[maddy1021]

Hello everyone!

I’m new to the forum and I'm glad to have a place where I can come with questions/concerns regarding our recently adopted Beagle-mix Parker. We've had him since June 24th and he is almost 5 months now We love him to pieces, but he's starting to become quite the handful. He is our first puppy and well...we've got some puppy problems! We were making some major progress, but these days I feel like we have taken a GIANT step backwards with regards to training, housebreaking and obedience. He's becoming very destructive and stubborn. We say come (a command he has learned and mastered), and now he runs in the opposite direction. He's also taken to destroying his wee-wee pads, even after they've been used. We step away for two seconds, and he destroys it and shreds it to pieces. Both my husband and I work, so we stopped crating him during the day because he was having accidents in his crate. We’ve had him gated in our kitchen for a few weeks: he’d sleep most of the time and went on the wee-wee pad during the day (We have a puppy cam to monitor his behavior when we are away). All was great, but lately he's been destroying the pad and I feel like we're back to square one with him having accidents on the floor.

He gets two one-hour long walks daily (where he pees and poops) and lots of love and attention when we get home, but somehow it just doesn't seem enough these days. We can't step out of his line of sight for more than 2 seconds before he starts barking and howling up a storm and destroying everything in sight. We have Kongs filled with treats and plenty of chew toys, but he refuses to pay them attention to them unless we are in the same room as he is. Not sure what we're doing wrong, but we are hoping to get as much insight as possible. I've heard of the "puppy teens", but what happened to the sweet little guy we adopted? Should we start crating him again during the day?

Help please!

 

[CourtC3]

I don't have nearly as much experience as many of the people here--we just got our first puppy recently too, a five-month-old mix. Maybe he's having some separation anxiety? At the risk of sounding like a newbie, I think it would be wise to look into some obedience classes or puppy preschool, something like that (if you haven't already). They may be able to teach you some strategies to deal with this new behavior.

 

[spotted nikes]

He's at a teething age. They'll want to shred things, simply to chew. At 5 months, he should be housebroken. He needs to go out to pee more than twice a day. Get rid of the pee pads and take him out more often. If he can't hold it very long, vet check for UTI.
Try peanut butter stuffed frozen kongs. Play games that require him to use his nose. Hide treats places.

 

[maddy1021]

Spotted Nikes - He definitely pees more than 2x a day. We have a yard, so we take him out twice in the mornings (first thing when we wake up and again before leaving to work) and again several times in the evening. We just use the pads during the 6 hr stretch that he's home alone. However, his walks are twice a day. He's doing well with peeing on the pads and outside in the yard, the problem is when he finishes peeing on the pads, he's been ripping them to shreds. We did buy him a few new chew toys over the weekend, hopefully that will entertain him long enough to forget about ripping the pad apart. I like the idea of hiding treats around the kitchen! I will definitely give it a try tomorrow and see how he responds to them

CourtC3 - Puppy obedience classes is on our agenda We were told to give him a month to acclimate to us and the new environment first, but we are ready to start those ASAP!

 

[Amaryllis]

This is why I don't do puppies! That is to say, this is all normal puppy stuff. Puppies pee everywhere, they chew everything and generally act like little furry barbarians. That's why they're so cute, it's the only way they survive.

I'd definitely start clicker training the little guy. Training helps tire the brain, which will help with all the annoying puppy stuff. (Notice I said "help", nothing but time cures puppyhood.) Check out kikopup on youtube. She is fabulous at it and you'll learn a lot.

Good luck!

 

[LittleFr0g]

Not much to add to the previous posters, excellent advice there, except for one question: When you call him and he doesn't come, how do you react?

 

[maddy1021]

If I take a step towards him, he starts running. We read somewhere online that even if he doesn't come after a few times, you're supposed to grab him anyways. I'm not sure if that's the best advice because when we step towards him, he runs away. If we turn around and pretend like we're leaving the room (or close the door behind us and wait a few seconds), he'll eventually follow. But definitely not on cue or without a treat. I'm hoping this is an area where obedience school will help.

 

[LittleFr0g]

Do you ever correct him for not coming once you do catch him?

 

[maddy1021]

I guess depend on the definition of correcting / I'll usually say something like "Bad boy, Parker. You have to come to mommy." But I don't if he gets it. Any suggestions on what I should be saying?

 

[WheatieMom]

I guess depend on the definition of correcting / I'll usually say something like "Bad boy, Parker. You have to come to mommy." But I don't if he gets it. Any suggestions on what I should be saying?

I'm pretty new at dog ownership myself, but I have an 8 month old Wheaten that also likes to ignore the "come" command (he knows it). We've been told not to ask for a "come" unless we're sure he'll listen (high value treat, toy, etc) or we can enforce it (he's on leash). Otherwise, you could be setting your dog up for failure and they realize they have options other than coming to you, which could hurt future training.

Hope that helps!