Hello everyone. I am posting to ask those with more experience than I if I am doing things right/wrong or what. My story follows. My experience with puppies is zero. We brought "Blondie" home 8 days ago. She was 6weeks and 6 days old at the time. She is a very pretty yellow (white) female lab. First night she howled like a banshee and peed in her crate on her dog bed. SHe was taken out several times through the night off leash. Morning she was let out, off leash again. Someone was with her 24x7 for 3 days. We did not have an apporopriate collar for her for 3 days so she was walked with no leash in the fenced back yard. No accidents on the floor for a while. Second night she howled pretty good again, third night she was better and whined to let her out at about 3AM, then again at 6. Not bad.. No more pee in the crate. Things started taking a turn for the worse maybe day 4. She began to pee on the floor randomly. We would walk her and she would go, then come in the house, 5 mins later, pee somewhere. This happened quite often and not sure what to do if anything. This is question/issue #1. More on this.. We washed her dog bed and I put it on the floor next to her crate and set her on it thinking she would lay down and rest. SHe walked the edges of it and squatted down in front of me and peed. OUTSIDE NO and I picked her up and took her out. Another time, my shoes were on the other side of the puppy gate. I stepped over, picked them up, stepped back into the room and saw her squatting in the corner. OUTSIDE NO and without shoes .. out the door I went. ANother time I turned around literally for couldnt have been more than 20 seconds and I saw a small pile of water. Talking out loud in a normal non yelling voice I said what is this? DId you pee here? SHe came over and squatted and peed about 1ft from it letting me know that yes she did. OUTSIDE NO. This is normal? i will add here that for two nights now she has slept through the night from 11 to about 530 or 6 AM, in her crate. She can hold it apparently and knows not to go in her crate. We crate her at night for sleep, and the only other time is when she falls asleep during the day. No other crating. She has the Kitchen with linoleum flooring to wander freely in. Should we be crating her and not allowing her to wander? SHe howls like crazy in the crate, when its not bed time. We started putting her on the leash, which she hates and tries to chew it literally every second she can. When she does I give a NO and gently jerk the leash from her mouth. Right ?? Wrong?? She does not come when called on the leash. SHe had come to us when called off leash. Now rarely will she come when called on leash or off. I have been calling her and gently jerking or pulling the leash when I call. SHe comes most times, but she fully resists at times and does not want to budge. I end up pulling her. Is this wrong?? It feels like this should not be happening. We praise her, tell her good dog when she comes, talk in happy voices. Should I not walk her on the leash? SHe wanders all over, picking things up in her mouth. WHen on leash and she does this, I give the NO command and gentle jerk of the leash. One time she took off and ran around the corner to the part of the yard with no fence and was heading for the road when I caught up to her. After this it was leash always. Right? Wrong? I also been working with her for commands. It took me about 15 minutes and half a bowl of dog chow to get her to know the sit command. She was doing great, sitting when told maybe 95% of the time but now for some reason she sits when she feels like obeying and when she is fed. SHe also learned the stay command and was doing great. 95% when being fed, and maybe 70% when not fed, but now same as sit command. Just whenever. How would one go about improving this?? My method was tell her sit, give a bit of a push to her backside then give a treat. Repeat. Repeat. 15 mins did it. Then just no treat. Similar for stay. Lay some dog chow on the floor and hold her collar. Give stay command along with a hand signal. If she broke for the food I would say no and hold her collar. DIdnt take real long. I also gave the "OK" command after she stayed. Real well for food. I started down command on Sunday. She really dislikes this. In order to deal with the biting that happens literally constantly, always saying NO NO. Pulling my shirt out of her mouth, pushing her head away from my feet and saying NO. At times, I pick her up, not real gentley, and put her on her back, put my head down to her face and growl. Low growl, sometimes strong growl and at the same time, sometimes, pull/pinch her skin on her neck area. Once she yelped, as forgive me, I did it harder than i should apparently. Other times I yelp loudly myself when she bites. Tehn get up and turn my back to her. This works, sometimes, for a short period of time. I guess one just has to endure this and there really is no other way to stop all the biting and nipping? Well.. there you have it. I appreciate comments. I dont want to do things wrong and certainly have no interest in being mean to the dog.
