New puppy - finding it hard!

[JJ17]

My ex-DH bought our DS2 a puppy for xmas (after much thought and with my agreement). He was 12 weeks old when he bought him and we have now had him about 10 days.

We love him but he is so much hard work! He is a cross JRT and Border Terrier, he is so sweet but is getting worse behaved the more he is with us.

It's like having a little baby in the house, I didn't realise. He's not going anywhere and we will get through this stage.

He keeps shitting and pissing in the house despite 2 big plays in the park a day and getting shoved out in the garden everytime he looks "sniffy".

We are doing something wrong I think.

We play with him a lot and give him lots of attention but he is very "barky" if we put him outside for a piss. In fact, he barks at everything, cars, people, huge dogs. He is not at all aggressive just very vocal and licky and jumpy uppy.

[MissBeehivingUnderTheMistletoe]

I'm sure much better advice than me will be along in a minute but I didn't want to leave your post unanswered. I have a 10 week old BT. He is being clicker trained by me. It's positive reinforcement technique, so every time he demonstrates behaviour that I like I click to "capture" the behaviour and then treat. If I don't have a clicker with me then I just give him lots of attention when he does it.

So with jumping up, he gets no attention until all four paws are on the ground and then he gets clicked and treated. With my BT he will now default to sitting at my feet to to get attention, rather than jumping up.

As for the toilet training I put my puppy out every hour, or when he wakes up after a nap, or when he looks sniffy and click and treat when he goes outside. That seems to be working - if he goes inside then it's my fault for not being vigilant enough not his!

My BT isn't that barky atm, but he does bark at the cats to play with him (not much prospect of that though!). When he stops barking I click and treat - if he keeps doing it then I will distract him with a bottle filled with gravel first.

I would also think about getting a puppy trainer in for a session. That can be really helpful with particular issues.

I hope that's helpful - please ignore my post if contradicted by someone with more experience than me!

[ILoveItWhenYouCallMeBoo]

wrt to toilet training you need to me more on top of it than taking him out when he looks sniffy. at that age i would be taking him out every half hour plus everytime he looks sniffy. reward every elimination in the 'right' place. clean up and accidents with proper puppy cleaner to remove the scent of his urine or he will go in the same place again.

you need to stimulate him with games that get his mind working. JRTs can be barky dogs, take him for his walk, bit of free play and then home for a bit of training (5/10 mins at a time max) an dthen feed him. has he got a bed he can get into and out of at his own will? is he crate trained?

[midori1999]

A lot of the barking may be due to poor socialisation when he was younger leaving him a little insecure at the moment. Any breeder who has an unbooked puppy at 12 weeks old and is willing to let it go just before Christmas is unlikely to be a good one I am afraid, so is also unlikely to have socialised it properly.

I'd suggest buying a copy of 'The Perfect Puppy' by Gwen Bailey. It contains pretty much all you need to know about owning/training a puppy. She also does one called 'Puppy School' and there is some overlap between books, but the latter is training based only and has little writing and lots of pictures and so is great for older DC too.

Re: the toilet training, you need to go out with him and then praise him when he does go to toilet outside. You need to stay outside with him until he does go go toilet, even if that takes ages. Take him out at least every hour and after sleep, play, food etc. but some puppies need to go out more often than this, maybe every 20 mins at first.

Re: the jumping up, everyone needs to be very consistent and do the same thing. So, if the puppy jumps up, stand up straight and fold your arms until the puppy plonks his bum on the floor, which be will do at some point, then immediately give him attention/praise him for sitting. You have to do this every single time though or it will take much longer.

You'll get there, don't worry. I remember our first puppy and although we had really prepared it was much harder than I expected, now I find puppies easy peasy.

[YankNChristmasCrackers]

Will second what everyone has said about taking him out and praising him more often. We got our puppy at 9.5 weeks from the Cheshire Dogs Home, and we had to take him out at least every hour, if not more! There were a lot of accidents to start, but he's now 16 weeks and he is pretty good.

We are crate training and have our kitchen gated off if we can't be vigilent about watching him. He can hold it overnight now which is a huge bonus.

I think I've got that Puppy School book and would highly recommend it.

I have another book that recommends using a word or phrase when the puppy wees or poos. We use 'hurry up' for wee and 'do it' for poo. Say this to him as he's going and praise him, the idea being later on when you take him out and want him to do his business he'll understand what you want. Seems to have worked somewhat for ours!