Shamad

Hello, thanks for the replies. Faolmir, I will try to do the timeout thing, though I've read that the crate was always meant to be something special, a place for her to feel happy and safe - is there any problem with using it as a punishment? Do you (or anyone else) have any thoughts on this? Thank you for the suggestion though, I've always read that ignoring her is a better way of correcting her than paying her attention in any way - so a time out might work really well. Settylvr, thanks for the reply, but it would be helpful if you could make a few more specific suggestions. I've not had a puppy before, when she is misbehaving how should I correct that? What works now is for me to loudly say 'Ah-Uh', generally as long as there are no other big distractions, she stops what she's doing. I get the feeling from your comments that this is a stupid thing to do - that's fine I'm definitely no expert, but what should I do instead? As for keeping her in the bathroom when I'm out, this is mainly to protect the house from her attacking furniture out of boredom. It's also to keep her cool as the tiles seem to keep her happy during the heat. Is there a better option that I'm not thinking of? Giving up university and becoming a full time puppy carer is unfortunately not an option, so I will need to put her somewhere.

Its been about three weeks now and I have more quesions :D Suki really is a good dog, and I'm over the moon at the way she's turned out. She's taken to the crate very well and we've not had a single accident during the night. At the moment she's 9 weeks and we're letting her go about 6 hours during the night before we wake her up to go wee outside. She's also starting to respect us when we yell at her if she does something naughty. My questions are about how to handle her when she gets super extreme naughty and wont concentrate on what we say. For example, I've had to go back to uni this week which means she's being left in the bathroom, with her crate in there (with the door open). When she gets home, she's pretty excited and goes nuts. She will also go nuts whenever she's wet and drying off (she's fallen in the pool and also whenever we wash her). She bites and barks at us, she chases the other dog (Mickey) around until he snaps at her and she wont listen when she's yelled at (in fact often she choses to run crazy around the room instead of listening to us). Obviously, she's a puppy and that's cool, I understand that, but at the same time I want to be sure I'm not creating problems for the future. How should I handle things when she goes crazy? Can anyone offer any advice?

We have named our new shitsu puppy (who has just hit 8 weeks) Suki and it seems that with the new name she's developed a mischievous personality to go with it. Having never had a puppy before I have many questions, so I hope its ok to list them here. The number one query I have is about the level of supervision I give her. She's getting alot better with the toilet training and she goes five or six hours throughout the night in her crate before I let her outside. She's also starting to wait at the door during the day before we let her out to toilet - so in that respect she's doing very well (although still has the odd accident). However, I've read that its very important to watch them *all the time* that they're not in their crate and now that she's suddenly begun exploring the house that's become much more difficult. Where before she was happy to sit with me now she's desperate for attention and will explore the entire house and get into mischief. Some people have encouraged me to just leave her be whereas other things I've read tell me to stay nearby all the time. Obviously, there are going to be some practical problems with me hovering around her whenever she wants to go explore - at some point I need to do my own thing Another issue is with her biting / chewing. While I can easily ignore her when she bites me too hard (and this works well) I'm not sure if I should ignore her when she's chewing shoes / furniture etc. I've read that there are some sprays that will use taste to stop her chewing items in the short term but I'd prefer to do something else if possible. At the moment i've been slack and turned a blind eye to her chewing thongs (I justify it by telling myself it will keep the floor free of people's thongs ) but I get the feeling I should do something. Then again she's supposedly teething at the moment - will she grow out of it? Last question - while I have many more I know this is getting too long - She will be going to puppy preschool soon I believe and while she's getting the hang of the 'sit' and 'drop' commands - I'm not sure if there's other prep I should be doing to teach her that I'm the master. So for example, I've read some people use this 'triangle of temptation' method, is it too early for that? Others have managed to somehow teach the dog to sit before playtime / foodtime etc etc. Is this something I should be looking at doing at her age? If so, how? heh. I apologise for the long post - if these Q/A sessions arent really welcome I'll save my Q's for puppy preschool ;)

I'd be interested in another seminar.. Probably cant commit to anything until I have a better idea of location / costs though

Sorry - I understand that pics are pretty much compulsary around here

I am the proud owner of a seven week old Shitzu / Lhaso puppy. She's very cute - but this is my first puppy and I have alot of questions. I was thinking about making the one thread and just replying with more questions whenever I come up with them - but I'm also having trouble with a name for her. So until I come up with a name hopefully no one will mind another 'Generic Puppy Questions' thread. -- 1. The puppy belongs to my girlfriend and I and it currently stays in a sharehouse with us. All of the people that stay in the house are very loving and I have no fears that they will mistreat the puppy - quite the opposite. Unfortunately different people treat the puppy in different ways and I'm worried there is going to be no consistency with the puppy's training. Does anyone have any experience in this kind of situation - and how did you deal with it? I'm kind of looking for some concrete rules that I can tell them - but it's very difficult as I have no experience with puppys really and we're all playing by ear. 2. There is one other dog in the house already, an adult Shitzu / Maltese who is incredibly submissive. Unfortunately, while we thought that the new pup and he would be great friends - its been a week and he's still terrorfied of the new puppy. We've tried to socialise them but he just runs away from the pup. If we hold onto him, or put them both in a confined space (like the bathroom) then the older dog (Mickey) either uncomfortably sits in the corner or bares his fangs at the pup. He's also tried to bite her when he gets cornered. I'm not really sure what to do as he's obviously afraid and I dont like forcing him, but at the same time everything I've read says its important to socialise them. 3. When it comes to toilet training, she's doing pretty well - but I do have some questions. Unfortunately, sometimes she doesnt poo when I think she should. Should I just wait until she waits at the door or squats, or should I persist and try to make her poo? She's pretty good with wees and will at least always try to wee when we take her outside - but for some reason she really doesnt seem to poo very often. It's currently nearly four hours after she ate and still nothing.