happy.grl

Thanks Helen, those articles are a good read. We are doing *most* of what is there - I think my main problem is patience, or rather, lack of patience. My OH keeps reminding me that Akira is just a baby and does not know what we want him to do - we just need to keep the training going and he will eventually get it and then I'll be all

Hi Kavic, here's some pics:- Akira at 7 weeks A bit more recent Cheeky is definately the word for him - at least one of the words. Arby - thanks, we are using the AH-AH sounds as more of a discouragement when he is about to, or has just started to do something innapropriate, and we are leaving no for the more serious. I've thrown in a few Oi's as well...... can only keep trying

I have a japanese spitz. He's adorable when he goes nuts

At this stage the pup is just going to be a pet, although I would love to be able to do agility with him - the way he runs around, and under the couch and over the footrests in the backyard when he is being a spaz indicates that he would love it. I have grabbed the dog and growled no, also have tried ignoring and turning my back and have also tried leaving the room for 5 minutes but nothing is working. We have puppy school tomorrow so I hope that they will be able to give some hints for me too.

We've had our puppy for 2 weeks now. He knows sit, lets us know when he wants to go outside to do his business and will follow a target stick, which we are using to shape down at the moment. He does not look at us often, unless we have treats, food or toys in our hands, and even then he seems to look at our hands more than our eyes. He also nips a lot - NO does not really seem to register most of the time, and we have found ourselves giving him a time out in his crate when he gets in a nippy mood (this seems to happen mostly when he is tired, as when we put him in his crate he is normally asleep within 5 minutes) I am worried about using his crate for this purpose, although we do not put him there as a punishment, and always speak gently to him when we do this - could we be giving him negative associations with his crate? My question is - how much would you expect a 9 week old puppy to have learnt in this time? We normally do 10-15 very short (30 secs-1mins) sessions with him per day, we are using clicker training ATM. any suggestions on what we could be doing with im is appreciated. thanks

Hi, I'm really interested to see the answers to this as well - my 9 week old Jap nSpitz is the same, except he loves to be petted, at least when he wants it. We have a theory with the water thing though - we have a stainless steel bowl, and we think that he might be playing with the "other puppy" I'd love to hear what others might think about this??