I agree with what Yorkietalkjilly says. She knows what motivates a dog and how to deal with it. When Gracie was a young puppy we had to deal with her almost always wanting to fight something. Her idea of play was pretending to kill things! That is pretty much true today but she now knows what she can "kill" and what is off limits. We had to make sure that when we did not want her excited we did everything to encourage calm behavior. Not moving our hands in front of her was one method that helped keep her from going into her terrier mode of attack and destroy.
I found that any thing that moved was an object of her hunting and killing tactics. We found that we could not just shake a toy and expect her to act entertained because the movement incited her hunting skills much like a cat that sees movement will naturally pounce.
We used plenty of exercise to wear off her desire to attack and bite. Teaching her to play fetch was really helpful because she could play inside or out and not hurt anyone. We had to be very careful with what we did with our hands around her. Always having a toy to replace the hand if she should attempt to bite was helpful as that is how you redirect and show them what is proper to bite.
Since all puppies usually have mouth issues due to teething we got her some bully sticks. I found that having something to chew on for periods of time throughout the day helped her to use up some of that mouth energy on something other than people.
Lots of exercise, redirecting, bully sticks, along with simple obedience training got us through it with our hands still intact.
It is true that the puppy has no idea what you are saying. They have no language skills stating out. The idea of rubbing a dog's nose in a soiled spot is conterproductive. I would suggest keeping your pup very close to the potty pad and making sure you get him on it when he signals he has to go. If you can't watch him then he needs to be in a restricted area where the pad is easily accessible until he is better able to hold his urine and recognisee where the proper place is to potty. A puppy only starts to have the ability to hold back urine at about 16 weeks of age. A small breed pup seems to often take longer. Giving him too much area to wander before he gets the concept can just cause confusion and lengthen the training process.
I hope this helps. I know I sometimes thought I had purchased some sort of killing machine when Gracie was a puppy. She used to growl and show her teeth even as a little baby! At a certain point I was really fearful that she was crazy! When I took the time to research what these dogs were bred for it became clear she was just being what her inherited genes make her. She is really a sweet and loving dog now but I hate to think what she may have become if I had not realized how to deal with it when she was young. |