Hi I have a 4mnth old west highland white terrier and I am wondering if anyone can tell me of a good trainer or training classes in the southampton area Ive got in contact with the kennel club and they gave me details for 2 places but both places are halfway through their courses. I dont want to leave training my puppy too long. ive been trying to do some training my self and have got him to sit and get down when told but little else the main command ive trying to teach him is to come when called as he has a tendancy to go off after people. Also Im gona ask someting that is asked a lot and probably should be common knowledge but. How can I progress toilet training he is paper trained and I take him out regularly. The only thing is he hardly ever goes when outside he will tend to go when back inside and not always on the paper even though there is lots put down for him.

Any help you can give would be very much appreciated.

I can't help with your training I'm afraid (Scotland is a bit far! ;-) )
but for the house training there are lots of help if you use the search facility at the top of the page.

I wouldn't leave newspaper down though. It just lets the pup know that it is ok to go to the toilet inside the house. :-( Take puppy out as often as you can. Mainly as soon as he wakes, has eaten, starts to look as though he might be looking for somewhere to go and every half hour or so in between. Take him outside, don't just let him out and leave him there. Praise him when he does go outside, but ignore when he goes inside. Just pick him up and take him out without speaking to him. Once he goes praise him a lot.

Good luck with him :-)

http://www.apdt.co.uk/

You may already have been given the name of this club:
Winchester City Dog Training Club. It meets in Otterbourne Hall, Otterbourne, Hampshire. Meets Weds and Fridays, if memory serves me correctly. They were really helpful to me, a totally inexperienced owner with a fox terrier puppy. They run a puppy class, as already mentioned, an intermediate obedience class (bronze/silver Good Citizen), an advanced class (silver/gold Good Citizen), and heelwork to music classes for all levels. Great people, who were always willing to answer my beginner questions.

I found my dog took a lot longer than four months to become house-trained. I left newspaper down, but wouldn't do it that way again. Looking back, most of the accidents were because she didn't have control for a very long time. She was over six months old before she really had control. I just kept trying - eventually the times outside coincided more and more often with her needing to relieve herself! I also taught words for weeing and pooing, by saying them whenever she started (outside only, of course!) That really helped because once she understood the commands I could use the words to remind her why we had gone outside!

Claire

Scallywags are very good based in Fareham but run classes in Southampton as well. Website is www.scallywagsdogs.com (sorry don't know how to make this into a link)