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Originally Posted by poohbearsmom re: toilet training. Mick Trainer wrote an excellent piece on this subject, entitled "Toilet Training Explained" (to the best of my recollection) which can be found with a simple search. I urge you to read it. ;) Toilet training takes persistance, patience and eyes in the back of your head. Raising a puppy is not dissimilar from raising a human child, and if you don't have the time to do it right, then, the way I see it, you have two choices... you can return the pup to the breeder, or you can have a 100lb dog pissing and pooping all over your home, because he hasn't learned the rules (and if it reaches THIS point, you will have no one to blame but yourself) At 10weeks, he has the ability to be nearly completely house trained, if you take the time to do it.
Tug play can be a good thing, and can in fact be incorporated into training your pup - BUT- this should be structured play, short sessions, and always initiated by the person, and ended by the person. The pup needs to learn rules. However, if this is your pup, and you do not like this type of play, then enforce your stance on this. Consistancy is the most important part of rearing a pup.
RE: hearing noises that startle him.... Please tell me how you are handling these "surprises" that come up.
Regards, |
When Kane gets startled by noises and runs in between my legs I just ignore him and walk off - when I first picked him up and he did this I used to stroke him but then it hit me, I was just praising him for reacting this way so ignoring him normally ends up with him walking over to whatever startled him. ;)
RE: tug of war games - I do initiate the play and then end it, he seems to be okay with this and if he goes over the top and starts biting me, I just walk off and ignore him now completely for about 20 minutes as was advised by another member - this seems to be working but I find when I am ignoring him and he is in a boisterous mood - he just keeps coming back to bite me even more and harder (this morning he actually caused a cut about 1.5 inches long at the back of my heel!) but still I persevere with the ignoring! and then he'll go to bite something in the house that he knows he shouldn't (normally the coffee table or computer workstation - again I give him something else to bite and ignore him. He WILL learn that I am NO pushover and I AM in charge of the situation
;)