Calling .....ALL........ Experts......

[Brinks' Mom]

Is it possible for an 11 week old ball of angelic looking floof to "LIFT HIS LEG" to pee pee????? (on the towel) Remember I mentioned "looking".

My oh My have things changed around here!!! We take him out and he doesn't want to walk...he just lies down. Or if and when he decides to get up he likes to bite my pants until they are practically hanging down. A little more and my neighbors would have a great show. We try and take him for long walks with the leash and he bites the leash and pulls us in the other direction. I have to carry him down to the end of the driveway to get started and still he gives me a hard time about going past the driveway. I always walk him with a leash, even in the backyard. Is that wrong? Eventually after him lying there and me standing there trying everything possible for him to get up and start walking. One of us gives in and its NOT ME!!
( I try luring him with treats and pieces of kibble...that worked only the first 2 days) Then he'll come in the house and pee on the towel after I've been outside with him for 45 minutes. I sit on the floor to play and snuggle and I become his teething toy...fingers, arm, and especially tug of war with my hair.

And YES YES YES, I say "no" and "no bite" with a firm voice and give him a toy to bite instead of my hands but within a millimeter of second we start all over again. Might I add he is relentless in trying to win. I say no and he growls right at me. So advice is what I need. We start training in 3 weeks after his next shot but until then I'm on my own. By the way...did I mention that I love him more than anything?? Really I do despite his determination and scary sounding bear like growls.........I LOVE HIM!!

One more thing....I read the Judy Adler book over and over again. We made some progress with whats expected in training for the first week with a new puppy.....but thats all out the window now. Is he just being a baby or is it that he's really stubborn???? Also, I am feeding him Canidae all life stages and he eats 1 cup and a half in the morning and another cup and a half at night. Per the breeder's instructions to feed him only twice a day. That seems to be ok with him. He eats slowly and not with a great hunger, it's as if he doesn't really like it. Not sure yet. Stools are ok though.

Someone be a Christmas Angel and give me some tools to try.
Thank you!!!

 

[TerriW]

He's being a baby! Yup! I'm sure good advice will soon appear here, but all I can say is he sounds normal to me.

 

[leningradka]

This is what our trainer taught us about biting pants: Wear the thickest jeans you can wear, and spray them with "Bitter apple" or "Fooey!" (SP?) spray. DO NOT become his best squicky toy! If he bites your pants, say nothing, turn your back to him, and ignore him (did I mention spray spray spray your pants?)

This is long, but I am copying the handout our trainer gave us in puppy kindergarten . All credit to Ellen Rassinger, Happy Dog Behavior and Training:

Teach Bite Inhibition: Your pup needs to learn how hard is too hard. Do this everyday, ONLY perform this exercuse when you have control of the puppy, NOT when he decided its time to mouth on you. Playtime with other pups or gentle adult dogs may help him to learn too.

Prevention: Apply Bitter Apple to EVERYTHING in your home he could poss. chew on, incl. your pants and shoes. DONT chase after him with the bottle and spray him. Provide lots of appr. chew toys such as Kong, Goodie Ship, Biscuit bone, Roll-a-treat ball, Buster cube, and rotate them daily. Make sure your pup gets plenty of running/playing exercise each day, not just leash walking

Deflection : often the best reaction to mouthing is no reaction. As soon as your pup initiates mouthing, stand completely still. Stop walking, fold your hands under armpits, dont make eye contact, scream, run, or jerk your hand or foot away . DONT BE A SQUEKY TOY!

interruption: Take advantage of your pups short attention span! Use sound or motion to u=interrupt your pup's mouthing behavior. Make a loud noise, a hand clap, shake can, squeky toy or thrown ball is often enough to distract your pup from their misbehavior for just a moment.

redirection: Probably the most important step. Once you've interrupted your pups behavior, IMMEDIATELY redirect him onto a more appropriate activity or they'll just go back to whatever they were mouthing or chewing on. Give them a bone, chewy, toy, or engage in a game. Be sure to prase them for "choosing" the more appropriate activity!

