New Puppy Mayhem

[Mogda]

7 days ago my son and I bought a Labrador retriever puppy. She is 10 weeks old now. I am having trouble with knowing how to help her to live a less destructive and somewhat more peaceful inside life with us. It has been an intense 7days with very limited sleep. It is 24hrs of every day consists of stopping her from eating through electric cords, lounges, doors, chairs, remote controls, phones and basically anything she can fit her mouth around. She has ripped our clothes, badly bitten fingers and scratched our arms, legs and faces.

I take her outside regularly and she has a good play. I play with her inside with plenty of toys but she cannot be left alone at any stage. I am on a 34hr shift with her and its exhausting.

She is also completely confused about toilet training as she refuses to go whilst outside and holds on until we get back inside. I take her our on all the normal queues after sleeps, playing, eating drinking etc. But she always waits until back inside. On the few times she has actually gone to the toilet outside I have given her a treat and really praised her, but it has only been a couple of times as for some reason she has got it all back to front.

Could you please help me with some ideas to help. I am happy to work hard to help her become a good dog, and its not just being lazy and expecting it to just happen. But I am absolutely exhausted and completely overwhelmed just seeking some help.

I have registered her for a puppy school starting on the 23rd November.

Thanks for you time and look forward to any help out there.

[persephone]

Ok.. first thing.

if you have a toddler in the house? You usually put away dangerous/forbidden items /use a playpen /have said toddler in one room with you ... puppies are similar :)

a puppy pen will be a godsend for you !

Puppy school won't really help with the chewing etc ....

here are some topics and pages which discuss these sorts of problems , and may be very helpful for you.

LINK

LINK

LINK

LINK

[Mogda]

HI and thanks for your info. I think I may have just replied to you but new to these forms so let me know if I hadn't sent it properly.

[wuffles]

I hear you. I have a 14 week old Aussie Shepherd puppy whom we call "The Tasmanian Devil" ;)

As pers says, a puppy pen and/or crate has been a lifesaver for us. Epic has a pen in the living room and a crate in the lounge room. He's never, ever unsupervised in the house as he'll steal and eat anything that's not nailed down. When we can supervise, he's confined to one room (eg. lounge). There's nothing within reach that he can get his teefies around, but he will still have a go at the coffee table, dog bed, etc. In that case he's given an "uh uh" and redirected. You can redirect to a toy or chewie. We found that redirecting to a toy got him extra excited, so a redirect for us is to encourage him to lie down on one of the dog beds where he's given soft praise and calm pats. You'll have to find what works for your pup. If you are going to tell her not to do something, just make sure you give her an alternative that you WANT her to offer :)

As far as mouthing you and your clothes go, there are a few methods you can try but the key is consistency. Choose one that you are comfortable with. You can just redirect each time. Or you can use a high pitched "yelp" to let the pup know she has hurt you. Or you can use a harsher method such as placing your finger on the roof of her mouth and pushing. Just be sure that the method suits the temperament of your pup (my first pup was very soft natured so I would have never considered the third method for her but this new pup has a very different temperament). I always make sure I encourage an alternate behaviour (eg. sit) and give praise/pats/food for the behaviour I do want.

Toilet training... if you decide to use a crate or pen, this may help. I've not had any issues as my dogs follow a routine of in and out and are happy to do their business outside on the grass.

Edit: I just wanted to add, it is normal to feel overwhelmed. Puppies are so different in their individual needs and some are much harder than others!!! The first few weeks are really hard. We have only just started to see a nice improvement in Epic's behaviour in the past week or two and even then it's just flickers. Still a long way to go :)

Edited November 17, 2013 by wuffles

[Mogda]

Hi and thanks. Yes we have had a crate loaned to us and she has been going in there sometimes for little naps but no closing the door at this stage as she howls and barks. I will be buying a play pen tomorrow for sure. I keep the crate in the lounge room where I am sleeping at present to keep an eye on her as she doesn't sleep much at night. With toileting she goes out very regularly but will almost always hang-on to go until we get back inside.Unfortunately she has it back to front at this stage. I am buying some sort of scent spray tomorrow to hopefully unmark the places she returns to go to most times.

[kelpiecuddles]

You mention that she howls and barks in the crate. What do you do if she howls/barks? If you are going to her every time she carries on in the crate then she is simply learning that to be let out she should bark, she's training YOU!

[Mogda]

Ha yes you're right I'm sure. I was responding because today really is the first day she has actually been going in to the crate and have little sleeps and I thought it maybe too soon to push with the closed door scenario? I thought possibly that if I used the closed crate thing too soon she may star to see the crate as a bad place.

I'm inexperienced I'm afraid with puppies as it has been 15 years since we last had a pup. With only other males in the house and the youngest being 18, they are 'unable' to 'cope' with the crying and barking. So trying to appease everyone and keep the pup quite and settled.

[kelpiecuddles]

You need to tell the men in the house to suck it up. This is your chance to raise your pup right from the start and stuffing it up now because the blokes were being whingey is only going to make things harder down the track. 3-4 days and you should have the howling back under control, very time you give in you are taking the process right back to the start and making it worse again.

[Mogda]

Silly statement saying "keep the pup quite and settled" it should have said. . . trying as much as is possible, with a healthy and normal 10 wk old puppy to be quite and settled.

[Mogda]

Yes true. So I suppose if I'm say just upstairs for a little while getting changed or cleaning teeth etc. puppy should be safe in closed crate?

[Mogda]

Yes true. So I suppose if I'm say just upstairs for a little while getting changed or cleaning teeth etc. puppy should be safe in closed crate?

[Mogda]

My connections playing up today so sorry for two same posts but it says the connections down and so I resend the post.

