Hi everyone Penny is now 21 wks old and a real beauty. I suppose like most on this forum i am desperate for my whilring dervish to turn into a calm gentle obedient girl. The past few weeks have been tough ..she is relentless at chewing ..i know her mouth is probably annoying her (two teeth have came out) but boy oh boy there are days i feel she just wont settle. I am nursing some scratches from her teeth as i write this and it hurts when she really nips. I dont think its aggression its over excitment. I have began putting her behind the baby gate to get her to calm and also so i can eat a meal as she wants to share lol. I just think i am hopeless at training its not easy ..i do find it difficult to calm her ..i give her toys to distract her but she seems to prefer flesh. She is loving and good with other people so i am hoping its all puppy behaviour. I suppose i didnt realise just how hard it is to get through the puppy stage and i couldnt imagine not having her. On a positive note ..she is so great at night sleeping and toilet trained so easily..she loves to run off lead and never runs away (still trying hard to walk better on lead) she shows us everyday that she loves us and can be so affectionate. Btw ..its really cold here in bonnie Scotland and dark and rainy and i dont like walking at night so much so maybe she is more hyper in house because she isnt out walking as much ? Jackie
Yes the darker mornings and evenings are less inviting for walking. I have been doing an early evening on lead walk with our 10 month puppy Red and it is getting harder to motivate myself to do it. I do though because she settles so well once we are home and actually once I am out, it does me good . Last evening it was raining so made myself fetch my boots and rain stuff! Worth it as we get back to a cosy home and she then snoozes/snores until bedtime. About Penny’s age I would put Red on her lead, put her mat on the floor and give her a frozen kong whilst we were eating. I put my foot on the lead so she was ‘anchored’. She learnt to just settle without the need for the foot on the lead. When it’s just the two of us and we eat in the kitchen, she goes in her crate - she now chooses to go in there when she sees us sit down to eat. Sounds like you are doing really really well. The biting does stop. The early puppy months are very hard work.
I know the feeling about thinking you are not training them right - but honestly one day it just clicks - for both you and your pup. You ask for a sit and you know what you get a sit!! You whistle for a recall - and the dog actually comes back!!! It is I think about consistency and repetition with rewards. I try to keep my voice excited when doing things like recall as Bailey seems to respond better to that, I use a dog whistle too (as my natural whistle is rather pathetic and I am sure Bailey just stands and laughs at me when I try!), when I first introduced it I blew it which made Bailey come and investigate the new sound and he got a reward and I built from that. But for a good couple of months my recall went to pot completely and I thought I had (excuse the pun) blown it - but no it was sinking in with us both. Keep up the good work and one day you will have the dog you have worked hard for
