good advice!


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## pompomsmom (Jan 8, 2006)

Well I have "taught" Pompom something without realizing it too... Everytime I go somewhere he has learned that if he plays tug of war with the bottom of my pants I pick him up so he is out of my way and I can get ready. So now if he wants me to pick him up, all he has to do is growl while biting at my jeans and pulling... Terrible habit! Sometimes he catches a tiny bit of skin with the jeans... ouch! I tell him no firmly and refuse to pick him up when he does that. Took a while cause believe it or not, it's kind of cute! Now I have him sit, and only then do I pick him up!

Diane and Pompom


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## momtoboo (Jan 30, 2006)

Boo is the same as Molly, he barks, growls, huffs& puffs & paws at me. He even drops objects on the floor to make a noise if I act like I don't notice him doing all of the above. I'm trained well too, because I almost always give in. If I ignore him scratching on the cabinet for treats, he gets his ball & pretends he wants to play. But as soon as I get up, he runs into the kitchen with the ball, & drops it in front of the cabinet where his food is & starts scratching & huffing again. He really has it all figured out. I think he's smarter than me.


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## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

lol--that is too cute & funny.

Well....so far so good. I have only had Ollie 4 1/2 months to corrupt him, lol. One habit he has is he will NOT go to sleep without one of my t-shirts. He sleeps down in the kitchen so I feel it's the least I can do for him. But it's also kind of a PITA to remember every few days to give him a "fresh" smelly t-shirt--oh yes, it cannot be washed. I have to take it off my body and give it to him, lol. And after a few days when the scent fades he needs a "new" one...lol.....


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## Scoobydoo (May 26, 2005)

Oh how easy it is to instill a certain behavior, Koko is the same, he wants everything he sees and like you at first we thought it was rather cute that he walked around us on his hind legs, but now he can reach onto our side tables in the lounge room and tries to steal whatever appeals to his sense of smell







This little guy doesn't comprehend the word "no" and his memory span is very short when he wants something really desparately


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## Lacie's Mom (Oct 11, 2006)

Lacie likes to do her "happy dance". She spins in a circle when she wants something. This used to be her -- "oh, goodie, I get to go in the car" dance, but now she uses it when I put her food down or when she wants a treat. It is cute, but it does make me sad when she's standing at the backdoor doing her "happy dance" and I have to leave for work and can't take her. She normally knows that it's a work day and that she isn't going so she doesn't do her "happy dance", but today for some reason, she must have thought it was Saturday and did her "happy dance" because she thought she was going with me and I had to say "no".

Tilly still tugs on my pant legs or my toes if I don't have on pants to get my attention.


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## Cosy (Feb 9, 2006)

Cosy uses her hands (front feet) a lot too. I love when she pounds the floor with them to show she is here and not going away anytime soon. LOL! She also uses them to box. She floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee! Ha! Gotta love these smart little critters.


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## LisalovesRocco (Mar 28, 2006)

When Rocco wants to go out he will ring the bell on the door but when you get up to let him out he gets all worked up & starts growling at our other dog & biting her.









She out weighs him by at least 45 lbs. !

It's crazy!


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## NC's Mom (Oct 23, 2004)

I once had Sir N trained to pee when I told him to "go". HUGE mistake. One day, he was in the classroom (and the kids were there as well) and he was blocking a kid's path in the aisle between the desks. The kid just stood there, not sure what to do. Without thinking, I told Noodle to "go". He instantly lifted his leg, while looking at me a bit doubtfully, and started to pee. And since "go" is such a common word, a word anyone might use casually while speaking (though, he only did if *I* said it to him), naturally I had to train him to NOT pee when he hears the word "go". 

Now, neither of my dogs are trained to pee on command.


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## dogloverx3 (Apr 14, 2006)

LOL - in my house I'm the spoilt brat with the bad habits ( I like to stamp too ) . Sarah P.S I might need to be retrained .


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## Boobookit (Dec 3, 2005)

*OMG!! How I can relate to this!!!!!!! Pacino, whom I lovingly refer to as my "Rebel" has a lot of these traits...or should I say HAD these traits. *

*I too, inadvertantly, "trained" him to do certain things. If he wanted to be picked up and I didn't want to pick him up he would bark at me, stomp and make funny noises. Because it was "so cute" he got what he wanted and I picked him up. Then it got too bad because he wanted to be picked up ALL the time.*

*Well, my "little blue box" fixed that. Now If I pick him up it is because *I* want to pick him up (which is a lot of the time) but if he starts demanding to be picked up I tell him sternly "NO" and then I pick up my trusty "little blue box" and this has trained him well.*

*I have really gotten control of the situation since getting the "no bark" thingy, which I found about on here, and I really do not need to actually use it, I just show it to him and he behaves.*

*Between my hubby and I both Pacino and Ralphie are spoied little boys but at least they aren't brats!! LOL*

*Marie & the (spoiled) Boys*


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## TheButtercup (Mar 3, 2005)

oh boy, can i ever relate!

