First off I live in South korea, so getting professional help may be hard. I have a five month old cocker spaniel, well I think he's five months old, but can't be sure. For two months I have been trying to get him to stop jumping up. I've tried the squirt bottle of water and tried turning away and saying "off" loudly with absolutely no effect.
I haven't been able to house break him yet, he pees about ten times a day and poops about five. I live  in a fifth floor apartment, so it's been a little difficult in that respect too. His latest thing is to growl at me and at children and jump up scaring them. Also anyone else he wants to greet or growl at. I should explain that Korean kids are highly rambunctious around animals and some Koreans see dogs and run screaming for their lives. I should also explain that I work at a school where I can take him, so he never spends more than  four hours alone in a day. I'm wondering whether to keep him away from there as the kids seem to encourage bad behaviour and there are a lot of them.
Finally, unfortunately, the streets here are littered with all kinds of things, discarded food, bones, broken glass and general trash. When I take him out for a walk ( two or three times a day) his nose is constantly to the ground and I am pulling him away from the stuff the whole walk. I do have plenty of time to spend trying to fix this, so that is a plus.
Thanks for your advice,
Sweet

It's late at night in the UK now to catch some of the more knowledgable people on behavioural training issues - but if you can provide a bit more info then I'm sure come morning (about 6 hours + from now) the regulars will be up and about :)   It would help if you could explain why you're not sure about your pup's age? Have you only had him 2 months and are you his 1st home since the breeder, had he been placed elsewhere or did you get him from a rescue centre?
Re. soiling indoors, more tricky to train in an apartment BUT it is possible with a lot of effort and dedication on your part ;)  You may have to take a week off work for eg. to do an intensive housetraining schedule with him - go back to basics taking him out every time he wakes, feeds, plays with you.  Wait with him until he "performs" and AS he's doing so use a command word such as "busy" or "hurry up" followed by lots of praise.  Any circling or sniffing indoors scoop him asap and take him downstairs :D  Ignore accidents insofar as don't ever scold him - he's confused just now so you don't want to make him fearful too.  Clean up any mess with solution of water and bio soap powder to remove smells.  Regards, Teri :)
  

Thanks for your reply!
I'm not sure about his age because he was given to me by a drunk man in a bar as a "gift" who spoke little English, he said the little one was 6 months old, I was figuring about six weeks as he was so small. No one there speaks English either. I don't know how he was raised, but took him because unfortunately Koreans have a history of what we would consider animal abuse in some cases ( chaining dogs up all day, never walking them, taunting and teasing them and dogs are even a staple food here.) I am his first owner.
I have thought about taking time off work and may follow that suggestion if it's possible. I have been worried about him going up and down the stairs as I heard that is not good for their joints and he is quite heavy to carry. Also I thought about feeding him twice a day as opposed to three times to limit the number of trips. Another thing, I am feeding him dry food, but wonder if I should switch. He needs water available all the time right? I read online though that you shouldn't let a puppy drink water after 7pm so he won't pee as much during the night.
Thanks and have a good one,
sweet

Hi again Sweet, I'm glad this little dog found you ;)  You're right about stairs not being good for their joints when very young so that's a judgement call as you're unsure about age.  A guidline is (or would have been when you got him) his teeth.  The baby teeth usually start to loosen off and fall out at around 4.5 months + so if he has some left he's likely to be 5 months (or maybe less if he still has most of them) and if they're all replaced by adult teeth he's probably 5 months + but as you think he's small he could of course be 6 months + :( 
If he's otherwise healthy and keen on his current dry food stick with it - changes can cause upset tums and as he's "accident prone" you've enough problems for now :P  He *always* has to have access to water when fed a dry diet or he'll dehydrate.   There's lots of conflicting info on line (sounds a bit like "Oh, believe me and folks on this forum but no-one else :rolleyes:  - not meant that way!) just don't believe *all* that you read on the web, especially on any medical health or diet issues.  I'll bid you goodnight (it's 3-00 am here) but it's been nice chatting and hopefully we'll "meet up" again.  BFN, Teri :)  

I agree, this dog is very lucky to have found you!  There are some real stars on here that have helped me no end and I am sure that someone will have something to tell you that will help!  (not me unfortunately, I have a 13 week old puppy who is intent on destroying my clothes and my furniture.... and my skin!)

