Doggie Help!

My boyfriend and I got a puppy about 4 months ago, she's now 6 months old. She's small, but very very high energy. What is the minimum amount of time that we should be walking her per day? We currently take her on 3-4 walks a day, probably a total of 55 to 75 minutes a day. I've realized this probably isn't enough, so I want to start making our walks longer.

Also, she has a habit of digging in the cracks of our couch, and digging and chewing on different spots on our carpet. She just digs and digs and digs. If you tell her to stop she doesn't listen. Can I train her to not dig in the couch/carpet? I try distracting her by throwing a ball or a toy but it only works for a couple throws, she just goes back to digging and ignores my attempts to play. There's nothing in the crack! She just digs in them.We've taken her to a beginning obedience class, she did really well. She can sit, stay, lay down, we started teaching "come" at the end of the class... I know the basics of how to train her, I just don't know how specifically to train her to stop doing that.

Also, she bites. Now that I think she's done or almost done teething she is not nearly as bad as she was for a while, but she still bites sometimes when she's getting excited or feeling especially playful. I tell her no sternly, but I kinda think she doesn't know what that means... I just want to make sure she gets over the biting while she's still a puppy...

And lastly... our worst problem. Potty training.  When we're home we take her out pretty often, and we're down to pretty much no accidents during that time. Our problem is when we're at work. She's inside alone from about 7:45 am to around noon-12:30, and then until about 4:30.  The weird thing though is that sometimes she pees (and even has pooped) on our COUCH!I don't know what to do! She's 6 months, she should be able to hold it... I just dont' know what to do!  We started her out on pee pads which may be part of whats making it harder.... we live in an apartment and didn't know they made it harder til after we'd been using them!

I feel like a horrible puppy parent because she's not fully potty trained yet...  I was trying to crate train her. I fed her her meals in it, left her in for 10 minutes, then would take her out... but she would go in her crate!  Sometimes if the crate was in the living room with the door open she'd go in it and potty and leave, like she thought it was a litter box or something! So I kind of gave up on the crate...

Sooo any advice? Awesome websites about training? Great pee-smell remover for carpet?

Try sprinkling some cayenne pepper on your couch and wherever she's digging/chewing. She might pick a new spot, but she'll leave the other one alone.

You might need to crate her while you're gone.

what breed of dog is she?

for some dogs, walks just aren't enough to tire them out. think about it this way, do the walks tire you out? probably not. she needs to run. is there anywhere near you that is fenced in where she could run? or since she is small maybe just an open space where you could put her on a 50ft leash or rope and play some vigorous fetch? that would help a lot to calm her down.

mouthing (or puppy biting) at her age is perfectly normal. the best way to stop it is the second her teeth hit your skin, say OUCH!! loudly enough to startle her, get up and walk away. don't continue to scold her or anything, just take away all attention for a few minutes. then go back to playing normally. repeat as necessary. stopping play and attention is enough of a "punishment" for a puppy and she'll get the hint quickly. the same idea also works for jumping up. you are right to want to stop this when she is young.

as for the digging and chewing it sounds like you are already doing things right by trying to distract her with toys and appropriate things to chew. extra excercise might help stop this a bit too. you could try some of that bitter apple spray on the areas she is chewing. just be careful not to end up with it in your mouth. i've found out the hard way.

as for the potty training she absolutely should be able to hold it for that length of time. i'm not a fan of puppy pads, but don't feel bad that she isn't potty trained, some dogs are just harder than others and it sounds like you are doing a really good job with her. 

how big is the crate compared to the puppy? 

thanks Mooni :] I'll try the cayenne...

When she was smaller we used to gate her in the bathroom, it's a pretty decent size. (not huge, but not tiny.) She started making a big fuss when we'd put her in and try anything to keeps us from catching her and putting her in there in the morning.  It's was hard to keep putting her in there when she looked so sad and desperate to stay out! That's when we stopped gating her.... and looking back, she was OK at first, she wasn't having accidents in the house, which is why we kept doing it... it's really weird looking back now and realizing that she wasn't always peeing on the carpet... and now I'm wondering WHY did we not gate her back in the bathroom once she started peeing and showing us that we shouldn't be leaving her out in the apartment??