Miss Buttercup the Drama Queen really ought to be in movies. she is just THAT dramatic. she has no problem getting up on my bed, the sofa, etc on her own. but whenever there is ANYONE else in the room... she gives these half-a**ed jumps, several of them, and then looks at whomever is sitting on the sofa with her big brown "will you please help a poor helpless little girl? pleeeeeeease? i'm just a widdle-giwl, i cant get up dere by mysewf! hewwwwwp me pweeeeeze???"

if it's just me at home, she will jump up and down all darn day long. LOL

pathetic. 

and i know it all stems from me giving in because she's so darn cute. i know i always say she's not the brightest crayon in the box, but boy, she can at least read the sign around my neck that says "SUCKER!"


ann marie and the "i'm just a girl...oh little ol' me....i'm just a girl...that's all that you'll let me beeeeeeeeeeeeee....." buttercup


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## sophie (Jul 9, 2006)

Oh, boy, can I relate, but to count the ways would be impossible. I'll just say Sophie has the huff, puff, snort, sneeze, stamp her feet act down pat. Sophie says jump and we say how high?







In her defense though, she does understand no and will alter her behavior if she knows I'm serious. It's just so hard to be serious when she is so cute.


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## Katkoota (Feb 18, 2006)

sorry but I had to laugh while reading about cutie Molly









I know what you mean about *cute but bad behavior*









I did the same thing with Snowy...Rewarding *what I thought is cute* but bad behavior. I am still working on stopping this behavior. Snowy is the same when he wants something from me. He starts talking (making those funny barks and whinny noises of his) I always thought of it as cute thing he does until he learnt that this is how he can get what he wants. He reached to a point where he started to sound as if he is yelling at me. However, I am getting there (teaching him that by speaking, he wont get what he wants)









kat


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## PreciousPrince (Feb 27, 2006)

Haha your Molly is so funny! I'd love to see of a video of her bratty little antics LOL! 

Perri is prone to the same type of behaviors. Some I've stopped, others I haven't... Before I got Perri the steps when he was a puppy, if he would drop a toy or bone from the couch I'd pick it up for him because he couldn't jump down. After he got the steps, he'd still expect me to pick it up for him though. He'd drop a chew, look at it, then me, then it, and do his patented little growls. I did ignore this though, and eventually he started getting it himself. He'll still look at me for a minute when he drops his bone before going to get it just to make sure I'm not going to LOL. He'll also go over to the shelf where I keep his food and chews in the living room and growl and bark until I go get him something. I've found though that whatever I give him, he wants something else, so I ignore it after the first thing I give him. It's so funny because he'll just stand there and look at me and his growls will get louder and louder until I get him something. I've found he does it when he's bored and he wants my attention. The most annoying thing I haven't stopped, but it's still so cute I can't... He has a very special rubber squeaky ball that I keep at my parents house because there's more room to throw it. It used to stay in his toy basket over there, but he'd always get it out and then lose it. So, I started keeping it in a drawer in a side table for safe keeping when he wasn't playing with it. This was fine until one day about a month ago he realized where it was. It was so cute, he was walking under the table and then he smelled it, and got so excited and barked for me to get. Now it's turned into an obsession, and whenever we go over he will just stand there and bark until someone gets it for him. He just gets so excited and twirly when I get it I don't have the heart not to. I did try to ignore him once, but my mother said "you go give that baby his ball-y." So even if I ignored it, she wouldn't LOL.


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## Deanna (Jan 14, 2005)

Molly isn't the only spoiled monster in our house! Wilson drinks from a water bottle- we have three stands, one in the kitchen, one in the basement and one outside. I also keep a bottle on my bedside table- for some reason right when we go to bed he takes a BIG drink (with me holding the bottle for him), and Molly takes a little drink.

About 2:00 this morning I woke up to Wilson growling and yipping at me. I asked him what he wanted and he stood on my thigh like he does when we first go to bed. So I picked up his water bottle- and sure enough he was thirsty and took a big drink.









I have enjoyed reading how everyone's furkids have trained them!


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## Kara (Apr 29, 2007)

With Milly we will try to play with her or something and she just lies there and ignores us. But if we are watching a movie or tv or something, she comes over and bites at our trousers and bark bark barks over and over, until we give in to her and do what she wants. Which is bad but, a lot of the time its to go out to the toilet, so thats alright but she shouldn't be barking and biting our pants to do it.


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## Elly B. (Oct 27, 2006)

I accidentally taught Nick that all laps are his birthright.

It was so cute how as soon as he saw me sit, he would rip over to me as fast as he could, toenails digging into the carpet, tongue flapping in the wind of his passage, and with one mighty leap sail into my lap like a cannonball!!!!! (oof) I made so much over him that he expanded the treatment to all people.

Not everyone cares for the puppy torpedo though. My mother-in-law (not much of a dog person) was especially horrified as the cold wet nose hit her midsection. She is too flabby to wear short shirts anyway though, maybe it had a good consequence!

The few times he's been told no to a lap he sits, horribly distressed, and barks furiously at the offender. I need to get a "trusty blue box", barking tantrums when he doesn't get his way aren't okay. (Right now this culminates in a trip to his crate in a quiet room for about 15 minutes or until he settles down.)


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## maggie1221 (Sep 21, 2006)

My husband used to give Sassy a treat every night when they would walk up to the top of the stairs...going to bed. I asked him to quit giving her so many treats because she is a picky eater and quit eating her dog food. THe first night they walked up to the top of the stairs and she sat on the top step waiting for her treat. He came into the bedroom, got in bed and turned off all the lights. She didn't budge from the top step. She then began barking because he hadn't given her the treat. SHe has him wrapped around her little paw. I had to go to the stairway, pick her up and bring her to bed. It took about three nights for this behavior to cease. We have now had her for 1 year and love her more each day. I'm getting a new baby girl in 5 days. I cannot wait. I will posts photo's of her when we get her. I would have a whole house of Maltese babies if I could.


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