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? Gosh, she is only a baby. She might not be able to learn as quickly as you want her to. Usually pups don't leave their litter until 8 weeks old so maybe she just needs extra time. There will be better qualified people who will come along shortly to give you some good advice but I would say don't expect too much from her at such a young age. There are some excellent articles about bringing a new puppy home and I can recommend The Happy Puppy book by Pippa Mattinson. While waiting for that book have a good read of the puppy articles on the site. Lots of love, patience and a calm approach in the mean time. Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new pup
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? from a teeny tiny black 5 1/2 year old Lab known as The DivaDog and her pet human
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? My advice is based on bringing up 3 puppies over the years - last one acquired at age of 7 weeks in October (and yes it is best to have them at 8 weeks or later). Molly was clean and dry over night within a few nights but it took much longer during the day and she would also wee indoors when she'd just come in. I think you need to be patient. If you catch her weeing, don't sound cross just pick her up and whisk her outside as quickly as possible. If you see her weeing where you want her to go outside give a command (I just say 'Do a wee') and tell her what a good girl she is. I think you'll find she's probably at least 14 weeks old before she's reliably house-trained and could be longer. I had a cocker spaniel who was about 5 months old before she was really OK. Also clean really thoroughly where she wees indoors to get rid of the smell, so that she doesn't think it's the place to go. Don't jerk the lead - she's really young and sensitive - even if her crocodile teeth don't make her seem so! I would encourage her to follow you off lead around the garden for now. Call in an excited voice and give lots of high pitched praise when she comes or start a game with her. If you need to take something from her mouth, take it gently. Good luck - puppies are exhausting aren't they? But it soon passes, like bringing up children, and then you have a beautiful companion.
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? [quote author=Joy link=topic=5648.msg71637#msg71637 date=1398699489] If you see her weeing where you want her to go outside give a command (I just say 'Do a wee') and tell her what a good girl she is.[/quote] You can tell I've always had Winter puppies .... we say "Do hurry-ups"
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? Hi Dan, and welcome. You sound a bit shell-shocked, and that isn't unusual. A new puppy is a lot more than most of us bargain for! But hang on in there, this first few weeks is very challenging but it soon passes. The best use of your time in the next day or two is to read everything you can lay your hands on, about 'housetraining' and 'socialisation'. Those are your priorities for the next couple of weeks. You'll find links to all the information you need here in our puppy section. Your puppy's behaviour is absolutely normal, by the way, and you might find this article helpful to get you started: What to expect of your new puppy When you've had a read, don't hesitate to ask any questions you have - there are bound to be a few The best way to get lots of answers is to start a separate thread for each topic (housetraining/biting etc) Simply because it is a bit daunting for people to answer so many different questions all at once. Don't worry about obedience training for the next few days, get those priorities straight first. Good luck with your puppy, and have fun reading up!
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? Hi Dan and welcome to the forum In relation to weeing indoors, as soon as you see her squat pick her up and run outside, when she goes go overboard on the praise and treat her. If you tell her off or shout no she will start to wee inside but not infront of you which will be worse. If you can take her outside every half hour to start and say 'go wee wee' or something similar as soon as she starts going, then reward, she will pick up quicker what you want her to do. In relation to biting, I would stand up immediately, be a tree, stop all play and interaction for a few secs after she stops and say no firmly. Then go back to playing etc. I personally wouldn't growl or pinch her as she may see this as play and might bite harder or growl back at you. Hope this helps It really is worthwhile reading Pippa's threads as they have invaluable advice
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? Dan, you sound a little like me 2months ago and reading some of the article from the labrador site helped. I echo the comments on if you see her squat to pee make a loud noise or clap to stop her and take her straight out. I was also pretty vigilant the first week or two about taking her out to try to pee; 1. when she woke up 2. after eating 3. after playing 4. if she'd been up for 20-30mins or so take her out anyway just to see if she wants to go. I also followed the steps a lot of people recommend and limited her access in the house, so kitchen/living room where i could easily see her was ok but a baby gate to block access to other areas. This just made it a lot easier for me to keep an eye on her. Also got extra strong pee cleaner to clean up any messes so she couldn't smell pee and associate that area with peeing. That said, she still had accidents but they've generally stopped now at 16weeks but still expect her to have the odd slip now and then until she's grown up.
