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Location: land of quail, bunnies, and red tail hawks
1,513 posts, read 3,387,379 times
Reputation: 3539
jmarkey,
You've got some excellent advice! We actually do pretty much what you do, but our puppy gets the benefit of a larger area because we have an easy to clean floor. However, she is confined to whichever area we are in so we can keep an eye on her. I'll trust her in the hall, unsupervised for a few minutes, if the doors are closed.
The problems with the shoes is the bedroom door was inadvertently left open, and it only took a couple of minutes to chew through the strap. Now, if I'd had them on my feet instead of being barefooted...
Hi, my name's Blueberry, and I want to strangle my dog!!!
My adorable 3 1/2 month old lab is basically clueless! (She's been with us since birth.)
Five minutes ago, I discovered her destroying a second pair of my shoes! She chewed up the arm of the sofa a few days ago! And just about all of our wood furniture bear the imprint of her little teeth. Now, this is a dog that has lots of chew toys, bones, and stuffed animals. She chooses to use these things only when we're actively playing with her; if we catch her chewing things, she gets a substitute. She gets crated at night and any other time we know we can't keep a really good eye on her; someone is usually home with her during the day, so she gets LOTS of attention and supervision. But every now and then, she takes advantage of a couple of unsupervised minutes, and boy is she effective!! Actually, I'm not too worried about any of the above because I figure she will eventually learn good behavior.
Now, to the real dilemma...
I need advice on housebreaking tips! My sweet little puppy will still pee and poo in the house if the need arises. She's taken outside about once an hour and after naps and every meal. Sometimes, she'll do her thing in the house two minutes after coming inside. (Yes, we let her have a looong time outside.) We actively clicker train. We firmly tell her "NO!" when she's inside; we lavishly praise her when she's does her business outside. We've even taken to swatting her if we catch her doing this inside; we ignore it if we don't see it. I'm beginning to think she's very intelligent and this is her way of telling us she has to go!
So, I need HELP! Any and all suggestions or tips are welcome. Please keep in mind that I live in Bush Alaska; there's no obedience training class here! The nearest one is a $400 plane ticket + hotel + rental car away. We're very rural; we can't just go to the local store and get what we need.
my 2 dogs were very hard to housebreak. when i worked it was real hard. when i bring them out i make sure they go. when i had to work, i put down those piddle pads, the terrier would run and use them. i now have them up, but have some just in case.l she also hate the rug, and chewed books. why not see if you can look on amazon and find a good dog traing book. there are many, however it just takes time. feed at the same time, play and crate. i found the kong toys are great with cheese or peatnut butter in there.
Location: land of quail, bunnies, and red tail hawks
1,513 posts, read 3,387,379 times
Reputation: 3539
But I don't want her to go in the house!
However, I sure wish I knew about them when I had six puppies to deal with. They couldn't go outside until they were seven weeks old because of the extreme cold! Those pads would have been a life-saver, plus it might have made the transition for the remaining pup soooo much easier. Just place a pad outside and VIOLA! Except ... it would have blended in with the snow!
I have always had greyhounds and never had to experience the "puppy issues" then 1 1/2 years ago we got Lola , dear sweet Lola a furniture/book/shoe/ 6 month old ditigal camera eating 11 month old spaniel/jack russel pound puppy.
Yuck spray became our new best friend. We tried the bitter apple but she actually liked the taste. Now when I bring the bottle out she heads inthe other direction.
If you are taking her out every hour she must think it is ok to go whenever. Can you try putting some time in between. She might not have to go that often and doesn't understand thats why she is suppose to go out.
Our greyhounds were trained to go out 4 times a day when I stopped working and became a "stay at home mom" to the dogs, I would let them out whenever, often leaving the door to the fenced back open for them. This was not one of my smarter ideas. I totally blew the routine. Now if we want to be gone from the house more than 4 hours I may have a suprise gift waiting for me.
Try the less out thing and see if that helps. also make sure you are using somethign to remove the smell form her accident spots otherwise she will just keep going back.
karla
Location: Boonies of Georgia ~~~~ nuttier than a squirrel turd !
1,950 posts, read 5,158,550 times
Reputation: 2295
Ah, the joys of puppyhood !
I have had quite a few puppies from time to time. Australian Shepherd pups.
