This site has been great.. and very useful so thank you..
So my next worry and wanting some advice please... my pup is now six weeks and is lively sometimes can get a little to boisterous with biting growling etc andt as a singletons I sometimes worry.. so wondering about how to play with him interact tell him off etc...Mum is so good with him sometimes I feel too good and very gentle and never tells him off!!!!..
Also he got very good with weeing on puppy pads literally running g straight to it to go toilet but now seems to just go anywhere!!.
Any advice would be very helpful..
Thank you

Two things.   One I'd start gently correcting this youngster not leaving it to mum - none of my bitches has ever done that but then I don't leave them in with their puppies by this age!!   Enough is enough.   He's only mouthing so give him a ton of toys.    With the two singleton puppies we had, I stuffed an old sock (with another sock) which is a cheap toy and gave the singleton puppies hours of fun.   But in truth, especially with our second singleton, I used to carry her round with me a lot with the result she was spoilt rotten.  And remained that way her entire life.   The others knew to give her R E S P E C T!!

Secondly much as our puppies were used to having newspaper up one end of the whelping box and then on the floor in front of the box in the puppy pen (once the others had gone home and we were left with those we were keeping - later than 6 weeks btw) we NEVER use pee pads.   What you are seeing is a 'natural progression' from these wretched pads.   At this age, I'd still go with covering a big area with newspaper and changing it regularly, unless it's mild enough to start taking him outside yet.

I feel for you - my singleton is only 4 weeks but I am finding it difficult.
Mum goes in from time to time and I am almost pleased to see her wrap her mouth round him and toss him around.
I do watch she does not go far but see it as an act of authority.
He does growl sometimes but when he does I make sure that I grip him tighter - trying another act of authority.
My problem is how to keep him amused. Are there any chews he could safely nibble at, at this age.

> Are there any chews he could safely nibble at, at this age.

Apart from the stuffed sock!!, we'd give our lot empty plastic handcream bottles, minus the tops, to 'gum'.   Once they had teeth however, said bottles had to be removed.   I'd also knot old socks for them to chew/strop on.  

On another forum, an American one, spec. for Bassets, somebody posted a frame with all kinds of things dangling from which kept their litter(s) amused for hours.   I'll see if I can find a link.................  but it may not be available in the UK, and too expensive for just one puppy!

Here's the link ..... http://www.basset.net/boards/general-basset-hound-discussion/53057-adventure-box-part-1-a.html

The mum plays,with him loads and still lets,him.feed from her which I try to discourage... she's so good with him...our puppy is,entertained all the time have lots of toys. And he has the run of the place probably not a great idea!!!..
I'm just always thinking at the back of my head he's a singletons try not to.spoil him... don't want him being a troubled dog....but I also think he's extra special because he's here!!!

I do try to correct him.. mostl of the time he is quite gentle but he seems to go quite rough a few times  and doesn't really listen when he's like that. Thankfully it's not like that all the time but dnt want this to escalate

> He does growl sometimes but when he does I make sure that I grip him tighter - trying another act of authority.

What is he doing at these times that you are trying to stop?  I can't think of any situation in which this is an appropriate way to correct behaviour in any dog, regardless of age.

Quite honestly he's a PUPPY and a young one at that.   Why grip him tightly?   Make sure he's in a safe place and let him be a puppy!!

Because he is struggling to get away as he is growling. I have always done this to exert my authority.
It is not nasty as you seem to suggest.
I have a breed that will be growling at me when he is a year old and I deal with rescue and have to rehome dogs where
they think they rule the roost. Recently one where a dog trapped a daughter in the shed and would not let her out.
I do not intend to let this puppy get to the stage where he thinks he could do the same. I need to let him know I am in charge.
He has no siblings to let him know that, his Mum does a bit but the rest is my job.
Once secure he settles down in my arms and is quite happy.

He probably needs diversion rather than correction. Growling is not always threatening. Golden Retriever puppies soon develop the pleasure growl as they give you a gift of their toys. They don't intend you to have it, but they are proudly showing it. Some new pet owners are frightened of this because they don't understand breeds. What breed is your puppy? We may well be misinterpreting but rough correction can instigate rough response.  Try all the "toys" that have been suggested here to distract him.

Forgot to add, do away with puppy pads or paper and take him out quickly when he shows signs of needing to "go" or when he wakes, or when he has eaten, or when he hasn't been out for half an hour. NB TAKE not PUT.

So you are doing this to"dominate"him for  prevention of future behavioural problems ?? That's a new one to me. Never seen a bitch tightly hold a puppy to instill submissive behaviour come to think of it never seen any dog adult or otherwise to it.

The lovely purring golden retrievers.
My first one used to sit beside you and as she was being stroked would start to purr like a cat, it alarmed some people as they thought she was growling.
I've not had another one that does it although the current golden will breathe in a raspy way with pleasure, it's not the same as the purr

Growling is not always threatening. Golden Retriever puppies soon develop the pleasure growl as they give you a gift of their toys.

