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Puppy Advice (merged)
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Hi,
I am in desperate need of help with my 10 week old puppy.
We have had her for a week, I knew she would have to be house trained and was prepared for this. At first she was fine weeing on her puppy mat, but the last 2 nights she has messed as well!!
In addition to this she has started chewing, last night managed to get under the kick boards and chew through electrical wiring. :mad: Luckyley it wasn't live otherwise we wouldn't have a puppy any more!!!!
She is also digging up the garden!!!!
My OH is talking about getting a cage for nighttime, so does any one no where we can get a cheap one or borrow one from?
Also any suggestion on the other problems? We have both had dogs before but not one with all of the problems.0 -
A 10 week old pup that messes in the house, chews and digs, all sounds pretty normal to me.
If she is messing over night, she's not going out often enough. You need to be getting up through the night and taking her out, mad OTT praise when she toilets, and then back in and straight back to bed.
Ideally she shouldn't be being left alone in the garden at this age either, mainly because if she is she will toilet out there when you aren't around to praise her, which slows toilet training down as much as messing in the house does. You need absolute consistency with it, she *always* goes outside, and you *always* praise her for it.
Crating her overnight will help with the chewing, but it's not an instant fix. You will need to take time to get her used to it. You will still need to get up in the night with her for toilet breaks as well. I know crates are promoted as some sort of miracle cure for house training, but it's not quite like that. It is true that dogs have a natural aversion to messing in their bed, but at the same time she is a tiny baby and if she needs to go, she needs to go, and if there is nowhere else for her to go than in her bed, she will. It will just distress her even more, and you will end up with a dog that has been trained to toilet in it's crate.When I had my loft converted back into a loft, the neighbours came around and scoffed, and called me retro.0 -
Welcome to the joys of puppyhood!
One year on after brining home my pup and I've managed to crack the housetraining...... the garden has now been paved and plans for a new kitchen have been shelved until he stops chewing.
I found that keeping a diary helped with the hosuetraining. I kept track of when pup was fed, when taken outside and when he 'performed', this not only put the problem into perspective (1 mess inside out of 5 was not so bad really) but it helped to refine feeding patterns in relation to toilet breaks.
I use a crate only over night and to begin with went to bed late, got up early and set the alarm clock for a middle of the night garden trip. Yes it was hard work, but from the first night the crate door was shut I never had to clean up the kitchen floor again, so well worth it.
I can't stress how important it is to introduce the crate slowly, it has to be a place of sanctuary rather than punishment. I started off by feeding all meals in the crate with the door open, new toys were given in the crate and when the pup settled down with a chew I shut the door for a few mins and then opened it without making a fuss. Gradually I'd shut the door whilst the pup was eating and leave him for 5 mins after he had finished. This built up over about 3 weeks to him staying in the crate overnight. It was a relief!!
I used the crate when I first got my other dogs and they still see it as a special place and will creep in and crash out if I leave the door open.
Good Luck!Some days you're the dog..... most days you're the tree!
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Hi,
She sounds like a normal puppy to me
Please remember that she is only 10 weeks old, and has only been with you for a week. If you put yourself in her shoes, she has been taken away from her mum and all her brothers and sisters to a very strange place!!!!
Toilet training has to be consistent. Take her outside regularly and praise everytime she again. Invariably, the odd accident will happen. I think my dog must have been about 4-5 months old until he was fully housetrained. It just seemed to click one day, and he hasn't been to the toliet inside since.
Puppies will chew pretty much anything that they can get their hands on. Remember, they are probably teething, so chewing helps with this. Make sure you have plenty of puppy friendly toys around to help with this. There is a kind of paste that you can get, which dogs don't like the taste of, and put this on sofa legs etc, anything that you specifically don't want your pup to chew. Whenever I saw my pup chew something he shouldn't, a gentle but firm "ah ah" was used, and I gave him one of his toys as a replacement. Even now at 2, he still likes to pick up the odd shoe every now and then!!
I did have a crate, but I believe I started using it too late and in the wrong way, and my puppy never got used to it. He would cry all night, and I wouldn't go to him so as not to encourage this behaviour. This lasted every night for 3 weeks until I gave him. However, I have learnt since then the correct way to use it, and if it is used as described in a previous post, it can be used fantastically. Do you have a crate you can borrow off a friend or family member. If not, try Freecycle, as they are quite bulky some people don't want them any more if they don't use them.
Sorry for the ramble!!! Good luck and enjoy the puppy phase. It won't last forever
Sammy x0 -
Sorry, forgot to say about the garden!!! Again, you'll find that puppies and dogs love to dig!!! I gave up a long time ago of a perfect garden. I can have flowers in pots, and no longer plant bedding plants. The bushes and hardy plants are ok, but anything new comes out straight away agin. We are crazy paving quite a big section of our garden at the moment. My washing line has long since been Teddy's favourite place to pee, so much that it has killed all the grass around it! He must see it as his personal toilet!!
S x0 -
We use vicks vapour rub anywhere we thik ours might chew or has already had a nibble. The taste is of course revolting (dead giveaway they've been near it is the constant licking of lips and drinking lots of water afterwards) but it does stop them.
A crate overnight is a fabulous idea (Ebay sell them as do Pets at Home if you need one instantly) and is well worth the investment. For my own preference, I use the biggest size available and just vary the size of the bed in it as the dogs grow. That said, the latest one is a wriggler and so the small bed was swapped very soon after his arrival in favour of the largest bed to accomodate his wriggling.It aint over til I've done singing....0 -
If one of the reasons the crate is being used is to help with house training, then it's important to buy the right size, and not get one that is too big. Otherwise the pup may just allocate one corner as a toilet and sleep in the other corner.When I had my loft converted back into a loft, the neighbours came around and scoffed, and called me retro.0
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I agree with pboa's post totally - all good, sensible advice!
Also, this is not a dog with problems, it is a normal pup, please do not get disheartened, just be consistent and train the pup - he or she really does not know what you want him to do, or that chewing things/pooing on the floor etc causes you problems! It is your job to teach what you expect by rewarding good bahaviour with fuss, praise and treats.
What sort of pup is it btw?0 -
yay some progress at last
went over to OH house yesterday but planned the trip.
a few hours before half a sealegs tablet, stuffed some banana in the kong and froze it, 15 mins before the journey sprayed the car with DAPS and then.... just for luck some brown paper under his towel in the crate,
so whilst i drove with caution of my son saying mum he's sick...
Perry the pup was too busy with his frozen kong to care less about where what who and when. 30 min drive complete and no sickness what ever, no slobbering or anything.
and the same on the trip back home today...
:T well done perry :TLife is about give and take, if you can't give why should you take?0 -
Once again, excellent advice from Pboae.
Just to add to the advice about not ever leaving pup unattended in the garden - a lot of plants are poisonous to dogs - esp those that are grown in a "traditional english garden" You may want to fence off any flower beds to be sure0
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