I have a 10 mounth bitch which is using the house as a toilet and veery destructive. She has recently started to get very bouistorous with my other dogs. Today she has decided to have a nipe at my wife. Can any one give me any advice on how to deal with this situation. Some people say to have hem spade!

if you've bought your bitch from a responsible breeder who knows her breed then you should get back to her for advice as she should know a lot about breed specifics. the type of problems you might expect and ways of dealing with them, all responsible breeders are more than happy to offer an after sale service!!!!

Hi there. Spaying isn't necessarily the best thing to do here. Has your pup ever been clean in the house? If she messes in the house how do you punish her? Do you punish her immediately or only when you discover it? How long is she left by herself or is there always someone at home? What was your wife doing when she was nipped? Did you teach your pup to stop biting when very young? How often do you exercise her? What do you feed her on and how often?
Sorry about all the questions!

I agree that spaying will probably not help the messing nor the other problems.

Bec is right to ask lots of questions, because your reactions to housetrainng the pup are crucial.

When a pup is small as you probably know,they need to relieve themselves immediately upon waking, after play, eating and so on, and it is then easy to go out wiht them - not let them out - and then praise when they perform. This is why I personally amnot happy with pups being sold to people at work all day, unless they can make special arrangments, because how can they learn what is required of them? Dogs are basically an alien species and we have to hellp them understand our ways, as they do not have our values.

Some pups are very quick to catch on and are clean from a few months, but don[t forget too that any kind of upheaval, arguments, guests in the house and so many other things can all affect toilet training, and may also cause the dog to "lapse" on occasion.

One other thing, is that owners understandably get mor e and more frustrated and scruff the dog or shout or rub its nose in the mess - that is just barbaric!!!

It is worth remembering that if a dog is told off for making a mess, he/she will associate the presence of the owner with the mess, with being told off, so will therefore be very unlikeley to obligingly do the business in front of said owner even if taken out into the garden. But will instead do it later in the house!!!

If there is nothing medically wrong then it may be a question of going back to basics and starting from the beginning.