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10-12-2015, 08:29 AM | #1 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Bloomington, IN
Posts: 10
| So many issues - one at a time? With a 13-week-old puppy, we seem to have many many many issues and trainings to work on. I'm overwhelmed and I'm sure poor Maddie is too. I don't know if I should work on one thing at a time or all of them at once. I feel like I'm saying "no" a hundred times a day (eating cat poop, chewing on the baby gate, biting, nipping, chewing on coffee table books, chewing on coffee table, eating leaves, peeing in the house, etc. etc.). I'm even overwhelmed just trying to figure out what words to teach her for things. "No!" for bad things she does. "Go Pee Pee Outside" for going potty. "Bed" for getting her into her crate. It's been 27 years since I had a puppy and I guess this time will go by and I won't remember these first rough months. But I'm firm on wanting a well behaved, well trained, happy Yorkie. I don't want to mess her up and I know she's right at that age where I easily could. Thoughts? |
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10-12-2015, 11:01 AM | #2 |
Rosehill Yorkies Donating YT Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Houston Texas
Posts: 9,462
| I feel your pain!!! I understand your dilemma!!! I will be the very first to say I have many more than a couple of dogs running around my home.....I have realized in order to maintain a resemblance of order in my home, dogs are limited to particular areas of the house....they do not run all over the house.....enables me to see what is going on. My sons cat litter box is kept in our laundry room....dogs do not have access to the kitchen or laundry room. Dogs are limited to the sun room area, where they have at least one set of eyes on them at all times. They go down for naps at noon until 4pm....this gives me time to do something besides watching dogs continuously and I can do a little housework and not worry about dogs getting into stuff! One word commands work well for us...."NO!", "outside", (that is the question for playtime outside, not limited strictly to potty time..), "TT" or "poo-poo" for bathroom breaks....."playtime" for runs around the yard to "help" when I do a little gardening in my pots and beds....... "birds?" for attention to the birds flying all over the yard, eating the fruit on my fruit trees.....the pups LOVE chasing the birds up and down the fence.....my precious little Lexee that I lost earlier this year was my "bird dog" that adored nothing more than running all over the back yard, chasing all the birds!.....we have a few other one word commands that address things we do around here....."swim?" usually goes with filling up the kiddie pools, and they all gather around and wait with unbridled anticipation for the kiddie pools to get water in them!...."bubbles! Bubbles!!!" goes with the bubble machine and all the fun that ensues when that comes out! Manners inside the house....."NO!" stops all activity! "Bedtime" lines dogs up to go to their crates for the night...."nap" lines dogs up to go to crates for mid day nap time.....I keep a rolled up paper right by my chair and I carry it with me all around the sun room....I use it 98% of the time, to slap loudly against my leg, accompanied by a stern "NO!", when they are doing anything they should not be doing. It is a constant thing, patrolling and policing these youngsters, and the only good thing is, it gets better quickly, IF you are persistent and consistent in correction! I have very seldom had to actually use a paper paddle on any tiny butts around here....chewing electrical cords is an instance that requires immediate, urgent, definitive, paper-to-butt corrective steps.....darting out doors is another thing that gets paper-to-butt corrective measures....for the most part, I just slap the paper on my leg and it works just fine...... Persistence, consistency and determination on your part is the key to early training....you can be "on" one minute, and let that same behavior slid by when pulled again later! |
10-12-2015, 11:22 AM | #3 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Bloomington, IN
Posts: 10
| Your routines are amazing and we can only hope to get to that point someday. Maddie responds very well to "No" but a paper slap on my leg might help bring home the point. Today when I said "NO!" and she came away from the catbox (it has to be in my office and she has to be with me in my office during my work hours), I told her "good girl" when she came to me. I've READ that you should praise them when they stop doing the bad thing. Thank you for your thoughtful response and great suggestions. I hope I can train MYSELF well enough and quickly so that my girl knows what she should and shouldn't do and is a happy girl. |
10-16-2015, 06:24 AM | #4 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Bloomington, IN
Posts: 10
