how have i not been helpful ian dunbars article on bite inhibition is one of the best things ever written about dogs which i told you to look at

saying appropriate toilet training is taking them out after they wake, play etc is helpful

saying that you should not delay training or socilaisation is helpful

i am not sayin YOU personally do not care about your puppy or want what is best for it but i am saying that leaving a puppy for the amount of time you do imo is not appropriate if you dont have the money for to pay someone to come in perhaps you shouldnt have got a dog as they are extremely costly compared to the £6 a day it may cost for someone to spend an hour with your dog

We didn't bother with puppy pads at all,didn't see the point as I wanted him doing his business outside and thought allowing him to poo/wee on the pads would just confuse him.

I took him out regular, watched him for signs he needed to go and praised him like crazy when he got it right!

He had a handful at the most of accidents in the house and all these were in the first week! He's not had a single accident since he was 9 weeks old!! He was a breeze to toilet train.

I looked after a friends 4 month old chihuahua (sp?) a while back and that wasn't house trained or crate trained at all, I warned her if it stayed with me it would have to sleep in a cage and I would be training it to do its business on the garden.

She wanted it pooing/seeing on mats as she didn't want to have to keep putting it on garden (crazy!!)

I had it here and from that first night it slept in a cage and quickly learnt off my dog to do its mess on garden!

Half expected a thanks when she got home for the boost in training we gave the dog but no, she kicked off over it and decided she wanted to get rid of it as she didn't want a dog that she had to let out! She wanted one that would shit on a training pad cos it was less hassle!

The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey is an excellent read. You can get it quite cheaply from Amazon.

I've got that book OP if you want it let me know I'd be happy to pass it on as I don't use it now.

Another vote for the perfect puppy here - its a great book.

Best way to toilet train your puppy is to take him out 20 mins after drinking, as soon as he wakes and once an hour on top of that. The more you can do this the quicker they get the message. Stand outside with him (but ignoring him until he has peed or pooped) then use a command word. This is useful as later on you can say - go 'wee wees' or whatever and they know what they have to do. Get rid of the puppy pads, they only confuse them. Clean up any accidents in the house with biological washing powder or something called simple solution which gets rid of the smell. Once they wee in a certain place the smell can stay and encourage them to wee there as well.

Keep him in the crate when you cant keep an eye on him and when you are there use a house training line attached to his collar and redirect naughty behaviour onto a game. Try not to reward bad behavour with attention or the dog learns that to get your attention it should do something naughty. If this doesnt work then use the house line and give the pup a time out (maybe shut in the hall or somewhere it cant do any damage) for about 1 minute.

To stop biting you should cry 'ow!' in a really high pitched way - imagine the noise your puppy makes when it hurts itself. This is how puppies tell each other to back off during play. If this doesnt work then get up, put the puppy down and walk off. Also redirect biting onto a soft toy. Be consistent, it does take a while though...

Humping in such young dogs is usually from excitement rather than dominance or anything sexual. Just get up and walk off.

If the puppy is not fully vaccinated then you can carry it around - if he is vaccinated I would get him booked into classes as soon as possible. The APDT (Association of Pet Dog Trainers) has a list of good trainers who use positive reward based methods www.apdt.co.uk.

Good luck - my (second) puppy is 7 months now. Having already done it once I thought I knew what I was in for but he made me question my sanity - I felt like I had brought a wild tiger cub home! Plus cockers are a really high energy
working breed, always on the go. Not like my lazy lurchers

I need a copy of that book if anybodys got one. Ill post you a prezzie back. My puppy is a NIGHTMARE!

Had dogs all my life 3 at a time never crated any of them don't like them no problems either. A crate doe's seem a cop out to raising a dog .

A crate is no sort of cop out if it is understood and used properly. Often it gets used as punishment and that is misunderstanding the role a crate plays in a puppy's - and an adult dog's - live.

I've seen socialisation mentioned a couple of times but I don't think I saw puppy socialisation classes mentioned. Sarahj, if you've not already done so, find out whether you have puppy socialisation classes locally. Pups go (with owners!) after their jabs so from about 12 weeks and it's puppy mayhem in a hall.

