Hello Guys,

I am a new owner of a westie pup - Toby- 7 weeks old. I have read several books on Westies and how to train them, but none were specific to his age at the moment. Having read some of the messages on the forum I am now worried that I may be alowing my terrier to play too hard. He loves to play tug, and chase and can bite quiet hard at times. When this happens I always say "gentley" and removehim from my hand or place he is biting. This appears to work. I am planning to take him to puppy training after his vaccinations of course. In the time being is this just puppy play or should I be firmer with him. He loves play time and his tail never stops wagging, but I`d hate to end up with a nippy dog.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thankyou xxx

Congrats on your Westie pup :)

Your plan to attend a pup class is a very good idea as hopefully you will learn a lot about how to stop the nipping, how to control the pup generally, and how to train basic pet obedience. A good class will also go on to teach you how to trainthe pup to do certain things on command, such as Leave it, Drop, Give, and so on, all of which you can teach your pup to enable you to control him in exciting game sessions.

I think the key word is control - if your pup or dog will get very very excited, yet will Drop or Leave or Give as soon as you say the word (and this does take patient training, but is easily achievable) then in my view there is no problem :)

One command i find very useful is "That's enough". This can be used to end play. Basically I would take the toy, stand still and say "That's enough" and ignore totally for a few seconds. Then I would say "OK" and invite play again. After a while the command can be used when the pup is pesteirng for attention, and at other time s when you may be very busy, have visitors, etc.

Until you start to get knowledge frmo the pup class, get 2 toys, and invite play with the less exciting toy. Then introduce the fav. toy in the other hand, the pup should leave the first toy and go for the second. YO can then gradually introduce the word "Drop" for the pup giving up the first toy, and say "OK" as a command for the pup to play with the fav. toy.

Any way just a few ideas, do get "The Perfect Puppy" by Gwen BAiley, she goes into puppy control in plenty of detail :)
Have fun :)

Lindsay

Thankyou so much for your great advice. I will definatly try having two toys and teaching him to drop the first. It is definatly harder work than I first imagined, but I only work part time and some is with him at most times. I am off now to order the book by Gwen Bailey. Thanks so much again. Lindsay01

Have fun, and enjoy the puppy days - and believe me, we all worry about something when we have a pup!!! :)

The most common problem does seem to be anxiety about puppy biting :D

Lindsay