Puppy Timeout

[Alivia Quallen]

We are very new at this puppy stage.  We just got Piper on Saturday.  And low and behold she is nipping.  I my question is, is it okay to use her crate as a timeout place?  She is gated in the kids T.V. room.  I give her toys and do everything else that has been suggested.  When we go outside to potty should I bring a toy with me so if she nips I can give it to her and redirect her?  Any suggestions about timeout/nipping would be appreciated!

 

Alivia

[John and Finn]

Well you can keep her leash on all the time and then close her leash in the closest door.  This works great until she gets her adult teeth.  Finn nipped so much it just would have been to much of a production to use the cage every time he nipped.  

[Bonnie and Kona]

I did find that sometimes our pup would get really wound up when he just needed a nap. That was when I would put him in his kennel for a "time out". He would fall asleep. It wasn't practical to kennel him every time he nipped though. There are other options. Have you tried...

Yipping loudly like another puppy would if bitten... (teaches bite inhibition)

Replacing your hand with a chew toy... bully stick, antler, kong filled with treats, etc

As John suggested... leash your pup for better control. I didn't know about "tethering" until it was brought up in the training group by Brucegirl in discussions about training Gavin. While Gavin is an adult the technique is really interesting and we found it to be helpful.

Here is the link to Gavin's full training class in which tethering is discussed. Your pup is not ready for the full training but the tethering part could be very helpful. 

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/trainingmindsets/forum/topics/bra...

[Emily & Wispa]

I read somewhere that the crate should never be used as a punishment.  Makes sense, you want to develop the sense of it being a safe haven or den.  We give Wispa 30 second time outs if she continues nipping after we say "NO!" by abruptly picking her up, putting her in the hallway, and shutting the door so she's on her own.  We started with only 5 seconds because she would cry almost immediately, but the desire to be with us eventually meant that she's learned to nip far less than she used to.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I have often seen this but do not follow it or agree with it. Crates serve multiple purposes. As adult dogs my doodles are still crated when I go out and they and I are fine with that. They run to their crates when I say "crate time "because they know they'll get a nice treat and they feel secure there. That's very different then when one of them has been digging or something and hears, "Get in your crate". They know they are segregated in the crate when I am home when they'd ordinarily be free. There is no treat obviously and they do get scolded. It works for us.