Hi
Im after any tips/advice basically any information that will help me have an obedient dog. Im new to puppy training so as you can imagine I really know nothing at all. Just to let you know he is a Lakeland Terrier.

Currently I take Toby out every half hour or so, or I may just wander in the garden and he follows me. We have had just a few accidents in the house so as far as toilet training he is doing brilliant. He has a cage to sleep in on a night and has never soiled it at all, so he really is doing good.
If he is doing something that I do not want him to do I firmly say 'NO', sometimes he stops whatever he is doing and other times he does not. How do I break the habit of him doing something i dont want him to do? like digging in the garden, he dug a hole and I am forever telling him 'no', so I filled the hole in which worked for a day or so then he decided wouldnt it be fun to dig in another part of the garden, so I have filled that one in and waiting for the next one to appear lol.
Any tips at all you can give me would be appreciated, not just the digging but anything you think may be useful for me.
I do praise him a lot when he does good, as i know thats an important factor.

Thanks

It sounds as if you're doing really well already :-)

When a dog does something you don't like you can do one of two things - you can ignore it (especially good for behaviours which might develop into attention seeking) or you can distract (by clapping your hands and calling the dog) then ask it to obey a command it already knows like sit - then give it a reward. This way whatever it was doing is usually forgotten and the dog never gets any kind of reward for the behaviour, but plenty of positive reward from you for interacting with you

i am new to puppies too - mine's a nearly 12 week old cavalier. its amazing how much you love them so quickly, i can't imagine being without ours now (after 3 1/2 weeks!) isn't it :) but i was also quite taken aback by how much work it can be and how stressed i have got over whether i am doing hte right thing sometimes (but then i am a bit of a worrier aboutt hings so maybe that's just me) :(

anyway - your toilet training sounds really good, mine was dead clean in the day but we found that she did tend to soil her (admittedly rather big) crate at night, once she got in a good routine of eating/drinking with us - she's stopped this in the last 4, 5 days though adn i think its just that her control's just developed that bit further. from reading lots of posts its clear that different dogs take different amounts of time, so don't get disheartened if he ever does soil his cage.

re: digging, ruby does this too! luckily dad is quite relaxed about the pristineness of the backgarden and she also seems to go in the borders to do it rather than the middle of the lawn:). all the advice that i've had about htis is that its just a natural instinct that some dogs have - both of our breeds (particularly yours, i think) were originally bred to work and to dig out things so maybe its something that's just part of their personalities. people advised me to divert her digging to an acceptable place, maybe give her a sandpit or designated digging area if it was bothering us, can encourage her to dig in it by burying treats in it. also - toby's still a pup and even if he continues to dig, i imagine it'll be less and less as he gets older.

when ruby did stuff we didn't like (biting was the big one) we ignored her:( even though it was dead hard. we found that shouting/raising voices just excited her even more (upped the stakes in the game so to speak.) also, we found that exaggerating your body language helps get stuff through - makes sense, esp if you're at all reserved (i can be & my dad definitely is) but pup obviously doesn't understand what we say so it really helps to emphasise it by using your demeanour. IE if you're ignoring him, turn away from him, cross your arms, stick your nose in hte air & refuse to even look at him :D. Sounds daft but it really got the message through quickly to our ruby. sometimes we even put ruby out of the room for 30 secs or so if she was being really persistent - nothing like rejection from the 'pack' to knock a message home but pup has to relate it to the bad behaviour so has to be put out straight it starts doing something bad and also it will inevitably happen a few times while pup tests what behaviour it is that brings rejection, so be consistent.

i hope that helps - its just from my observations over the past 4 weeks, there's lots of experienced people on here if you have any specific queries in the future. and enjoy toby! he sounds lovely :)

Thank you for the replies.

Yeah He is now my baby and all I want for him is the best. I hope to have a happy, contented, obedient dog..........heheheh I say this now as I have only just started training him.
Today I started getting him to sit and he did it and I was so proud of the fact that he did it so quick. He picked it up within ten mins. what i did is got a chew bar and broke it into really small pieces and when he sat for the 1st time gave him a treat and then threw the ball for him and played for a few mins, said sit again but did not treat, played again and when he sat for me I rewarded him with a treat again. So I didnt treat him every time which I was told is the best way, then he thinks if he sits he may get a treat. Maybe you guys could tell me wether im doing the right thing there.

Re the holes there is no where else to dig, currently he is only allowed in the back garden which is fairly big but the majority of it is a patio area, so there is only a small piece of grassed area. I will just have to make sure I distract him every time i see him doing it. Once he is allowed out for walks he may be too tired to dig (wishful thinking on my part).

But thank you for your advice, much appreciated.