Please help with training advice

[hellomrclean]

I'll start by saying that I know this is totally our fault and we have absolutely no inclination to rehome etc before it is suggested. We have a beautiful 5 1/2 month puppy who me, DH and the Dc absolutely adore. When we got him we had every intention of doing all the training but we had an awful family tragedy (I know it's not an excuse) and things slipped by the way side.

We have toilet trained him and he now mostly goes outside but does still have some accidents inside.

The first issue we have is he chews absolutely everything. I came home the other day and he had pulled the carpet up and chewed all the underlay, he had only been left for a couple of hours. We leave him lots of toys out but he's just not interested and only wants to chew the things he shouldn't.

The second issue is jumping up and nipping. Obviously he's a puppy so he is very over excited most of the time but now that he is getting a little bigger his claws hurt when he jumps up at us. I know this is something we need to get under control as it can be scary for people who visit who don't like dogs.

Like I said I know it is my own fault so I don't need lots of comments telling me how cruel I've been by not training so far. I just desperately need some help to make things better

Hi OP

I feel your pain! Life happens even for people who get puppies. Condolences on your loss.

Pupster. Make ‘the crate is great!’ a motto. Loads of good treats that are unique to crate. Crate is a happy place, never used as punishment. Also a refuge for when pup is overstimulated. At this age they don’t know to settle themselves so lots of help to do that, same as for a baby. Once they’ve got those happy associations for crate then start closing the door. Plan for this to take about a month to teach this.

Walks. Long is good but quality is better. If ‘going for a walk’ is to your pup ‘stumbling along at the speed of glue until I pee with sheer boredom and get given a stale ‘bickie’, yay flipping hoo’ then that could change. Local dog owners willing to team up? Some bonkers of lead time somewhere safe (I’ve used local tennis courts at the park in the past)?

If we are a chewer, are we also a digger? Google dig box for dogs. It’s messy, but fixable with a broom rather than a bank loan.

finally cut yourself and your pup some slack. Like all youngsters pups have regressions, bad days, good days, weird outs and the 7 pm rips. But you are the mum in this situation, same as for a baby, so take charge, Mum up, and get a schedule in place. You’ve got this!

@FunnyFinch why on earth would I need to mention a puppy on a thread about cleaning my house? Ridiculous comment?

Thank you for all the genuinely helpful comments but I'll leave this thread now as yet again it's just turned in to batshit comments from crazy people.

Crazy people because we think it's cruel to abandon a puppy five days a week for at least four hours? A dog that isn't adequately exercised, trained or socialised?

You're not cut out to own a puppy, OP. But as you won't be coming back I suppose it doesn't matter.

Poor dog.

@Devilshands this app is hilarious. You literally know nothing about me other than that we have a puppy. Go and live your own life and stop trolling others, you'll probably find you're a happier person for it 😊

OP telling you the root cause of your dogs behaviour is it’s being left for too long while too young isn’t trolling.

Crate with a pen round it, but 4 hours is a long time for a puppy of that age to be left, I have a golden retriever and he couldn’t jump over the pen so get a higher one. I sprayed table legs etc with diluted vinegar/water and he didn’t chew at all. The more your dog practises these bad behaviours - chewing, jumping up/nipping etc the harder it is to undo and 10 minutes of training/walks will not be enough. And on walks if your dog is pulling etc that’s another behaviour to undo.

puppy classes or 1 to 1 with a trainer might be needed. Someone to go in whilst you’re at work and walk pup or do stuff in garden with them. People aren’t crazy no good dog owner wants to hear about dogs being left for hours alone being destructive and untrained because it’s our dogs that suffer out and about by dogs with no recall and bad habits.

OP, the thing is, without changing the fact that your puppy is left alone for four hours a day, all the other advice is just a sticking plaster. You aren't going to solve the root problem unless you provide your puppy with more company and stimulation.

The biggest issue is the alone time. Puppies cannot cope with that until they are much older. Mine was 18 months before we started to leave her and that was after building time slowly and carefully. So you need to have him looked after for now.

The jumping and nipping is age and training. They need to learn to bite toys not you. They need to bite their whole lives so need teaching what to bite.

The chewing you need to sit on them and swap each time they get something that they shouldn’t. It’s better to prevent in the first place.

Puppies are REALLY hard work. Really hard. It’s worth it though.

I've got a 5 month old pup. He's crate trained. Hasn't chewed anything other than the toys and treats I've given him.

Seriously, get a crate. At that age puppies are still sleeping most of the day. It'll do him no harm at all, as long as he's properly exercised and played with when you're home.

My puppy is 6 months old. He's hard work and still exhibits some of the 'bad behaviour ' you mention. I've also made some mistakes and am having to undo some of those. BUT I know from my experience that spending time training, in enrichment activities and exercising is what gets results. I can't imagine being able to do that with a young dog if you're just not there most of the time. Your puppy is also presumably about to hit adolescence, so it certainly won't be easier for a while.

You take your dog out 40mins a day? No wonder hes bored. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm sorry OP but the core of what you have been told is correct. I bet that at least an hours good walking a day and not being left for four hours a day would cure this.

It's not a training issue, it's an environmental/welfare one. Cure the issues with that and the behaviours will change.

The trouble is @hellomrclean doesn’t care. Yes it’s too long to leave a puppy. No they won’t make that change. Poor pup.

Hold on, this puppy is only five months old. Don't go to the opposite extreme and over-walk it while it's still growing.

Puppies should only get short walks, that is absolutely not the problem here
However in between those walks there should be play sessions,training,enrichment and supervised time loose in the home to learn good manners
It doesn’t sound like this is the case here and I agree that 4 hours alone is too much
OP, employ the services of a good trainer to get you on the right track

As the previous two posters said, it's not a lack of physical exercise that's the problem: 40 mins over three walks for a five month pup sounds ok.
Lots of other things wrong and the OP has had some good advice already.
People are obsessed with walking dogs, it's actually often the easy option and meeting their needs in other ways, together with appropriate walks, is much harder.
If you take nothing else away from this @hellomrclean please address the issue of the pup being left on their own for so long.

@hellomrclean I stumbled upon this video recently and found it interesting. RE nipping, rather than divert the pup towards chewing/biting something else immediately, he says start by teaching them bite inhibition, and only once they've sussed that, then to move onto reducing the frequency and ultimately so that they don't put their teeth on you at all
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Now, I don't know how good this trainer is so would welcome feedback from other MNers.
McCann Dog Training has already been mentioned, and they have lots of videos you might find helpful too.

We did a couple of hours one to one with a trainer in the house. It was not cheap, but money well spent.

really hope this poor pup is ok (preferably with another family)

She's not pushed back at that.

Devilshands seems to make it her mission to tell people they shouldn't have a dog. She does it on every thread where someone just needs some guidance.

Imagine if someone were to go onto the rest of mumsnet and tell people they shouldn't have a child just because their kids get a lot of screen time or they don't have a university fund set up.