This puppy stage is not easy!

[gracielove]

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.

[Ldyrev1]

We used a water spray bottle on Princess Sophie for her biting out hands. She just nibbled when she was really little but the biting became harder. Oh yes, we also used the command "no bite" when she got sprayed so now all we have to say is "no bite" and she stops immediately. We really only used the water bottle on her for a couple days. She got the message really quickly.

As for potty training, you need to keep to a schedule and be consistent, that's really key. We watched Princess Sophie for a while but finally figured out when she needed to potty. We spent a lot of time taking her back and forth to the potty pad and even when we felt we were dealing with more accidents than successes, we decided to tether her to me when she was not in my lap or in her play pen. That helped a lot as well. I think it took about a month for her to figure out that the potty pad was where she needed to do that. Now she only occasionally has accidents of #2. Not often at all and usually when I'm not paying attention. LOL

Keep working with your pup, they do eventually get it, even though they can be strong willed. Consistency is really key and the effort is certainly worth it!! Good luck!!

[Starlette]

I sincerely appreciate what has been posted here for the biting issue. This is something I'm really trying to work on with Julie. Thank you for the tip of "redirecting" Julie's biting to something else. I can see now that what I have been doing has been counterproductive to reduce the biting.

Thank you.
Starlette

[kimp5]

Jess LOVED the bully stiks but they didnt love her...nasty runs....and I cut them and stored them after every chew and they were made in the good ole us of a

[The 4 M]

Hi, I can feel your frustration. Along side all the great tips so far, I find the nyla bones are good for teething, and not sure if you can get them in the US they are called petstages various toys that can be frozen, if not a frozen clean sock works the same, it just doesn't look as pretty lol. As for toilet training I'm outside all the way, and have done so with all 4 of mine, I'm not a fan of puppy pads in my opinion that just teaches its ok to go indoors. We all go outside at key times after food, just woken up ect and several times in between, my youngest Mickey is nearly 4 month old and already he will run to the door scratch if no one comes her runs to you then back to the door again, I praise and treat like crazy, he's so sneaky tho as now when he comes back in the house he runs over to the where the treat dish is and looks up as if to say "come on I've been a good boy, where's my treat". We still have the odd accident but he's still really young.

[lexi43]

Have courage we've gone through it 7 times and we made it through. It does get better. We used to keep teething toys in the freezer sometimes it helps. As far as house breaking this comes with time if you work with them.

[turbotoby]

I'm with you too and the biting is just out of hand between 6-8pm every night. Our sweet guy turns wild every night. I just ordered two more teething toys to try from Amazon LOL. We yelp like another dog would and sometimes he stops but if he is too wound up he won't stop. We continue to redirect to all of his toys and then put him in his crate if it's just too much. I will try the command and ignore him for a bit to see if this might work. My 6yr old son is scared of puppy right now and also a bit jealous LOL. I have two older children 10 & 13 helping but I don't think they realized how much work a puppy was .

Our Toby is 10wks old and I'm hoping this will get better with time... We are taking him to a puppy social on Saturday morning to see if he will get a better idea of how not to bite too hard. Maybe you might want to see if you can find one in your area too .

Keep us posted. I just joined here today in hopes for some answers to the same issues you're facing.

[Bentleysmommie]

Yes Where did you find the puppy social?? He's crazy I take him to the dog park but Im scared someone will steal him Im obsessed lol he's so hyper at night I can't even sleep with him because he's pulling on my hair, chewing my face lol I have a training coming on Friday hopefully it works.

[nanahas3]

I know I am in the minority here about this but we broke Kyra by putting her in time out in another room for 5 minutes at a time from the biting issue. It only took a few times for her to figure out it was unacceptable they are very smart little things and it let her know I was alpha not her.

[dawn27]

Biting is a very hard habit to break at that age because its just what they do. Pups play that way from the time they are about 4 - 5 weeks old. Plus teething on top of it make it ten times worse. If a quick verbal correction doesn't stop them from biting, some times a little flick on the nose along with their (Name & No Bite) or (Ah Ah NO) works well.

[gracielove]

Originally Posted by Bentleysmommie

Yes Where did you find the puppy social?? He's crazy I take him to the dog park but Im scared someone will steal him Im obsessed lol he's so hyper at night I can't even sleep with him because he's pulling on my hair, chewing my face lol I have a training coming on Friday hopefully it works.

Maybe you could try taking him out for a good run in the early evening? If he has been alone all day he may have a lot of pent up energy that needs to be run off or that is just the time he needs to run.

[turbotoby]

Originally Posted by Bentleysmommie

Yes Where did you find the puppy social?? He's crazy I take him to the dog park but Im scared someone will steal him Im obsessed lol he's so hyper at night I can't even sleep with him because he's pulling on my hair, chewing my face lol I have a training coming on Friday hopefully it works.

I found the local puppy social event by googling in my area and then checked out reviews on yelp. http://www.downtowndogs.com. Check on Yelp to see if any doggie daycares host puppy socials in your area. I hope you can find one too.