New Puppy advice on nipping, whining and toilet training!

[buxtontheblue]

Hello! I've been a bit of a lurker for the last six months reading all your posts on puppies before we committed well now we've got one I need some advice or reassurance or probably both actually!

We've just bought home Rocket an adorable little Boston Terrier X Jack Russell and we also have three human kids aged 10,7 and 18 months.

Read up hugely before we got him, spent endless nights watching YouTube videos and even compiled my own puppy training notebook like a good nerd!

Now he's here though I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'm clicker training him and he's learnt sit and stay quIte well in a few days. My main issues I really want to work on are no biting (crawling toddler is a great target) house training and preventing separation anxiety. I guess I want to check I'm doing it right and see if you have any other tips!

Biting

Myself, partner and big kids are going with the yelp ignore strategy and then replacing our hands etc with a suitable toy. The baby however flaps his chubby little arms around and it's pretty much like waving sausages infront of the dogs face. So as soon as we see pup getting bitey jumpy with baby we remove him with a stern no and direct him to something he can chew on. We also make sure Clark (toddler) and Rocket have plenty of calm interactions, feeding treats, playing ball etc. I'm aware that at only 9 weeks the teethings gonna get worse and I just wanna make sure I'm on the right track with preventing it?

Whining

Ok again I know he's just a baby and we've had him for under a week haha but I just wanna make sure we're doing stuff right. Rockets bed is in our office at the end of the dining room, with a board across for now till he's housetrained. When we leave the office or put him in there he cries (more I think when he can hear us but not get to us like when we're eating dinner) I've been leaving him with a stuffed Kong, toys and stuff but he still cries. We always wait for him to stop crying before going back over then we praise. Could I be doing anything else or will this just take persistence and ignoring?

House training

Ok this one is tricky, we decided we were gonna do pads in office then transition him to garden but what with having a toddler and the rare non manky weather we've been in the garden a lot. Naturally he's done his business a lot in the garden and I mega praise him but I'm worried it will confuse him as he'll still go back in and wee on the office floor. If it was the winter we'd just be going out for toilet trips then coming in again but because of the weather we're out here for hours. If I continue to ignore accidents inside and praise outside will he get it? Should I do away with indoor pads?

Also what do you think is age appropriate/most important to teach first?

Sorry for this MEGA long post and thanks for reading smile

You should never leave a child who is unable to be trained to a dog (18 mo and possibly 7 yo), and the dog together without supervision. Never. And make sure you train the 10 yo before you leave them together.

None of the children are ever left unsupervised with the puppy...For both the puppies and childrens sake

The Happy Puppy Handbook is a fantastic book. Well written and easy to follow and the author really knows her stuff. I've found it to be a lot of help. It also suggests things you might not think of.

Hi with regards to the:-
Biting - I went with the yelp tell him no then ignore too and it worked great, at the time my nephew was 7 months and ddog was great with him when nephew was on the floor if ddog tried to bite his toes we would say no and put him the other side of the baby gate for a few minutes then let him back in and repeat each time he did, if he interacted with my nephew without being bitey he got praise and a treat he learnt extremely quick what was exceptable behaviour around children and as a result a year and a half on he is fabulous around my neices and nephew they play with him hug him and my middle neice even dresses him up and he love taking naps with my nephew.
Whining - ddog does whine when I leave him and he can't see me but can hear me but does settle down after a while but I've not managed to stop the whining he just do'snt seem to like not being in the same room as me maybe your pup is the same.
House training - I started with pads in the kitchen I had him in September and it was cold and wet and given he's half chihuahua half jack russell he was tiny so I went with puppy pads first he soon learnt the when I put him on the pad gave him the command (pee pee) he was to go toilet got lots of praise when he went there and I ignored when he had an accident just placed him on the pad and told him that where he goes peepee he was pad trained in a week
Then when he was about five months old he was going outside to pee so I took the puppy pads away he will now go on command but still hates going in the rain will step just outside the door do his business then quickly run back in.
With regards with what to teach, start early to get a good recall I think it's one of the most important things a dog should learn for their safety. You can do this by getting someone to hold him go a short distance away and excitedly call his name while the other person releases him.
Good luck with your pup

Thank you so much, never thought of timing him out for a few seconds...Great idea. I'll check the book out too

I tried yelp and ignore and pup LOVED it. Made her nip more! (My dog is also a JRT cross). What works now at 9 weeks may not work at 10 - pup is finding his feet, and that takes a week or two.

