[Geekerbell]

Hello everyone!
As of three weeks ago I am a new mom to a now three month old basset hound by the name of Molly Evangeline. Yes it sounds quite pretentious (blame my husband), so she just goes by Molly.

I'm really feeling quite overwhelmed, as Molly is my first ever inside dog. We owned a beagle before, but she spent a majority of her time outdoors. She also had a very sweet submissive disposition, and never jumped on us or the kids, nipped, etc.

Molly is an absolute sweetheart, but the typical playful puppy, and also quite stubborn in the area of house training!

I look forward to learning from all of you!

Laura and Molly

 

[Esther]

we're not just stubborn in the areas of housetraining. more like in the areas of EVERYTHING!!! but we're so dang cute.

 

[roscolaylamommy]

Boy Esther sure is right about that. Welcome to the boards and ask as many questions as you need to. Most if not all of us have been through the stuff you're going through now. Everyone here is helpful and friendly. Just a word to the wise...once you go basset you never go back!

 

[Annie714]

Welcome Geekerbell and Molly! Tons of information here

 

[Boomer's Mom]

Welcome, welcome! Lots of information, fun, and drool on this board!

 

[MollyMcFrecklesMom]

Welcome! I have a Molly too...Molly McFreckles. We named her over a couple of Smithwick's at an Irish pub on Cape Cod. She has a brother Winston (as in Churchill...I teach history).

 

[Wworm]

Welcome! and post some pics soon, please : ) we love to see them.

we were very tired the first 1-2 months, from following Worm everywhere (literally!) for housetraining. then he figured it out and it got way better. don't have to watch him like a hawk anymore, but still even now, I put him back in the crate when I shower, so he doesn't piddle without me knowing or get into something he's not supposed to.

 

[gilirainbow]

Welcome Laura and Molly
Just like Worm, I had to follow Carlos everywhere the first couple of months and he really drained my energy. I still follow him around, but with the corner of my eyes
One suggestion from me, be careful when it's too quiet. Be very, very careful.......

 

[Mikey T]

also quite stubborn in the area of house training!

IMHO basset are not so much stuborn in this area but slow maturers. i don't think they gain the necessary sphincter control until at least 6 months of age so for at least the first six months and more like a year typical it becomes imparitive to manage the puppy quite well to prevent accidents. This often means creating a strict schedual for access to food. and water, with a schedual for both play and sleep as well. One area that many have problems is the realization of this axiom. Activity makes urine. An active puppy needs to go out frequently every 10-15 minutes. whereas a sleeping one can go 4-8 hrs or more.

see Housetraining Your Puppy,

the other area that is often problematic is when the schedual is loosened on the assumptiuon that a lack of accidents is an indication the puppy gets it. A lack of accidents is a testiment to your management ability not to the housetraining of the dog. Preventing accident is only the first step. Step 2 involves a signal the dog can reliable use to tell you it needs to go. So feel the dog will figure one out but in reality this actual happens far less than people realize. By teaching a signal one can avoid a lot of problems see

Ring My bell


doing a sear on this site you will find that a large portion of the puppy threads revolve around house training issues.

If you are not already doing so I would advise teaching the puppy bite inhibition rather than not to bite at all see

Bite Inhibition

Rather than "No bite," I strongly, strongly, strongly urge you to teach your puppy bite inhibition instead. Bite inhibition is a "soft mouth." It teaches the pup how to use his mouth gently. Does this mean that the pup will forever be mouthing you? No, not at all. Actually, regardless of the method used, puppies generally grow out of mouthing behavior after a few months.
So why should you teach bite inhibition? Because dogs have one defense: their teeth. Every dog can bite. If frightened enough or in pain or threatened, your dog *will* bite. That doesn't in any way make him a "bad" dog. It makes him a dog. It's your responsibility, therefore, to teach your dog that human skin is incredibly fragile. If you teach your dog bite inhibition that training will carry over even if he is later in a position where he feels forced to bite.
A story... Ian Dunbar tells a story of a bite incident he had to asses. A Golden Retriever therapy dog was leaving a nursing home and his tail was accidentally shut in a car door. The owner went to help, and the dog delivered four Level Four bites before she could react.
FYI, a standard scale has been developed to judge the severity of dog bites, based on damage inflicted. The scale is:
* Level One: Bark, lunge, no teeth on skin.
* Level Two: Teeth touched, no puncture.
* Level Three: 1-4 holes from a single bite. All holes less than half the length of a single canine tooth.
* Level Four: Single bite, deep puncture (up to one and a half times the depth of a single canine tooth), wound goes black within 24 hours.
* Level Five: Multiple bite attack or multiple attack incidents.
* Level Six: Missing large portions of flesh.
Technically, the woman received a Level Five bite from a long-time therapy dog. Dr. Dunbar wasn't the least bit surprised by the bites. I mean, the dog got his tail shut in a car door! Of course he bit! What shocked Dr. DUnbar was that a dog with no bite inhibition was being used as a therapy dog.
"But he's never bitten before." Of course not. And barring an accident like that, he probably never would have. But an accident is just that. An accident. Unpredicted. What if it had happened in the nursing home?

