Set up a schedule and carefully supervise our puppy.
The little puppy is very curious and will get into trouble every chance he gets.
To save ourselves a lot of pain and to save our puppy from stress, we want set up a fixed schedule which includes crate time, play time, walk time, as well as handling and grooming time.
When our puppy is out and about in a non-dog-proof area, we need to supervise him closely. Close supervision will give us the opportunity to teach puppy right from wrong, without too much damage to our furniture and belongings.
If I do not have the time,
- I usually crate puppy, when he is home alone, or
- I put puppy on a tie-down, when I am home but unable to fully supervise.
If you are concerned about crating your puppy, here is what the Humane Society of the United States and the American Dog Trainer’s Network have to say about dogs and crates.
When I am away for a long period of time (> 3 hours), I put puppy in a long-term enclosure. This can be a secure puppy pen or a safe room (e.g. kitchen). I make sure there is nothing in the enclosure that my puppy can destroy. I also put in some bedding, a water bowl, puppy pads, and safe chew toys.
As a general rule, the longest time to crate a puppy is (age of dog in months) hours. For example, an 8 week old puppy can be kept a maximum of (2 month old) = 2 hours in a crate. Note that this is just a general guideline for the maximum crate time.
Most puppies need to go outside more frequently than that, for exercise and potty training. I take my puppy outside as soon as he wakes up, and right after any kind of vigorous play. In the beginning, Husky puppy Shania needed to potty after about 10-15 minutes of play. Here is a more detailed table of maximum crate time.
At night, I crate my dogs in the bedroom. Sleeping together helps with the bonding process, and shows them that they are part of the pack.
2. Keep a drag-lead on our puppy
I put a drag-lead on my puppy when he is roaming freely in the house.
This will help us control our ball of energy without resorting to chasing games. When my puppy tries to run away, all I need to do is step on the drag-lead.
I use a regular, thick (1 inch wide), flat collar or harness and not an aversive collar (choke chain, prong collar). I make sure to cut off the loop on the leash, so that it does not catch on anything around the house. I start with a longer (6 feet), light leash, and then shorten it depending on my puppy’s behavior. I only do this while I am around to properly supervise my puppy.
Once he matures and is better behaved, I switch to a leash tab or remove the drag-lead altogether.
It is best to use a secure 6 foot leash during puppy leash training and not the flexi-leash. The 6 foot leash gives us better control of our puppy, and is necessary to keep him safe when he decides to go chasing after dogs, cats, or squirrels.
3. Start with reward obedience training
It is most effective and least risky to start our puppy with reward obedience training. I started out with aversive techniques, and it made my Shiba puppy develop additional behavioral issues, including aggression. In fact, my aversive based dog trainer said that it was inappropriate use pain based techniques, such as leash jerks and alpha rolls, on dogs that are younger than 6 months old.
Today, I prefer to use reward training because it is more effective at motivating my dogs, stopping undesirable behaviors, and building a strong bond.
With reward training, we establish ourselves as the pack leader by controlling our dog’s resources through the Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF) program. This simply means that my puppy has to do something for me, for example a Sit, before he gets any resource (e.g. food, toys, affection, freedom) in return. Any bullying will be ignored, or will result in the removal of that resource.
Many people make the mistake of equating pack leadership with the use of aversive training. Aversive dog trainers say that difficult, strong-willed, dominant dogs require stronger, punishment based methods in order to show him who is boss.
This is not true.
One of my dogs (a Shiba Inu) is extremely strong willed, and can be quite difficult, but he responds much better to reward training.
Be careful of advertisements for 10 minute puppy obedience training programs and the like. There are no miracle cures in puppy training.
4. Bite inhibition training
Puppy biting is common because puppies are naturally curious, and want to examine everything with their mouths.
The good news is puppies do not have the jaw strength of an adult dog, and will not do much damage to us when biting. Because of this, puppy-hood is a good time for bite inhibition, or soft mouth training.
One of the best ways to train a dog to have a soft mouth is through hand-feeding.
I hand-feed my puppy at least some of his kibble every day. If he bites too hard when getting his food, I do a sharp ouch or yelp and ignore him for a few seconds. Then, I retry the exercise. If he takes food from me gently, I praise him and continue feeding without any breaks.
