We have a five and half months old male puppy. 1) From almost the beginning when we got him at 7 weeks, we have been using a system of two connected playpens to keep him limited to a small part of the house. At present, everyone is home and he's never alone. He does his business outside in backyard, gets his exercise, walks etc daily. No exercise pens in the backyard and he roams it all. We are not sure when to let him have more access to the house and do away with this set up. He's a big chewer right now and we keep his toys in his area. Is this set up going to spoil him in any way and make future adjustments difficult when he gets access to the remaining house slowly? Has anyone worked this type of set up and had any issues? 2) We use a three point harness when taking him for walks. Putting the harness and leash on is an ordeal. He seems to get too excited about it and always wants to chew up the leash and harness. He usually responds to drop/leave commands but they don't work with leash or harness or only work temporarily. We have to engage him in eating small treats/snack while the harness is secured. This doesn't seem to be the right strategy as there is no change in his excitement when he sees the harness in our hands. He also jumps and bites in the excitement. Sometimes even during an otherwise nice walk, he will start grabbing leash or biting on our clothes and legs. Would like to address this before it gets worse. Any tips would be really helpful. Beginning to get concerned. Thank you so much!
Hi Bruno, Your set up with the playpens sounds great! In my experience, a lot of problem behaviors inside the home start with having too much unrestricted access to all areas of the home, too soon. I know it makes your world feel very small and frustrating too, while you have a young puppy who's limited to just a small area of the house, but it won't be forever. Gradually giving him more access to the house as he matures is exactly the right strategy Have a look at this article on our main site about calming down an over excited puppy. You can change his reaction to the harness by rewarding him for staying calm around it. Start by taking it out from wherever you keep it, and then putting it straight back again. Repeat until he sees you pick it up, but doesn't get excited - then give him a treat! Repeat this several times more, then, pick up the harness and carry it around a bit before putting it down. Build up through - approaching him with the harness, touching him very lightly with it (but not putting it on), feeding him treats through the head hole putting it over his head, then taking it straight off clipping it up, then taking it straight off adding the lead then removing it all straight away and so on, rewarding him for remaining calm with each added step. Drop back a stage if he starts getting over excited. If you work on this several times a day, hopefully you should make rapid progress. I'm trying to explain briefly, but let me know if anything was unclear!
