New Puppy - need training advice!

[CarreraS2]

I'll

[Victor]

Our dog was already about 6 months old when we got her so most of these issues where ironed out. Must say dpg obedience classes where a godsend though.

Wait untill Tabs chimes in - he knows about this sort of stuff. Helped me cure my dog's nasty digging habit.

[jcc911]

I was in the same situationas you three years ago when I purchased my Britney, Maverick. Anyway, when it comes to crying at night, it is best to let him/her wimper. Every time you go there you condition the dog to understnd that crying will make you come to them.
Two things that I did which really healped was 1 to have a clock that ticks next to thier bed as this is supposed to simulate thier mothers heartbeat. Also what I did was I purchased a fleece blanket and gave it to the breeder to allow the mother to lay on this for a week before I picked him up. I know this is too late for you but it may be a good idea if you still can rub a blanket on the mother enough to get some scent on it and then give that to your pup.
These two things really helped me and my dog slept through the second night.

I did it alittle differently in that I "crate" trained my pup. I also was lucky in that the breeder would diretcly carry the pups from their box to outside so they quickly learned that grass was for "going" on. A dog usually does not go to the bathroom where they sleep and that is why crate training works well. The most important aspect of this is to never use this "kennel" as a place for punnishmnet. My father used to do this to our dog, and that dog hated his kennel and would get pissed if we tried to place them in there. However my dog goes in there on his own whenever he odes not want to lay on his pillow and just wants to be away. For him, it is a place of safety and comfort.

I would continue to slowly introdue her more children so that becomes more comfortable around them. Praise is important. Also as a pup, a dog is trying to figure out how she fits into the heirarchy of the family. She will "challenge" you and others in your family. In this case it is important to inforce who is the boss or the humans and who is the dog. I am sure that thier personality has a lot to do with it as well. My dog has challenged me a few times, but as long as I remained firm, he always listens.

I hope some of this info helps, Good Luck and Congrats!

[Ronbo]

Lots of patience is needed at this point, because as you pointed out the dog is most likely frightened at the new surroundings. Give the dog a lot of rewards for doing things "the right way", and above all make sure to teach your son to go slow with the dog and treat it gently at first.

[claptrap]

I sure could use help on the digging, we have a 6 year old Griffon that just recently started digging up the back yard.

For number 1, I would suggest you have only your son feed the dog, they seem to bond to the person that feeds them.

For number 3, we use a dog door that fits into the rear sliding glass door so the dogs can go out to the back yard whenever they need to. If it's already paper trained your way ahead. But if you catch it going in the house, the only time you can scold and correct them is if you catch them in the act, otherwise they don't know why their being scolded.

Number 2 and 4, I don't have any suggestions, only that they'll both probably go away in time.

Scott

[rrpjr]

What breed?

Shyness. Vet was correct about over-exposure to other dogs before shots but take dog in car and expose him to sights and sounds. Keep it easy but constant.

Not big on dog training classes. But with shy dog, classes can be good for socialization.

Most dogs bond primarily with one person. That’s just the way it is. However, suggest your son feed the dog its meals and take it out for its bathroom breaks.

Crying at night. Under no circumstances respond to the crying. In fact, if you want to establish patterns of good house behavior early, crate train the dog. That is, dog is in crate at night and when you go out and only gets house privileges when you are there. Dog may put up a fuss during crate training, but again, cannot give in to this. You’re ruined if you do. Crates are not cruel. A dog is den animal and ends up becoming very fond of a crate.

One tip: don’t ever use your dog’s name when scolding. That is, "Fido, bad dog." When dog misbehaves, use only “bad” or “no” and change tone of voice. Dog's name should be reserved only for positive experiences.

Buy The Monks of New Skete’s “How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend.”

Claptrap: dog digs because it is bored. This dog needs more challenges and rigorous companionship.

Cheers.

[jcc911]

Good point about having your son feed the dog.
Another thing that I remembered is at a very young age get your dog used to your family members touching all of their body parts. What I mean by this is since day one, I would inspect my pups ears, feet, teeth, etc. By doing this every day I am now able to touch him with freaking out of thinking that I am going to do something to hurt him. This really helps after I have had him running around all day in a field, that when he is done he will sit and allow me to check for cuts, burs, thorns, etc.
Another thing I learned is to get your dog to trust you. This I did with treats, chews, etc. During the first few months I would offer treats, and then gently take it away while saying, "let me see" and they imeediately giving it back.
This sounds wierd, but I think it helped to establish this trust and show him that I did not want to take anything from him. BEcause of this, I can remove treats or bones from his mouth and he will not bite me because he understands that I will give it back. The same holds true with his food. Again praise is very important.

[island911]

Teach your son how to feed the dog.

[D'STARGA]

Absolutely get a dog crate and crate train!!! It will make your life alot easier. It allows the dog a safe place to get away and have a quiet place to sleep/relax. It will also help a bit with the potty trianing. The other plus is it makes transportation so much easier and cleaner. I would also have your son feed the dog all its meals. You can also have you son be incharge of all the walking/playtime the puppy will need.
For the shyness take the puppy every where you can. It will really help socialize the dog. The more expierences the dog gets the better.

Claptrap, For the digging you can cut one nail on each front paw just a hair too short. (down to the quick) this really won't hurt the dog but it will make it uncomfortable for them to dig. But if you can't bring yourself to that find your dog a new interesting high energy hobby. Maybe a little agility course work or some field work. Aren't Griffons pointing/hunting dogs? I use alot of fetch and field quartering/and pointing work on my GWP. My lab just requires endless fetch. Then they sleep most of the day.

[Jims5543]

Get some training from a good dog trainer if you are looking for obedience. 80% of the training is training the owner and not the dog.