"Time out" : When you have tried everything on this list, in order, and nothing seems to be working, give your pup a "time out" by leaving the room or crating the pup for NO MORE THAN 30 SECONDS. This is your way of saying, " your behavior is unaccepatable, and I wont play with you when you do that." YOu must do this as necessary for your pup to get the message that his behavior is bringing about the isolation. Be sure the keep the time outs brief, and dont ever use the crate as punishment. ""


Hope this somewhat helps, be patient and firm, and good luck!!!

Edited to add: dont spend 45 min outside with him waiting for him to pee. Take him out first thing when he wakes up eats, etc. Spend 5 min outisde, if he doesnt do anything, back in he goes. If he does some thing for you make a great big fuss about it,and let him play in the yard afterwards. See it sort of like reverse psychology with them:"If I pee, I go right back inside, and that no fun, but if I don't pee, I get to stay out, so I should hold it in so I can stay out longer!!!" ALso, what worked wonders for us for the "umbilical cord": Take his leash (or 2) and tie them to your waist whenever he is in the house and not in the crate. You will know when he will do his PP dance, and can keep a close eye on him. It worked wonders for us, though my fiance flat our refused to do it(he thought he would look dumb with a puppy tied to him, but who cares - its only for a couple of weeks).

As far as leash walking, sorry cant help you there - we never had that issue here. May be you need better treats? One thing our trainer did to teach the puppy to stay on your left, and you can probably do it to get him to walk: take a long stick (~2ft), or one of those "back scratching arms", and put a good spoon-ful of peanut butter on it. Hold it in front of puppy with your left hand to keep him walking on your left side. I am yet to see a dog that doesn't like PB to follow it.

OK, was that long enough for you?

hang in there, and take lots of pics of your ANGEL. Before you know it , he will be big, and you will wish you took more pics.

[ 12-18-2006, 03:38 PM: Message edited by: Leningradka ]

 

[TerriW]

....hope you don't get a Ben... when I would turn my back on him, the boy would GOOSE me big-time. I was so annoyed with him the first few months of his life! Come to think of it, I still am quite a bit!

 

[Ivoryudx]

Yes, its possible for a boy to lift his leg at that young age to pee on something. I've got one at my house, that did it, and I had A LOT of people tell me I was just imagining it.

To be honest, he has been my biggest challenge, a very dominant boy, but with A LOT of work on my part, mutual respect and understanding, he has come full circle and is a real love.

I highly suggest you find a very good behaviorist, more than a Obedience Trainer, to help you get off on the right foot with your boy. Getting the proper tools applied to his behaviors right now, will go a long way as he goes into being an adolescent - obnoxious teenager. Just don't give up on him, and when one thing doesn't work, find something else. They all learn differently, and there are a million ways to teach them proper behavior becoming a Newf.

 

[blstarke]

Terri, you know that you couldn't part with Gentle Ben

 

[amyk]

I remember the mouthing being very bad also. And each time Eloise would mouth me with those sharp puppy teeth I'd let out a completely wounded cry to let her know she was hurting me, and then redirect her to a toy. And it took a lot longer than I thought it would and it seemed like it would never end, but it did. I still have jeans with holes in the bottoms from where she grabbed on and wouldn't let go! lol So that is definitely very normal.

As for peeing in the house, totally normal, he has no idea yet that he should pee outside. Just keep him on a schedule where anytime he's in his crate take him out immediately after coming out. I used to actually pick Eloise up so she wouldn't pee from the crate door to the back door. And also anytime they eat or drink, take them out immediately after. And whenever they do go outside praise like crazy, just make it like it's the most fun thing you could ever do! lol You'll look like a crazy person to your neighbors but the puppy will learn that peeing outside is just the greatest thing in the world! haha!! Make sure he's going out a lot if he's not in the crate and don't leave him in the crate longer than a few hours. They can't hold it for very long.

But all sounds like normal puppy stuff! After a few weeks you'll have a much better handle on his schedule. And Judi Adler's book is the best!! Good luck!!

