puppy coming soon, more questions

mintesa

hello

I was wondering about the biting, should you teach your dog not to bite at all? or is it oki that he does soft bites when playing?

Will puppy eat all my furniture? Or can I teach him not to, by teaching him to play with his toys only? And have him isolated in a small room where he cant destroy anything when nobody is at home.

By now I am getting nervous. I am thinking what if I wont be a good dog owner! Is that normal? I know I will be though.

TooneyDogs

Try to think of raising the pup from the training perspective of all the good habits/things you want the pup to do instead of focusing on the bad stuff.

When you give attention for the good things (chewing on a toy instead of the furniture....playing nicely without biting) they offer that behavior more and more. Conversely, if you give all your attention to the bad things, it usually gets worse because they get your attention and that's what they really crave....your attention.

prntmkr

This will be your dog. Do you want him biting when he gets older? Whatever you expect from the adult, should be taught to the puppy.

After 30+ years with dogs, I'm a firm believer of avoiding a problem rather than trying to fix it once it becomes an issue. One common method which works well with training of puppies is the use of an "umbilical"...

Your puppy will be clipped to a 6' lead. The other end of the lead is attached to you. When indoors, and when you can't actively engage your puppy, he is either attached to you or in his crate. He is never off on his own until you feel he can be trusted. This facilitates both housebreaking and chewing problems. I'm sure you can find more details on line about using the umbilical. It's simple and it works.

Others will disagree, but I like having a good variety of toys available for my dogs. There should always be an appropriate item available for him to chew on.

As far as isolating him in a room, it's up to you, but I'd much rather have the puppy in his crate. Isolation can lead to anxiety and he may end up, amongst other things, chewing through your walls. Make sure that being in his crate is a positive experience, and not a punishment!!! Again, there is much on line regarding the "right way" to introduce a puppy to his crate.

Being nervous is quite normal right now. Better to be nervous now, so you'll be able to be calm with your puppy. There are always unforeseen "surprises", but I suspect you'll do gr8.

Best of luck and enjoy!

Ludo the Monster

Any behavior your want in an adult dog, you need to train in the puppy. And those "soft bites" are not so soft with those puppy teeth. They hurt! No biting is ok with my dog. Not even playing. The most I, personally, allow is placing my hand in his mouth (the teeth DO NOT close on my hand) when he is very scared or nervous. You may not even want to allow that. What you need to remember most of all is that your dog will not distinguish between "ok to do with family" and "ok to do with strangers" very well. If he is allowed to "bite" you in play, he will bite others in play - and they may not see it as play.

As for furniture, puppies like to chew. If you let him, he will chew on everything in his reach. First and foremost, keep anything you can out of his reach. Then, keep him distracted with things it is ok to chew on. Your puppy should have a wide variety of things to chew on (bones, ropes, stuffed toys - if he wont destroy them - and Kongs). If he is kept active and watched (and crated or penned when not watched) you wont have an issue with him chewing on things and if he never learns it is ok - he wont do it.

Dog ownership is not easy. They rely wholly on you to care for them. But it isn't so bad when you have resources. Remember, when the puppy does something you don't want him to, it is because you did not make it clear he was not supposed to do it. Your first order is to bond with your puppy and allow him to trust you completely. Do this by being consistent and fair.

And be sure to come back with the inevitable questions!

mintesa

Thank you guys, this is helping me a lot.

And another stupid question just to be sure that I got it right.

I dont want my puppy to bite humans, neither in playing.

So is it okey to teach him NOT to bite me/hubby/everybody even when playing?

I was thinking about that. It seems like a good solution not to let puppy out of sight.

TooneyDogs

For the biting, check out this article
http://www.dogforums.com/19-first-ti...tops-here.html (The Bite Stops Here)

mintesa

I have found another new question.

About the stuffed chew toys.

The puppy will have feeding times and a measured amount of puppy food to eat per day. Do I subtract from that total amount and put that in his chew toys? Or is the food in his chew toys an addition to what he gets besides his feeding time? I mean should I maybe put other things in there rather than his puppy food? Cheeze perhaps and peanut butter?

thank you

Before amnesia strikes me i better ask another question.

I am confused about the toilet training. It says it is a very bad accident if puppy would ever poop inside. But the long-term confinement area in Dr Dunbar's website says that there should be a doggy toilet.

I am not really getting it, should I have a doggy toilet inside the house then? Will that not confuse puppy to poop inside?

Im just not sure what to do, but please tell me if there should actually be a doggy toilet, coz then I will ofcourse put one there. thank you.

Trixie

A dog toilet???

Your dog will poop in the house, fear not. And it is not a horrible thing. You pick it up, spray enzyme cleaner, and pay better attention to the clues that she has to poop after that.

I do not know any dogs that actually use toilets. Maybe they exist, but not at all normal.

TooneyDogs

I believe Dr. Dunbar is referring to confinement that allows for a potty area in case of emergencies. Crates are too small for a potty area and dogs are usually quite adverse to laying in their own waste. The problem is that with repeated/daily messes, the dog can get used to it and potty training becomes extremely difficult under those conditions.

For long term confinement (8-9 hours a day) I put my puppies in the laundry room or bathroom (ceramic tile floors) and used the crate at night or for short periods.

mintesa

im not planning to leave the puppy alone for more than 4 hours. so i should be fine without a dog toilet right?

TooneyDogs

Let's back-up a bit on the toileting. Dogs that are NOT potty trained will relieve themselves every 70-90 minutes. This is why the standard practice is to take them out every hour (before they really, really have to go). Dogs that are potty trained will hold it 3-4 hours with minimal problems.

So far, we've been talking about dogs that are awake and active and those time frames will vary from dog to dog, by the amount of water consumed, the intensity of the activity level, etc.

Puppies can 'hold it' 8-9 hours, IF....big IF...they are sleeping uninterrupted because sleep slows down all the body functions.

That's the issue you'll have to contend with if you're gone for 8 hours....can...will the puppy sleep the entire time or not? If not, you need to consider other confinement methods.

Ludo the Monster

If you are away from that pup for more than an hour, you should expect an accident. That is to be expected. Especially a very young pup (unless of course they are asleep). The key here is to clean it up (DO NOT punish the dog) and immediately take the pup outside. Soon, the accidents will stop as your pup is able to "hold it" longer and becomes adverse to going inside. If you are consistant, potty training can go quickly (a few weeks). It is ok.

Yes, it is ok (and advisable) to teach your dog to NOT bite - ever. One really great way of doing this is to replicate what other dogs do: yelp. You will probably feel silly but it gets the point across in a language he understands. When dogs bite too hard (in your case - at all) the other dog yelps loudly.

mintesa

thank you for all the great reply guys! you are all a great help. i also enrolled us to puppy class already. it starts sept 16. i am not stressed anymore. cant wait until armando comes. that is the name the breeder gave him. after thinking back and forth, we decided not to change his name. always when we talk about him (hubby and I) we say Armando. so we got used to his name already.

Mdawn

In Culture Clash it is mentioned that puppies should show some sort of play biting to practice having a soft mouth. It gives a fairly detailed description of how to go about doing it. I just thought it was interesting because most people say to not allow play biting at all but when thinking about it, it does seem pretty logical to allow it to some extent and work on it in stages.

It's a very good book and recommend it highly:

http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Clash-...9676411&sr=8-1

Another good book, this one by Ian Dunbar for puppy owners...I haven't read all of it but am currently teaching my dogs the "Bang" trick as mentioned in the book. I bought it by accident but decided to keep it around for when I'd get a new puppy in the future.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Teach-New-...9676411&sr=8-2