[mkh3482]

Hey all!

So Gracie is progressing as well as can be expected for an 11 week old puppy. The crate crying has stopped (I've been keeping her in a separate room at night and she doesn't cry, sleeps until I get up and doesn't cry when I leave her either.

She's now going through her "I want to bite everything" phase and the Bitter Bite and yelling "No" isn't sinking into her cute little head quite yet.

My biggest concern is her obsession with my couch. She's been trying to jump up, which I can yell at her and deal with, but now she likes to run under and do God knows what to the bottom of it. When she first started doing it, it was cute, but now she's getting a little bigger and really has to squeeze to get out. I'm afraid she's going to get stuck one day and I'll have to pick up my huge couch to get her out. I tend to have to bribe her with a treat or a toy to coax her out and I don't want her to think she's being rewarded. I yell as soon as I see her going close to the couch, but she just doesn't get it.

If I took the legs off the couch, it would make it all that easier for her to jump up, but I'm thinking that may be my only solution.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

[Elana55]

Fortunately, she will get too big to do this. Soon. I would rather block off the couch than take the legs off.. but that is me. Low couch is not fun for me to sit on and the dog has to learn so I would rather teach the dog.

Can you teach her to come to you when called? She is not too young to try the clicker on and it can be great once she knows it because when she hears the click she knows 1.) she got it right and 2.) she is going to get a food treat.

I used to use the word "no!" but now I use "wait." Wait means stop, look at me and wait for the next command. It is not punishment.. simply a "hold on a minute there buckaroo.. I want you to do something different than 'that' (whatever 'that' is)."

Stay means you are coming back to them and they are not to move until you come back next to them. Wait, OTOH means hold it.. something else is coming.

If you can teach her to wait, then when she does something like trying to go under the couch, you can tell her "wait" and when she stops and looks at you, then ask her to come here and click and reward. No yelling. No negative feed back.

It is sort of fun too. I use it a LOT. Very handy thing to teach a dog.

[Love's_Sophie]

Elana gave some good advice! I too would be more inclined to block off the couch access...especially if she is getting too big to really crawl under! She might get hurt one of these times, trying to go under, or climb out!

I rarely use the word "no" too, because it is such a 'general' term, and gives the dog nothing specific to do...

[mkh3482]

Thanks for the advice! I've tried getting her attention - the only thing that usually coaxes her out is a squeaky toy or when I ask if she "wants snack". Of course, when she comes out, I reward her. Maybe I shouldn't do that.. I don't know.

Sometimes, if I make a crying noise, she'll run out to see if I'm ok.

I don't really have a lot to block the bottom of the couch off with (I have a small apartment). I'll have to find something to stuff underneath the couch so that she can't use it as leverage to get on the couch.

I keep telling myself that this too shall pass, just like the incessant crying and whimpering!!

[4dogs3cats]

Think of it this way: when she comes out and you give her a treat- coming out from under the couch was the last thing she did, hence the reward. If you walked outside and someone said- come, and when you did you got 50 bucks. You'd associate that with coming. She will learn to associate the recall to the treat. I didnt believe it at first, but it works