The idea is to get the puppy used to lots of other dogs so that they are acclimatised to them for when they later meet other dogs on walks and it also starts them understanding that no matter how much fun they're having, they must start to hear their name and their owner's voice and return to them when called. It's enormously useful as a foundation to training your dog.

If you have a dog who chews wires when you pop to the shops for half an hour they can be a life saver. Or if he wees the minute you leave the house, the crate will stop him from weeing and can be very useful in quick toilet training. Not necessary but a useful tool. I don't like them much in that I like the dog to have freedom once they are past that very young stage and are settled in with the other dogs, and I can be sure that there will be no fighting, so I only use mine for a few weeks as my dogs don't seem to need the security of a crate.

I have just had a breakthrough with my latest - she has just today pee'd outside (in the rain) when she hasn't been desperate, because I told her to, instead of trying to tear off down the lane/chase the cat instead she has also learned to sit

Well it's a good thing she got rid of it then, what dog needs an owner like that! Talk about selfish

I've had dogs all my life as well. I'd never used a crate before, but we used one on the recommendation of the breeder. Our new puppy settled very quickly as they feel safe in the crate. House training was a breeze, and, as she was a very chewy dog our house wasn't a write off All in all a brilliant tool, which I would recommend to anyone. Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

hi all,

Thanks to all replies. Its been a busy few days!

Ive managed to get somebody to sit with the dog during the day for Mon, Weds, Thurs and Fri from 9am all day until 5pm. Its only for afew weeks but it will do for now.

He is improving massively on chewing. We found by saying NO then tapping our hand with a rolled up news paper has stopped it.He still tries to do it but soon listens. Hes also stopped biting me, I push him away (not hard) and look away and ignore him and he backs off.

Toilet-We took away the pad and started taking out straight when he wakes up in the morning, lunch, evenings every hour and he is now going for wee wee (I say wee wee to him) 7 our of 10 times he still does have the odd accidents. He is still going for poop in the hourse-how can I get him to do that outside? We also are taking him for a walk 2/3 times per day for about 15/20 mins each time. Trying to get him used to other dogs. We are enquiring about puupy training courses.

As for his crate, yes he still uses it for sleep but we are not keeping in it for as long as some people expected. He mianly likes to sleep when we are out at work so he goes in there anyway regardless of if he was put in there and the door locked.

His eating is getting better, he only really likes to eat when its by near us. He also has a BIG thing for the cat food, we have kept up on the side but he tries to jump up for it and its the first thing he looks for when in the kitchen. We have had 1 accident where the cat food was not put up and he ate it. How can we stop him from wanting it so much?

Overall a big improvement even from afew days ago. Any more hints and tips will be great!

Patience! He's very young so won't yet have figured out how to ask to go out but you'll get there. Typically pups pee and more when they've just woken, when they've eaten and when they've been playing for an hour or so. So put him outside at times like that. We too train all ours to pee on command. When you're in a hurry to go out or to get dog into a car for a trip, getting them to pee is a very useful habit.

When he's a bit older, finding the right time at night to give him his last feed will help him be clean through the night. With our first lab pups, once they reached 4 or 5 months old, we adjusted (on advice) the last feed time to be no later than about 6pm in order for them to last overnight.

If you've got lawns and a nice garden, set aside a few square yard - perhaps with longer grass - and encourage him to make that his toilet area. It becomes a habit thing and you'll find he won't turd on short cropped grass. Which can be a good thing if kids run about on the lawn.


That sounds fine. It's a long time since we had a puppy (we have rescues now) but length of exercise builds up with age and walking a young pup too much can cause problems with the young, soft bones and joints. Probably the puppy book mentioned above will give guidance.

He should like the crate because it is his space, his safe and secure (in his mind!) place so he should put himself in their to sleep quite willingly and spending (reasonable amounts of!) time in there is no hardship.

Cat food: cat food is much more strongly flavoured and meaty than dog food and smells far more enticing. The only way (over 25 years) we ever prevented our dogs eating the cats' food was by feeding cats upstairs where dogs were forbidden. And still they'd occasionally creep up. Your only course of action is to put the cat's food out of reach or have it available only when you're there to supervise. Certainly while he's young. It will take a very well-trained and disciplined dog to just not eat it.

You're doing really well. Just get him booked in for some puppy classes now. You'll also be able to get advice from the teacher.

