Behold the face of a super villain...Hudson, my new puppy.

The pic courtesy of his breeder who is much better at pictures than I am.

So, I get my new bundle of furry awesomeness home. He took the car ride home like a champ- 4 hours, slept for most of it.
I own a Mother/Daughter, with Mom living on the 1st floor. She likes having the puppy around, and has conformed to my wishes regarding the ex-pen, no rough-housing indoors, crate time is sleep time, thou shalt not get on the furniture, in the house- on the leash no exceptions.

I have made it clear if she wants to participate she must watch the Puppy Pack Structure & 8Wks to 8Mos so we are all on the same page. She agreed and we moved on from there. She went so far as to set up a binder with Ed's free ebooks I printed out, so we can take notes while watching the vids.

(I work midnights, so daytime he can play in the pen with MY toys till he tuckers out.) I give him some hardcore playtime outside in the early morning, then before I go to bed and again when I get up in the afternoon which works wonders. When he sleeps like a log, then so can I.

This morning I came down to Mom's apartment and lo and behold- Mom is playing with a tug, on the couch with the little guy. She also gave him an extra meal outside of his pen. Her response was "he's soooo cuuuute, I can't resist his wittle puppy face, don't be so mean."

True, Hudson's cuteness is off the scale, and requires a warning label. Hudson whines and cries a little in the crate, but hey its only been 3 days- dogs do what dogs do and on their own schedule. He settles eventually, but Mom is the naughty one in this scenario. How do I get her on board. I can't crate Mom- she's too big. She pulled this crap last time with my old dog Mack, a rescued AmBull who's primary feature was his complete inert nature- except for toast. She.Made.Him.TOAST every-dang-day. He heard a toaster and would rocket over to where the toast would be.

So I respectfully come to you the wise followers of the Tao of Ed: how do I correct an unruly Mom hellbent on spoiling my puppy?

BTW: Lady, the 12 y/o Min Pin is doing great. She is completely indifferent to the baby, except when he gets on a whining jag. Then she just leaves the room for a quieter locale.

He is definitely adorable.

Mothers are notoriously difficult to train especially since both prongs and e-collars are definitely discouraged LOL.

It's not clear, at least for me, from your post whether or not you and your mom have actually watched the videos and read the ebooks? Did you discusss them afterwards with your Mom and answer any questions she might have had? Have you explained (used scare tactics if necessary) what can happen to adorably cute puppies that are spoiled and allowed too many privileges when they reach the not-as-cute adolescent stage of life?

If you've done all you can to get Mom on the same page and she refuses to cooperate, you might have to take away all unsupervised puppy interactions and all privileges at least temporarily even if this means isolating puppy from her while you're at work.

Point out that Hudson will become an 80 lb drooling, snoring, shedding monster in just 2 years and then we won't want him on the couch. Also that some english bulldogs develop profound separation anxiety and they need to learn early that crate time is a normal and pleasant part of life.

But giving a puppy love and receiving puppy love is one of the great joys of life. He'll only be a little sweety for so long. So a little shmoosing and spoiling isn't all bad. Plus, you've only had him a short time. He needs to learn first and foremost that people are great. Sounds like Mom's doing that part really well!

Cattle prod.

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

Point out that Hudson will become an 80 lb drooling, snoring, shedding monster in just 2 years and then we won't want him on the couch. Also that some english bulldogs develop profound separation anxiety and they need to learn early that crate time is a normal and pleasant part of life.

But giving a puppy love and receiving puppy love is one of the great joys of life. He'll only be a little sweety for so long. So a little shmoosing and spoiling isn't all bad. Plus, you've only had him a short time. He needs to learn first and foremost that people are great. Sounds like Mom's doing that part really well!

This! He's a baby. A little bit a spoiling isn't going to hurt but there are some issues that you want to be proactive about preventing. Any way you can come up with a few "approved" ways that she can spoil him? For instance, making toast for a dog is pretty harmless in moderation and creates something that they both feel good about.

"She pulled this crap last time " - question. And of course you don't have to answer it, but.. is the problem your mom spoiling the dog, or does she constantly go out of her way to override the boundaries you construct for her? She didn't just break one of your rules, she was breaking 3 at the same time. Does she respect you?

(Be warned that I belong to a forum dealing heavily with dysfunctional behavior in families, and thus my perception of issues like this may be significantly coloured.)

i'm on the opposite side of the spoiling issue . as was demonstrated with the toast thing , it becomes a pattern .

what i tell my colleagues at work " you can either be part of the problem , or part of the solution " , and i quickly identify those that i need to keep the dog away from .

you sit mom down and tell her the type of dog you want to have in the future , and lay out the things you think need to happen to get there .

if she wants to get a cuddlebug of her own , then that's her thing .







maybe she needs a cat lol .

My dog eats the crust of my toast many mornings. Eating toast and drinking coffee (no coffee for the dog!) in the morning is a cheery way to wake up for an old person.

I firmly believe too that dogs exposed to lots of foods as pups have a lot less GI problems than dogs that are only allowed to eat a few things for their first 6-8 mos. So, while I wouldn't maybe tell Mom this, I think if Hudson gets the crust off her toast in the am and part of her ham sandwich at noon and a piece of the carrots she's chopping for dinner it probably will do him more good than harm.

Getting him out of the crate when he's acting up though, that's a problem. Perhaps she could keep him in there when she goes to the store, etc. That way she won't have to hear him howling.

He is SUPER CUTE

This is precisely why I ask! Common sense lives here.
I have read and viewed the materials, Mom is getting a marathon session over the week. She has read most of the printouts.
She is very respectful of boundaries, its just something switched on in her brain after my brother gave her 2 adorable gingersnap grandkids. She just has no resistance to cute. The weird thing is all the animals we have and had in the past all followed me around like a cult leader despite being the firm hand. Even her old cat Dr. Evil who tolerated her presence from a distance, would curl up on me like I was the best couch ever.

Oddly enough Hudson had my back...I asked her to crate him in my apartment before she went to bed. She chose not to, and left him in the ex-pen in her living room.
She quickly regretted that decision. Hudson howled like a banshee, then left a deposit around midnight (12 hrs after his impromptu unauthorized brunch), walked thru it...poopy prints everywhere! Then howled some more. I came home around 0500, no Hudson. Head over to her place I see a content and freshly laundered sleeping puppy and a Mom looking like a bus hit her.
She has since apologized, and will not make that mistake again. The power of poo cannot be underestimated.
I will have to keep on top of her as far as the spoiling, but it looks promising after last nights karmic justice. She forgot how much work went into my old dog Mack for him to be the well behaved flatulent prince he was. I want to include her in the process this go around.

I still may have to hide the toaster. How have any of you dealt with an unruly person when it came to the care of a dog?

There are a few things that I allow for the sake of having eager dog caretakers when needed... So maybe find ways that she can "spoil" Hudson within the framework of training? Canned food that she can stuff in a kong and give him when she crates him, etc. Some small treats that she can use as rewards for basic good behavior (sit, eye contact, waiting for permission to go outside, etc).