| I wanted to submit an update in case other people are feeling the way I was. First off, I got advice from here, a friend a my breeder on a number of issues we were challenged with. Since I posted this message, Maddie absolutely trashed our half bath she had been sleeping in. I had been gone that day at a mandatory training for my insurance business. She was with my husband all day and had done really well. That night, she pooped twice in the bathroom, overturned her crate and made a horrible mess. We decided a drastic change was required so we moved up the timeline on our plan to eventually have her sleep in her crate in our bedroom. Via much advice from many places, we put her crate in our bedroom, put in a chew stick, a kong with a puppy bone shoved inside, completely covered the crate with a blanket so she couldn't see out. I put her in right when I went to bed. The past two nights, she's barked for 15-20 minutes, was quiet for a while, then barked when I turned my reading light off. The barking the second night was less frantic. She may have barked very early in the morning the first night, but the second night, she barked around 6 so she was in her crate for over 8 hours with little barking. I think this plan will work and she will be much happier. On the issues we've had with her biting too much, we got advice that she doesn't realize she's biting so hard. So to let her know, we yell "OUCH!" If that doesn't work (so far it is), we would lightly smack her behind with a paper. Her litter-mates would yell if she bit too hard. Potty training is a non-stop thing. She's inconsistent with her poops. Sometimes she'll go 20 minutes after a meal with no poop. Sometimes 2 minutes. Sometimes she'll poop at 2 in the afternoon (no even close to a meal). So we're watching her close, keeping her baby-gated to be with one of us at all times and taking her outside enough that she has ample opportunity to go when she needs to go. I have been having an issue with my cats who are equally amused and annoyed with Maddie. So if the boys get in stalking mode and go towards Maddie for no good reason, I shake the water bottle and that stops the action. Maddie is also becoming introduced to the water bottle. If she starts to chew on one of the coffee table books, she first is told "No!" If she ignores that, she gets a water bottle squirt WITH a "No!". We feel like we're making progress. We've had Maddie for almost a month. She is such a joy and is slowly getting into a grove. Thanks to all that gave thoughts and opinions, here as well as from all my resources I'm leaning on. |
10-16-2015, 02:18 PM | #5 |
Donating YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Toluca Lake, CA
Posts: 5,491
| It sounds like you have a good training plan. Being consistent is so important. Buster is trained to go on pads in the house but even now he sometimes makes a mistake and poops in the hallway but I realize that is where I first contained him and I put down pads there so I created my problem. His after meal poop timing has never been consistent either. It sounds like Maddie is catching on to the new routine, good work.
__________________ CarolynBuster Brown "The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything." |
10-16-2015, 03:20 PM | #6 |
Rosehill Yorkies Donating YT Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Houston Texas
Posts: 9,462
| Congratulations!! You will see improvement in her behavior with consistancy and persistant attention to behavior training from you, and established patterns that detail exactly what you expect in her behavior....you cant let up during this time, and you must be consistant....dont be gung ho a couple of days and then when you are having a bad day, let unacceptable behavior slip by!!! You MUST show her she is NO match against YOUR terrier mentality, and you will not back up or back down! (...then go in your back yard out of the dogs sight, and cry and kick and scream!!!) |
10-18-2015, 05:44 AM | #7 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Bloomington, IN
Posts: 10
| I understand the "screaming" part. I also understand that some people give up and let their babies do whatever they want and end up with an untrained dog that messes everywhere, bites, nips, destroys things. Not me and my girl. She will behave (and be happier because she knows what to do and what not to do). Yesterday, I turned around and she was SITTING in the CATBOX! Just sitting there like it was a dog bed. That got her two swats with a newspaper. I've been cleaning the box every time one of my boys goes in it just to keep Maddie from getting sick (she almost ate a piece once). She seems afraid to go near it now. Which is good. We had a short relapse a couple of nights ago. She woke up barking like a crazy girl around 2:30am. I took her outside and she pooped a huge amount. And barked a long time afterwards. Last night, she quietly squeaked for 5 minutes and fell asleep around 10:30. We didn't hear a peep. At 6:30, I woke up and she heard me. Again the squeak. I immediately got her out of her crate. So that's no barking at all in her crate. Today she's terribly constipated and won't eat or do anything but lay around. I'm sure we'll have ups and downs like this. My last baby did the same thing on occasion. |
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