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[Paula Trippe]

Our Mousse is almost 8 weeks old. He does great with crate training and he is learning the leash. He struggling with house breaking but he's still young yet. How did your dogs do with house breaking? How long did it take? What worked? Also - he bites constanty - everything esp feet - shoes - and pants. Any suggestions how to get him to stop?

Thanks

[Holly Paterniti]

Hi Paula ~

First, I want to welcome you again to our Minerva family group!!! It is so nice to see more joining in :) As for the potty training, I think it took Bear about a week to finally get it. We also got Bear bells to smack with his paws to tell us when he had to go. What we did was we took him out every 20 minutes or so. Then if he had a bowel movement then we would set the timer for another 45 minutes and gradually he started to tell us when he had to go by hitting the bells hanging on the door knob. You can buy a ribbon with bells at the pet stores, but they are like $15. I made mine own with a circle ring, thick string and bag of large bells from JoAnne Fabrics.........much cheaper.

As for the biting, every time he would start to bite I would give him a Nyla (spelling?) bone with the spikes on them. This helped him through the teething phase and he still LOVES his Nyla bones!!! We continue to buy him these bones and they really do last for a long time. I would get the larger one......not the small one maybe medium.

He is adorable and really reminds me of Bear at that age :) Bear is still a feet dog......now he likes to lick your feet as walks by if you have bare feet :) LOL!!!! You will have a great time with Mousse :)

[Paula Trippe]

a week? wow. We've had him for about a week and a half now and he's no where near house broken. It's probably our schedules. Someone is almost always home but it's still crazy. we take him out at least every 30 minutes we try for 15-20. but he still has accidents. Not in his cage though thankfully. It seems to get a little better. He's having less accidents but he's still not there yet.

[Holly Paterniti]

You know what is funny? Bear use to have accidents in his crate ALL the time :) He could care less and would lay in it......thank goodness that does not happen anymore :)

[Paula Trippe]

We just discovered Mousse kind of does this. We have a soft fuzzy mat in his cage for him to lay on - it's black and at the back of his cage so we didn't realize it until I checked it and it was soaked! yuk - luckily it's machine washable but Mousse had been laying on it (hence the reason he got a bath!) He's having less accidents but he's driving me nuts because sometimes he'll go outside and i'll do everything i can to get him to go and he wont and he'll walk right inside and go on the floor.

[Kyoko]

Hi, Paula!! Welcome to our family!! D you belong to "Puppy Madness" group?
There are a lot of posting in regard to puppy biting and house breaking, it is helpful.

I used to tether Charlie, so that she was always near me or my teenage kids. This way we were able to closly monitor her and take her outside for potty. She did really well in a crate at night, but it took sometime for her to be really house broken.
Mousse is just a tiny baby... Take your time....
Puppy nipping will go away after awhile. I mean like 4 months. LOL!!! I know it hurts because their baby teeth are sharp!!!

Mousse is sooo cute!! I am so glad you joined us!!

[Stacy Cook]

Hi Paula!
Bailey is still having accidents to, even when I am trying to take him out. Other times he does good and even makes me wait outside when he knows he is not finished and is waiting to go more, he did that this morning! I was so happy.
So, I just think he is still working things out but knows what to do.
I also have bells on my door knob and ring them every time we go outside to potty.
So far he has not rang them on his own, but a lot of times I am still carrying him out, since he likes to pee on the porch carpet before I get him outside to 'his spot'.
Tips people have given me or I have read: Always take him to the same spot outside to do his business. Always use the same door when taking him outside. You may also want to try taking him out a little less frequently so that he get used to knowing when you go out he is supposed to go, taking him out too often may be confusing him. They say about every 2 hours at this age is good, in addition to right after waking up, and about 20 minutes after eating.

Good Luck, hope to see you two soon!
Stacy