I suppose I'll try putting her in the bathroom again then! But this time I'll make sure to get a long walk in before she goes in so she's worn out... and maybe she won't make as big of a fuss...

if she figures out that making a fuss and making pathetic puppy faces works to get you to come back and take her out, she'll keep doing it. puppies can be evil like that :p

if she realizes after a few days that it won't work anymore, she'll likely stop the dramatics. also, make the time you leave pleasant for her. get her a kong and stuff it with something tasty so she'll  have that to occupy her after you are gone. one easy idea is stuffing a kong with some quality canned wet food and freezing it. a healthy pupsicle!

What is the minimum amount of time that we should be walking her per day?

For a small high energy dog in an appartment - probably 2 hours a day plus play time at a dog park. Try 2 long walks about 45 minutes before going to work and 45 minutes when you come home at lunch. You're other walks can be shorter.

Can I train her to not dig in the couch/carpet?

You can train a dog to do nearly everything. You just need to be consistent. As in every single time without fail correct her. If saying no doesn't work, try clappling your hands at the same time as saying no more firmly. If that doesn't work try a spray bottle. (surprisingly this works for dogs too).

just want to make sure she gets over the biting while she's still a puppy...

She needs to learn ASAP that is never ok for anyone's hand/foot/body part to be in her mouth ever - even if you're playing with her. If she 'bites' or if she even gums your hand or foot or whatever make a sound like she's hurt you and get up and walk away - play time is over. This is what puppies do to each other. If you're standing up and she jumps and nips stand up/tall and turn your back to the dog while crossing your arms (to get them out of reach). Again, consistency is key.

And lastly... our worst problem. Potty training.

Since you're gone all day this will be tough. She hasn't learned that she should be holding it so you've actually conditioned her that it's ok to go in the house. Now you must train her differently. Going on the couch is probably just her trying to find the puppy pads - it's likely the closest thing that resembles it. Or she's angry at you for leaving her home alone all day. Unfortunately you can't train a dog when you're not home. The only suggestion I can give you is to exercise her so hard in the morning and at lunch that she is tired and sleeps all afternoon. Or try doggie daycare.

In all reality, any mistakes the puppy makes is just a mistake that the owner has made in not teaching it properly.

Original Post by jules817:

what breed of dog is she?

for some dogs, walks just aren't enough to tire them out. think about it this way, do the walks tire you out? probably not. she needs to run. is there anywhere near you that is fenced in where she could run? or since she is small maybe just an open space where you could put her on a 50ft leash or rope and play some vigorous fetch? that would help a lot to calm her down.

mouthing (or puppy biting) at her age is perfectly normal. the best way to stop it is the second her teeth hit your skin, say OUCH!! loudly enough to startle her, get up and walk away. don't continue to scold her or anything, just take away all attention for a few minutes. then go back to playing normally. repeat as necessary. stopping play and attention is enough of a "punishment" for a puppy and she'll get the hint quickly. the same idea also works for jumping up. you are right to want to stop this when she is young.

as for the digging and chewing it sounds like you are already doing things right by trying to distract her with toys and appropriate things to chew. extra excercise might help stop this a bit too. you could try some of that bitter apple spray on the areas she is chewing. just be careful not to end up with it in your mouth. i've found out the hard way.

as for the potty training she absolutely should be able to hold it for that length of time. i'm not a fan of puppy pads, but don't feel bad that she isn't potty trained, some dogs are just harder than others and it sounds like you are doing a really good job with her. 

how big is the crate compared to the puppy? 

 

She's a mini husky.  There's a dog park in our apartment complex. It's a 10 minute walk each way to the dog park, on the way there is mostly uphill, kinda steep. I used to take her up there at lunch and let her run around for about 15 minutes. Lately though it's been in the 80s and I'm afraid to walk her too much since she's a cold weather dog. After about 15 minutes her tongue is floppin around and she starts just laying down in the grass so I figure she's hot and we go inside. I could take her up to the park after dinner though when it's cooled off.

I think she's becoming immune to bitter apple! haha. We've been using it sine we got her, she's always been a big chewer. I've always sprayed our electrical cords with it, and she still has destroyed a laptop cable, the power cord to a fan, and my iPod shuffle charger. We spray it on the spot on cracks and the carpet, but it doesn't seem to deterr her.

I just busted out the measuring tape, she's probably about  1'20" long when laying down (hard to measure a dog...) and the crate's 2 feet long.  With her food bowl in there there isn't a ton of spare room.. but I mean she will straight up poop right nex to her food bowl in there.. and I didn't leave her in there with it for a long time, she does it after only a few minutes!

