Hi there,
A month ago I bought the most adorable little puppy girl, fell in love with her instantly. she's now 3 1/2 months old and growing
It's kinda weird having this little bundle of joy and treating here like a baby, teaching her everything etc, and here comes the questions.
As I said, she's 3 1/2 months old. I started training her ~2wks ago, by now she can sit & lay down, but it sometimes it takes a few times for her to understand. I'm trying to add "stand up" to the equation, like on all 4 legs, but she doesn't seem to get it yet.. I was wondering, is it normal for her to have just these 2 commands that she can do (not perfectly) ? Is there a sort of guideline for what she should have be learning at this age and the months to come?
I live in a small studio type apartment (that's why I got a Yorkie but not a Lab), and well there isn't a lot of room for crates etc, so I dedicated my bathroom to her instead of a crate. Her bed, toys, food, water and pee pad are in there and she doesn't really "complain" about it. There's enough room for her to play in there. When I put her there, after ~10minutes she stops scratching and crying and probably goes to sleep. She sleeps through the night without a peep, only at around ~6-7am she starts scratching so I could let her sleep for an hour with me before classes start (really cute). The thing that kinda worries me, is that it's dark there. Well I don't think it's an issue at night, but when I leave for classes at 8am or so and come back at 3-4pm, she is stuck there in the dark for that time. I don't turn on the light when I come home so I don't ruin her eyes, I just slowly open the door so she could get used to it. But my question is, is this a bad place to keep her? Germs etc aren't the issue, I clean that place every day, the light thing worries me. I'm thinking of getting a mesh/fence type divider for the door, so the door could be kept open but she wouldn't get out. Does that sound like a good idea?
Last week we went to the vet to get her shot, and she said that I could start giving her wet food, so I'm mixing half a teaspoon in with her dry food. As I was instructed, she's fed 3 times a day, a spoon size amount. Before I leave, when I get back and before bed time. As I understand, when she's 6months I'll have to just feed here twice, correct? How do I do that? She's like a clock, when the hour comes, even if she's dead asleep she'll wake up and won't stop squirming until I feed her. How do I ease her into feeding her 2 times a day instead of 3? And also, I guess that she'll need more food then, so instead of a spoon per feeding, I'll have to give her 1 1/2?
Another issue we have is breath stink.. I know that you should give dogs the bone things for them, but is it too early for a 3 1/2 month dog? And what are the alternatives for fixing the bad breath issue? My friend told me I should take a piece of cloth, spray with water, wrap it around my finger and kinda brush her teeth that way, but the cloth gets stuck in her sharp teeth and well it doesn't work for me, maybe I just don't know how to do it correctly..
Now, I really want to start taking her outside. The problem is that the weather here is terrible.. It's just above freezing, and it's wet, cold. I guess it's too soon for her to go outside in this weather? And while I'm on the subject of toilet manners, she's kinda down with the whole pee pad thing, but she peed a few times on the carpet, a couple times in my bed, and once every couple days she pees next to the pee pad, but not on it. (#2 usually is done on the pad). I'm not that worried because I've read that it takes a while before yorkies get the hang of it, but how do I get her to go to the bathroom and do her things there by herself? The way I do it is when she starts squirming and kinda looks like she wants to go, I just put her in the bathroom and close the door (otherwise she just walks out), wait for a minute or so, or until she starts whining and scratching and then I let her out. 9/10 times she will have peed/pooped, but she won't go there by her self. I tried putting her down near the bathroom when she wanted to go, but she would just come back and start sniffing around, so I just put her there so she won't pee on my floor. Will she get it sooner or later that she must go to the bathroom to pee, or is there some extra training involved? She gets rewarded for peeing/pooping in the right place, and gets scolded for doing it in the wrong place.
Jeeeez, I didn't realize I wrote so much
I hope someone will have the time to read and respond, it would be really helpful