Feeling a bit lost with new puppy

[bathsh3ba]

On Saturday we brought home our first puppy, a 9 week old chihuahua. DD has wanted a dog forever and I felt she was finally mature enough plus I am home most of the day all summer till October so can settle pup in better. However I am used to cats not dogs and have never had a dog. We have 2 cats. I am scared of bigger dogs but ok with small ones, hence why I went for a toy breed. Also because I know I would not keep up long walks.

She is beautiful. She is very affectionate and has attached quite strongly to me. She mainly wants to be on my lap if she is not playing but she also goes in her crate. At night she is in a closed crate and I take her outside to wee at midnight and 3am. She cries at night for 30 minutes then gives up. She is ok in the closed crate if I pop out for an hour, haven't left her longer than 90 minutes yet.

Three things are confusing me though as I have read conflicting advice.

She wees and poos outside but also sometimes indoors. This morning I caught her mid poo, clapped my hands and said uh-uh and carried her outside but she just sprayed wee all over the floor on her way out then wouldn't do anything outside. I take her out once an hour during the day and every 3 hours at night or if crated. Am I doing it wrong or does it just take ages?

Secondly I am wary of leaving her unsupervised uncrated due to the cats and her weeing. I am in a rented house with engineered oak floors and terrified of ruining them. One cat completely ignores the dog, the other is warily curious but this morning the dog growled at her. The cat is much much bigger than the dog and would definitely win in a fight! I kept them apart for 2 nights and keep the cats in the kitchen while the pup is crated in the living room at night but during the day I crate the dog if I have to go in another room for any length of time. Am I always going to have to do this?

Finally what do I do about biting in play. She doesn't really nip me but she does DD. How do I train her not to?

Thanks and please be kind!

Crying for half an hour IS a sign of distress.

If the OP is out how can she know the puppy isn't showing signs of distress?

Very easy to tell that by getting a camera that you can view live on your phone (very cheap to get them).

bathsh3ba how exciting a new puppy but I also remember the pressure to get it perfect with my first puppy -I didn't but we both survived and he did not hold a grudge!

The doghouse seems to be quite a brutal place to ask for advice but I think "they"mean well after they have interrogated you to check you are worthy of dog ownership

I would not do anything if she does wee or poo indoors (except curse yourself for not getting her outside earlier - this is hard at first but becomes an art form over a few days) - make sure you clean with biological washing powder or the special pet sprays eg Simple Solution - this takes away any smell so will not encourage the dog to wee in the same spot as other cleaners can do.

By clapping and uhuh ing it probably made her a little bit anxious hence the spray weeing. ( I learnt early not to move a vomiting child or a weeing pooing dog as all you did was spread the vomit etc over a wider area!)

Little dogs generally take longer to "get" toilet training but all are different. I would watch her and see how long I would not be taking her our every half an hour though. Never wake her up to wee, take her out after sleeping, eating and playing.

Crating is to keep the dog safe - so yes I would crate the dog if I was going out for a short period to keep the cats away to start with. Hopefully over time the dog and cats will get used to each other but this must not be rushed. No you will not always have to do this but be prepared for this to take as long as the cat takes to get comfortable.

I would not crate the dog if I left the room but take the dog with me for the first few weeks. I am aware this is not always possible -peeing in peace is a luxury with dogs and children

I would make sure that all interaction with your DD and the puppy is with a toy. So your DD can hold one end and the puppy the other,hopefully this will prevent the nipping. Also watch out for your DD behaviour and voice. Usually girls move quickly and have high pitched voices which dogs loooooove. If you DD can move slowly around the puppy and not get too excited the puppy will stay calmer.

Puppies also tend to have mad moments when they are tired so at this point I would pop them in the crate with a chew toy.

I personally don't like leaving dog to cry in their crate so would stay with the puppy until they are settled. No interaction just be in the room, sometimes just putting a hand on them or a quiet sssh is enough to reassure them. I expect this stage will not last long maybe a couple of days.

Do feed your puppy in their crate, drop random treats in the crate in the daytime, play with them in the crate to encourage them that it is a good place to be.

Don't worry too much and try to enjoy the very short puppy stage. I will say it again I love puppies

I would actually disagree with pp and say that if she settles down after 30minutes at night then keep doing that.

Why on earth would you recommend leaving a baby animal in distress for thirty minutes every night? The only reason the poor thing stops is because nobody comes to it. It's a baby and needs to be close to someone. Leaving puppies alone for long periods is a recipe for disaster down the line.

Older dogs who have been crate-trained and slowly trained to be left over a period of months, fine. But a puppy who's just been taken away from it's mother and that's never been left alone before? No way.

Lots of good advice, but I will add one thing - as soon as she's able (i.e. after second set of jabs), take her to good quality puppy classes. Not ones that are a complete free for all with puppies clambering over each other willy nilly, as being such a small breed she'll be overwhelmed. You want good quality ones - look for ones run by someone accredited by
APDT www.apdt.co.uk/dog-owners/local-dog-trainers/
or
IMDT www.imdt.uk.com/find-a-qualified-imdt-trainer.html
or
Part of Dogs Trust Dog School dogstrustdogschool.org.uk

The accreditation bit is important because there are a lot of unqualified cowboys operating in the industry, and some trainers who advocate punishment in training who will do more harm than good. The ones above will teach using positive reinforcement, which is the most effective and pleasant way to train.

I grew up with dogs, thought I knew about them, and then got one of my own as an adult. MASSIVE learning curve, as it turns out; it's only going to be bigger if this is your first ever dog! Training classes helped me enormously as I really didn't know what I was doing with training - and well run ones will also help your pup to experience lots of new things in a positive way, and build her confidence in the process.

She probably sprayed wee everywhere because you clapped at her. Do not tell her off for toileting inside. Use only positive training and she will learn.