Original Post by jules817:

if she figures out that making a fuss and making pathetic puppy faces works to get you to come back and take her out, she'll keep doing it. puppies can be evil like that :p

if she realizes after a few days that it won't work anymore, she'll likely stop the dramatics. also, make the time you leave pleasant for her. get her a kong and stuff it with something tasty so she'll  have that to occupy her after you are gone. one easy idea is stuffing a kong with some quality canned wet food and freezing it. a healthy pupsicle!

 

I know taking them out is bad and teaches them that whining gets what they want, so I've never taken her out... one day I just felt really bad before we even tried putting her in and we decided to try leaving her out.  We used to give her a kong with peanut butter or her food (which the stuff she was on at the time she LOOOOOVED) but after a while she realized that we were just giving her the treat to get her in the bathroom and distract her, so she wouldn't go near the treats or the food... I never make a big deal of putting her in the bathroom, or taking her out. I just put her in, give her the kong and leave. When I come take her out I'd ignore her crazy jumping, whining, whatever until she calms down, and then give her hugs and say hello.

Original Post by sybil878:

In all reality, any mistakes the puppy makes is just a mistake that the owner has made in not teaching it properly.

I am very aware of this. I do not blame my dog for what she does, I know she behaves this way because we have not properly taught her to do anything differently (though I think my boyfriend has problems with this.. he gets mad when she "doesn't listen".. well you haven't taught her what it is you are trying to tell her to do, so how is she supposed to listen??)

that's the other frustrating thing, I try to be consistant as possible, but even though my boyfriend complains about and is bothered more by her behavior, he isn't too committed to correcting it. He just gets mad at her. I ask him to give her treats when she potty's outside to give her more incentive to go outside instead of inside and he says no! I tell him to stand up and ignore the dog when she is on the couch biting at us. But he doesn't want to, he's playing xbox or on his laptop.... sometimes he just lets her bite him and says sarcastically "Oh yeah keep biting me blah blah " and i'm like DOGS DONT UNDERSTAND SARCASM!!   ugh sometimes it's just hard to get him to get on board.

And I love taking her to doggie daycare, she gets TONS of exercise and is totally beat by the time she gets home. She loves playing with other puppies. I'd love to just take her every day, but we can't really afford it. Even if we buy the biggest bulk package it'd still cost like 260 dollars a month.

My boyfriend is losing his job mid july, so he'll be home all day until he finds a new job, so hopefully before then I can get him straight on what he needs to do to work with her on this stuff.. and hopefully we'll make a lot of progress by then. jAnd hopefully at the beginning of July we are moving into a house with a pretty good sized yard so at least we can start over with fresh carpet so she's not attracted to certain spots.... and we are going to see if we can fully fence the yard, which will be great for wearing her out. She loves to run.

I would give the crate another try.   Our female was the hardest dog ever to crate-train because her previous owners taught her to go on newspaper in the crate.  We were able to train her but we had to be patient and clean up a lot of messes.  If we kept a bed in the crate with her, she would actually scoot the bed over to the side, potty and then lay the bed over it so she wouldn't get dirty.  She would also sneak off to go elsewhere in the house when we were home so we started blocking off her favorite areas of the house if we weren't right there with her.   That helped tremendously.

When we took her out for potty breaks, we gave her the command "do your jobs" as soon as she got in the grass.  After she "did her jobs" we would give her a treat.  It really helped to give her a treat and praise right after the potty instead of when we got back in the house. 

For the digging etc, maybe try a kong toy stuffed with treats.  It will keep her occupied longer than just a ball.  Something to consider though, is that she might think the toy is a reward for digging?  I don't know.  We always used the kong to entice her to come to us - then, she had to sit and wait until we gave her a command "free dog" to take it. 

The best thing I've found for getting rid of pet smells is Mrs. Meyers clean day for pets.  It's a powder that you mix with warm water and spray on.  Last year, we left a tent outside to air out and a cat peed on it.  The Mrs. Meyers stuff took the smell out and we all know that cat pee is no joke.  

Good luck with the pup.  When our female was a puppy, I could never imagine that she would someday be a good dog.  I thought we were doomed forever!  But now she's an awesome dog - even though she's still a chewer.

