Puppy training regression. Why?! What am I doing wrong?

[largepinot]

Hi,

We have 10 1/2 week old puppy. She is gorgeous! Very playful and loving, but a bit bitey ...we're working on it.

Anyway, from the second night, she was sleeping through from 10.30-7.00 No whining, no mess. We just thought we were very lucky. Yes, she was having a fair few accidents during the day, but to be expected. We were\are taking her out every 20 - 30 minutes and we're starting to read her signals. There weren't any initially. Again, all "normal" I would think.

However, the last couple of nights, she has been howling, on and off through the night and also is weeing and\or pooing in her pen! I don't think the neighbours will be inviting us over for dinner any time soon

We have actually just had new floors put down, so I guess this must have something to do with it. She sleeps in the kitchen \diner and it was half carpet before. That's where she used to sleep, but now it's hardwood. She has a very soft bed, with a blanket, but obviously underneath is now hard...

Could this be why she's whining and messing? Do puppies tend not to like sleeping on hardwood floors? Should I just completely cover her penned area in blankets? Should I move her pen into the living room where there is carpet?

Any ideas much appreciated.

TIA

My pup is 5 months old and loves his crate and has not had an accident for weeks when he is not in it. Some people like crates, others refuse to use them so it is a matter of personal opinion. Try it and see what you think.

I do think though you need to accept that your puppy is still very very young and toileting accidents will happen with or without a crate especially if you do not watch them like a hawk. Remember this phase will pass eventually. I remember thinking my puppy was never going to get it but he did as he got older and wiser.

Bitey, I know I'm probably sounding incredibly impatient I'm a bit of a worrier and at the back of my mind am envisaging her in a few years time, still having accidents and me tearing my hair out

I get it I really do as I have spent weeks worrying myself silly about everything hence trying to reassure you that it does come together eventually . I read so much about different techniques before we got the puppy which quite frankly I wish I hadn't as they tend to make you think you are doing things wrong whereas now I am much more chilled about it.

I kept trying different things for the toilet training and whilst they all helped I think the biggest thing was his age and consistency. He knows the drill now, for example, when I get up in the night and I open his crate he reluctantly plods out into the garden, has a pee and then literally runs back to the comfort of his bed. In the morning he knows it's pee and poo time before we go back to the house.

Oh and for the crate he is knackered today having been in day care and at 6pm took himself off into his crate to say I am tired leave me alone to sleep and is currently barking in his sleep whilst dreaming (my dog clearly loves his den).

Trying to chill a bit more today..wish me luck!

Something else I'm becoming concerned about is her disobedience. She is constantly jumping on the sofa and my firm "no", or "down" seems to do nothing. She does (usually) sit, but is also biting a lot, which I'm told is normal, but occasionally growls at me too, which I was told can be more concerning.

Growling is just communication. She is telling you that what you are doing is making her uncomfortable.

Telling a dog 'NO' doesn't teach them what you DO want them to do. Can you do a no?

Work on an 'Off' cue. (I wouldn't do 'down ' as this could be confused with 'lie down'. Through a food reward on the floor so she has to jump off then when she is on the floor tell her she is a good girl.

Dogs like sofas. They are secure and comfortable and smell of you. You need to provide her with something equally as safe and comfortable and teach her to settle on it.

I made the mistake of using down instead of off and now trying to change it is a pain in the arse.

The biting is normal and does dampen down as they get older but mine has gotten worse again with his teething. Lots of advice for biting ranging to make an ouch to ignore or walk away but that didn't work for my pup so I now follow advice from a gun dog training manual (mine is a gun dog) where I give a warning, then if he goes back to nip again another clearer warning with deeper stronger voice then hold him firm if he tries again and repeat the warning followed by a timeout if he repeats. This is working better for me but you will need to experiment with what your dog responds to ( I am a firm believer in all dogs are different so one school of training will not work for all so if it doesn't work for me I just try something else rather than worry about what I am doing wrong).

For the sofa mine tries this and he gets pushed down with an off and then a good boy if he settles on his bed.

Don't worry too much they are like kids and will keep pushing boundaries to see what they can get away with :)

Also chilling is good. If you read all the advice you will end up sending yourself crazy as they tend to be very black and white in if you don't do X you will end up with a seriously deranged dog whereas if you take time to train (not matter what type of training) you will get there in the end :)

I look at mine now curled up asleep and he is so different to the younger bitey manic crazy puppy that drove me to the edge at times :)

Lil, hmm I can't think of what it could be I'm doing that's making her uncomfortable. I'm often just sitting. Just being "Off" seems to be slightly more effective than "down". Thank you.

Bitey, mine is half gun dog. All I know, is what I'm doing isn't really working. The biting is really quite hard and when she's in 'that mood', it's almost impossible to get her out of it. The jumping up on to the sofa is constant ! As I've said though, using a different word has helped slightly.

If something isn't working for you then just try another technique. There are lots of different opinions on how to train dogs so what I did was just tried one technique and if no joy tried another until it worked.

The biting I found was worse when my puppy was overtired, could that be the case with yours?

Seems to be the opposite actually. It's when she's just woken up and fully charged. When she's tired, she just crashes. She really does love her crate actually She takes herself off to her bed on her own now, or if I just gently say "bed". It's really sweet. She always used to fall asleep on me and then I'd put her in her bed, which was nice, but very impractical when you've got a million and one things to do!

If you teach "leave it" you can also use this with specific training sessions focused on the goal of getting her to acknowledge the sofa, but leave it alone. "Off" is a useful command too because there will be times she needs to get down from somewhere like when you take her in the car. But ideally you want her to avoid the sofa in the first place rather than get up and then be rewarded for getting down.

If you liked the Zak George vid he has loads more on all topics, lots on puppy biting. Kikopup is really good too :)