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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Jean is a graduate of Animal Behavior College and teaches basic obedience using positive motivation training techniques. She is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers and has been teaching family dog basic obedience for three years. Jean is also a graduate of Northeastern University and is the co-founder of pupforum.com.
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[Edit]
10/22/2004
I have a 7 month old male Yorkshire Terrier; I've had him for 4 months and he is still not
totally housebroken. Part of the problem is that he won't "tell" me when he needs to go outside.
If I don't happen to see him go to the door, he simply goes. I'd like to add that he is quite
capable of "telling" me when he's ready to come in. He will also go outside and potty and then
come into the house to poop. I'm getting very frustrated and I don't know what to do.
(melinky, Texas)
At seven months old, your puppy should be able to go about 9 hours between going out.
There are a few things you need to do for this problem.
Put your Yorkie on a strict feeding, watering and going out schedule. Make sure he gets food
and water at the exact same time every day. Take him out at the exact same time everyday,
preferably 30 minutes to an hour after he gets food and water. If he doesn't go outside within
5 minutes, bring him inside and put him in a crate for 20 minutes. Then give him another 5 minutes
outside. Repeat until he goes outside. Praise him when he's finished going outside and give him a
treat or a walk. Make sure he's done before you treat, or you may end up with a puppy who pees a
little to get a treat, and holds the rest in hopes of getting more treats!
Next, hang a bell by the door you use to go outside. Everytime you take your puppy out to pee,
ring the bell. He should start to get the idea that the bell means going outside. Eventually he will
ring it to let you know it's time to go out.
We've recently added a german shepherd pup to our family, and she is 3 months old.
We have had her since 8 weeks of age. She's crate trained, going in it whenever we go out
or at night time, she's potty trained, scratching and barking to be let out, and she understands
a couple of simple commands. We will be enrolling her in ob
edience school shortly. Her only
problem is NIPPING! She bites at our hands whenever we want to pet her or groom her.
She bites at our pantlegs, sometimes ripping a hole in material or catching our skin in the
material, and she's nipping at our feet, in or out of shoes. Any suggestions would be greatly
appreciated! Thanks. (adlc58, Ontario)
Lots of chewing, nipping and biting is expected at 3 months, especially for a German Shephard. In a few months she will grow out of some of the more playful nipping, but in the meantime, she needs lots and lots of alternative things to nip. Make sure your puppy has a variety of chew toys in all sizes and textures. Remember to never leave her unattended with a chew toy.
When you try to pet her and she nips at your hands, give a high pitched "YIPE!" and stop petting. The "YIPE!" is what she would hear if she had bitten another puppy too hard. This is language puppies understand. By taking away your attention, she will also learn that the nipping makes play stop. Having her play with other dogs (vaccinated, nice dogs of course) of all ages will help her to learn that nipping is not nice.
The nipping at your pant legs and feet is exactly what German Shephards think they are supposed to do. She is herding you. She needs an alternative way to get this playful energy out. Make sure she is getting plenty of exercise, she should be tired out panting at least once a day. Also make sure she has some stimulating play. She might like to chase and round up balls in the living room. She also might like a toy stuffed with treats that she'll need to work at to get them out. See the pupforum store for some examples. http://www.pupforum.com/store/catalog.cfm?parent_id=2&id=10. The Twist -N- Treat and the Waggle are good ones.
Obedience school will be great for her. Good luck!
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