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:help:
Hello Everyone! This is going to be a long one..
My husband and I just got a new puppy, a female Patterdale Terrier. She is 8 1/2 weeks (9 weeks on Sunday) but we got her when she was 7 weeks. We recently moved to England, Husband is USAF, so I am jobless for now. My husband works Monday through Friday, leaving me home with Puppy. We are both first time trainers. Though we have always had a dog in our family we have never trained one ourselves. I just want to make sure we are doing things the way we should be. I might be starting to work within the next month or so, an 8 hour day.
Crating
Since night one, she has been crated. Of course the first five nights she cried every time she was put in her crate so we could sleep. She is down to one squeal, maybe, when we put her in! I started off letting her out every two hours, then twice a night, and now I am down to once a night potty breaks. Starting the once a night break, I let her out half way between when we went to bed, at our 6am wake up time. The past two days, however, I have started to let her out a half an hour later than the night before. For two nights I will stay at the same time, then the next two nights will be a half hour later, etc. She has had no accidents, except for the first night, she pooped in her crate. She has been doing well with her pottying at night, she is holding it for six hours now!
She does not go in her crate on her own. We put her in, give her a treat, and close the door while she is eating it. Once she is done, we give her another treat through the crate door and praise her saying "good kennel". Then we say goodnight, and go to bed. Her crate is in the living room, below our bedroom.
I am having trouble crating her during the day. I started putting her in her crate, with me home, for 30m-1h, so that if I have to leave, she isn't so afraid. I crate her for that amount of time two or three times a day. When I put her in, all she does is CRY even though she can see or hear me! I usually do homework or clean during the time she is in her kennel. Am I doing something wrong here, she hates her kennel for the most part, and I really wish she didn't!!
Also, how can I get her to want to sleep in her kennel during the day, when she takes naps? She will only nap during the day if she falls asleep on me, or my husband on the weekends and evenings. I don't want to set her up for disaster by allowing her to fall asleep on us, but it is the only place she will fall asleep. Sometimes when she is asleep, I will move her off of my or my husband onto her blanket, but still near us on the couch. She will usually fall asleep right away, otherwise she will try to come back to us. I attached a picture of her sleeping on my Husband.
If I start working, how should I go about kennelling her?
House Training
Puppy is pretty good with not going potty in the house, but she does have accidents. I take her out when she wakes up, after she eats, after we play, and after she wakes up from a nap. I also take her out in between those times. When taking her from the kennel to outside, I carry her, because I don't want her to get off track and potty on the floor. Most of the time she will follow me to the patio door. I open it and say "Abby out" and she will jump down. If she doesn't, I place her outside, and she will go potty. When she is out, I say "go potty Abby, go potty" and once she goes, I praise her verbally. If she goes poo, she gets a treat when she comes inside.
Biting and No No's
Biting has been hard for us. She likes to bite on the blankets, our clothes, our bodies, and she enjoys biting my hair (super long hair). We started off saying "NO" when she would bite something, and put one of her toys in her mouth. She hadn't caught onto that, so when she kept biting and biting, I shake a small Tupperware with change in it. It is working and she is biting less. I'm sure she will learn soon not to bite.
Eating
We started feeding her 3x a day,1/4 cup. In the last few days, I have been giving her a little less than a half cup and breakfast and dinner, and less than a fourth cup at lunchtime. We give her Purina Puppy Chow. Lucky for us, her puppy farts from changing food only lasted about a week.
Any replies would be AWESOME. Tips, tricks, advice, anything! Sometimes I get so frustrated, even though I know I shouldn't be. I am very worried about her only sleeping on us, and what will happen if I do go to work, I don't want to be causing any separation anxiety by allowing her to sleep on us.
Hello Everyone! This is going to be a long one..
My husband and I just got a new puppy, a female Patterdale Terrier. She is 8 1/2 weeks (9 weeks on Sunday) but we got her when she was 7 weeks. We recently moved to England, Husband is USAF, so I am jobless for now. My husband works Monday through Friday, leaving me home with Puppy. We are both first time trainers. Though we have always had a dog in our family we have never trained one ourselves. I just want to make sure we are doing things the way we should be. I might be starting to work within the next month or so, an 8 hour day.
Crating
Since night one, she has been crated. Of course the first five nights she cried every time she was put in her crate so we could sleep. She is down to one squeal, maybe, when we put her in! I started off letting her out every two hours, then twice a night, and now I am down to once a night potty breaks. Starting the once a night break, I let her out half way between when we went to bed, at our 6am wake up time. The past two days, however, I have started to let her out a half an hour later than the night before. For two nights I will stay at the same time, then the next two nights will be a half hour later, etc. She has had no accidents, except for the first night, she pooped in her crate. She has been doing well with her pottying at night, she is holding it for six hours now!
She does not go in her crate on her own. We put her in, give her a treat, and close the door while she is eating it. Once she is done, we give her another treat through the crate door and praise her saying "good kennel". Then we say goodnight, and go to bed. Her crate is in the living room, below our bedroom.
I am having trouble crating her during the day. I started putting her in her crate, with me home, for 30m-1h, so that if I have to leave, she isn't so afraid. I crate her for that amount of time two or three times a day. When I put her in, all she does is CRY even though she can see or hear me! I usually do homework or clean during the time she is in her kennel. Am I doing something wrong here, she hates her kennel for the most part, and I really wish she didn't!!
Also, how can I get her to want to sleep in her kennel during the day, when she takes naps? She will only nap during the day if she falls asleep on me, or my husband on the weekends and evenings. I don't want to set her up for disaster by allowing her to fall asleep on us, but it is the only place she will fall asleep. Sometimes when she is asleep, I will move her off of my or my husband onto her blanket, but still near us on the couch. She will usually fall asleep right away, otherwise she will try to come back to us. I attached a picture of her sleeping on my Husband.
If I start working, how should I go about kennelling her?
House Training
Puppy is pretty good with not going potty in the house, but she does have accidents. I take her out when she wakes up, after she eats, after we play, and after she wakes up from a nap. I also take her out in between those times. When taking her from the kennel to outside, I carry her, because I don't want her to get off track and potty on the floor. Most of the time she will follow me to the patio door. I open it and say "Abby out" and she will jump down. If she doesn't, I place her outside, and she will go potty. When she is out, I say "go potty Abby, go potty" and once she goes, I praise her verbally. If she goes poo, she gets a treat when she comes inside.
Biting and No No's
Biting has been hard for us. She likes to bite on the blankets, our clothes, our bodies, and she enjoys biting my hair (super long hair). We started off saying "NO" when she would bite something, and put one of her toys in her mouth. She hadn't caught onto that, so when she kept biting and biting, I shake a small Tupperware with change in it. It is working and she is biting less. I'm sure she will learn soon not to bite.
Eating
We started feeding her 3x a day,1/4 cup. In the last few days, I have been giving her a little less than a half cup and breakfast and dinner, and less than a fourth cup at lunchtime. We give her Purina Puppy Chow. Lucky for us, her puppy farts from changing food only lasted about a week.
Any replies would be AWESOME. Tips, tricks, advice, anything! Sometimes I get so frustrated, even though I know I shouldn't be. I am very worried about her only sleeping on us, and what will happen if I do go to work, I don't want to be causing any separation anxiety by allowing her to sleep on us.
