I would appreciate your help with a couple of hic-cups I am having with Molly who is a four and a half month old Tibetan Terrier. 1. How does one go about stopping a puppy chasing and barking at the hoover and also brooms and the dust pan and brush!

2. Because she loves people overtly at the moment especially complete strangers who she greets as long lost relatives, how can I get her to stop mithering people who visit for attention? She won't leave them alone when they sit down, which is strange because she is really not all that bothered with us hardly ever demanding to be stroked or cuddled.

3. House training seems to have taken a step backwards, just when I thought she had grasped it she seems to have forgotten where the door is and we have had two accidents in separate rooms without her asking or thing about where she should go, I must admit house-training makes me really stressed and to think that after over three solid months of going out ever 30 minutes or so wind and rain regardless, going to the same spot, giving rewards praising her up and not going mad or saying anything when she does it in the house, we still haven't got there!

Thanks in anticipation of some help with the above, cheers Jane

Hi peaches, she is still pretty young, just stay on her with the potty training, accidents are to be expected---try not to stress. Try restricting her to less rooms, and you have to always keep an eye out. My dogs as puppies loved to chase and bark at brooms and mops, I think it is just a fun game for them but can get annoying for us. Mine just stopped as they got older. Maybe someone else has advice on breaking your dog of this habit. Good luck!

Hi Jane.

My Lhasa, Barney, is nearly 7 months and guess what for the FIRST TIME today he peed outside. He has been pooing outside for ages but I could not get him to pee. He has now peed 4 times outside so the treats are getting smaller LOL. He did regress at about 5 months and had a few accidents peeing in the house in different rooms when I didnt expect him to do so but he did stop and doesnt do it now

He LOVES to chase the dustpan and brush and the mop but I must admit my husband (who uses them more than me) :o just carries on with what he is doing and it doesnt bother him too much.

He absolutely adores strangers but as he has got older after the initial jumping up at them for a cuddle he has calmed down a lot now so I think you will find your little one will restrain herself as she gets older. He does want a lot of attention from us though ...like 20 hours worth .. although he likes to wander off to sleep on his own during the day although he sleeps in our bedroom but has only twice slept on the bed all night. He gets hot with all his fur (we are having it cut on Tues).

I think you will find that at 7 months Molly will be a model of behaviour !!

PS We have just bought a shih tsu pup we have called Molly (havent told anyone else on the board yet) so very excited. Barney is not too bad with her at all but acts like the spoiled baby he is and wont give her any of his toys but she is fearless. We wanted one of these pups from the lady who breeds them but were told before Xmas (as she doesnt breed often) that the next litter would probably all have homes but luckily for us she was able to let us have one. They may look a little like a Lhasa when they are older but they are completely different as pups in behaviour as well as looks. Very funny but with sharp little teeth. She is so small I dont know how I am going to train her what no means but we are enjoying them both.

Have lots of fun with Molly after all they grow up so quick so dont get stressed too much about the toilet training it will come - I know we have been thru it and thought Barney would never learn but he is now (I hope!!).

Best wishes Gina

Thanks for such prompt advice. I must admit Having had an old dog put to sleep in October ,I was totally unprepared for puppyhood! I had obviously forgotten all about it , I have not enjoyed it one bit, having read several books on behaviour, something I didn't do with my two previous puppies many years ago, I have worried about practically everything she does in case it ends up a huge problem and she becomes impossible to live with, and she is only tiny really and although pretty strong willed reasonably responsive when she is told off, things are getting a bit easier now as she gets older but I wish I could be more laid back about it, must be my age!

Gina!
How could you hold back on your new baby?
I think it's wonderful news, hooray for you!

Thanks Bumble. We looked very hard for a long time at getting either a Lhasa or a Shih Tsu and spoke to two breeders. We were going to have two puppies (one of each) so they grew up together but as I said we were told we could not have the shih tsu from the lady we wanted to get one from so we had just Barney and after all the advice from this site we were going to wait and get a larger dog (my husband wanted a larger dog) after a year or so. My husband changed his mind a couple of months ago about a larger dog as he has absolutely fell in love with Barney and when the lady rang me to say I could still have the shih tsu and we went to see them (they were born in Jan) it seemed as if it was meant to happen so we now have the two. My daughter is in America seeing her boyfriend and what with Puss dying this week I wasnt going to say anything until she (Nicola) came home on Monday but as is me I couldnt keep it to myself. Nicola is so upset over Puss I thought Molly might be a nice surprise for her. Many thanks for your good wishes Gina.