We can also combine hand-feeding with obedience commands, and dog grooming sessions. Hand-feeding also helps with food aggression issues, so I continue with it even through adulthood.
Ian Dunbar’s book After You Get Your Puppy, gives a good overview of bite inhibition, and how to best train our puppy to have a soft mouth.
A puppy, and ultimately an adult dog who has a soft mouth is a great asset. Because my Shiba Inu has good bite inhibition, we were able to solve many of his behavior problems, which would have been difficult to deal with if he were biting at full strength.
5. Practice calm and assertive energy
This is something that is always emphasized by Cesar Millan (the Dog Whisperer) and it is extremely important; especially for a hyperactive puppy.
If we interact with a dog using nervous, submissive, fearful, or otherwise weak (non-assertive) energy, the dog will sense that and start acting out even more.
Anger, impatience, frustration, and all other non-calm energies will only excite our puppy, and cause him to exhibit even more extreme behaviors.
In order to achieve calm, assertive energy, we must first overcome whatever fears we may feel toward our dog, and become his pack leader. This is much easier to do if we have achieved good bite inhibition.
6. A busy puppy is a good puppy
Puppies have a lot of energy, and will get into trouble if we do not keep them busy.
I make my puppy work for ALL of his food. Instead of presenting everything to him in a silver bowl, I use his daily kibble and treats for obedience sessions, bite inhibition training, handling, and grooming. If there is food left over, I put it in interactive food toys.
I also schedule play time with my puppy. Some games that my dogs like include flirt pole, the water hose game, and sometimes soccer.
When I start with a new game, I make it fun by handing out lots of treats for effort. Once my puppy understands the game, I switch to only treating his more stellar performances.
Make sure to always have control of a puppy’s play-time. This means that we own all the toys, and we decide when to start and stop the games. Play-time can be very useful in training our puppy to calm down, and to pay attention to us even when he is excited.
I also schedule two or three short obedience training sessions (10-15 minutes) with my puppy every day. This helps to establish me as the leader, gives my puppy some mental exercise, and provides a good bonding experience.
Other good ways to exercise our puppy (after full vaccination) include neighborhood walks, walks in the park, dog playgroups, and dog sports.
7. We are not alone
The most important thing to remember while bringing up a difficult puppy is that we are not alone!
Our puppy journey will be filled with a lot of joy, but there will also be challenges and pit-falls. Sometimes, we may feel discouraged by our puppy’s behavior, or with his performance in dog obedience class.
We are not alone!
There are many support groups out there where we may post our questions. I also find it helpful to visit these groups when I feel discouraged, or when I feel like my puppy is some mutant strain of devil dog.
Do not think that you are a bad dog owner or trainer when your puppy behaves badly. Many other dog owners are facing the exact same problems. Also remember that with proper rules and training, our puppy’s behavior will improve with time.
Hello!
I was just wondering what you meant by giving it a time out when it bites on it’s leash. When you put him on time out won’t he just chew on the leash during that time out? Do you remove the drag leash when you place him in time out? What if he comes out and starts chewing on it again? I just worry that if I do this time out thing enough, i’ll end up sending him to the restroom (the time out spot) 100 or more times a day! Lol.
Hi Will,
That is a great question. I usually save time-outs for more serious offenses like biting on people and not stopping when I tell him to. Humping is also a time-out offense. Biting on the leash when I am holding it also results in time-out. In general, if Shiba Sephy can’t behave well with me or other people, then he doesn’t get to be with people.
In terms of chewing on the drag leash that is probably more like a play move rather than anything else. Some things that may help –
– You could try spraying it with bitter apple. Dogs dislike the taste of the stuff and will usually stop.
– Redirect puppy onto something else, e.g. a sanctioned chew toy. When he redirects, make sure to reward him well with play, affection, and food rewards. In this way, puppy will learn that certain objects are better and more rewarding than others.
– Be very consistent with what he can chew and what he cannot chew. Puppies usually just don’t know what is chewable and what is dangerous. To a puppy everything is new and they learn about new things by putting them in their mouth for taste and manipulation. It will take puppy a bit of time and a lot of consistency to learn the rules of the house.
