Two training questions - biting and putting on leash/collar

[Lola3141]

Okay my 9 week old Chihuahua mix puppy Lola has been with us for 2 weeks. We started clicker training a few days ago but we've been training her without the clicker since we got her. She knows how to Sit, we've been working on Stay... and we've been working on her Sitting instead of jumping up on people (she forgets sometimes but she's getting great at it).

I have two behaviors that I'd like to work on, as mentioned in the title. She bites... not hard and not aggressively, but she likes to nip on fingers. Whenever she meets new people they always want to pet her and she loves the attention - but I don't like that she bites them, as she does with me and my husband. We've tried saying "ouch" and ignoring her or stopping whatever we're doing but it doesn't bother her one bit... is there any other way to get her to not bite?

Also... I'd love for her to sit nicely while we put on her leash/collar... right now she's a complete spaz. Will she learn this once we master Sit Stay? Or is there another way to do this?

Thanks for your help!

 

[whatszmatter]

she's only 9 weeks, keep doing what you're doing, the attention span to sit and stay while people are greeting her won't come to her for quite some time, be patient. You shouldn't even really be working stay yet, she's way too young. sit down and come, recall, recall recall, those should be the commands IMO that you're worried about.

The sit for greeting and staying seated will come when she's older, and the mouthing will stop too, as for now, she's just a baby, it's what babies do, they have no attention span, and the mouth, everything constantly. Just be patient.

 

[Lola3141]

You shouldn't even really be working stay yet, she's way too young. sit down and come, recall, recall recall, those should be the commands IMO that you're worried about.

I don't understand why I keep reading from people on forums that 9 weeks is too young... everything I've read from training books has said it's never too young to start. I mean, I know that she can't stay for long but she's made a lot of improvements. Oh and yes, we are working on recalls... and on sitting instead of grabbing at things in people's hands. And she learned to ring the bell to go outside... of course we still have accidents but that's to be expected, I'm slowly working on crate training her (I'm scared of pushing her and making her hate the crate).

Anyway, my point is - she's learned so much and she looks so excited when I pick up the clicker... if she wants to learn, then I don't see what the harm is, even if she is so young.

 

[whatszmatter]

you can work on it, fine, but don't expect too much, like sitting calmly for you to put her leash on, sure it may have happened for one person out there, but 99% of the time, it's an unreal expectation.