Gina what am I missing . Do you have a new baby as well . go on tell me . or is the vodka giving me hallucinations. mari

Hi Mari. Yes new puppy I am really happy. I didnt say too much cos although happy was so sad that Puss died after almost 22 years. She died peacefully but I am still heartbroken. I know I should have waited awhile but as I said above I didnt think I was going to be able to have one of the pups but we did!! She is gorgeous, black and white, weeny, and looks like Stripe from the Gremlins (acts like him sometimes too) but how do you train a diddy thing like this??? Book buying spree tomorrow. We did look into both lhasas and shih tsu's for ages before we were able to get Barney but amazing how much you forget when you dont actually get both dogs you were wanting. Cant go by the lhasa books we have as she is so completely different in temperament than Barney. She rules the roost and isnt scared of him at all and he is so big compared to her. He is still a baby himself so we have a large cage for her to sleep in when she gets tired and too much for Barney as although he lets her torment him he does still try to grab her roughly round the back of the neck so we do have to watch them all the time. He never ever shows any other sort of aggression and wags his tail. But saying that he is getting more tolerant with her every day. We put him on a lead and let her run around as well. We dont even have to hold the lead when he has it on he thinks he has to move slowly anyway LOL. She sleeps downstairs as, as I have said Barney is jealous (especially of me) but we leave the cage door open so she has the run of the dining room and kitchen and she couldnt care less that she is on her own and sleeps all night. I dont like to lock her in as the cage is big and she might get her mouth or head caught when she bites the bars cos she bites everything. Thanks for asking Marie I'll let you get back to your little precious now. lol Gina x

P.S. If anyone has any ideas to help me please please let me know. - Gina

Gina,
I bet Molly is helping you cope very well with the loss of Puss.
Karen (from the cat board) and I were worried about you over the holiday, but now you have a new baby I know you will get along just fine. I'm sure Barney and Molly will become best friends soon, but continue to monitor them together until she can hold her own.
I'm so happy for you, it really must have been meant to be!
Carissa

Hi Bumble. Thanks for your good wishes and for Karen's. I will say hello on the cat board later today. We are having fun with them both and Barney is even better with her today but he still wont let her have ANYTHING!! It does soften the blow of my Puss passing away having them both and I will "speak" to you on the cat board about her later (dont want to bore the dog lovers LOL. Regards Gina x
PS Nicola (daughter) came back from USA (still madly in love) and Molly was such a surprise for her !!! Sleeping off her jet lag at the mo!!

Peaches, I am back to toilet training again ... no fun at all and with her being so small I am not sure she is taking any notice of me at the moment! How's things with your little un??

Hi Gina, I really admire you starting with a new puppy again, and the housetraining! still at least its stopped raining. Molly is getting there I think, with all the advice I really should relax I know. Did you never fancy a Tibetan Terrier seeing as you are into long hair? I must say that Molly is really intelligent and is getting on really well at her training classes,and she is that little bit bigger which was your original plan a bigger dog. Just wondered. Bye for now Peaches

Hi Peaches. We have Barney a Lhasa Apso who is 7 months old and I thought he was the same breed as a Tibetan Terrier. I thought there were two different names for the same dog. Well they look the same in photos!! Am I right? He is gorgeous. If they are the same dog I have told everyone about his first hair cut on the General Board and have talked about him about every week for the last 5 months cos I love him to bits LOL Gina :o

Definately different breeds Gina. Among other things TTs are bigger and leggier!

Hi Gina, they are different TT's are about 4 to 6 inches taller than the Lhaso Apso, but I suppose they do look similar in pictures. My TT has large flat feet I don,t know if that applies to your Barney.Bye Peaches

Peaches,
I've been checking TT as a breed, and it's not suprising that she likes to chase the broom so much, that was her natural occupation herding things. Are things getting better? I used to be stressed over potty training, but now I know that eventually they will get it.

Hi Peaches. Just looked up the TT and LA and they do look a bit similar but are quite different. Barney does have quite large feet but his legs are very straight and strong and I think a bit of what I think is his foot is probably his leg! (I am a bit of a wally LOL). Regards Gina.

Hi Bumblebeeacres, yes things are a bit better I am just going to go with the flow so to speak! I think now that we are going to training classes and are bonding a bit better, because to be honest when I first had her, I didn't really like her, I found it really difficult especially as I loved my two previous dogs to pieces so it was odd really. Now I like her better but I still don't think I love her, I expect that will come with time, hope so. cheers Peaches

Have you lost a much loved dog recently? When I got my first Elkhound, I had just lost my first dog (Belgian shepherd Groenendael) at only 3 1/2 years of age. It took me at least 6 months before I felt I loved her! I somehow felt irrationally disloyal!

Hi Brainless, yes we had our fifteen and a half year old Fox Terrier Clover put to sleep, after a long period of ill health and I just miss her knowing us so well and loving me so much, in all thoes years she was totally devoted to me, in fact if my husband came home and we were both out she would see if was him and not even greet him just go back to bed! Its hard to lose all that loving isn't it? Peaches

Peaches relax she's only a baby and will get there in the end - most do the housetraining bit regardless of how much effort you put into it!

I used to work really hard at getting my dogs house trained until I started to breed - the longer I do it the less I worry about getting them clean, my latest homebred bitch is 6mths next week and is completely housetrained all by herself - she was fed and taken out, she'd play then sleep for a while then out she'd go again when she woke up. She got the hang of it very quickly - then started teething and boy did she forget everything - so we just went back to the old routine and provided her with more rawhide chews to much on when she tried to do it with us.

With the overexcitement with visitors just ask them to ignore her until she settles down - then they can give her a cuddle and say hello, they soon realise that the visitors are a push over for a nice little sit hello rather than the manic variety.

Swiffers, vaccum cleaners, dustpan and brushes are all fair game regardless of a dogs age lol my 6 year old still helps with all tasks involving such tools - have to shut them all out of the way when we do the monthly cleaning!