Hi, new to posting on here although I've been reading through all the topics for the past few days. My mum has recently got a Tibetan Terrier puppy and he is soooooo cute. I've never had a dog before and mum hasn't had one since she was a girl so I'm hoping all you knowledgeable people will be able to help us out over the next few weeks (or months....). I think we've had every dog book out of the library in preparation but we still have a few questions.

Barney is settling in well. He now sleeps through the night (in a crate) from about 10.30 til 07.00 and with regular trips outside is now down to only about one 'accident' a day in the house. He gets lots of praise and now goes and stands by the door when he wants to go out.

He's not very happy about going in his crate during the day (when mum has a shower or something) but can usually be pacified with his puppy kong. The main problem we have is just entertaining him. He seems to get bored very easily and we've spent a fortune on different toys and chews and running round the garden with him but he will not settle in the evenings at all and my mum is getting knackered! Any ideas or is this just totally normal for a puppy? He also chews everything in sight, which I know is normal and we try and distract him but the armchair or my hand seems so much more interesting than his chewy bone!

Sorry for the long post and I'm sure there will be many more but any general suggestions for a new puppy owner would be gratefully received!

Thanks  

Hi and welcome to the asylum. 

I have TT's to and they are very busy little creatures indeed.  Try to relax a little more around him in the evenings, he is probably over tired and ratty because he has not settled into his resting/sleeping routine yet.  I guess he is very young and if so he needs to have lots of sleep in between playing.

You need to be able to give him switch off signals.  When you are trying to settle and he wont, don't give in to his attention demands.  If he is biting you remove your hand and turn away from him, ignore him until he is more settled.  Can you put his crate near your feet in the evening so that when he is dropping off to sleep for a nap you can gently encourage him in, leaving the door open until it is finally bed time and he is ready for the nights rest.  They really can sleep a lot of the day away and should be encouraged to do so.  Most of my puppies sleep one hour in every three, if they don't get their naps they can be little terrors just like children.  Don't feel you have to play with him all the time, even his mum would not be doing that.

You are doing great by the way to have him going more or less through the night and his toileting habits are good too.  Keep up the good work.

Thanks for your advice. It's very gratefully received. I'm glad all of Barney's behaviour appears normal! You're definitely right about the sleeping. He does lots of it during the day! Quite happily going his crate (with the door open) and snuggling in. It's just in the evenings he gets completely hyper!

Will try and relax around him a bit more. We're probably giving him the wrong signals!

Bought him a couple of new toys today and I've told mum to just let him have them one at a time and then hopefully he won't lose interest so quickly.

Thanks again!

How old is Barney?

I found that the first month of pup ownership positively wore me out, trying to fit in socialising, playing, cleaning up, training, feeding, sleeping - and being woken up to let the little monster out again.  He also had an attention span of about 3 seconds.  Whenever we turned our back he'd be trotting in with a potato or carrier bag from the kitchen, one of the kids pencils, etc etc.  Whenever I took five minutes for anything it seemed like he had another plan!

He was very mouthy so that for a while he was known as 'bitey thing', and I joined here with a 'help how do I stop him from biting so much' message.

Keep the toys away from the dog, and bring them out one at a time - if they're always out the dog will likely ignore them - if you bring them out to start a game with (or distract him from the sofa or carpet), he'll likely be much keener.  Put them away when he loses interest.  Mine is usually pretty unimpressed with toys (apart from kongs and his buster ball), unless someone is tugging or throwing with him.

The biting *will* lessen - initially my hands were covered with little toothy marks   Just be consistent - it takes time, but they do get there.

Also like kids they don't know when to stop - when he looked like he needed to settle, or we needed a break, we put him in the crate with something to chew and/or a kong - he was usually snoring within minutes.  Now he'll take himself off for a nap, or settle when asked.

In short he sounds perfectly normal - it will get better though.

Matt

Thanks so much for the reassuring words. We didn't want to think our inexperience was doing irrepairable damage! Barney is 12 weeks old today and we've had him since he was 10 weeks so I think he's making reasonable progress but it does seem a bit like one step forwards, two steps back at times!

Today we took him out on a lead for the first time. Just a short stroll up to the corner of the road and back but he found it very interesting! Sniffing everything and looking around him. Two joggers ran by and he sat down and watched them with his little head following their progress all the way down the road! He also saw a cat and didn't bat an eye so that was quite promising. He did however insist on chewing at the lead and tangling my legs up by going round me in circles but I'm sure that'll get better with time!

The main issue still is his mouthing and chewing. He jumps up and bites at your clothes and I can get him to get down and sit quite nicely but as soon as I bend down to praise him he starts going for your hand again. I'm trying the 'ouch' technique but it doesn't seem to be having much effect at the moment. Hopefully with time, he'll get better.

Thanks again

Andrea

Even us hardened types sometimes get a difficult puppy.  It took weeks to train my little Tibetan Terror to stop mouthing and even though she is a delight now (7 months) she will still jump and catch my jacket or sleeve if I ignore her for too long especially in the show ring.  Thank goodness the judge was looking.

It does get better especially when they shed their baby teeth.

for 12 weeks he sounds fantastic!

Like with kids it's definitely one step forward, two back.  It sounds like you're on the right road though.

With Eric, after owning him for one week, my hands and wrists were covered with little scabs from bitey thing - and when he nibbled a half healed sore from a few days before it positively hurt.  Trouble is those puppy teeth are like little hypodermics aren't they?

I'd go to play with him with a toy, and he'd try to bite my hands.  I'd go to stroke him, and he;d try to chew.  Try to stop him biting with a big loud ouch and he'd just look, or try biting something else (like my wrist, other hand or shirt sleeve, or trouser leg).  For a while if he was awake he was trying to nibble a live human.  :)

http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm  Gives some good advice, but we found it a little challenging to implement sometimes - When we tried the walk out the room response it was pretty hard, as he usually attached to an ankle. :rolleyes:  Shout ouch (in lots of tones to find one that got a let go reaction - result none of em) often just got a look from him, rather than release.  We eventually figured if he simply looked at us, and paused, our point had registered.  We still had to remove the jaws manually.  :)

Now at 5 1/2 he still mouths, but has good bite control, and it only really happens when he's overexcited - nibbling hands (gently) or shirt sleeve - but he's got adult teeth so it doesn't hurt the same - and will stop.

Now I've had several dogs before, and a friend who bred Bernese Mountain Dogs (so lots of time with swarm of pups) and had never met one who was quite so focussed on mouthing, or who you could feel varying his bite while watching your reaction.

Sounds very familiar, and we spent ages wondering if the concept was getting through to him as there was no apparent progress.  Thing is looking back, prompted by your post, it's pretty well fixed, but it was fairly slow progress.

He has lots of marrow bones of varying ages to choose from and now will 99% of the time just gnaw on one of those.

Take plenty of time socialising him - we took little un pretty much everywhere with us - town centre, on the trams and busses, to the vets just to say hello, outside the local school, and he was pretty unphased by any of it.  When he sits he's probably not sure, so just give him a little time to watch and learn.

Good luck, and make the most of it - the sweet puppy stage passes oh so quickly!

Matt