Problems With My Papillon. Please Helpp?
September 22, 2009 by admin
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
Boomer my papillon is a pure bread dog. Or so I though… When I got him, I was told that he was 18 months, and when I took him to the vet, I was then told that he is closer to 3-5 years, and also imbread back down the line.. something with his grandma…
I fell in love with my boomer, he is so sweet. I asked a question before about him, because he is hard to train.. I was told by a dog trainer that its the imbreeding.
Now my problem is he doesn’t quite understand his toys. Isn’t sure what to do with them.. He would will run and play keep away from me and my boyfriends kitty. And he will play with our clothes, anything he can find. Sometimes he will run in the bedroom and come out dragging a shirt thats twice his size. He couldnt care less about a ball, chew toy, rope toy, or anything…. just clothes.
I tried smaller balls to fit his mouth better, but he just doesn’t care.
How do I get him to want to play with his toys, not chew my clothes…
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Sorry, no vet or trainer will tell you your dog is inbred. There is no way any vet or trainer can know that. (BTW it’s inbred not bread- bread is food).
The only way to know about your dog’s breeding is to view the pedigree papers, which it seems you don’t have, and trace the lines on both sides of the pedigree.
If you have no pedigree papers then you cannot be sure your dog is a pure bred dog. You can have an educated guess going by the appearance of the dog.
The best way to prevent your dog from chewing on your clothes is to put your clothes away where the dog can’t get them. Dirty clothes go in the laundry basket and clean clothes in the cupboard.
Not all dogs like to play ball. One of my Cavaliers does and the other one is not at all interested.
Add: in reply to your added information. If you have his pedigree papers then you know exactly when he was born so why would you need the vet to estimate his age?
You would also know the precise details of any inbreeding so it wouldn’t be just ’something with his grandma’. There is line breeding and there is inbreeding.
Just like people, dog’s have preferences. If he is not interested in playing with the toys, and he prefers clothes, get an old t shirt and tie a knot in it and give it to him. Let him know that only the shirts with knots in them are okay to play with. This way, he is able to have his fun, and won’t tear up your clothes!
Your trainer told you that your dog wanting to play with your clothes and not his toys is the result of inbreeding? If that’s the case, get a new trainer.
Dogs like stuff that smells like you better than stuff that doesn’t smell like you. They’ll also go for stuff that will get a reaction out of you because, hey, they want your attention.
The way to get them playing with their toys is to make getting your stuff harder, put your ditry clothes in a laundry basket or behind closed doors, make their toys more fun by playing with the dog and the toys and by not giving chase when they happen to get something of yours that you don’t want them to have. That’s a game to them, it’s fun. If you chase them, they’ll keep stealing it so you’ll play.
Next, take your dog for lots of walks. Papillons are active little dogs and love to be busy. So lots of walks. Take the dog to obedience training. Papillons are actually smart, if you have someone show you how to properly train your dog, it will probably learn very fast. And then … get involved with more training. Flyball, obedience, agility, even frisbee are things Pap’s EXELL at. They really are incredibly fun and trainable little dogs.
Hope that helps.
When a vet estimates a dog’s age, he’s doing just that…..estimating. Your dog could be any age really, as your vet is just going on how old the dog looks…..
As for being inbred, there’s no way a vet or a trainer could know that unless you had the dog’s pedigree papers with you.
It sounds like your dog just needs training…..he’s a normal dog that likes to chew on clothes. All dogs chew on things they shouldn’t unless they are trained not to.
Edit: Inbreeding does NOT necessarily = hard to train. If a trainer told you this, the trainer is an idiot. It sounds like the trainer was looking for an excuse for having no clue what to tell you.
maybe try taking him outside and bringing all his toys out there so that there wont be anything else around for him to play with. and you could throw it or run with it and get him to chase you, show him that its a game. then when he starts playing with them take them inside and then have some clothes out too, and whenever you catch him chewing or playing with clothes, correct him and point him towards his toys and praise him when he plays with them so he will know what is acceptable for him to chew on. just cause he’s been imbred don’t mean hes too dumb to learn, it just takes time and patience on your part. I hope it works out for you, good luck!