ETA:  Lots of responses in the time it took me to type mine.  Didn't realize the kong doesn't really work for her.  Our dogs are suckers for treats and will do anything to get them.  We're lucky that way, I suppose. 

ilove, try not to get discouraged, from what you are saying, you are doing everything the right way!! potty training can be SO hard when you aren't able to be there 24/7 (and who can realistically?)

unfortunately, your BF undermining things is not going to help. the key to training dogs is consistency. even his negative attention (telling her no, talking to her, sarcasm haha etc) when she is getting bitey can cause her to continue doing it. because hey, dad was playing xbox, and now he's looking at me! he's mad, but he's looking! i know how incredibly frustrating it is when they bite like that, but he has to undestand she is just a puppy and doesn't know better, and it's his job to teach her what is right. correct it now and he'll be able to relax in peace in the future. puppies are work! 

jpoage's potty training suggestions are really good. this isn't going to be something you can fix overnight. she is definitely not ready to be loose in the house. i'd go back to keeping her in the bathroom when you aren't there.

good call on not over exerting her in 80 degree weather, she is not made for that kind of heat. but if you can get her out in the evenings when it cools down that should help a lot. 15-20 minutes a day of hard running can work wonders.

if while your bf is home all the time he can be consistent about watching her in the house and SERIOUSLY, BIG TIME rewarding her for going outside, that'll be a big help. just stress to him how important it is that he is consistent too.   

How big is the crate?  I'd try crating her instead of putting her in the bathroom.  The crate should only be big enough for her to stand in and comfortably turn around in.  If it's much bigger, they will learn that they can pee in one corner and still have plenty of room in the other corner to avoid it.  This is the problem with puting a dog in too large of a space (such as a bathroom) and leaving them when they are still a puppy.

As for the biting, I agree with jules, I think it was.  When she is biting YOU, say "ouch" or "No" and walk away from her for a few minutes.  Make sure you and your man do this every single time.  Then she learns that she doesn't get any attention when she bites.  If she is chewing small objects such as shoes, you could try saying "no" and quickly replacing the shoe with one of her dog toys so she knows what she can and can't chew.

As far as the digging, I have no advice for that as my dog is not a digger and have never had to research how to stop it.

Good luck.

When telling her no and clapping your hands fails get a coffee can w. some pennies in it and shake it when shes being bad. My dad used to do this w. a can of peanuts. My dogs used to carry on barking so he would shake it at them. When potty training a dog the worst thing to ever use is wee wee pads. My b'fs parents still use wee wee pads for their 5 yr old ****. Its pretty disgusting. To get her in the bathroom in the morning tell her its potty time or walk time and take out the leash, put it on that way she cant run and you can just scoop her up and stick her in the bath room.

Jules, thanks for the reassurance... you have no idea how much it helps.  I'm trying my best, but sometimes it seems like my best just isn't very good. The dog problems are putting a huge strain on my relationship with my boyfriend... we got in a fight about it this morning and I stayed home from work for a while because I was pretty upset. Heck I'm still upset, I just had to come in and cover the office cuz my co-worker had a doctor's appointment.

I just sent my boyfriend a rather lengthy email of my plan for solving our dog problems, and told him that we need to work together as a team, and we need to both be consistent, and correct any unwanted behavior right away, every time it happens (and in the right way).

I always praise her right after she potties outside, and I try to always have treats with me so I can give her a treat right away also (but hey, I'll admit, sometimes I am in a hurry to get her harnessed and out the door and I forget).  I'm going to try and put a phrase on it so I can tell her to go potty and she'll actually know what I mean!

A while ago I had been doing what was suggested with the biting, getting up and walking away, for a while. Sometimes I just avoid sitting on the couch because I know she'll do it. I think sometimes I actually reinforce it, because I'll get frustrated and pick her up, and take her over to our hallway and start throwing toys for her! Jeeze. Looking back I realize that's a pretty bad idea... hindsight's 20/20 I guess! But when you're really frustrated and you just want it to STOP... you don't really think about the consequences.

Peaches, the crate is 2 feet long, I actually tried to measure my dog and she's about 1'20" when she's laying down not counting her tail. The crate did come with a seperator so I can try blocking off part of it if that's too much space, but I don't feel comfortable leaving her in a crate for 8 hours a day with only an hour in between, plus we go to the gym 4 nights a week and are gone for about an hour and a half. 

Original Post by gem86:

When potty training a dog the worst thing to ever use is wee wee pads.

 Yeah, we didn't know this until after we'd already trained her to use them.