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? Hello, Dan, and welcome here! It does sound like you are overwhelmed. I'm glad you've come here for advice, there is many good information on the main site for you to read, and plenty of people who have had experience raising puppies as well as plenty who are in the midst of it right now, so you are not alone. Please do as Pippa has suggested and read the articles she has highlighted as well as the others pertinent to your new puppy. These will give you the information you need! I know you are trying to do the best for your puppy, these articles will show you how to do that! The main thing is to recognize that your pup is very small yet, and is trying to learn what you want but it will be a process of small baby steps in all the things you are trying to achieve, from toilet training to walking nicely on lead. Patience is definitely required, and understanding of where she is at developmentally and what she is actually capable of. Making her training sessions short and pleasant for her will make things nicer for you both. Please continue to ask questions and let us know how you are getting along, there are plenty of people to give advice, as I said before. I would also highly recommend Pippa's new book, "The Happy Puppy Handbook"! Lisa and Simba, 2 yr old LabX
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? Thanks all. Yes I am a bit overwhelmed. I have owned a lab before, but got her at age 4. I have read two books on raising puppies and thought I was in reasonable shape as animals take to me well. How wrong I was! Ill be doing more reading and work on my tone when I see her pee. Ill also keep her off the leash and watch her when she runs. So far, I take her out on a routine schedule and feed at a routine schedule. I guess I was just worried it seemed like she backslipped and thought maybe somethign I was doing. I do hear room for improvement so that is good but also sounds like Im fairly on track, except for running low on patience. Thanks. Ill be on here quite a bit now I think.. !!! On a more fun note, I had to go to home depot the other day and tucked her into a tote bag and slung it over my shoulder, like a large womans handbag. Her head was not in the bag and she had a great view of everything. I didnt want to leave her home and thought it was not awful to take her. I was a bit cautious as I was not sure anyone would be upset, but some of the workers pet her and said what a nice looking dog she was. A shopper stopped and petted her and whipped out his phone and showed me pics of his 5yr old yellow.
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? Hi Dan....welcome to the forum! Loads of useful advice so far already. I would really really recommend Pippa's "The Happy Puppy Handbook" which you can get on Kindle too. It is a pretty quick read as it is really intuitive, and I think will be invaluable helping you to understand this frustrating phase. I think your puppy is very young, and this has made things worse for you, but you will get there in the end. Just another point....is your garden/yard actually secure? Is this something you should maybe look at? Even though your girl won't be out without you just now, it only takes a moment...... Good luck, and keep us up to date, if you need any help just shout and we will collectively do our best. jac
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? Hi Dan and welcome It was a good decision to take her to Home Depot in the shoulder bag. Do as much of that kind of thing as you can You can take some little food treats and ask people to give her a treat. The idea is to make meeting new people as normal and enjoyable as possible for her. The more positive experiences she has with new situations the better With the treats you are using, I notice that you are using dog chow (kibble). Try branching out a bit and using little bits of roast chicken or cooked sausage or hot dog. Little bits no bigger than the fingernail on your smallest finger. Use these 'new and exciting' treats for times when you really want to reward her strongly (like for peeing in the garden), for being calm in new situations and for following and running to you in the garden. When teaching your puppy to do anything (wee outside, come when called, wait to eat their meal) it's always good to think about "how can I use a 'carrot' approach here, rather than a 'stick' approach?". By that I mean "how can I get the result I want by rewarding good behaviour?'. For example, when teaching her to wait to eat her meal a 'carrot' approach would be to have a small handful of treats and to give her treats for sitting and waiting until you release her to eat her meal. A 'carrot' approach to house training is to include the use of treat rewards for weeing outside.
Re: New puppy owner - Am I doing this all correct??? Hello and welcome to the forum! Your puppy is very tiny and right now you and she just need to get to know each other before you start real training. I love the idea of taking her out and about in your big bag! Just ask here with any questions.
