Tips for a 4 month old Westie/Wauzer

[GemmaD84]

Hi, I got out pup 2 weeks ago, he is apparantly a Wauzer but from what I have read online he seems more like a Westie. Anyway, since we got him we are having a couple of things that I am needing some advice on:-

Firstly, when we take him a walk, he doesn't walk, we kind need to pull on the lead every few steps, if he sees something moving like a leaf he will run for it, but when he realises he is on his way home he runs. Any advice on helping him to walk better outside. At the moment I have tried giving him a treat half way through the walk and at the end of the walk when we arrive home.

Secondly, how often should he be walked, at the moment he gets 2/3 15min walks

Third, he has never pee'd or poo'd outside since we got him two weeks ago. He also uses his puppy pad most of the time, but still a few times a day he will pee on the carpet in the livingroom instead of using his pad. He is being praised and given a treat everytime he uses his pad.

Forth, whats the best thing to feed him, the previous owner was giving him Puppy Iams, but he hardly touches this, he will eat around 1/2 of what he should, so today I got him puppy Caesar and he loved it, mixed it with the iams but still not touching the Iams.

Your thought would be great thanks. Also if you could recommend how we can stop him doing a poo through the night would be great, as he keep sleeping in it. He doesn't go in his cage til we go to bed which is generally between 10.30/11pm and gets out at 7am.

Many thanks

How old is he? And when did he have his last set of jabs?

He is nearly 4 months, and he had his last lot about 3 weeks ago. x

OK. The rule of thumb is about 5 mins exercise for every month of age, so your dog should be walking for about 20 minutes a day at 4 months old. It does sound as though he's just not interested at the moment - I'd cut the walking right down to maybe 1 10 minute walk and see what happens.

Also - don't treat him at the end of a walk; if he's food motivated, he'll very quickly become associated getting home with the treat; and won't want to do any walking at all!

Your puppy is still a real baby - there's no need to walk him as you would an adult. He's not physically strong enough for it.

About the food, I'd get him onto a good quality dog food - the Wainwrights range from Pets at Home is OK. Pretty much all dog food which can be bought in a supermarket is really poor quality and not worth your money.

And house training. I'd really strongly recommend ditching the puppy pads. They are an absolute waste of time. At best you'll confuse him and at worst that means house training takes a lot, lot longer.

To crack house training as fast as possible takes a lot of work. You need to take him outside every half hour, after every meal, after every game and each time he wakes up. If you can do that, it should take no more than a week. Realistically, very few people can do it that well, but the theory remains the same. Outside a lot. Ignore all accidents inside the house - and praise the outside ones like a loon.

Also, there's no way he'll be able to hold in poo and wee overnight. He is far too young to have the physical capacity or muscle control to manage it. I'm afraid there'll be poo and wee in the night for a few more weeks yet. Crate training will hurry it along, but give him a couple more months before you expect him to be absolutely reliable at night.

Oh - and I've also thought, the puppy pads will be contributing to the night time problem too. If you think about it, you've been praising him like mad for weeing in the house - he won't have understood it's about the paper yet - and at night you're hoping he won't do his business inside. He's never going to understand what's the right thing to do.

Outside. Everytime. And when he manages it, you have to sound like an absolute fool with excitement. Ham it up like nobody's business.

Google Ian Dunbar and read his free ebook on the DogStarDaily website (before and after getting your puppy). We've used a lot of his advice and it's had amazing results.

Hi, we have a Wauzer too! It's actually 5 minutes per month of life twice a day, so 2 or 3 15 minute walks seems reasonable. Would agree with other poster though that you need to stop him using the puppy pad in the house as it will confuse him. We had similar problems with getting our dog house trained and just had to spend a week or two being absolutely devoted to toilet training, taking him out every 20-30 minutes, acting like a loon every time he went outside etc.

With the crate, we always used to feed our dog inside his crate so that he associated it with being clean and wouldn't soil inside. Would also recommend cleaning accidents up with a solution of biological detergent to eliminate any smells which can encourage them to wee/poo again in the same place.

HTH

Sorry - the guidance is 5 minutes per month of life once a day for puppies. It's primarily about protecting growing dogs from damaging themselves.

With exercise, common sense needs to be applied. Your puppy is a baby who needs to be taken care of because he can't make sound decisions for himself. Like small children, he will run and run on adrenaline - especially when doing new and exciting stuff - and just don't know when to stop. He needs you to stop him before he reaches exhaustion. As soon as a puppy hits that point, it is all too easy for damage or injuries to occur. The trouble is, your puppy won't know when he's exhausted - he'll still be running round absolutely full of beans and totally up for it.

He doesn't have a self activated off switch so it's up to you to make sure he does what's best for him rather than what he likes.

If you think about it, KC guidance on exercise for adult Westies is an hour a day (although obviously terriers will run about all day long if they can); taking a 12 week old puppy out for three quarters of that time makes no sense at all.

Sorry, but the Kennel Club does say up to twice a day. See here

And the 'up to' bit is the most important bit to me.

There are years and years ahead of a puppy and it's owner for long walks and IMO puppyhood should be run as I've outlined above. I've currently got 4 dogs (10yrs, 6yrs, 1yr and 5 months) and am lucky to have been able to form my opinion based on extensive personal, hands on experience.

It's not the law, but it's how I bring up my dogs so I end up with the adult dogs I hope for.

What on earth is a Wauzer? I can't keep up with all these hybrid names!