hi,iam new to the breed,as my hubby has wanted one for about 9 years..now we have one!
me myself have allways had beardies.
our puppy (tiffany) is a fox terrier???
we did books and internet to study the breed first but find her a bit hard work??
id love to hear from people who love or (dont)love the breed,or any tips in calming,house training (which i found very easy with bearded colies),are these dogs hyper????
mind you i just love her for who she is,she still sticks around long enough for kisses!!
oh and allso one of my beardies has not taken to her yet,could anyone give advice on dogs makeing friends?? my skye (beardie) has never and would never bite the pup.but barks and hides away from tiff,i just want them to get along??help please!!

I grew up with a Fox Terrier and yes, they are tremendous hard work and yes, they are very hyper :)  I don't know what to advise really.  The dogs can be friends but the terrier will always play rough and may want to rule.  There is little you can do about it other than let them sort it out but it would be kind to allow your Beardie plenty of opportunity to fully escape is she wants to.
Terriers are great characters but I have to say, you have bought one of the strongest characters :), but surely your book and internet studys warned you.  Your best source of help and advise will be her breeder, I think you might need it! :)

Sounds like a perfectly normal Terrier puppy to me LOL    Most puppies are hard work at first although if there's a while in between we tend to forget how much ;) ;)   How old is she? and how long have you had her?

For now I'd only allow the pup and Skye supervised contact and make sure the pup doesn't get too excited with her.  Easier said than done I know but a crate or baby gate will help to keep them apart if you're not there ;) and if she always gets treats of tasty food when the pup appears it may help (as long as she isn't jealous/guardy around food ;) )    This is what I'd do but you may find that it doesn't work for you ;)

House training - take her out (stay with her) every half hour and give her the chance to 'go' rewarding for successs ;) and it will happen, but all pups are different and some take longer than others ;)

As for 'Hyper' what food is she on??  I found mine on pedigree (for example) was completely mental   Changed to Burns and after a week or so people thought she was ill she was so calm

Hope this helps, but others will be along soon with more ideas :)

I am new to the forum (though have read it for some time!) I have a wire haired fox terrier bitch, Bracken, who was 2 years old Monday. She is my first dog, and we never had pets when I was a child - as I am in my forties, it has been something of an uphill struggle. I must admit to thinking that I had made a huge mistake in the first few months, and there were times when I would have handed her back to her breeder, if it hadn't seemed an admission of defeat!! Actually, reading all the posts on this forum, and the answers when people were having puppy problems, was probably the only thing that kept me sane.  Hard work? Yes! Definitely, but that terrier character is so appealing that it is all worth it.

Anyway, in my (very brief) experience, fox terriers are very full on indeed. In fact we were told, as we drove away with her "they're little b***ers you know!" by the breeder, and that phrase has been used when addressing her on numerous occasions! She is also known as "bonkers dog". Realising I needed help I took her to obedience classes from 10 weeks of age. We are very lucky to have a fantastic club in Otterbourne near Winchester, and they have been lifesavers. We go most weeks, are amazingly in the advanced class and it has been great. Bracken has her Bronze good citizen award, but we haven't tried for silver yet, having missed the last test due to other committments. It took a while to get anything resembling attention from her, but we do manage it now, and even have heelwork of lead (at a bit of a distance, as she does not do the close up work I have seen in the collies and labradors at our club). She likes to back off a bit, so she can see my face without craning her neck back too much!

Walks are always taken on lead, as her hunting instinct is very strong indeed and we are surrounded by rabbits, sheep and thoroughbred horses. And I live in fear of her rushing off to play with a foal (she loves horses) and getting kicked. Luckily we have a very large garden and she can run and go mad in this (she is very fond of her frisbee). I admit to this being my fault as I am still terrified of losing her if she spots a rabbit. She is very single-minded, and totally deaf, once she goes into hunting mode.

House training was a nightmare - I thought she would never be clean. She was crated at night (still sleeps in it now, but the door is not shut), and invariably wee'd, poo'd, and then lay on it, even though the crate had paper at one end. Again my fault - I should have been getting up to let her out at night, and not paper training, but you know all that are you are already experienced in dogs. During the daytime we had numerous accidents in the house - I could never spot the signs she wanted to go, and this went on for so long I despaired. Every friend I spoke to said that their dog had been house-trained in days, or in one case, even before 8 weeks of age.  I think it would have been 8 months (!!) before I would say she was house trained.   I was obviously not consistent enough, and it was clear that she didn't have control for some time. We have taught the words and she understands a wee request (busy-busy) and a poo request (quick-quick) though obviously can't always oblige.

Do beardies bark? I ask because Bracken took until about six months old to find her bark, and can now bark for England. Luckily she only does it when playing with us, or when someone comes to the house, or when over-excited at obedience classes(!), as her bark is surprisingly loud for her size. I found her very stand-offish as a pup. I expected her to want cuddles and she didn't. Not interested at all. Always more interested in doing her own thing. That has changed as she has got older, and she is very affectionate.She follows us around all day. Rolls over to ask for tummy rubs, and likes to snooze on our laps in the evenings.

Tips - well, as I said, mine will do anything for food, so all training has been food based! She is very, very bright, but does things on her own terms. She has a "what's in it for me" attitude for training. Ignoring or walking away has been found to be the best way of calming her down, though it took until about a year old for this to work. She was a terror as a pup, and I was often found telling my family that she must hate me! Also, she is a terrier and does not easily take "no" for an answer. She is impossible to tell off, by which I mean that she simply doesn't get it! Telling off is another game for her. As far as I can see life, all of it, is one huge game for a fox terrier.