[wuffles]

Yep we have had some God awful tanties in the crate and pen at my house ;) It does improve when they realise it doesn't work.

[minimax]

Training to use the crate is also more effective than just shutting in the crate, especially if pup isn't happy about being on there :)

[Mogda]

Hi to all who have offered advice so far. I have resurfaced to have a few minutes to go on the laptop to ask a quick question and to update how the pup and I are progressing. . . or not progressing.

I am still experiencing maybe 4 totally crazy periods with the pup absolutely off the air! These crazy sessions last from as little as 30 mins and can be up to 4 hrs, as it was last night.

In the crazy sessions she continually bites, rips anything she can grab on the bites, grabs onto shoes as you walk jumping and biting. Barking at any attempt to discipline. We try the yelping, growling redirecting to toys and finally put on the leash to take outside. Outside is no help when shes in one of these periods as she does the exact same thing and hates the leash; she has almost eaten through it at this stage.

I have not been able to take her for an extensive walk as she refuses either just sits and wont budge, or she grabs the leash in her mouth attempting to pull and direct me to where she wants to go.

The toileting is still rather haphazard as most of the time she sees outside as play and inside her place to go to the toilet.

Sleeping at night hasn't much improved either as she normally wont go off to sleep until about 11pm. When she settles I have to rush around and do integral household stuff as because of the crazy periods nothing else happens apart from stopping her from ripping into myself, the furniture everything, and the other household members. I usually join her in the lounge room about 12ish to try and grab some sleep although she's usually awake again by then. I have the room nice and dark and quiet but it takes me a good hour to make her sit next to lounge calm down, lie down and go off to sleep. She wakes about 3am, I take her quietly out to go to toilet and bring her back in and repeat quite calm lie down procedure. Usually after another hour of continually pushing her back down and taking her mouth of the lounge and stopping her from ripping the fabric and scratching up the polish off the floorboards she drifts off to sleep maybe until 5.30/6am. Last night at the 3am session I had to put her on the leash as that's the only way she would stay in same place and I slept holding onto the leash, she eventually went off to sleep.

She is a very impatient pup and wont even stand still when shes going to the toilet; she has to keep trying to walk off in the middle of weeing or using her bowels. I think this describes her personality.

I have tried with treats to teach her not to do something, but she just continues to do it until I know she cant have anymore treats as she has already had too many; but nothing has changed. . . shes still doing the same thing I had been trying to teach her not to do.

RE the crate training thing I did that one night and it took me a long time to get her to settle but she did go off I suppose after about an hour of barking and howling. When she awoke a couple of hours later I took her out to toilet bought her back in and put her back into the crate, but she went so crazy thrashing wildly around squealing, yelping as she hurt herself,barking and howling I had to let her out as she thrashed her head so hard and ripped at the cage with her teeth so crazily I was concerned she was really going to injure herself badly.

She now will go nowhere near the crate; before that incident she would go into the crate voluntarily and have tiny naps.

Please excuse my long text, but I may not get another chance for a while to get back onto the laptop, and I really need some advice to try and change things around.

[Mogda]

I forgot to ask in my extensive previous post. When it is mentioned about putting the puppy in a play pen for some play time when you have to be out of the room for a little while; what type of play pen is meant? Do I buy the sort of play pen a toddler would be in with the mesh type sides? If so wouldn't the pup chew through the mesh and surrounds? Or is there a proper play pen for larger pups available to purchase?

[persephone]

Mogda .. I think that before someone gets hurt you should contact a REPUTABLE , non franchise trainer or behaviourist , who can see the pup , and the behaviour, and set you on the right path .

being in NSW, the only names I know are k9 pro .

please get some video of exactly what happens .... and maybe email it to them ? You need help beyond what you are doing.

Is the puppy's breeder available to help .. or did the pup come from a source unknown? has she had a thorough vet check?

maybe post a 'Help, good trainer name needed" post in General dog discussion? yes, trainers are listed everywhere- some cheap , and offering all sorts of guarantees ... all are not what they seem

[Mogda]

Ok thanks bushwoman. I have not spoken to the 'breeder' I bought the puppy from as I presumed he would not be of help to me as it would be the whole "let the buyer beware" and he would just say well the puppy was ok for me.

The fellow I purchased the puppy off gave me photocopies of the parents but about hip and elbow scores etc. We never got the chance to see the litter or his kennels as he would only meet us as a vantage point to view pup and purchase if we wee happy with what we saw.

My son was desperate for a puppy and this breeder was the only one that had pups available before the end of November/December xmas time.

Because my son has had a very tough year and a pup was recommended as good therapy I was keen to get that in motion to help him. I believed/hoped as his advertisement and details about his kennels were on dogzonline, and he provided copies of papers he must be legitimate.

I had mentioned to the breeder in an initial email how our last dog we had for 14 yrs was a small breed dog with small dog issues I was looking for a good quality purebred with calm and gentle personality. He came back with the picture and details of this pup and that there was much interest and we would need to make a decision.

I have started to feel some concern about the legitimacy of my purchase of this pup. I have the patience and am prepared to put in any work that's needed but I do feel that whatever I am capable of doing to help this pup become a good dog is not enough, and your suggestion re a behaviouralist is probably right.

[CellarDoor]

I 100% agree with persephone A behaviourist is the way to go, and you should definitely ask around on DOL, as there are some very experienced people on here, but from what i can see, K9Pro is a favourite :) and the best of luck too, I have a 6 year old lab and they're amazing dogs :)

[Mogda]

Thank you yes I will definitely contact K9Pro and I have emailed the pups breeder to check in with him too. Yes I am sure you are right about them being great dogs. I have never owned a Labrador myself but I have had people close to me that have owned them in the past and I know they are a beautiful dog.