My dog eats anything she can get her paws on! The only way with her is to keep the food out of paw's reach.

[QUOTE=Normandie;57014423]Patience! He's very young so won't yet have figured out how to ask to go out but you'll get there. Typically pups pee and more when they've just woken, when they've eaten and when they've been playing for an hour or so. So put him outside at times like that. We too train all ours to pee on command. When you're in a hurry to go out or to get dog into a car for a trip, getting them to pee is a very useful habit.

When he's a bit older, finding the right time at night to give him his last feed will help him be clean through the night. With our first lab pups, once they reached 4 or 5 months old, we adjusted (on advice) the last feed time to be no later than about 6pm in order for them to last overnight.

If you've got lawns and a nice garden, set aside a few square yard - perhaps with longer grass - and encourage him to make that his toilet area. It becomes a habit thing and you'll find he won't turd on short cropped grass. Which can be a good thing if kids run about on the lawn.

That sounds fine. It's a long time since we had a puppy (we have rescues now) but length of exercise builds up with age and walking a young pup too much can cause problems with the young, soft bones and joints. Probably the puppy book mentioned above will give guidance.

He should like the crate because it is his space, his safe and secure (in his mind!) place so he should put himself in their to sleep quite willingly and spending (reasonable amounts of!) time in there is no hardship.

Cat food: cat food is much more strongly flavoured and meaty than dog food and smells far more enticing. The only way (over 25 years) we ever prevented our dogs eating the cats' food was by feeding cats upstairs where dogs were forbidden. And still they'd occasionally creep up. Your only course of action is to put the cat's food out of reach or have it available only when you're there to supervise. Certainly while he's young. It will take a very well-trained and disciplined dog to just not eat it.[/quote]

Thanks for your help. Im pleased he going for wee wee outside, Im sure he will learn soon that he goes for poo poo ousdide aswell.


Overall I am really pleased with how he is getting on. The cat food thing I guess is just something we will have to live with. Its now a military operation to get the cat in the kitchen with his food and stop the dog from getting in there, but its going ok with that. I just make sure its out of his reach!


thanks to all once again

hi guys...

update again (sorry hope you dont mind!)

puppy has been a good boy over the weekend. He was out all PM friday and was kept up until about 11pm. Saturday he went for wee wee outside in the morning, afternoon took him to the park and he did a poo! yay first time outside! Sunday went to the park again and he loved it, met other dogs and other adults/kids and behaved really well. He still chews occasionally but hes getting so much better. This morning he got up fine and did wee wee and poo outside.

Overall hes coming along much better. He is behaved most of the time, he has a mad 5 mins every day but most animals do. Hes sleeping fine at night and sometimes during the day. Outside toilet is improving, im really pleased he did a poo outside twice, accidents still happen but im not concerned with this as I expect it to for afew weeks yet.

i brought my mothers cat over and the dog never touched her dry cat food. He did however wolf down her tuna and drink the milk. Our dog is a German pointer who is thirteen and he is well trained and disciplined.

This. Couldn't agree more

I magine a really bad swear word being said about you.

Know it all idiot.

Is there a doggy day care anywhere near you OP? The dog sounds bored rather than naughty and would certainly benefit from a couple of days a week at one of these.

Our 6month old Lhasa Apso puppy goes one day a week and she loves it. They charge between £12-15 a day, but the puppy will usually get about three hours running around the park or woods and then further playtime with the other dogs at the day care.

Our tiny pup romps with a bear-sized GSD and a Malamute among others!

Our puppy sleeps in a crate for her own safety. She goes in by herself at night she wants to go to bed, and we leave her in it when we go out during the day but we have never left her alone for more than two hours.

What? I'm not a know it all at all, but having had many dogs all my life (37) I've never used a crate, and my opinion is that they're not necessary, and a bit of a cop out as far a house and toilet training goes.

But what's the swear word?! Let me know, just in case its one I haven't heard or used before

crates have there uses if you are going out for a short period and your puppy needs a safe place they are ideal, i also think it is beneficial to get a dog used to one in the event of vet stays, but a lot of people seem to overuse them and they are used to look the dog away whilst they go to work which is indeed a cop out with regards training the dog not to demolish your house