Funny thing about me and dogs

[Kim]

Dogs don't understand what "no" means unless we teach them!! He wants your attention and by saying no he is getting it, albeit negatively. The best way of dealing with bad behaviour is to ignore it and turn away. When he is being good, lots of praise and say "Good boy" or whatever. Time out is good too. When he does something you like, for example, walking nicely on the lead, say "good boy walk nicely" so he gets to know what these words mean, once he has learnt them you can use them when you want him to walk nicely, if that makes sense.

Our greyhound, Poppy nips other dogs legs and bum to get them to play, we are working on that one!

[Elaine]

Perhaps a kong toy and a treat ball can help also. When Rayne was a pup, I used to spend a few minutes training, pups tire easy and sleep alot. So waking times were for pee outings, a little bit of play/training and feeding. Feeding is where the kong and ball can come into play.
Lots and lots of praise for getting things right and as Kim said, ignoring the wrongs.

[Shelley123]

Angie, Malaika was terrible initialy for biting our ankles, she would often hang of our pant legs. The advice we were given was stop walking immediately and say "leave it " or "No". If you try to carry on walking it keeps the fun going. She also liked to bite our hands too and we simply didn't allow this, again we told her to leave it and distracted her with a toy. At the time we thought it would never end but believe me it did. Kwame hasn't done it, probably because he has Malaika to play with.

[Shelley123]

I have to say that i like cats and dogs equaly, they both bring different qualities to the family.
Howard is a Dog person and wouldn't choose to have cats, that being said he has lived very successfuly with them and they are all spoiled.
I'm sure with time and once the hard puppy stage is over you will come to love Monty as much as the cats,he will bring you so much and you will enjoy different things with him. It may be that you will never bond as much as with the cats but that doesn't matter because i know you will still provide him with a super home.

[Kazz]

Angie I have jeans still and a pair of old comfy jogging bottoms that have puppy sized teeth holes in them from the "perfect" Sal she used to hang on for dear life......drove us all to distraction you could not move without a small Stafford attatched to you.

However as has been mentioned we stopped walking and distracted her with a small piece of dried dog mixer....(taken from her food allowance) or toy....small ball something.

Try this this it does work, Monty sounds like he is a clever chap. You move puppy hangs onto trouser leg, you stop and say "No or Leave" and then distract him with either squeaky toy in your hand or a noise so he looks up at you...immediately, then either get him to sit and then give him the treat saying "good boy" He is learning that "good boy" comes with praise and fuss. What you need to remember is to do this even if he is not biting your feet/trousers.

Another thing you could do when you have his attention from toy or voice get him to sit then throw a toy and then encourage him back to you.....hence he is learning recall at the same time.

When you have the time and lots of patience you could try holding a small piece of biscuit/treat in your open hand and getting him to sit and say "leave" tell him to leave if he tries to take the treat say "leave" then close your hand around the food and get him to sit again then say "take it/okay" whatever you want to use for a command for "its yours" you could try this after calling him to you hence he is learning recall, sit, leave, take it, Good dog all in one.

Same as recall game played like this.........."throw his toy for him then calling him back "Monteeeeeee" he runs back with the toy, praise him really well so he learns to come back on hearing his name then tell him to "leave" and show him another toy (dogs want what they see not what they have so he will desert his toy for the other one) and then say "leave" his attention will be on the toy in your hand so he will leave the one he has...then throw the one he is focusing on and repeat.......learning the "leave" command is a major asset as leave can be used for toys/cats/feet/rubbish/ete etc etc. Leave is a lot more positive than "No" if you get slightly frustrated.

He will get bored with your trousers as his life gets more exciting and he starts to go out.

To get him to come back you need to be the more interesting thing in his world. Either funny noises/ squeaky balls/whistles/treats something.

[Velvet]

Good advice from Kazz, we always said "No bite" and distract immediately. It helps to leave toys around the house at vangtage points so that there is always one available to hand when needed

Its all very normal and soon passes and suddenly you will wonder where that tiny puppy has gone to....

[angieh]

OH tried the pebbles in a plastic bottle yesterday - and only had to use it 3 times. We will see how things go today - Monty seems to be a quick learner.

He does have a couple of puppy Kongs (1 of which he seems to have mislaid atm) and plenty of toys for distraction, his favourite being a plush squeaky dog. I think it's probably too early to say with much confidence but we may be getting there.

I have found just airing my difficulties has helped me enormously - probably has got rid of some guilt feelings - and I have felt much more relaxed with Monty over the last couple of days. Thanks Catseyers - you're the best!

[dandysmom]

I have found just airing my difficulties has helped me enormously - probably has got rid of some guilt feelings - and I have felt much more relaxed with Monty over the last couple of days. Thanks Catseyers - you're the best!

That's so good to hear, Angie!

[Kazz]

Glad we are helping Angie......the thing to remember is this is all perfectly normal puppy behaviour.

[Mags]

Originally Posted by angieh

I do like little Monty when he is being a good boy and I look forward to being able to go out walking with him and OH.

Angie, with warmer weather fast approaching, do you think you should get these for Monty for his walks in the summer sunshine?

http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.a...127&pf_id=2066