 

[SheilaT]

Don't get discouraged. Had the same issues with Angus, especially the biting and leash walking. At first, I had to pick him up and carry him away from the house, saying let's go the whole time. I also had a handful of cheese cubes (his favorite treat). When I put him down and he started walking with me, I'd praise him and give him a cheese cube. I didn't care about the left side at first, I just wanted him to walk at all! Tried luring him with treats, still wouldn't leave the front of our house. Had to pick him up and get the house out of direct sight. Luckily, this only lasted a week. Then I would just say let's go, show him the cheese and he'd follow a few steps, then sit down. I'd say let's go, pull the leash a bit, show him the cheese, and he'd get up and walk a few more steps. Some days it took us 10 minutes to get past the driveway, but each day it got better. Patience patience. Now, he sits pretty while I put his collar and leash on and get the handful of cheese cubes. I say let's go and he's right next to me, looking at my handful of cheese. Now he only gets his cheese when I stop and he sits, either on command, or he's starting to do it automatically. He's also walking mostly on my left...that's where the cheese is! We had a few very stressful weeks, but now it's a joy to walk him and he's 14 weeks old. The biting...saying no bite and taking my hands away, ignoring him is finally working. And the teeth marks on my hands and wrists are healing! I ignored his growls except the two times he was food aggressive. Once, I just took the food away and turned my back to him until he laid down, then I returned the food and stood in front of it, refusing to let him have it, until he laid down, then I said okay and let him have it back. Another time I had to put him in a submissive position until he calmed down, because he actually growled and snapped at my hand when I went near his face while he had a turkey neck. He's never been food aggressive since. I can reach down and he'll drop whatever food he has and walk away until I say it's okay. Now we have to work on jumping up when I come home and the bark bark bark!

I know i've rambled on, but I've been there, Carmela, and can tell you it will probably get better. Angus has proven to be a very smart pup and with brains comes the will to test my leadership. Just like my kids!

Keep us posted. Sheila T.

 

[Largo]

My Bartlett lifted his leg at that age also. Ivoryudx gives you some good advice.

 

[NessaM]

We had potty parties every time Nanook would go to the bathroom outside. Jumping around, cheering, waving arms, smiling huge, and making lots of happy noises. I'm sure we looked like complete lunatics out in our backyard at 5 in the morning dancing around making noises that wounded weasels wouldn't make - but it worked. Eventually.

I also kept a daily potty log that tracked when he did what, and whether or not he had any accidents. It was really more for my benefit than for his, because it allowed me to see that for every accident he had inside, he was correctly going to the bathroom outside much, much more! But it also helped me keep him on a potty schedule, because I could look at the log and see, "oh shoot! the last time we went out was two hours ago! aaaaah! get to the door!"

 

[Lore]

Shiraz got treats and the happy dance each time he went outside. He got nothing if he went inside, just got taken out. He figured it out pretty quickly.

One additional tip regarding the bitter apple. MAKE SURE he doesn't relate the bad taste to the spray bottle. Shiraz got so that he dreaded spray bottles because he knew that the bad stuff that went on the leash came from there. Try spraying detangler on him after that! It has taken a lot of work to get him to stand still within sight of spray bottles!

 

[Brinks' Mom]

Thankyou everyone for your advice so far. It made me SO HAPPY to see that my little boy isn't starting out so different from all of yours. It helps to know that I'm not the only one who has to carry the almost 30 pound baby down the driveway to get him to want to walk away from the yard. I plan on getting some of those cheese cubes tomorrow. I can't use the peanut butter because my son is highly allergic to peanuts and I don't want to take the chance on Brinks licking him afterwards. We do have a good time when we are out in the yard though. When he's in the mood that is. Running around with the soccer ball is his favorite and picking up every single stick he could find. EVERY SINGLE ONE. He really makes us laugh and it's only been one week. I sit on the floor and start singing "I love you more today than yesterday...but not as much as tomorrow" and he climbs onto my lap, gives my hand a kiss and then starts the biting ceremony..lol. We'll keep working on that and I know that sooner or later I'll get more kisses and less 2 hole punches in my hand. Boy those teeth sure are sharp. Unless it's my singing so off key that makes him bite me so much..lolol

I put a little yogurt on his Canidae tonight and boy did he eat it like there was no tomorrow. Can't use that trick everyday though, right? or can I?