My first was an angel to train. Second was not bad, with the exception of pulling me jeans off the dresser and eating thru the pocket to get to the $200.00 I had in there from a night of working in a Steak House. All I found was the corner of a $50.00 bill. Had a litter, they were great and potty trained at 4 weeks. Now 1 of the pups we kept (we kept 1 and 1 kept us), liked to eat the walls, chew on coke cans, pretty much you name it he ate it! We kept them penned in a certain area but there were walls.
1 dog trainer told me to put a penny in a coke can. Not letting them see you, when they are doing wrong, toss the can in their direction (not at them), The sound should frighten them and eventually break them from that particular item. Another trainer told me to put a balloon on the couch to keep the dogs off. His thoughts were that the balloon would scare them when it moved. Well, that one didn't work for mine, they just chased the balloon.
Good luck with your puppy !
Last edited by theqbaby; 05-25-2007 at 06:25 AM..
Reason: P.S. please excuse spelling errors... just waking up !
Here's a few things that you may or may not find helpful...as people have said, this dog needs to be confined when nobody is keeping an eye out, either a crate or a baby gate. We used a baby gate and started with the bathroom and gradually gave more and more area until there were no accidents or incidents and he had the run of the house (if you never plan on crating your dog, I would just use the baby gate, but if you want to use a crate throughout the dogs life, I would start now and get her crate trained). Puppies need to be taken out at least once an hour (we took ours every half hour) and you just need to wait until she goes...she doesn't go back inside until she goes potty, and when she goes outside, it has to be the biggest deal in the world, you have to tell her how good she is and lots of love and petting. You're doing the right thing with giving her a substitute when she chews something she shouldn't, but timing is everything, and you have to make sure you wait until she STOPS chewing the inappropriate thing and then give her the treat/toy/whatever, if you use the substitute for distraction, or just give it to her to get her to stop chewing whatever she has her teeth on, you are actually rewarding the bad behavior. As for the shoes, she can't chew what she can't get at...until she is through this phase, you need to be really attentive to where you leave your things...give her the opportunity to succeed and keep your things out of her reach. I know you can't put your sofa away, but things like shoes can easily be put out of reach.
I know this is very frustrating, and expensive we went through this stuff with our younger dog because we got him from someone who had already had him for a few months and did nothing with him, so he was alot of work for us, but now he's a well manner, well trained 5 year old.
Hi, my name's Blueberry, and I want to strangle my dog!!!
My adorable 3 1/2 month old lab is basically clueless! (She's been with us since birth.)
Five minutes ago, I discovered her destroying a second pair of my shoes! She chewed up the arm of the sofa a few days ago! And just about all of our wood furniture bear the imprint of her little teeth. Now, this is a dog that has lots of chew toys, bones, and stuffed animals. She chooses to use these things only when we're actively playing with her; if we catch her chewing things, she gets a substitute. She gets crated at night and any other time we know we can't keep a really good eye on her; someone is usually home with her during the day, so she gets LOTS of attention and supervision. But every now and then, she takes advantage of a couple of unsupervised minutes, and boy is she effective!! Actually, I'm not too worried about any of the above because I figure she will eventually learn good behavior.
Now, to the real dilemma...
I need advice on housebreaking tips! My sweet little puppy will still pee and poo in the house if the need arises. She's taken outside about once an hour and after naps and every meal. Sometimes, she'll do her thing in the house two minutes after coming inside. (Yes, we let her have a looong time outside.) We actively clicker train. We firmly tell her "NO!" when she's inside; we lavishly praise her when she's does her business outside. We've even taken to swatting her if we catch her doing this inside; we ignore it if we don't see it. I'm beginning to think she's very intelligent and this is her way of telling us she has to go!
So, I need HELP! Any and all suggestions or tips are welcome. Please keep in mind that I live in Bush Alaska; there's no obedience training class here! The nearest one is a $400 plane ticket + hotel + rental car away. We're very rural; we can't just go to the local store and get what we need.
I can't help with house training because both my babies were already house trained when we adopted them but i can help with chewing. my jazzy was/is the chewer in our family. even now at the age of 3 i still catch her every now and then, just a few days ago she chewed yet another of my shoes (she had been so good for over 6 months and then she did this).
During her chewing everything stage i made sure i put every pair of shoes and any other clothing away in a closet or hamper, put folding chairs in front of the furniture she seemed to enjoy the most and I hung a soda can with coins in it to startle her on other items. I also found that when she was completely exhausted from exerice she was very well behaved so I made sure she got plenty of exercise. It was a pain in the butt for a while to live like that but so worth it in the end. good luck.
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She chewed up the arm of the sofa a few days ago! 