I laughed at a BBC show where a dog trainer used their techniques on these womans husbands. My wife and I both laughed because we both knew proper dog training is mostly the owner. So while the show, the trainer (I have to wonder about their credentials) and the wife all thought the joke was on the husband, it was actually on the wife. She was being trained and didn't even know it. I especially loved when one husband commented his wife was nicer to him and was doing things for him all of the sudden. Who got trained? Not the husband.

The dog will react to how you act towards it. Its learning the proper way to react to and interact with the dog that you will learn from a trainer.

We used an accredited Schutzhund trainer for our Choc. Lab. it was very affective and the dog was 100% more responsive. If we are in a situation where I need her to be still I can engage her and she will look me in the eye until I release her. She is not attack trained just obediance trained. She is rusty now but if I work with her she is superb on a leash stays right at my left knee with her shoulders and keeps an eye on me. I stop she sits I walk she walks. It blows peoples minds when they see how good she is.

[juanbenae]

did the PPI check out?

[claptrap]

The Griffon is indeed a pointer, and the hunting instinct is strong in both Charlie and Lily, especially the one that digs, Lily. We had chickens that roam the property, and the dogs focus on them as they walked by the screen door was incredible to see.

If I remember right, sometimes the only way to tell the difference between a GWP and a WPG was the color of the nose? They are great dogs.

What I suspect is happening is that we have gophers and Lily is digging to get at them. Lily's sense of hearing and smell are incredible so she knows they're there. I don't think they are missing any attention, they are with us all day long, as well as sleeping on my bed, and Charlie and Lily are inseperable friends, they have each other to play with. Bored possibly when we are out running errands. These are good insights and suggestions on understanding and curbing digging, thanks to both of you.

Scott

[Adam]

I posted about my new English Beagle pup back in April. Turns out he was a lot younger than I was told (I think he was approx 5 weeks old!).





Understandably, he cried a lot at night. I found the best thing was to wrap a hot-water bottle in a towel and put it in his bed, along with a large hand-wound clock (loud ticking is supposed to remind them of their Mom's heart) and a small transistor radio set to a talk/news channel for background noise. After a few nights he really settled down, but the first night was terrible - he ended up sleeping in our bed, but didn't make a mess and was quiet and happy.

He's well past all of that now and has since grown into a monster! He's almost 20kg now (44lbs!), but I expect he's pretty much fully-grown. I'll have to help him watch his weight - he doesn't so much chew his food... infact, I wonder if it even touches the sides on the way down.



Very obedient - knows lots of tricks and behaves well. Even off-lead in the park, he's a good dog. Get your son to spend as much time as possible with her - trust will be earned and she'll start to understand him.

I tell my dog to do all kinds of stuff, and amazingly, he seems to know exactly what I'm on about... most of the time.

[Adam]

Oh - get her used to travelling in the car as soon as you can. I didn't and early on, had to endure countless urinations (layers and layers of old towells) and crying/barking. Thank god for company cars!

Now, he sticks his head out the window and loves every minute of each trip we take. He loves being off-lead on the beach, too. If you have a local lake, take her down to play fetch and let her swim out to retrieve while your son stands on the bank and keeps her busy.

Take a camera - good times ahead!

[masraum]

We got a new dog a few months ago. I use something that read in a dog training book a while back. I hug a bell on the wall by the back door. Everytime we let the dog out to go potty we ring the bell. Now when the dog has to go she rings the bell to tell us that she needs to go, no barking, scratching on the door, or jumping on the door.

For animals that are nervous, especially around young kids. Often kids are excited and try to pet, touch, pick up dogs. If the dog is nervous this just makes it more so. Have your son sit and ignore the dog, not look at it or try to touch it, just let the dog approach and smell your son without any action from your son. Kid's are often "aggressive" in their excitement and nervous dogs don't really like that much.

To socialize more take the dog someplace with lots of people like a park or something. First sit away from the people so the dog can see them, but they don't approach the dog. Then start getting closer so the dog can more slowly get used to the people.

[vash]

cute!!!!

[masraum]

what a cutey. Dachshund? My sister in law used to show miniature dapple dachshunds. She only recently stopped and still has about 4 or 5 cute dogs.

[addictionMS]

good info and links at

www.k9partnership.com

Jim

[speeder]

Oh God, I love long-haired Daschunds!! It is the next dog I would get, if I could have two. They are very cute and sweet, but definitely timid. They are acutely aware of their defenselessness against other creatures, you must protect her from traumatic experiences at this point in time or you will have a very fearful dog. The flip side is that they are great people dogs, if you raise her right you will have a loyal pet.

Puppies generally hate kids, (or tolerate them at best), because the kids handle them too much and not very gently. Have your son ignore her as much as possible, (I know that won't be easy), and him putting the food out is not a bad idea.

The Monks of New Skeete book is good. I bought it when I got my first GS dog years ago, but it does not apply very well to a mini Daschund IMO. They are dogs that need to be protected, really carry-around dogs. They absolutely cannot and should not be expected to hold their own in the dog world, ie. thrown together w/ large dogs.

Your vet is 100% correct w/ the advice about not having ANY contact w/ other dogs until the full series of vacine shots are done. The puppy is not vacinated until that time, and Parvo is everywhere in SoCal. It is an horrific and preventable thing when a puppy catches it, I've seen it happen and it is heart breaking. Not worth the risk.

On a related note, socialization is important, but not at 11 weeks. Establish a safe micro-world for the dog and bond w/ it at this point, socialize later. (Between 6 mos. to 1 year). Not the best dog for a rough and tumble young boy, (very cute kid BTW), but it can work out. Give it time and remember that thing is a baby, even Rambo was crying and sucking a nipple once upon a time.