Delphina's Despair....

[Delphina]

Hi Guys

I need your help and advice.

I got Archie Friday and I am trying to a: Understand him! and b: Housetrain him.

He is a 15 week old Apricot boy who im not going to neuter as we will more than likely show him.

Firstly, and please bear with me as this is my first dog, let alone a pug. Fortunately my Fiancee has had puppies/dogs before.

Is it me or are Pugs just relentlessly hyperactive?

I love it that he has a good, strong, spirit, I love it that he is clingy, but I cannot seem to, at certain times calm him down maybe this is all puppies?

He gets hyper hyper excited, I am trying to stop him lunging at my face and nipping at present which I know will calm down I just dont want him to do it if he meets a child. When I get in to the house, he goes nuts, and thats fine, he is pleased to see me, and I can put him on my lap and calm him down, but last night I was on the phone to my Fiancee as he was on his way home and for ten minutes he was just nuts. Jumping up and down, humping my leg, head going round and round, and I couldnt control him. Am I expecting too much?

He's just not doing no very well. It is making me stressed.

Im quite prepared to for you to tell me the problem lies with me. I just never bargained for this amount of relentless hyperactivity.

Please also note that I truly adore him and will do whatever it taks to make it work with him.

Next... the housebreaking.

When I got him from the breeders he was in a cage, with his bed in a cage, alone.

Ok.. I get him home and I have bought an almost Identical cage, spacious and with alovely bed, and in the little bed is a blanket/bedding he previously slept on. hes got toys in there a puppy bone chew and paper up one end 'incase'.

First night I put him in the cage when we went to bed. No whimpering or howling he was fine.

I came down sat morning, took him outside on lead and he peed. Beautiful. If only it was consistent!

The next day he peed on the paper which I have placed by our back door, as I eventually want him to go through them, we're purchasing a flap for him soon once he is correctly trained and ready, there will be a run built for him out the back once he gets through the flap. he is peeing on the paper fine, but has now taken to pooping in the kitchen in a separate place and not on the paper. Great!

The last night and the night before I have felt it ok to open his cage and let him have more freedom to move around.

When I came down this morning to go to work, he had peed all over the floor (not the paper) in the front room and pooped everywhere, I just sat and cried. I know this may seem silly to you, I just got so frustrated and I don't want to drive the breeder mad every 5 mins. I have to get a routine myself. I just want to do right by him and of course I cant expect miracles and of course there will be accidents.

Have I given him too much freedom too quick, shall i keep him in there at night. My partner says but maybe he will poop and pee all over his bedding?

I don't know what to do.

Alot of the poops are when I wasn't there i.e in bed asleep or popped out to the shops, so it's hard to reprimand because the time has passed and it is unfair on the dog...

Im becoming a bit stressed by it all.

Any advice my fellow owners apart from a good shake (me not him)!

Del x

p.s on a positive note, he is gorgeous and I love him to bits, and when he falls asleep on me its the best. His snoring is so cute, and I love it that he is very clingy.

[shaynapug]

He's a baby...and most baby pugs are nuts! It takes a LOT of work with positive reinforcement....consistancy....and repetition to help them learn proper behavior.

You are giving him too much room. He should be in a limited amount of space unless you are right there watching him. It won't hurt him to be in a cage when you're not home!!

Some pugs are hyper from beginning to end......most are hyper as pups but settle down...just takes some longer than others!!!

Enjoy your baby!

[ViralMD]

First, as stated above, he's a BABY! And he's not going to have much control over his bladder and bowel at this point. If you'd be upset with him having an accident somewhere (like on your priceless Persian rug) it's YOUR responsiblity not to let him on it!

As for training him, here's my housetraining post. Follow it TO THE LETTER. And EVERYONE in the home needs to do this. Consistency is VERY important. You should also know that because you're showing him and can't therefore neuter, there's going to be a high likelihood of him marking....I'll address some of your other queries in a second post.

Here's the post:

