....like
won't get it. I don't know what to do here. Maybe she needs counseling? Here's my situation:
We have a little 12-lb female shih-tzu. If you have ever had a shih-tzu, you know that they retain their puppy-hood characteristics throughout much of their lifetime. Lexie is only 1 year 5 or 6 months old. My mom screams, not just yells, at her when she steals this "corner protector" thing (one of those fuzzy plush green things meant for caged birds to cuddle up to, but our parrots don't use it, so my mom put it between the corner edge of the metal seed skirt of one of the cages so it doesn't hurt the couch which is right there), as if Lexie were instead dragging a dead squirrel inside and bloodying it all over some million dollar snow white mohair carpet. I'm so serious. And when/if Lexie does it again, my mom will hit her. Not slap, hit. Plus she still screams her bloody head off at her. Temper temper, geese lemme tell ya. Same thing happens when Lexie gets on the couch and "digs". Except just a few minutes ago Lexie was almost what I would call "kicked" off the couch.
I am of no use right now. You might be wondering why I'm not trying the positive-reinforcement based training with Lexie, who already graduated Puppy Class (duh) and Intermediate Training Class, both taught only in this way. Its because if I did, my mom would still do that stuff. So there isn't any point in my even trying.
I tell her everything I know, which is alot, from The Whole Dog Journal and beyond. I tell her things about the piggies that I get from here, and she says "I don't know about those people you talk to on that guinea-pig website of yours" and "Maybe they don't know everything they think they know, vets know better". I tell her you can really teach dogs awful things by physical abuse of any degree.
Isn't she overreacting? I'm not a partucularly hard-to-ignite person, and I think she is 100% over-reacting, so that goes to say something. Lexie never makes me that upset.
I'm just shy of being a legal "adult" (whatever that means nowadays L0L), and so not old enough to move out and take my mini-zoo with me, including Lexie & piggies. I don't think I would if I could....idk.
What should/can I do? Do you think this is almost borderline animal abuse? I am the type of kid who would get parents in trouble with the law, but only b/c I love them so much and only want to help them.
I don't even know what goes on when I'm at school all day. I wish we could take Lexie to a doggie-daycare when mom has to be away for a few hours, but I don't think we can afford that, time wise or money wise. More so time-wise.
