Puppy Behaviour

[stuhough]

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Hi I have not posted for a while , sorry .

Our puppy is coming along nicely apart from behaviour , Both my wife and myself are a bit stuck here, Phobe (11 weeks old this Wednesday) we do not seem to control her, Once she starts chewing, biting scolding here justs results in her barking , snaping at you.

We have tried to ignore her , placing your hands behind your back etc but all to no avail ! We usually result in putting her in the kitchen for 10 mins or so , but if there is anything on the floor she just mauls it, We must be doing something wrong , any ideas because we do not want this to continue as you can appreciate , our children would hate to see her muzzled but agghghhh.

Sorry for bending your ear this lovely Saturday afternoon

Thanks

Stuart

 

[Strike Whippets]

Hi .....sound's like she's trying to push the boundries and she's not taking you seriously ........I personally have never used the "time out" training method, so I don't know how this is supposed to work ......but I do use the barter system of .....your chewing something I don't want you to.....so I tell the pup no and exchange the undesired object for a chewable toy, then praise the pup when it starts chewing the desired object ......Pup's have very short attention spans, so this normally work's ....and after a while it builds up and they start to know whats ok for chewing.......When she starts getting over the top when shes play biteing, i'd personally yelp/shout ouch loudly then walk away from her = game over ......ignore all of her barking and she'll soon realise that biteing dosn't get her any attention .....this way you arn't rewarding bad behavior, and as a young puppy always feels the need to be part of a pack, then she should try to please you more as she won't like to feel left out = unsafe .....this is of course just my opinion ...... :luck: :luck: with her ......Hannah

 

[~Helen~]

I've always found the "Mrs Thatcher" voice works well if they're doing something I don't want them to do. It takes a bit of practise, but a very gruff, loud, masculine "NO!!" and removing the object that's being mauled, and replacing with the one you want to be mauled (pig's ear, chewy toy, knotted rope) seems to work.

At first you might feel idiotic/mean - but "the voice" does seem to get respect. You have to be consistent though, and do it every time so that the pup knows that the boundaries are always the same, and aren't shifting the whole time. Everyone in the family has to do it, and you must have eyes in the back of your head! It really pays off in the long-run.

There's an excellent book called "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen Bailey. It's absolutely brilliant - and I swear the reason I have such a well-balanced, polite and nicely-behaved whippet (as anyone who knows Josie will confirm!!) is because I read and re-read that book when she was little and really worked hard on putting everything in it to practise :thumbsup:

edited to say: is your pup allowed free run of the whole house?

I remember having to close off Josie's freedom and establish that there were rooms that she didn't go into, using stairgates and shutting doors. She wasn't allowed anywhere unsupervised.

Maybe try that, so you can keep an eye on your pup all the time and take action to reinforce the sort of behaviour you want to see from her. I seem to remember reading that it was better for the pup psychologically to have smaller "areas" like just the dining room and kitchen at first and then adding another room once you're happy to do that.

And, I'm not sure what other people think, but I don't feel that muzzling an 11 week old pup is the right thing to do

 

[Joanna]

As Helen has said, making the world smaller does work........11 weeks is very young, and I daresay if you are like me, your confidence goes a bit. Hannah has also given some great advice..........Do have lots of permissable chewing objects, and remove all items which are contraband. I have learnt to pick up shoes now as I lost two gorgeous pairs to Archie, luckily Fynn has only managed to nick a cheap flip flop :rant:

It will settle down, but a firm 'NO' and then praise for being good works...They want to please, but you need to establish yourselves as top dogs. If you watch two together, the older one will growl and nip the younger to put it in its place. A growly voice will discourage baby adorable from continuing. Time out works if there is over excitement with children particularly :luck: (w00t)

Edit to say, I found grabbing the muzzle and loud NO for nipping/barking worked a treat

 

[stuhough]

Hello

A great big thanks to all of you, There seems some great pointers in there

We will keep you posted on how we get on, once again thanks.

Stu & her who must be obeyed