– Structured activities will also help a lot. For example, walks, obedience exercises, or structured play sessions. Structured activities help of channel a puppies mega energy into positive avenues, teaches him to listen to you, and helps build a good bond.
You can also remove the leash as you suggest, then put it back on before you let him out. Make him do a sit and stay calm, put on the leash, then let him out. This could also be a good training exercise where he learns that if he is calm and does what you say – then he gets what he wants.
Hi!
I’m enjoying your blog a lot, I have a shiba puppy, my first dog and she’s putting me into many troubles I really don’t know how to face, but reading you helps a lot.
Have one question, I have a problem with foot: mu shiba eats everything she finds in the floor (food basically, not smokes for example) and sometimes even other dogs’ shit. Any ideas on how to stop this behavior? I don’t know what else can I do.
Thank you in advance and congratulations for the blog and for your beautiful dogs. I love shibas and huskies!!
Hello Ana, Thanks for dropping by.
Yeah my Shiba used to eat everything as well. To some degree, this is puppy behavior. Dogs don’t have any other way of manipulating objects except through their mouths. Puppies tend to be most curious and will want to put everything into their mouth to check it out. It is their way of learning about their environment, because everything is so new.
Now that my Shiba is older, he is not longer so mouth happy.
When my Shiba was young, I very carefully managed his environment so that there wasn’t anything bad/dangerous for him on the floor. Outside – I will carefully watch him and stop him from getting bad stuff before he gets it in his mouth. It is best to stop them before it is in the mouth because once it is in the mouth, then Shibas in general, will not want to give it up, especially if they see that you are trying to get what they have.
When it is something dangerous, I will go in his mouth and take it out but you don’t generally want to do that because it will make Shiba be more protective of his belongings.
Here is an article on food guarding – most of the techniques in food guarding can be used to help manage the eat-everything-on-the-floor behavior 🙂 In particular, the drop command and object-exchange game will help with getting him to give you items voluntarily.
http://shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding
Another thing that really helped me a lot with my Shiba was bite inhibition training. I learned it from the book “After Getting your Puppy” from Ian Dunbar. The idea of bite inhibition is to train your Shiba to control the force of his bites, so that when he does his used mouth on instinct, he will do very little or no damage. This helped me a lot when I was taking bad stuff out of his mouth.
Here is more on bite inhibition –
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
Congrats on your Shiba puppy! They are difficult at first but it will really get better 🙂
Hi
Your hub is so useful and full of answers and comfort. I have my puppy for three weeks now. He is being kept in the pen. I take him out for walks three times a day. We wanted to wait before we let him roam around the house so he wont’ be chewing on furnitures or accidents on the carpet. I also put a different toys in his pen area to keep him busy.
Will putting him in a different area for time out still work, since he spend a lot of time in the pen?
The few times i let him in the house, he pee and poo on the carpet because I was not fast enough to stop him. I let him sleep my my room in the crate now. hopefully we can create a better bond and trust.
The time-out still worked well on my Shiba, even though I also kept mine in his crate a fair amount when he was young because he would get into trouble every chance he got 🙂
I make sure the time-out area is very boring and away from everything else. Whereas, make the crate into a good, safe, place that is around his people.
You have a very lucky Shiba!
Any tips on when a puppy becomes unhappy and let’s out the Shiba scream and begins biting at your hands in anger? This happens especially when I try to reprimand him for mouthing after he gets excited and I try to calm him down.
With Sephy, I no-mark him and put him in time-out. I ignore all screaming during time-out and do not let him out of time-out while he is screaming. After a bit he will realize that his behaviors are not getting him any good results and stop.
When I let him out of time-out, I do not give him any attention. He usually wants to go off and sulk anyway. 😀
I try to set Sephy up for success as much as I can, so I interrupt play very often with obedience exercises, so that he does not get himself into an over-excited state. I start with more low-key playing, then as he learns to control himself more, I slowly increase the energy of play. I make sure to always stop play when he gets over-excited and is no longer following play-rules.
Let me know how it goes.
Wow! This was great! I dont have a dog , but im probably gonna get one, and this helped a ton! Thanks!
