Hello everyone, sorry for posting and disappearing it's just been a bit of a whirlwind. Josephine is 10 weeks old. This is going to get long but I so want to do this right for her, train her properly and integrate her into our lives happily.
I have some questions and also giving a bit of info on how things are going on that maybe you experienced EB veterans can help with.
Potty training is going pretty well, she is still quite young and I don't expect her to be 100% until she is closer to 6 months. That is how long it took all of my Pugs to become what I considered reliable. We had a small issue of accidents in the crate the first few days but then realized it was too big so stepped her down to the smaller crate for now. I simply moved the larger one into the dining room and have seen her checking it out and playing with her toys in it but for now she sleeps in the smaller one in our bedroom each night. I check it each morning and so far no accidents. She usually wakes me up once a night to take her out to got potty. I have her trained to use a custom made litter box on our upstairs porch. She will actually go out and tinkle on it all by herself, poops she is having a bit more of an issue with it but it's all a process.
She is a morning puppy and wakes us up with the birds. She barks, "Mommy Mommy the birdies say it's time to get up!" She gets carried down the stairs and out into the yard where she does her business. Then I put her harness on and the others join us. We have had some issues of her biting at the Pugs legs and trying to drag them around, it doesn't seem agggressive more like play but the Pugs don't enjoy it. To help prevent this I have taken to putting her in a harness with a leash. I am teaching her No Bite when ever she gets over excited and tries to nip at them, or us. This is a work in progress.
She nips and bites a bit more than I would like but have been reading on here that she will hopefully outgrow this stage? So for now it's a harness and leash to control her with the command No Bite as well as anytime she goes to Bite us we stuff a nylabone or toy in her mouth instead of us or the Pugs. She definitely has a finger fetish and would much rather chew on a human finger than a toy but I am working diligently with her to stop this. I have noticed she gets nippier when she gets tired so try to watch for her energy level and be prepared with toys and commands to stop the biting when she tries it. I asked a couple different vets before we got her if EBs were aggressive and was assured they are not, I talked to a few people with EBs and they said they were not aggressive, I am hoping this is true as she seems a bit more aggressive than I expected. Should I be worried about aggression? The biting is the thing that worries me the most and I really want to get control of it ASAP. My husband is disabled and one of his medications is warfarin and small bites and scratches bleed quite badly for him. Any pointers?
She has the SIT command down pat. I am training her to sit before she gets her food bowl, when I am attaching or removing her leash, waiting for a treat, etc. I am working with her on the leash to walk with me then when I turn and say SIT to immediately sit, she does this correctly about 90 percent of the time. She is a little ADD and gets distracted very easily so I think the 10 percent failure rate is from her going oh look a butterfly or look a bug or look a motorcycle etc you get the picture. I am teaching her, Let's Go In which is the command I've used for years with my Pugs to let them know it's time to, well, go in, lol. She doesn't always listen but have taken to bribing her if she crosses the threshold of her own volition, if I have to force her in she doesn't get a treat. She knows the Go Potty command as well.
As I said she wears the harness all day and it seems to help keep her calmer for some reason. She gets attached to a leash when she starts acting out or gets overly aggressive so I can keep her from hurting herself, others or if I need to make her do what I want her to do not what she wants. She needs to know that what I say she HAS to do. If she does it when asked she gets pats, kisses, or a treat, if I have to make her do it then she doesn't. There are times when I attach the leash but don't hold the end, I want her to act like I AM on the other end even when I am not so eventually I can dispense with harness and leash inside the house altogether. Am I going about this correctly?
There is so much more but this will hopefully give you an idea how I am going about this and maybe make some suggestions as EB owners that you know get better results.
Terry
I have some questions and also giving a bit of info on how things are going on that maybe you experienced EB veterans can help with.
Potty training is going pretty well, she is still quite young and I don't expect her to be 100% until she is closer to 6 months. That is how long it took all of my Pugs to become what I considered reliable. We had a small issue of accidents in the crate the first few days but then realized it was too big so stepped her down to the smaller crate for now. I simply moved the larger one into the dining room and have seen her checking it out and playing with her toys in it but for now she sleeps in the smaller one in our bedroom each night. I check it each morning and so far no accidents. She usually wakes me up once a night to take her out to got potty. I have her trained to use a custom made litter box on our upstairs porch. She will actually go out and tinkle on it all by herself, poops she is having a bit more of an issue with it but it's all a process.
She is a morning puppy and wakes us up with the birds. She barks, "Mommy Mommy the birdies say it's time to get up!" She gets carried down the stairs and out into the yard where she does her business. Then I put her harness on and the others join us. We have had some issues of her biting at the Pugs legs and trying to drag them around, it doesn't seem agggressive more like play but the Pugs don't enjoy it. To help prevent this I have taken to putting her in a harness with a leash. I am teaching her No Bite when ever she gets over excited and tries to nip at them, or us. This is a work in progress.
She nips and bites a bit more than I would like but have been reading on here that she will hopefully outgrow this stage? So for now it's a harness and leash to control her with the command No Bite as well as anytime she goes to Bite us we stuff a nylabone or toy in her mouth instead of us or the Pugs. She definitely has a finger fetish and would much rather chew on a human finger than a toy but I am working diligently with her to stop this. I have noticed she gets nippier when she gets tired so try to watch for her energy level and be prepared with toys and commands to stop the biting when she tries it. I asked a couple different vets before we got her if EBs were aggressive and was assured they are not, I talked to a few people with EBs and they said they were not aggressive, I am hoping this is true as she seems a bit more aggressive than I expected. Should I be worried about aggression? The biting is the thing that worries me the most and I really want to get control of it ASAP. My husband is disabled and one of his medications is warfarin and small bites and scratches bleed quite badly for him. Any pointers?
She has the SIT command down pat. I am training her to sit before she gets her food bowl, when I am attaching or removing her leash, waiting for a treat, etc. I am working with her on the leash to walk with me then when I turn and say SIT to immediately sit, she does this correctly about 90 percent of the time. She is a little ADD and gets distracted very easily so I think the 10 percent failure rate is from her going oh look a butterfly or look a bug or look a motorcycle etc you get the picture. I am teaching her, Let's Go In which is the command I've used for years with my Pugs to let them know it's time to, well, go in, lol. She doesn't always listen but have taken to bribing her if she crosses the threshold of her own volition, if I have to force her in she doesn't get a treat. She knows the Go Potty command as well.
As I said she wears the harness all day and it seems to help keep her calmer for some reason. She gets attached to a leash when she starts acting out or gets overly aggressive so I can keep her from hurting herself, others or if I need to make her do what I want her to do not what she wants. She needs to know that what I say she HAS to do. If she does it when asked she gets pats, kisses, or a treat, if I have to make her do it then she doesn't. There are times when I attach the leash but don't hold the end, I want her to act like I AM on the other end even when I am not so eventually I can dispense with harness and leash inside the house altogether. Am I going about this correctly?
There is so much more but this will hopefully give you an idea how I am going about this and maybe make some suggestions as EB owners that you know get better results.
Terry