Used to have a Rott, had people start making a fuss of her - even as a pup - and then back off 'she's growling'  She met one guy - who HAD Rotts and was chuffed at the noise and said 'she's talking to me'

First I have not got a soft breed and this has been taken all out of proportion. Perhaps a growling Golden Retriever is more acceptable to society.
I hold the pup tightly and indeed this has been recommended by some trainers so the pup gets used to situations where it is put in a threatening position.
I do not throw my pups around the room, shake them or slap them around the head as some of you have made it sound. I love my pup and all my dogs and want the best for them and for them to be a grounded individual. He is learning from me what he can get away with as he has no siblings to do that it is harder than usual.
I am finding it hard enough as it is wanting to do the right thing for my singleton and to have people jump to conclusions is not nice.
I have used this site a lot over the last few years and contributed but this will be my last post.
Good luck all of you with you and yours but I will move on now due to ridiculous assumptions as to what sort of dog owner I am when you know nothing at all about me.
A pup in my breed is growling and needs to know it is not acceptable and who is boss and I will do that in the most careful way I know.

And to add, see comment above, when my bitch is with him, she does sometimes  indeed put her whole mouth around him to hold him there so I disagree that you do not see a bitch do it.
Mine do. I didn't teach them to do that. It is there way of saying I am boss.
Sorry my last post but just checked earlier posts and saw that.

If you need to teach him to accept being restrained then it can be done in a force-free way, without having this little battle of wills every time.  There's simply no need for it and you could easily be creating problems for the future rather than preventing them - physical methods to gain "authority" over dogs tend to backfire.  I see it over and over again.  Also, no matter what you have seen his mum do, you are not a dog!  So your efforts to replicate her behaviour will not work.  And they don't need to - after decades of behavioural science, we have ample human methods at our disposal to teach our dogs anything we need to.

Gayn - I am a huge fan of the positive interrupter.  I first used it on my collie pup for her crazy biting and it worked like a charm, and I've since used it on all the puppies I've trained and it works beautifully.  Once trained (which takes next to no time) it distracts them instantly, giving you a window to either reward them for stopping, or give them something more appropriate to do and praise/reward them for doing that.  Toy in gob, direct to chew toy, etc.  Telling him off will excite him more as will squealing like another pup.  Distract, distract, distract and if he's being really persistent, calmly pop him behind a stairgate or out of the room for 20 seconds then try again.  If he's not being too bad, just a bit nibbly, remove all the attention immediately - stand up, arms crossed and ignore for a few seconds.  As soon as he stops, go back to him and carry on what you were doing.

Puppy pads I would ditch altogether.  They slow down housetraining because you are simultaneously trying to teach him to go outside, while allowing him to go inside.  Get him on a good routine of frequent garden breaks, praise the butt off him out there when he does it and make no deal of it at all if he does it inside (and remind yourself to watch him more closely next time).  You'll get there!

Hi thanks for that advice.... without sounding too thick

> I do not throw my pups around the room, shake them or slap them around the head as some of you have made it sound. I love my pup and all my dogs and want the best for them and for them to be a grounded individual. He is learning from me what he can get away with as he has no siblings to do that it is harder than usual.

Pups in a litter play hard, pin each other down etc.

Yesterday and today I had one drag another by the tail, and then the dragee respond by pinning the little oik.

They are 5 1/2 weeks and gentle they are not with each other.

So a bit of replication is indeed needed.

yes older pups at the homed age, need us humans to use modern methods, but the pup needs to learn to be a dog, and experience the kind of stimulus appropriate to a litter.

> Growling is not always threatening.

    Puts me in mind of a puppy we had who, when he was really young, I picked him up from the whelping box.   He growled at me.   I was so surprised I nearly dropped him and at the time, thought you little b*gger, what are you going to grow up like.   Turns out he was the most gentle of Basset males.  I'd sold him to a close friend who asked me to keep him with his sister until he was big enough to go in with her adults which we did until he was 6 months.  I HATED seeing him go.   However, it didn't end there because my friend couldn't keep him, and we took him back when he was about 2 years.   He was so overjoyed to be 'home' that by the end of the first day his tail dropped, he'd been wagging it so hard all day.   But it didn't end there either because the farmer at the back of us was crop spraying in a high wind and before I could get them all in, his mother had taken a face full of the spray and him too.  She lost sight in one eye and he went totally blind within 24 hours.  So bad it was that after being examined by our vet, we all agreed that it was so sudden he'd never adjust to life in our small pack - he was already snapping at any of us who walked by, more worringly at another male we'd bought in previously who he'd already not really taken to.  We had him quietly pts and his eyes checked at the Guelph Vet School - massive damage to the back of both eyes.  He was only 5 and I still weep for him.