Housetraining your dog (puppy or adult!)The first thing you need to do is to remember that you’re trying to reinforce a new behavior. That means that the rewards for this behavior must be WONDERFUL. NOT crap from the store. Wonderful treats are poached chicken breast/turkey breast, cheese and steak. And you don’t have to use big pieces. Tiny pieces (about 3mm cubes) are just fine! I poach a whole turkey breast every few weeks, cut it into hunks when it’s cool enough to handle, wrap them well and store them in the freezer. When I need some, I’ll thaw a hunk overnight and cut off pieces and dice finely, storing them in a plastic bag in the fridge. One hunk will last about five days. Cheese is also popular, so variety is fine.I carry these plastic bags in my jacket pockets in the winter and in a fanny pack in warmer weather. You HAVE to have these with you, or this method won’t work, because you need to reward as soon as the dog finishes pooping or peeing. It’s not going to work if the rewards are in the house.Remember that you’re trying to change a very ingrained behavior. Some dogs like to feel certain things under their feet when they eliminate, like fabric, or newspaper. This is called a ‘substrate preference.’ What you’re trying to do is change this substrate preference, and to do that you have to make the treats SO wonderful that the dog will change this very well-entrenched behavior. Thus the chicken, cheese, steak.I love clicker training, but this can be done without clickers. You just need a way to ‘mark’ the behavior you want to reinforce. Use the word ‘YESSSSS!!!!’ very enthusiastically – that works for some.You’re going to need to GO OUTSIDE WITH your dog and the dog needs to be on a leash. Yes, even in winter. If you don’t reward IMMEDIATELY after the event (when dog immediately finishes pooping or peeing) and wait inside, the dog is going to be reinforced for coming inside, not for doing its business. So, leash up your dog. STAND IN ONE PLACE. Be boring. Bring a book or magazine for yourself. Eventually, the dog will do what you’re waiting for. The NANOSECOND that the dog is finished, HAVE A PARTY – lots of loud, high-pitched praise, treats and running around. You want to make this memorable for your dog! You’ll find that once the first event is achieved, the others will come more quickly. Keep on treating (you don’t have to throw a party except for milestones – a milestone = if he only pooped outside but now peed, too, or something equivalent to that) until he’s good and used to peeing/pooping outside. Before you know it, you have a trained dog.Regarding accidents in the house: NO SCOLDING. Just clean them up. If you scold you’ll get the dog to think it’s bad to pee or poop and he’ll do it in places you won’t see. Until you step in it. Invest in a big bottle of Nature’s Miracle or Simple Solution and use it liberally on accidents.With young puppies, remember they have little control of the muscle that holds the bladder closed. This is something they grow into. Just as it’s not expected that a human baby is toilet trained at six months, don’t expect much from a puppy. Patience, patience, patience!!!! The nervous system in a puppy has to mature, and it won’t have much control over the sphincter (closing muscle) at the neck of the bladder until six or seven months. The same goes for the anal sphincter. Until control is achieved, both of these muscles operate on reflex: there are stretch receptors in the bladder wall. When the bladder is full, it sends impulses to the spinal cord and these, in turn, send signals to the sphincter to open and the dog pees. In the stomach wall, there are also stretch receptors. So when the dog eats and the stomach is stretched, the impulses again go to the spinal cord, but this time the reflex, outgoing, nerve signals are sent to the anal sphincter, so the dog defecates. This operates in people, too – which is why some people rush to the ‘reading room’ after a meal – especially breakfast.

[H the P]

Please don't despair, Delphina. Archie is just a puppy whose entire little world was turned upside down last week, when he came home with you! New places, new faces, new smells, new food, new routine; new life.
Puppies do poop, puppies do pee. Anywhere and everywhere. Housetraining is seldom achieved quickly; it takes perseverance and, above all, patience, on your part. Somewhere on this board (can't quite remember where, but I'm sure that someone else will provide the link) there is some hugely helpful advice from ViralMD on this subject. Read it, learn, follow it and you will be winning.
Is Archie left in his cage when you are out at work? How long is he left for? What are you feeding him on, and how often? All these things make a difference to how you go about helping him settle in with you.
I'm sure that lots of other PVers, UK and otherwise, will offer you lots of helpful advice on how to integrate little Archie into your life. Above all, please try not to get too stressed; this will only make things worse. And please, please remember that he is only a baby!
Feel free to PM me if you need to chat to someone, and I will give you my phone number.

[ViralMD]

You need to get your boy a crate and start crate training him. Look at this site:http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/ou..._training.html

Again, consistency is critical.

Since you mentioned showing him, start going to puppy class. This is important. If you're going to be handling him yourself, you'll also want to find out about handling classes and ringcraft. Make sure that he's got his vaccinations, especially for Parvovirus, as that diarrheal disease is literally deadly for puppies. Make sure that HOWEVER you go about training that you only use positive methods. Punishment not only doesn't work, it creates behavior problems of its own. And pugs respond very badly to punishment.

