some advice pls with Reuben 5mths, not going to plan!

[hermykne]

ok, like him , do i love him? hmm
the pup and i must remember thats what he is, is doing quite a few things i wish he wouldnt.
firstly he is being crate trained,, and up to a few days ago i could leave the door open, leave the kitchen and return and all would be ok but now he invariable gets something off the worktops and devours it.
he also doesnt do what i ask of the commands, which was going well. sit, down, off.
got the gencon - big diff- on the walks but he jst wont listen to heel or sit and if we meet someone he goes nuts for jumping up.

he jumps up on visitors to the huse, after getting all that socialistion in the beginning. i know he is excited but how long before i lose it with him?

anyway final nail in his crate - husband got him an elwevated bed for outside, coolaroo brand, well hes jst eaten the cover on it tonight. well i hope u can guess how cross husband is.
he has chew toys galore - but he shows no interest?

oh this is long but any tips appreciated

[Bonniesmummy]

Originally Posted by hermykne

firstly he is being crate trained,, and up to a few days ago i could leave the door open, leave the kitchen and return and all would be ok but now he invariable gets something off the worktops and devours it.

Dont leave anything on worktops

Originally Posted by hermykne

he also doesnt do what i ask of the commands, which was going well. sit, down, off.

Practice practice practice

Originally Posted by hermykne

he jumps up on visitors to the huse, after getting all that socialistion in the beginning. i know he is excited but how long before i lose it with him?

Turn your back and show no attention till calm, tell visitors the same and show no eye contact either.

Originally Posted by hermykne

anyway final nail in his crate - husband got him an elwevated bed for outside, coolaroo brand, well hes jst eaten the cover on it tonight. well i hope u can guess how cross husband is.
he has chew toys galore - but he shows no interest?

They do eat stuff unfortunatley, try covering with a cheap blanket, if they destroy it replace it.

You will probably get better advice from others, just what I would do though Good Luck xxx

[Tedsmum]

Yes, remember at five months he is still a very little boy and he has a lot of learning to do.
They do go through stages of being absolute buggers but nothing is a permanent state at that age.
Keep up with the training, even when you get exasperated with him. Some of it will definately go in I promise.
Dont invest in anything expensive for him until you are positive he will no longer chew, and don't trust him for a minute if he is a counter surfer.
It is hard work I know but dont despair, he will improve if you keep working hard with him.

[GV9297]

I know its hard but he's a baby and will push the boundaries. Diesel has never been a counter surfer but then again I never leave anything out. He would destroy however - and still did at 15 months (he chewed a hard plastic bed!) Hopefully you can recover the bed but it does get better and you will have such a loyal and wonderful dog I promise x

[Triksta]

Echo is just over 6 months now and does all of the above.

You have to remember as you said he is a puppy and losing your temper wont help you just have to persevere and be consistent with him and eventually things will sink in.

[Caryll]

All of the above, I'm afraid - patience, persistence, perseverence & consistency. It will sink in, but he's going through what we'd call in children 'the terrible two's'.

[Chrystie22]

I know what you are going though! Diva is now 18 weeks and was a bit of a biter when younger (I posted on this a few times), lately she has been better, still biting when she doesnt get her own way but not constantly like she used to and it's softer bites so less painful! So we were beiginning to think that was it, she was a reformed character, but we spoke too soon! She has now started to bark at us to attract our attention, we ignore her so she goes for the bite (Im sure she knows that if we dont respond to the barking, we are for sure gonna respond to the biting, the clever little devil, and that way she gets the attention she's after, albeit a telling-off!!), and she also barks at people on the street now! She has also started not listening to the commands, I guess she is entering that dreaded teenage phase...

[pamella]

Marley is 19 weeks tomorrow and he is completely the same.
some things are worse than others and he'll not do something for a couple of days then revert back.just like toddlers really.their size is why it is so difficult.when i look back to my border terrier when he was a pup he was no different but because he was so tiny it all was on such a smaller scale.
he's a pup n that's that,so we all have to grin n bear it just like we do with our children.
good luck,it's not for ever.

Originally Posted by GV9297

I know its hard but he's a baby and will push the boundaries. Diesel has never been a counter surfer but then again I never leave anything out. He would destroy however - and still did at 15 months (he chewed a hard plastic bed!) Hopefully you can recover the bed but it does get better and you will have such a loyal and wonderful dog I promise x

Arrrggh! Please tell me Zee won't be like that! She's already working on making the kitchen 'open-plan' with the adjoining wall to the living room!!

[daeneth]

You can't trust puppies with unguarded food, that's just how it is.

How are you going about the training? With puppies you have to make the training a very fun, positive experience the majority of the time. If the only time you say sit is to stop him doing something fun he will soon lose interest in listening to what you have to say.

From a young age we trained ours a lot of useful commands such as sit stay etc but we added some tricks for her to learn just for fun such as spin, roll over, paw etc. For a long time Okami would be very reluctant to do anything for free but as she got more obedient we could start to phase out the treats and rewards a lot more and now she will do anything because she trusts my judgement and wants to please me.

Also as side note you will notice the more you tire the pups brain out with training the less they are going to misbehave.

I wouldn't trust a dog unattended with anything I don't want destroyed until at least after their final teething stages.

Dean.