Thank you both for your help, not many other replies so far, I tried to change the topic title but couldn't. he's being an angel today, but he only has about one angel day a week. A monster in a cute skin otherwise :)
Sweet

Hi there,  For a start - have you taught him what 'off' means?  So many people seem to assume that dogs understand English (or human language) because they do what we ask, when infact they have learnt OR are reading our body language and are making an educated guess.  Dogs themselves communicate between each other using body language, but we are limited in this respect because we don't have the same physical construction, so, we have to teach them initially using a combination of body language and verbal commands.
To teach an 'off' command, I would use a small but tasty food treat (can be human food if dog treats are not available, infact human food is often healthier - a small piece of cooked chicken for example) hold it between two finger tips, so the food is covered mostly by the fingers (be prepared to remove it quickly should the dog lunge for it ;)) and lure him down to the floor, and reward him immediatly with the treat when his feet are on the floor.  Slowly you can add a command word, which coupled with your body position will tell him what you want him to do.  My dogs are trained to both command words and hand signals using this method.

He's possibly growling because your attemtps so far have been confrontational and not consistent enough for him to learn what each thing means.  When training children or animals, you must be consistend - how would you feel if your boss asked you do to do something by saying one thing one day, and another the next without explaining what each command meant?

It may be easier to train the children he comes into contact with most the appropriate way to deal with dogs - not disturbing them when they are asleep, stroking the chest and throat initially, and not the top of the head, don't hug them or put arms across their shouldar area, don't stare at them or maintain eye to eye contact.

He is a Spaniel, and Spaniels do spend most of their time with their noses to the ground - it's what they were breed to do.  You can try and combat that by using small food treats again, and get his attention on you by rewarding him when he looks at you when on the lead - try it at home at first, so he understands what action gets the rewards.

If you're in education, you might find this site http://www.clickandtreat.com/Newbies/newbies.html interesting, as the techniques can be applied to both dogs and children ;)

House training in a small apartment may be difficult if your intention is that he should 'hold it' untill you can get him downstairs and outside.  But if you have a veranda, could you teach him to use that?  Failing that - a cat litter tray in the bathroom?

HTH

Dear HTH,
Thanks so much for your advice ! I will check out the website. I do think I may have been confrontational in an attempt to gain control and maybe a little inconsistent. The kids number about 250 and run freely around the school with little control, so it will be hard to maintain any kind of consistent behaviour. I thought about maybe limiting his exposure to more potentially positive experiences with kids. I have said "off"! and turned my back to no avail but like the treat idea. By the way, my boss is less consistent than my puppy, but that's another discussion board. I thought that maybe the nose to the ground was a result of the breed, so now you have confirmed that. I'll try again .
;)

Hi Sweet,
You have had some advice on a number of the issues you are going through with your pup. I have to say, it doesn't sound like you have a particularly devil-ish puppy - just a pup going through "that" stage that all puppies do!
As someone said - always make sure he has access to fresh water - don't limit that.
I reduce my pups down to two meals daily when they are around 6/7 months old.
Back to basics with the house-training as someone else said. Ignore the accidents in the house and praise like a mad thing when he does it outside! Always go outside armed with tasty treats so you are always prepared to reward the behaviour you want him to repeat! Take him outside after meals, on wakening and after play-time.
As for his behaviour around the children - I have to admit, that if I let loose one of my 5 month old border collies around all those children, they would implode with the excitement of it all! I would limit his experiences with children to a more controlled environment rather than let him loose and maybe just expect him to know how to behave. I would work consistently upon basic commands such as "sit" "down" "off" "wait" and make them solid before allowing him access to situations that he maybe isn't mature enough for as yet. If you want to take him to work then perhaps a crate would work for you? That way he would have his own "safe environment" that the kids couldn't have access to.
Good Luck!

Hi

I can't offer any other advice on the toilet training issue as it's pretty much been covered by everyone else. However, I may be able to help you to get your pup to stop jumping up. We got our first dog (a rescue) when he was six months old and he had no training at that point. He jumped up on everyone and as he's quite large we needed to stop it quickly as he could easily have knocked someone, particularly a child, down. To break the habit we simply bent down to his level everytime we greeted him or wanted to speak to him for training etc. And I mean every time. He soon learned that he didn't need to jump to get our attention as we would automatically come to his level. We have no problem at all with jumping now and we're employing the same technique with our new puppy and it seems to be working with her too. Training a pup, particularly an older one who maybe hasn't had the greatest start in life takes real patience. Stick with it. Our boy is 16 months old now and an absolute joy to live with (most of the time but no-one is perfect!). Your patience will be rewarded.

Good luck.

I'm really glad I found this forum. I really appreciate the advice and constructive criticism and kinda started to realise that the pup wasn't really out of control after all, rather that I simply didn't know the correct methods and techniques to use. This is a first for me. Can anyone help with 250 wild kids and an eccentric boss? :)

Hi Sweet,

>Can anyone help with 250 wild kids and an eccentric boss? <

Errrr, that would be NO   - certainly from me anyway :D  But I certainly wish you well!   Teri ;)

>Can anyone help with 250 wild kids and an eccentric boss?<

Read 'Don't Shoot the Dog' by Karen Pryor ;)  Clicker training works with humans as well as dogs and dolphins ....