New puppy mom with questions

[2ManyPuppies]

I am new here and I am a new puppy owner. I have a 7 year old dog but Roxi is the first puppy I have ever had. Roxi is 8 weeks old and is a GSD. I need some advice so I am hoping someone here can help!

Roxi has had a few accidents inside but for the most part she goes outside. She gives cues like sniffing and pacing and she is going to the back door. When we see these cues we immediately take her out and we try to make sure we get her outside every 1/2 hour to an hour regardless. Sometimes, there are no cues! lol At what age should we see her hold it more consistently? I have heard that a puppy cannot physically hold their bladder until 12 weeks.

Roxi nips! I know all puppies this young do this. When she plays with our older dog and nips he will correct her. I am not sure what to do when she nips the humans though! I have started letting out an "ouch!" but I am not sure that it is sinking in. What worked for you guys with nipping?

 

[Maxy24]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Congrats on the new pup, your in for quite the journey Each dog takes their own pace when it comes to housebreaking, I'm glad you've learned to recognize the signs she has to go potty and very glad you take her out so often, you sound like a great puppy owner. Do you crate her over night so she does not have an accident? Crates force the dog to hold their bladder (not longer than physically possible of course, the dog still needs to go out often) because they don't want to soil their crate, so they are great tools to teach the pup how to hold it in when you cannot watch them and take them out when you see they have to go.

For nipping a lot of dogs get more excited when you say ouch, for some dogs it does work though. What you should do is start playing with her and as soon as she nips stand up and walk away, then completely ignore her (don't speak to, look at our touch in a good or bad way) for about 1 minute. Then go back and play with her again. Repeat doing this every time she nips so she learns as soon as she nips play time ends so she better not nip! She'll slip up even after she catches on so it's important that you don't continue playing even if she's been good and she just made a mistake, if she learns she can get away with it then she'll keep trying. There are two ways people tend to do this. Some people end the play as soon as teeth touch the skin, other stop playing only when the puppy nips with pressure but they don't stop for hand in mouth without pressure. The first method will stop the nipping but the second way will also teach the dog more jaw control. So say some time in the future the vet, a stranger to your dog, accidentally cuts her quick and she bites him. A dog trained the first way will most likely break the skin while a dog trained the second way will most likely not. Neither dog is intending harm since they are well mannered socialized dogs, they simply want to stop the vet, but the first dog does not know how hard of a bite will warn the vet without hurting her, while the second dog does because she's been taught how much pressure human skin can handle. Without learning this they probably rely on how hard another dog can handle, which is much hard than we can.

Good luck with your pup, try this out and tell us how it goes!

 

[lizzybeth727]

At what age should we see her hold it more consistently? I have heard that a puppy cannot physically hold their bladder until 12 weeks.

I just want to point out that 12 weeks is still really young to expect a puppy to have good bladder control. Generally it's actually about 6 months, although maybe a month or so less for larger breeds and a few months more for toy breeds.

 

[2ManyPuppies]

Do you crate her over night so she does not have an accident?

Yes, we crate her at night and she does really well in her crate. We wake her up about every 2 hours to go outside.

As far as the nipping, I'm really worried about her nipping our older dog. He corrects her but not very often. He's a very gentle dog and tolerates a lot. He's a high anxiety dog and my hope was that getting him a playmate would relieve his stress but now I fear that it is just making it worse. :-(

 

[Barb04]

I was told my a member and this works for the nipping. Take a wash cloth and run in under warm water; squeeze out some of the water. Wipe the pup's face gently with the wash cloth; this is be similar to the mother licking the pup's face. The pup will stop nipping and calm down. This worked for me and soon the puppy stopped the nipping.

 

[2ManyPuppies]

I was told my a member and this works for the nipping. Take a wash cloth and run in under warm water; squeeze out some of the water. Wipe the pup's face gently with the wash cloth; this is be similar to the mother licking the pup's face. The pup will stop nipping and calm down. This worked for me and soon the puppy stopped the nipping.

Interesting! I will try this right now!

 

[2ManyPuppies]

I was told my a member and this works for the nipping. Take a wash cloth and run in under warm water; squeeze out some of the water. Wipe the pup's face gently with the wash cloth; this is be similar to the mother licking the pup's face. The pup will stop nipping and calm down. This worked for me and soon the puppy stopped the nipping.

I just wanted to tell you that this is really working for us! Right after I read your post we started doing this and she is really settling and stopping the nipping. Thanks a lot for sharing this with me!

I would really encourage anyone else who is having nipping issues to give this a try.