HELP! crate training, biting, and tearing potty pad

[mackenzienoelle]

I have a 12 week old yorkie and he's so cute and so fun
but when i have to leave we put him in the bathroom with his crate
open with his blanket inside that he sleeps with. we lay his toys out and put
his food and water in there as well as a potty pad.

When i come back the potty pad is in shreds and he never does this unless it's in the bathroom while he's locked up.

i've been trying to crate train but it hasn't worked he never stops barking.

He's also getting very bad at biting hands and faces i've tried
"ouch, no bite!" and ignoring him but nothing works!

please help!

[My lil friend]

12 weeks is very young,your baby is a BABY. He is going to intertain his self with what he thinks is the most fun,tearing stuff up. You might try washable potty pads. My lil girl wont have anything to do with potty pads. She was trained to them when I brought her home and she figured out that the other dogs went outside,so she want outside too. She owns coats and a raincoat. As for the biting,you just have to keep working at it. Biting inhibitions take a bit of time to get.

[bendog2000]

I had same worries at 10wks. Ben will still occasionally shred his puppy pad or newspaper but he stopped doing it - if we caught him doing it we redirected him to something more fun. We taught him No using the command loud and deep whilst clapping loudly - it did scare him but we tried not to over do it. Now we find that a gentle No allows him to connect what he is doing with something that won't get rewarded. We need to find a way to make him want to not do it as saying No on its own stops him doing it but it doesn't stop him going back to it when he thinks we aren't looking. Saying no when he chews stuff does distract him - and then we find him something fun to do (unless we think he is playing the system).

The problem with paper if if plays with it too much he will firmly learn how much fun it can be.

One brand of pads we used was flimsier - he enjoyed shredding those most. I am not sure why - might have been that they were more paper like, it might have been that he liked the crinkle sound the plastic backing made we changed back to a sort of quilted pad which he finds less interesting.

He will shred paper if he is bored or frustrated - we try not to put him to bed if he's too excited. Thankfully he likes to sleep a lot. Not sure what will happen when he is more active.

[bendog2000]

On the biting thing - we let him bite but did the ouch thing so a bite means we left the room (the room he is in is puppy safe) and wait for him to calm down. He now almost never bites. Sometimes he catches me when he's chewing a toy we are playing with and I can see him back off as soon as he knows he caught me - I still do the ouch but I might only go into a statue and ignore him - don't need to leave the room so much now. Now he's rarely biting/chewing us we are discouraging any attempt to mouth us. I still let him lick my hand from time to time - not sure why - it just feels friendly.

He still has a problem with faces. He has nipped my face once and I did the ouch thing. He probably wants to lick my face but I'm not having that. So I am not sure what would happen, if I fell asleep on the floor would he eat my face? For now I'm doing the leave the room thing for any attempt to come to my face. I don't really want my face in his space so could avoid the problem but I also don't want him to think that faces are new and novel enough to try out with a chew test.

[Princess keke]

When I first got Honey the breeder told me to start training her a soon as i got her home. At first I didn't want to crate train because i didn't want her to be locked up all day. Then one day when I got off of work it looked like it had snowed in my room from her ripping the potty pads. After a week or so of this I then started to put her in her crate with the potty pad inside. What a big mistake because her crate now looked like snow was in there. I didn't want her to potty in her crate but the potty pads had to go. She did pee in her crate like once or twice when I took the potty pads out but we haven't had a problem since. I find it better to put them in the crate and lock so they cant get out. I found that giving them the power to walk around the bathroom until you get back gives them the power to pee were they want. I could never get the potty pads to work after she learned how to rip them up. Honey use to always bite and still will if you let her the breeder told me she was going to do it for about a year because she is teething. She also told me to get some teething toys and when she starts trying to bite you or someone else you tell her no then give her the toy to bite on. This worked for Honey so I hope it can help you.

[dawn27]

When it comes to biting or any unwanted behavior for that matter, you must react quickly with your stop commands! This is a must and should be a common practice with all of the family member young to old in order for your pup to learn acceptable behavior. You may want to try the (ah aah) command or a firm "NO" followed by placing him on the floor away from you face or hands. BUt lets face it.... a puppy biting is just a dally thing and will not get better unless you stop it from happening. I would suggest No rough housing or play until he knows that mouthing/biting is unacceptable.

The crate training is a different story. It's not an easy process but in my opinion it well worth the struggle and time it takes to get it right. Here is the link to my site with some tips on how to successfully cage train your pup. I have used these tips for as long as I can remember.

Training Tips - Dawn's Yorkies