I have had the toddler/puppy mix but so many years ago I can't remember what strategies I used - and that was a very mouthy pup. Terriers can be bad for this.

I'd do away with pads. They confuse the issue. I used them with my pup (she is now 8 months) and it took me til she was 7 months to have her even close to housetrained. In retrospect, I think the pads didn't help. Although I am on a JRT forum and several people told me JRTs can be hard to housetrain (sounds like your's isn't going to be one of those!)

I had a winter pup, brought her home in November and that made housetraining a million times harder, trust me! Standing outstide for upto half an hour at a time waiting for her to do her business (which she wouldn't anyway) - I vowed I'll never have another winter pup again. It is much easier with summer pups - that is a good thing and you can use it to work for you.

I don't think the yelp and ignore works. Or rather - I think it's the ignoring/withdrawal of game and attention that works rather than the yelp. In fact yelping can often make them worse. Especially terrier types. If noises like that worked they wouldn't be much good as ratters would they?!

' So as soon as we see pup getting bitey jumpy with baby'

In your own words you obviously do. Please don't.

Katharine, we were ALL in the garden and pup bounded over to baby who was crawling. As soon as he started jumping up excitedly we removed him. I can assure you they are never left alone together.

Thank you everyone else. My seven year old watched lots of training videos re nipping last night. This morning we were playing with pup, every time he grabbed my son's trousers he would freeze, firmly say no wait a bit then praise pup and give him a toy to chew instead.

Also making a point of saying 'go toilet' before I open the door to the garden and big praise etc if he does and we've removed pads from inside too to avoid confusion!

Thanks again for all your help!

Gorgeous pup!

We've got an almost 12 week old puppy ( spaniel poodle cross ) who's had/has all the issues your having too.

With the nipping, we tried the ouch! technique and it just got her more excited so we're doing mini time outs. We have a small utility room that we put in her in for 30 seconds or so when she gets too nippy. This seems to be working far better because over the last couple of days she's really calmed down with the nipping and only really does it when she's in full on play/bonkers mode.

Toilet training we're still working on ourselves. We've had the puppy pads by the back door up until last weekend then we stopped using them. She's getting the idea that she needs to go outside but has had a few accidents on the rug. I'm sure it'll just take a bit more time. We just praise her massively when she does go outside.

As for the whining I have no advice at all because I can't even pop to the toilet without her crying like some poor abandoned dog who's destined to be left forever more

hahaha I think their harder work than babies...So bloody cute though!

Hi Buxton, your little guy is gorgeous! We are bringing home our pup on Sunday, so have read your thread with interest. Can I ask what you used to bring him home? We have a journey of just over half an hour in the car.

You've had good advice; but just to add I found that my puppy got more nippy the tireder she got so I used to crate her/put her in bed if she'd been particularly bitey - and she'd just conk out. (I have four children so she was very over stimulated in the beginning - I had to force them to leave the room so she could recover!)

Second taking the pads away - and just carry on with the LOADS of praise thing - they do get it eventually.

Hey mixed, we're bringing our puppy home today, shall we compare notes on sleepless nights?

We're bringing him home in the passenger footwell of the car so he's got dh's legs to snuggle up to. Apparently it's more reassuring for the puppy. With a puppy pad underneath just in case.

Thanks guys, we're timing him out when he gets over excited. Some days are better than others. Today was a "OH MY GOD WHO LET ME GET A PUPPY WHEN I'VE GOT A TODDLER?" day :)

He just sat on a blanket on my OHs lap...He did get car sick though!