Getting Bracken was the best thing I have ever done. When circumstances are right I will have another fox terrier (and another...) I love her spirit, boldness and playfulness. The phrase I would use to describe her is "a free spirit". To have this little free spirit doing off lead heelwork at my side, bouncing along, smiling up at me is the most wonderful thing in the world....

Claire

What a lovely post!  So nice to read....especially the last paragraph.  I think we, well I at least, come on to this board only when we have problems and sometimes can forget the sheer joy of dog ownership when we are bogged down with issues.  Therefore, lovely to see it written down and be reminded.  Thank you.

Yes, great post Claire :).  You managed to put into words the pro and cons where I totally failed to.  It is clear you love and appreciate your dog for what she is and I think that is crucial to the success of "managing" one of these infuriating and adorable creatures :)

Thank you both. I was rather reticent about responding as both a new member and a very novice dog owner. But I feel a lot better now about taking part in Champdogs.

Bracken is my little furry ray of sunshine, and a little b***er, but that's the fun of owning her!

Claire

A contribution from a Novice dog owner can be invaluable to other Novice dog owners, as once we become experienced dog owners so much we do or pre-empt as second nature that often we forget or do not get the problem that firs timers get as the right management skills become second nature.

Echo Wireyfox's comments.

Reward based training worked well with my terrier too, though her adolescence was hellish.

As regards calming, I would say make sure you occupy her mind with training, search games and interactive toys.  Control exercises such as sit, down, stay etc need plenty of practice because they don't come naturally (!) but when you get on to the more complex and active things such as retrieving, searching exercises and, when she's old enough, agility you will see what bright, quick learning, determined, fun dogs they can be.  But they do learn quickly, so like with collies, you have to keep up and not let it get boring!

Also, respect the nature of the dog.  She was bred for working away from the master, so is capable of independent thought.  She was bred for quick and efficient killing, so the desire to shake and kill things will be there and needs to find an outlet - if you don't want her to work, then you will need to re-direct this on to toys and have control over it.

All in all, the best gift my terrier has given me is to have taught me to always to be calm (or seem it!) around the dogs, especially in difficult situations.  They really do take their cue from you, will read your body language like a book and respond accordingly.

I'm not sure what age your fox terrier is at the moment and whether she still has "puppy licence" - Skye may deal with her more assertively when she gets a bit older.  My only experience is that my Lab was very tolerant of the terrier's bumptious behaviour until she stopped being a puppy and started being a young dog - at which point he calmly asserted his authority and she remained respectful of him ever after.

I hope this helps :-)

Your post could so easily apply to rearing puppies full stop, but especially or the free thinking breeds.

Hi Claire

Sounds just like my terrier x 'Tilly', very independant & deaf when off the lead. Gives my GSD Zak a hell of a time in the house, they are playing, but it always sounds as if she is trying to kill him! Once she got the house training right, we have never looked back. Her worse habit was waking up about 5.30 every bloody morning & whining, barking & schreeching until she got some attention! She is 3 this year & thank goodness likes a 'lie in'. I wouldn't be without her, but sometimes if my daughter takes her out, it's bliss just walking Zak on his own! Normally when we go out on a walk, she especially is on a mission to bark & aggrevate every dog in the neighbourhood on our way. She is very loving though, she has never growled or snapped at us. She does play growling with socks, cuddly toys, cat toys etc stuffed in her mouth. But that is her way of getting attention. Never a dull moment with a terrier in the house!!!!!!!

My Beardie was exactly the same, behaviourwise, after introducing another Beardie pup.  She did anything and everything she could so that she wouldn't have to be near the little tyke.  It lasted about a week, and all was forgotten very quickly.

I was pretty much the same as yourself when i got my lakeland terrier. I had always had gundogs, and working dogs.

Then i rescued Flo at 4months old, she was wild! Hyper is an understatement- she was charged up 24/7!!! this was partly due to her not having a good upbringing, no control and boundaries etc.

But once i got used to her ways- ie- bossy, confident, firey etc. I found ways to allow her to be herself but so i could also train her too.

Now at 2 years old, she's still a typical young terrier but listens and respects other dog's/human's space. She is still a live wire- and i encourage the terrier feistiness to come out whilst playing tugga. I do this with Flo so she doesnt have all that energy pent up, in which case it could come out whilst playing with other dogs/kids etc. A good game of Tug acts as a channel for that energy! afterwards she's very chilled :) x

Terriers to me 5 years ago were snappy little dogs that couldnt cuddle or be trained, and now I am totally addicted to the terrors! My Flo is well balanced and lurves cuddles, she has great dog manners and never jumps up at children. So really i havent got much to moan about- hope your terrier grows well, you'll never look back!

xx

thank you all,
                 and claire you have my tiff to a T !!!!,it must be a foxy nature,i will take everyones advice on board about my new found love of terriers,and i think it is just a beardies charater to some times be unhappy with change! i do feed pedigree so i think ill look into it. tiff was born on 1.9.06 i got her at 6 weeks.i suppose theres plenty time for her to calm down, me and my hubby have really enjoyed and laughed at some of the reply's. anymore will be welcome as i love to hear your all expeiriences,it keeps me sane,i feel better allready ..(pleanty treets)!!lol!! thanks again BIG HELP EVERY ONE MICHELLE X

what really helps is a great sense of humour- we just laughed/giggled our way through toiletting and mistakes!xxx