CONGRATS!!!!
First it is gonna take some time and patience.
I don't believe in crate training, so I can't help you on that one. 4 months is still a baby and he can't hold it that long. When mine were little, they were confined to one room, which I closed with a baby gate. Inside 'their' room they had their food, water, beds, toys and pee pads. They pretty much stayed in that room when no one was home. I of course had to puppy proof the entire room, which included taking card board boxes and opening the up and taping them together and than wrapping fabric around this 'train of boxes'. I had to 'line' the room with this set up, b/c mine started to chew on the wood door and mouldings (hahahahahaha). This is a puppy/bored phase though and in time it will pass. I do think you have a good couple of months though until he steps out of this 'puppy - chew - bite' phase. Mine were 1.5 yrs when they were finally trustable to let have freedom in the house when left alone. Before that we had really, really good weeks and some bad weeks of regression in training, so back to basics we went.
Dogs like routine, they like the same schedules. Keep things simple. Use one word ques for your training and be consistent.
Always enforce good behavior with positive praise and a good small treat for rewards to do help.
Ignore the 'bad behaviors' - Dogs like attention, any attention, so don't reinforce any bad behaviors...
What food are you feeding? |