styles

Hi there! I am both new to these message boards as well as owning a dog and just wanted some general advice, how I could improve her living conditions, work on some training etc, and whether or not I'm even doing a good job so far. I bought my little girl, Zara, a beautiful Pomeranian x Shih Tzu, about a month and a half ago at 9 weeks old. She will be mainly an outdoor dog, but have complete access to an indoor living area... my house is two stories with our living area being upstairs. Downstairs (access is via outdoor stairs) is pretty much a carpeted, spare apartment that is used mainly for storage -- this leads directly to the yard, both cement and grass, which is why she will have access to both inside the apartment and to the entire yard. Hope this doesn't sound too confusing, but I'm trying to explain it to the best of my ability. The first three weeks or so she slept with me at night and I left her downstairs while I was out, with the door closed so she was locked in as she was still just a baby. While I was at home she was constantly with me and followed me everywhere (she still does, and whines when she loses sight of me, haha). Day by day I slowly started putting her in a crate at night in the kitchen for a few nights; she cried at first but eventually stopped whining and settled for the night. She now sleeps freely in her open crate in the apartment downstairs. Now I leave the doors to the apartment open during the day so she roams freely between the two as she pleases, and close her in at night. Generally she seems to be happy. She's very active and energetic, is always happy to see me to the point she nearly trips over herself from excitement. I have plenty of toys to keep her occupied, she has lots and lots of space to explore, and I wrap a hot water bottle in her blanket every night that she snuggles with in her crate. I don't keep her with me constantly when I'm at home (I'm only gone from the house the entire day 2 days a week due to uni, during which I make sure she has plenty of food and water to last) so she can adapt at being on her own. Daytime it's about half with me half on her own, and night time she's usually with me, either in my arms as she loooves being held or chilling next to me on the couch while I do work; she plays and plays and then eventually falls asleep beside me, and I take her down to sleep when I go to bed. The main things I'm worried about are: - Excessive nipping/biting/obedience. I've done a ton of research and tried every single method I have read days on end, with little results. I tried yelping like a hurt puppy, which seemed to work the first few times but then just gave me this look like, 'you are not a dog, don't fool me' and went back to gnawing my fingers. I NEVER tolerate her biting. Every time her mouth comes in contact with my hand and I feel her teeth, I've always pulled away, replaced my hand with toys, said stern words, and nothing. She is very cheeky and doesn't seem to understand when she is doing something wrong. I've tried placing her in the bath tub for a minute or two when she's too naughty, tried turning my back, tapping her nose, holding her away from me, and nothing seems to work. - Toilet training. She knows to pee & poop in the grass outside and has her favourite spots. But she only seems to do her business outside when I am with her. When she's alone, or overnight inside, I constantly see little pee puddles and little turds inside. She may be doing this once the sun goes down and is too afraid to go outside, I don't know. She has peed on the couch and in my bed once when I walked away and she sneakily let loose, but for the most part if I am with her she starts fidgeting, whining and jiggling her back legs when she wants to go, and I immediately take her out. I've tried using pee pads indoors but they're a bit of a hit & miss - sometimes she does her business on them and sometimes she doesn't. Need to work on that. - Crying & excessive barking. She doesn't cry and whine TOO much that it's a constant problem, but she is definitely on the sulkier side. She is definitely at her happiest in my arms and being carried. If I leave the room and she is on the couch and can't get down to follow, she'll cry until I get back unless she's sleepy -- then she just curls up and goes back to sleep. Every time I leave her downstairs (she's too little to climb the stairs yet), she sits and whines for a few minutes, runs back indoors and eventually stops. I minimise the amount of time she is on her own if I've been out most of the day, or if she cries and howls incessantly which she *sometimes* does, then I either stay down with her or bring her up. Her barking isn't excessive -- at least, while I'm home it doesn't seem to be. Sometimes it's constant for a good 15 minutes but she eventually stops. As she's a small breed, I know the barking is a given, I just hope it doesn't continue too much as she never barked when I first brought her home (probably because she hadn't yet discovered she could make these wondrous sounds). - Creating mess/ruining the garden/digging holes. I know puppies are destructive little terrors, but I'm wondering if there's a way to keep the mess to a minimum. She constantly chews on leaves and flowers and grass, which is normal, but she drags them all inside on the carpeted floor and just makes a mess of everything inside. And one part of my father's garden she just loooves rolling around in -- should I fence this off? I'm not sure how else to keep her out of it as it's level with the grass area. As for holes, she isn't too much of a digger thank goodness, there is only one little corner of the grass that has lots of dirt that somehow fascinates her and she digs there. But I want to keep this controlled so she doesn't start digging up the entire garden -- any advice on how? My parents are still not convinced that having her is a good idea -- they're currently overseas, so when they get back she will have more company while I'm out. But she needs to be obedient and well behaved if I'm going to ultimately be able to keep her, but nothing seems to work. I want to take her to puppy training classes but can't afford them just yet. Am I giving her too much freedom? I tried leashing her once in the yard and she cried and whined but eventually stopped and just continued playing and fell asleep. Should I section off a puppy area in the indoor area downstairs? I don't want to though as she loves being in the grass and yard. So sorry for this massive post. If anyone bothers to read through it all, I'd really appreciate any advice/tips you could give me!! :)