 

[Brody the Newf]

It took Brody a long time to enjoy his walks. I had to bribe him to follow me and then we'd go a little more every day. I'm super stict with having him walk well on a leash. He's never allowed to pull on the leash starting from the first day we got him. If he did, I'd stop dead in my tracks and I'd only move if the leash was slack. It's paid off because Brody is Psycho Dog but he never pulls on his leash.

The only thing that helps Brody stop biting (trust me, we have tried everything) is giving him something to carry. He's obsessed with needing to hold onto things and if he doesn't have something, he'll improvise with our limbs or our clothing.

Brody is 8 months old today and we still don't have a leg lift.

 

[TerriW]

I feed yogurt almost every day. I don't know if there is a limit; I just don't give them much. I have also heard that it 'sours' as it digests, making them less likely to (ahem) eat their own doo-doo. Some pups do!

Yes, a pup can bite like a little fiend, and then grow up to be the kindest dog you can imagine. And peeing on a towel - well, that is probably where he peed when he was with his mommy. There may have been an old community towel in the whelping box or crate area, so he is associating peeing with the towel (what a smart boy!). I once had a dog that I paper trained to go potty - what a mistake. He would come inside to pee, then go back out to play!

 

[Prdmary]

I second Susan's recommendation about the behaviorist.

Brenda Aloff has a pretty good DVD out with some things that I think would help you called Fundamentals: Foundation Training for Every Dog

http://www.brendaaloff.com/booksdvds.asp

Oh, and how far are you walking him? Be careful not to expect too much from a 11 wk old.

[ 12-19-2006, 09:35 AM: Message edited by: Prdmary ]

 

[Brinks' Mom]

thank you for the link....

We walk him 2 blocks in the morning then its just play time in the afternoon in the backyard with a little training. I'm following the Judy Adler training for puppies. Is that too much? He seems ok with the morning walk once we get past the driveway. And boy does he pick up speed when we turn around and start making our way back home. Gotta get those cheese cubes to get him to walk past the house without me carrying him..lol

 

[Pam G]

I didn't walk my pups outside of the yard until they had completed the puppy shots..which was around 16 weeks. Brinks is still such a baby, I wouldn't take him on leash walks yet.

 

[Brinks' Mom]

ohhhh..ok Thank you for the advice and the heads up. I guess we're so excited to do things with him, I thought we needed to walk him a little bit for some exercize and getting used to walking with a leash. He gets his last shot next week but here is something else I need some input on.....Breeder said not to give rabies shot until he is 6 months old?? They said to give him a chance to build up his immune system. what are thoughts and experience on that?? Will he be ok around other dogs and outside without the shot??

 

[TerriW]

I wouldn't take him around other dogs, no. And you can get him used to leashes by walking him around the yard that way.

 

[Brinks' Mom]

Hmmmm....well all of puppy kindergarten classes say dog must have all of the vaccinations so I guess that rules them out. I did send an email for someone who comes to the house (no response yet) but I guess what I need to do is get a handler/trainer. I think???

We do walk him around the yard with the leash. Some walks with and some without. My husband gets lazy at the 2am and 5am walks so he lets Brinks go without the leash and they come right back in after he's done doing his "thing".

So what do you think about the waiting 6 months to a 1 year for the Rabies vaccine. I'm assuming you need all vaccines in order to "show". Not sure why breeder would say wait that long. Maybe I'm confused or in "puppy love" and not thinking straight. One thing I do know is that Breeder said to wait up till 1 year or 6 months minimum.

Breeder also said to feed puppy RAW but I read that alot of you don't for the first year. So many things to sort out....