What IS working in your favor is that pugs are greedy little ones and respond wonderfully to rewards like food. TINY pieces! Check out clicker training - it's fun and you won't believe how easy it is and how quickly it works. There are many clicker websites, but an excellent one is www.clickersolutsion.com. DO read about clicker training to see how it works first! There's also a book I always recommend, 'The Power of Positive Dog Training' by Pat Miller, available from online booksellers and worth its weight in gold. Do contact a local trainer for help if you need it - but make certain that he/she ONLY uses positive methods and doesn't jerk on the leash, do alpha rolls or otherwise make the dog have a bad experience. Good dog trainers will tell you to reward the behavior you want and ignore or re-direct the behavior you don't want. And it works.

Dogs, especially puppies, are WORK and are timeconsuming, which many people don't realize until they're at home with puppy!

Enjoy your busy puppy! They do calm down, but it takes a while. Never leave him with a chew toy on which he could choke - Kongs, stuffed with non-fat, plain yogurt and then frozen are EXCELLENT and safe toys to leave him alone with.

Hope this has helped.

[Delphina]

Thank you all so much..

Im fully aware that they poop and pee, and I knew it would never be instantaneous.

I am feeding him good stuff, I personally don't want him to eat pedigree Chum, I think its got too much bad stuff.

He is eating the Nature Diet Puppy Food and i mix in a teeny bit of Eukanuba puppy, like a tbps just for crunch. Im giving him some milk in between meals and water, trying to limit it at night.

http://www.naturediet.net/products/p...&product=puppy

ViramlMD I will print this all off shortly and read it and follow it, thank you so much.

The household consists of myself and Fiancee, I work in the day and get home at 5pm.

Partner has his own business (Landscaping) he is in and put throughout the day in bursts, sometimes hes in doing paperwork, sometimes out, but not for too long. But the good thing is he used to take his Jack Russell, who has now passed, every day with him to work in the truck, the dog had its own bed in the truck and was his constant companion, when Archie is old enough he will do the same.

Thats our situation for now.

Im truly grateful for all your help. I just over analysed him too much last night and thought jeez, he's nuts! (Not the toileting, but the hyperactivity)

Del x

[bennic]

I just thought I'd add that in the first 6 months of puppy ownership (we have two pugs, both sisters from the same litter) there were tears, me and my h2b fought! and lots of tantrums. I thought the pugs would never settle down.

We fought battles with house training for what seemed like an eternity, some mornings we'd literally just rip up the carpet and start again completely! (no jokes, we replaced the carpet in the room they were kept over night about 4 times! For the sake of £50 a pop it was well worth it!. But literally overnight at about a year old, they got it, they could hold all day, and all night, and were in sync with our schedule. What a joy!

Even at 1.7 yo, they are still little monkey's, they still love pushing their luck and playing games and being hyperactive. But a good long walk will tire them out for a whole afternoon, and however annoying they've been, when they are curled up snuggly on the sofa, all the bad memories just melt away and are replaced with their smushy faces!

Just keep at it, and it does get better!

With regards to food, can't say I know anything about what your feeding, but we have always fed James Wellbelove, they do a great puppy range, its all dry biscuit food, which we actually soften with a bit of water.

[Delphina]

Viral MD thanks for post.

My head is spinning with info its great however.

Youre syaing, take him to classes, clicker training, crate mtheod..

First of all, Whats wrong with the cage?

Secondly do I do clicker training first then puppy training second?

Shall I put him back in the cage at night. Do I have to buy a crate?

D x

[Delphina]

Bennic... I feel so much better.

D x

[Jess]

Sounds like you have had some great advice!!

I've noticed that all pug puppies are completely mad! My Lilah at least would sit and be cuddled, but Gracie was a devil baby - Hyperactive and nuts, I could barely hold her cos she was so wiggly She's now 16 months old and is finally calming down.. a bit!

I personally love that side of them. A lot of people think pugs are lazy and just sit and do nothing, but that couldn't be further from the truth, they love getting into everything and thats what makes them such great companions

As for his diet, we've always fed ours fresh meat (raw and cooked) with pedigree small bites mixer. They particularly like raw chicken wings - Theres pictures on here somewhere of them tucking into those I personally dont like "dog food" it tends to have a lot of stuff added to it, ours have better coats and just look generally healthier on a proper meat diet, and we give them leftover veg and stuff to bulk it out sometimes.

I never did clicker training, but i know a lot of people swear by it!! One thing i would suggest though, even if you're not planning to show him, is ringcraft classes. I found that was a much better way of socialising puppies than normal puppy classes cos the dogs are taught to behave whilst being moved around closely with other puppies, and get used to being handled as they'd have to be at a vets and stuff. And im sure you could train to sit instead of stand, most clubs are just happy for the support

Good luck with him though, and dont worry too much about housetraining, it comes eventually, but the pugs were sooooooooooooo much harder than our labs to housetrain!!