Advice on 2 clingy and barking poodles please!!...

[JammyK]

In Febraury dh and I decided to get 2 poodles as our lovely toy poodle had just passed away. We thought we'd get 2 dogs this time to keep eachother company as we both work.

To be honest they have been a nightmare from the word go! They are really clingy and cry and yelp when not in the same room as us and always want to be on our laps. They are still not properly house trained. But the worst thing is that dh and I can't get up to use the loo at night as our house is very creaky and they wake up barking and crying til one of us goes down there.

I really don't want to sell them to someone who can cope with them but we can't go on like this. We've tried ignoring them but they've barked for hours. Plus we have a toddler and a baby to think about, they're always grumpy from a lack of sleep due to barking dogs.

I am at my wits end. Please help...

Go down and give them a real bollocking.

Sounds like they have separation anxiety. Perhaps it wasnt the nest idea to get 2 dogs with you both out of the house. They need serious time and effort to be put into training. If you have a baby and toddler already I'd probably sell them tbh.

Have you tried crate training? That might help with the house training. Otherwise it sounds like they need more general training if they're suffering from seperation anxiety. You could ask your vets about good local trainers who would be able to give you some guidance and help sort out their problems. I got a really good book, called the 'Perfect Puppy' by Gwen Bailey, which I'd highly recommend, its got really good advice in it. She does say never get 2 puppies at once though, bit late for you I'm afraid. Good luck with the training, I'm sure you can sort their problems out with good advice but it might be quite hard work.

You've made it much harder for yourself by getting 2 dogs at the same time. They have probably bonded with each other instead of you and your family, which makes them harder to train. Do you really have time for dogs at the moment?

You will have to train the dogs separately so they respond to you rather than each other. If you look up the APDT you may find a class near you.

It's pretty tough having a toddler as well as 2 dogs. Our 2 dogs have to tolerate quite a lot from the 2 girls, and I certainly don't expect the dogs to like children. Children are small and unpredictable.

There are a couple of dog mags you may find helpful, Dogs Today and Your Dog.

If you are going to keep the dogs, you really are going to have to commit time and energy into training them. It's much more fun, and when you get started you'll find it very gratifying. Keep us posted!