Thanks for visiting Anaaa. If you are thinking of getting a puppy – the ones with the best temperament and health can be gotten from reputable breeders or from adoption agencies.
http://shibashake.com/new-dog-new-puppy
Post us some pictures after you get your new dog 🙂
new puppy is mean towards my older dog, bites, runs after the older dog, will not leave the dog alone, what should i do
Hi Vince,
It is normal for puppies to be exuberant in this manner. However, I let my puppy know what is acceptable behavior and what is not. When he gets *too rough* with my older dog, no-mark him (Ack-ack) and stop play briefly.
I let my puppy calm down for a bit before letting them resume play. I also make him do some obedience commands in the meantime. It is generally good practice to stop play from time to time anyway because puppies do not usually have a stop button of their own 🙂
Note that dogs play a lot with their mouths – their mouths are like our hands and that is what they use to manipulate objects. That is why bite inhibition training is so important.
Another thing that I do is to separate the dogs for at least a few hours every day so that your older dog gets some rest time. Puppies have a lot of energy and may tire out the older dog. I definitely separate them if I see that my older dog is tired and needs to rest.
To do this I either use a puppy pen or I am there to supervise and make sure that puppy does not bother the older dog when the older dog is resting. I just no-mark him (No) and body block him before he can get into the older dog’s space.
Providing alternate activities for the puppy will also help out a lot. I play games with him and get him some good and safe chew toys.
Lots of good tips here. Thank you.
I have had my Yorkie puppy 2 months now and she has been so much fun. At first I thought she would never be house-trained, but I haven’t had to clean up a puddle in 2 days!
lol – I know what you mean. I was extremely happy when my Siberian Husky went a bunch of days without any accidents.
Don’t get too discouraged if there are some slip-ups though, they really just can’t control their bladder very well at that young age. My little girl was trying really hard, but especially after playing, she sometimes couldn’t make it fast enough to the door 🙂
I pretty much took her out after every 5-10 minutes of play whether she had to go or not – lol – good times.
Great article, will try to adapt all of them. Thanks for sharing it.
My puppy is about 8 weeks old and he bites hard So bad a bleed I tell no bite and he won’t for a while then the does it again.
also hell go out and come right into the house and “p” and I tell him bad baby and put him back out. But he’ll do it again
It is great that you are starting to train your puppy early. Here are some things that worked for me:
[Biting]
Handfeeding. First, I start with some good, yummy, food. I put the food in my hand and make my hand into a fist. Then I feed the food to my puppy slowly. If puppy bites hard, then I yelp loudly, and stop feeding for a short duration. If puppy eats properly, I praise him and keep the food coming. Then I just keep repeating this exercise. In this way, my puppy learns that biting hard makes the food stop, but eating nicely keeps the food coming. I still do this with my dogs because it helps maintain their bite inhibition.
Here are some other methods for dealing with biting:
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-how-to-stop-puppy-biting
[Potty Training]
Initially, I try to establish two consistent words to communicate with my puppy. A mark (Yes, Good) and a no-mark (No, Ack-Ack). When my puppy does something undesirable, I no-mark him with the same word consistently (No), and take him outside. I go outside with him and if he continues doing his business outside, I mark him (Yes) and reward him with something really good.
The reward for going outside is very important because he will learn that going outside gets him really good stuff, and this will make him prefer to go outside. I make sure to always supervise him when he is free in the house so that I can show him what is desirable and undesirable. I also take him outside when he comes out of his crate, when he wakes up, or after vigorous play.
My Siberian Husky was difficult to house train and she made many mistakes when she was young (8 weeks) because she had poor bladder control. I had to take her out after 10-15 minutes of play because she would get so excited that she would just pee right there.
However, with consistent communication and rewards for peeing outside, puppy will learn that he gets more stuff by peeing outside than he does by peeing inside.
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-potty-training-facts-and-myths
Good luck! Hope this helps.
Wow – what a great hub page – I was looking for a few tips on how to train my new puppy, but didn’t expect to find this much info – nice one. I like (and fully agree with) the bit about using reward based training techniques – it really does help.
Thanks Puppy Whisperer. Reward based training is especially important for puppies because we can start training right away. It is not appropriate to use aversive/punishment techniques on puppies (including leash jerks/corrections) until they are at least about 6 months old. Before using aversive techniques, it is important to first consult a professional trainer.