Original Post by ilovemypupp:

I think sometimes I actually reinforce it, because I'll get frustrated and pick her up, and take her over to our hallway and start throwing toys for her! Jeeze. Looking back I realize that's a pretty bad idea... hindsight's 20/20 I guess! But when you're really frustrated and you just want it to STOP... you don't really think about the consequences.

 believe me, i know what you mean about frustration! my dog Murphy was a bitey nightmare when i got him at 10 months old, and he's a big block headed pit bull mix, so it was REALLY difficult. on top of that he's got lots of behavioral quirks and terrible anxiety. but i swear, being consistent really has paid off, and he's an entirely different dog now.

my ex and i actually got him together, and he used to pretty much sabotage everything i did to work with Murphy. it wasn't until he moved out (our break-up wasn't dog related and i'm not suggesting you boot out your bf haha) that things got a lot better because i was always consistent, all the time. what i'm saying is, your BF needs to understand that you have to work as a team, no exceptions, to fix the problems. dogs thrive on routines, and they really only do what works for them. if she NEVER gets attention, and ONLY gets ignored when she bites, she'll simply stop doing it. it'll take a while for her to figure it out, but she will. but if one out of ten times she gets attention, negative or not, it's like a slot machine, and she'll keep on playing hoping for a jackpot even if she doesn't always get one.      

you need to either start back up with the crate, or keep her confined to the bathroom when you aren't there. ESPECIALLY important when you move to your new place. basically, if you aren't there to catch her and show her the right place to go, she will train herself to go in the house if she has free reign when she's alone. it took me two years to trust murphy with full reign of the house, and i can't say he hasn't had accidents since. but now they are months apart, not days. it gets better! 

My husband and I trained our Boston Terrier in 4 weeks, he was 3 months when we got him.  I think the main thing that really helped was that there is almost always (save 2 hours a few afternoons a week) someone home with him, so we took him out every hour and praised him a lot when he did his thing outside.

As for the couch and the biting, as someone already mentioned, consistency is the most important thing.  In all dog training, consistency is the most important thing.  If you want him to stay away from the couch, you can't let him cuddle on the couch when you're in a good mood, and expect him not to want to be around the (cuddle) couch.  You must have toys that he can chew and only let him chew those, etc. 

Sometimes it's hard to be a 'perfect parent', but a few slip ups and you will wreck any hard work.  I always have to remind myself that positive reinforcement is the best way to teach a puppy AND by the time I am mad about it, he has already forgotten what he did wrong (and is likely already thinking about shoes or birds or the park or whatever my dog thinks about...lol).  You can't seriously be mad if you stop and think about how hilariously short their attention spans are.

Original Post by thermal:

 You can't seriously be mad if you stop and think about how hilariously short their attention spans are.

 sometimes i swear i can see the gears turning in murphy's head when i'm trying to keep his attention and he's bored. it's like:

hmm she's telling me to lie down...maybe i should just...OH! a bird!...ok still telling me to lie down...she looks mad now...i think she wants me to...OH! my butt itches!...hey a kibble!

Haha I know what you mean! :]

So at lunch instead of walking we drove up to the dog park! We ran around a bit, I brought a tennis ball. It's funny, she'll chase it, but for some reason at the park she won't fetch, she just runs past it to find something more exciting.  So we ran around a bit, she sniffed everything, found a dead decomposing mouse to play with (soooo gross!) and I brought a bowl and some water that I put in the one little shady spot, so she could go have a drink and chill in the shade :] Then we drove home, I put some carpet freshening powder (especially for pet odor!) on the carpet and then vacuumed that up, and gated her in the bathroom with some toys, lunch, and a kong with some pupperoni and peanut butter in it... she had totally forgotton the whole routine! Before she'd freak as soon as I got out the gate... but when I put her in the bathroom she just ran over to her food and didn't make a peep.  I even put a fan right outside the gate, blowing into the bathroom to make sure she doesn't get too hot haha.

We'll see how long it takes till she catches on.... hehe.

Original Post by jules817:

hmm she's telling me to lie down...maybe i should just...OH! a bird!...ok still telling me to lie down...she looks mad now...i think she wants me to...OH! my butt itches!...hey a kibble!

 Jules...ooh piece of fud....!

If it makes you feel any better about crating her for longer periods of time,  apparently dogs don't have a sense of time passing - you being gone 10 minutes or being gone an hour is all the same to them...exactly why they are just as excited to see you when you get back from running to the store as they are when you have been at work all day.