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Originally Posted by mbroome  Well we've had Tinkerbell for 8 days now and all I can say is 'Wow!". In my almost 50 years I've owned my fair share of dogs, but this little girl has some definite very unique spunk, personality, and stubbornness to her! She gets her feelings hurt VERY easily and will actually sulk and act mad at you, even at her young age! (born Dec 7). My first question....we are attempting to crate train her obviously. EVERY evening when we goto bed we love on her and put her in her "room". She is fine for a few hours but she will wake up, use her potty pad and get VERY upset and whine and cry. This past weekend my son got up, put a futon pillow down next to her crate, let her out and my wife and I woke up to them cuddled happily on the futon. When will her crying at night stop? All she wants is some love, cuddling and she goes back to sleep.
Next question. The "Superpuppy" thing. We have a VERY low recliner and my wife called me yesterday laughing, in tears. Tinkerbell will take off at a dead run and jump up into the chair, sit there looking all proud, "Mommy, look at me!". She will play, nap, do the puppy think then take a flying leap off of the recliner onto the floor. The chair is low enough that she will not get hurt, but I don't want to encourage this behavior so it carries over to something where she WILL get hurt. What is the best way to discourage this without hurting her little feelings? She actually looks SO proud and happy with herself when she does it.
Lastly, I went ahead and registered her with the CKC and will be receiving her papers along with a microchip for the vet to put in on the 11th when she goes in for her next round of shots. What is the difference between the akc and the ckc? Was the money spent registering her worth it considering I am NOT going to breed her? Thanks SO much for any help and advice! My wife and I are having a blast and she has really stolen our hearts! |
If your pup is only 2 months old, she can probably only hold her pee for about 3 hours, so maybe she has to pee? You may need to let her out every 3 to 4 hours until she's older. So maybe once a night, she'll need to pee. If it's not an issue with having to pee, then you need to IGNORE the crying.
You can put a loud ticking clock nearby and/or cover the crate completely with a large blanket or towel and keep the crate near your bed on the ground. If you don't ignore it, trust me, it can only get worse.
First-hand experiencer right here
Mine wailed and screamed and barked for about two months, because I kept attending to him at night. He woke me up first at 5am, then 4, then 3, then 2, then basically as soon as I fell asleep. His cries were like his limbs were being torn off - that's how bad it sounded.
Then I read many articles saying the only way to crate them is to ignore them. So I used ear plugs for about a month and slowly but surely he started to get better. I've also read that you can train them to only wake up because of your alarm clock, not when they bark to wake you up. So only attend to them in the morning after your alarm goes off. Then you take control, rather than the pup.
Your question about jumping up/down chairs: I was told by my breeder not to give them a chance to injure themselves, especially their tiny little legs and their tiny little joints. Also because it's thousands of dollars to do surgery. So I trained mine to not jump. He has to sit to say please before I pick him up onto the couch. Clicker training is great for that!
I registered mine with AKC. But actually, besides getting the fancy birth certificate, the registry doesn't mean all that much. Mine's already neutered so it's not like he could enter in the show rings.
I'd be more than happy to give more suggestions if you have other questions - my lil guy started off as an angel and I thought I was blessed...until he turned 6 to 7 months and became a nightmare! hahaha...