Sorry but I agree with neessie

We left both our puppies to cry in their crate at night for up to 30 minutes from the day we got them.

They settle. They go to sleep. The time they cry gets shorter until it stops. This took 2-3 days.

Our pups are well adjusted happy dogs who do not have separation anxiety.

Well she is currently playing happily with a kong in her crate (she went in by herself) with the door open. No more accidents today, gave her lots of praise when she went outside. She has been affectionate and playful and isn't acting like she is anxious or scared.

In October I start a PhD and aim to be on campus 3 full days. I plan to put her in a local doggy day care for any days I have to leave her more than a couple of hours.

Please be hyper conscious of how young she is (VERY young) and how new she is.

Without wanting to flog the issue, I have to agree that it sounds like you are leaving her far, far too much. For the first settling in period she shouldn't really be left at all, so I'm surprised that in 3 days she's been left while you pop out for an hour, and even 90 minutes. You are treating her like a settled, adult dog- which she is not!

To echo previous advice, leave her be if she has an accident indoors, and don't respond. Making a fuss slows progress- and progress will be slow enough anyway! She'll get there in time- most people find puppy pad training helpful. Get yourself a bottle of urine cleaner - the engineered floors will be fine as long as you catch it fairly promptly. Take her out as much as possible (every 30 mins or so) and give her loads of praise when she toilets outside- associate it with a prompt word.

With the mouthing, teach your DD to give her a clear, sharp 'ah, ah!' sound (not a loud reprimand) when she uses pressure with her teeth, and withdraw play and attention immediately for ten seconds or so. No shouting, no 'punishment'- just give her zero attention briefly after the noise.

Personally, if you're crate training I'd have her crate in my room at night for the first week or so, gradually moving it out and further away to her final 'bedroom'. I know some people consider the idea of a dog upstairs to be abhorrent, but leaving her completely alone overnight after ripping her from her litter is unhelpful and unpleasant for her in my opinion.

Ultimately though, remember she is a really tiny baby still and has been thrown into a completely new, scary situation with none of the support she's had from mum and littermates for her life so far.

Sorry, forgot to mention- the biggest key to puppy training is to keep an eagle eye on her at all times and learn the signs. Sniffing, tiny little pre-squat movements etc- as soon as you see anything like that take her outside and encourage her with your prompt word (e.g. toilet).

Once she's started though, don't grab her- it'll just be stressful and make a mess!

Honestly this puppy is far too young to have left her mother (chi's need to stay with mum and siblings until at least 12weeks old).

You cannot expect this puppy to be left alone at all - she should still be with mum and siblings. You risk causing serious separation anxiety in leaving a pup this young alone.

The weeing on the way outside sounds like you scared her. I wouldn't clap hands to stop such a tiny puppy, just an "ah ah" noise and pick her up - it doesn't need to be particularly loud just enough to make her think "what was that" without making her jump. (They eventually learn that noise means listen up).

Where did you get her from that allowed her to come home at eight weeks of age? That's fine for bigger breeds but not for something like a chihuahua.

Just an observation about leaving to cry in crate to settle:

What about when you are in the car and they are travelling in a crate, and it's all new, and they don't like it much, and they are howling, and you need to get them to the vets, or to your destination...you wouldn't stop every time they cry, or pull over and take them out and comfort them...would you?

I suspect you would be forced to leave them in there until you got where you needed to go. Obviously when they are very little you would not attempt a long journey, but a 30 minute car ride sounds fairly likely to me. I don't see the difference between them crying in their crate in this example or them learning at night that they need to settle down and it is time to go to sleep.

And berating the OP for having taken an 8 week old Chi home isn't helpful. It's fine now. That ship has sailed.

done now

Iam it's not "fine now" a puppy that is too young to leave it's mother and siblings, needs treating differently to one that is actually old enough to have left it's mother. So it is important that difference is pointed out to the op and doing so does not constitute berating op.

You'll see that was a typo and I actually meant to say "done now"

It is done now, but OP needs to be aware that as a result of that, she's dealing with a very tiny puppy who should still be with its mum and siblings. So she needs to treat it differently to an 8 week puppy from a larger breed.

Last night she didn't cry at all when I went up to bed at 10.30 then I heard her whimper at 2am, took her out to toilet, put her back in and she cried for 5 minutes then slept till 6, when I got up with her and she had a lovely long play session and explored the garden. No accidents in crate overnight. I took her with me in a pet carrier on the school run and she is now asleep again in her crate. Feeling a bit more confident now. Have found a local puppy obedience class run by the Kennel Club, are they ok to use?

Sounds good. Run by the KC or registered with them. You want a trainer that works by positive reinforcement. Any talk of pack theory and dominance? Run a mile!
Obedience is good. Ideally you want a trainer that does more than 6 weeks of learn to sit type training. Also watch out for the type of classes where dogs are all allowed to play off lead in a chaotic mess!

It depends on the individual who is teaching the KC Good Citizen course. When you read the standards for bronze / silver / gold, it is concerned that the dog can do certain things, but not how they got there. I'm sure many are very good, but you could find yourself with someone advocating outdated pack leadership theories, for instance.

Would you be willing to post (or PM) your town / county so we can have a look for you?

Wolfie and I are clearly singing from the same hymn sheet

My dog is a few years old now, but I think something I didn't realise when housetraining him is it's a two part process- they need to know they should go outside, and they need to be able to hold it long enough to get there. My dog caught on to part 1 very quickly, but for a long time when he needed to go, he needed to go NOW. Once I realised that, we got on a lot better with the training.

I also used KC puppy classes, I would highly recommend.

I live in a rural village but nearest towns are Bath and Chippenham. It was registered with them I think, they run various courses in Yate which is very close.

Avocado you don't want to hear me sing!