Have had a couple of rescues without bite inhibition I know first hand how important it is.

 

[Esther]

I was getting it and was being really well behaved. But LAST night... boy did I show them. She human was alone with me while he human went running (does he take me? NOOOOOOOO) so I did the following:
stole beef jerkey
stole he humans good watch
pooped on the floor.
waited patiently for she human to clean it up (she FUSSED at me. wha???)
Got forgiven by she human
snuggled up next to her on the couch.

then I puked in her lap.
BWAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

[Geekerbell]

thank you so much for all the welcome messages!!

Hehe Esther, you are cracking me up!

MikeyT - thanks so much for the links. I have done searches and was reading alot about house training, actually following many links you posted in other threads. but I had not seen the bite inhibition link you posted. Thank you for this! I run an in home daycare, and Molly has become very nippy with the kids in the last week, and chasing them and pulling on their clothes during outside time. So I have had to leash her while outside when the kids are out playing. Inside, I have attached an exercise pen to her crate so she can have an area to play in while out of her crate, but also so I can watch her easier for house training purposes and keep her away from the kids.

Molly McFreckles - LOVE the name!!

My exhaustion is coming from still having to take Molly out during the middle of the night to potty. How old should she be when she can hold it through the night?

Thank so much everyone!!

Laura and Molly

 

[Boomer's Mom]

Esther, you are an ornery little cuss! ;-)

 

[mhvonalmen8908]

Hello Geekerbelle and Molly! Welcome to the boards! I'm sure you'll get lots of help and advice from the people on the forum. And here's mine for you!

It took Virga about 5 months or so to be able to hold it through the night. And we had trouble with housetraining her as well. We followed her, fussed at her if she peed in the house, took her out and gave her treats if she peed and pooped outside. We were still having some trouble because we couldn't figure out when she needed to go outside. She was trained to ring bells but that got annoying real quick so I took a bell off the strap and attached it to her collar. That way we could hear when she would wander off around the house and stop her before she peed somewhere else.

Molly'll get it eventually! Good luck and many happy Aroos! from Doppler and Virga! And congratulations on your basset pup!

 

[Wworm]

Where does Molly sleep at night? also, does she have a crate?

At 4 months when we got Worm, he came with fleas so he had to be in the crate at night (as much as i wanted to snuggle with him at night, couldn't get the images of fleas multiplying in my bed out of my mind....). The crate does help them to hold it, because they don't like to pee in their crates. I don't know if this is typical, but Worm could hold it at night in his crate at 4 months, if that helps. (ie. so maybe another month of taking her out?)

At 5 months and when i was sure no more fleas left, I let him sleep on bed, with a harness and leash (so I would know if he tried to get down off the bed), and he continued to sleep through the night. No accidents or anything. Only been 3-4 nights that he woke me up to potty, and that was when he was having bona fide diarrhea issues. poor guy. anyway, don't know if that helps as an idea for getting Molly to sleep through the night...

 

[mhvonalmen8908]

Poor Worm came with worms AND fleas?! Geez. Little guy couldn't get a break this early in his life huh?

 

[Geekerbell]

Molly sleeps in her crate at night. The last few days I have only had to take her out once during the night to potty, so I think I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as it were.

This weekend we also installed a doggie door (much to the delight of our cats), so I am hoping that will help also.
Molly seems to be getting the "pawing at the door means I go outside" thing. Of course that means that she paws at the door whenever she goes out and not just to potty. And sometimes I catch her starting to potty, when she didn't paw to go out. So I've been trying to take her out whenever she paws at the door, take her to her potty spot on the leash and she only gets outside play time off leash after she potties. If she doesn't go after a few minutes, I take her back inside.

 

[Mikey T]

Molly has become very nippy with the kids in the last week, and chasing them and pulling on their clothes during outside time

it is the nature of how kids play and react to puppies it actual encourages the behavor. If it were only your own kids you might stand a chance a teaching then a better way to act around the puppy, It in not likely going to work with a lot of kids so for the time being you are better off seperating them. The bitting and nipping general goes in phases and increase a lot again when the puppies are teething. In my experience if you are dillegent with training bite inhibition and using subtitution, ie appropriate chew objects for in appropriate when they are teething at 9-12 months of age the inappropriate mouthing disappears but each dog is an individual and different.

take her to her potty spot on the leash and she only gets outside play time off leash after she potties. If she doesn't go after a few minutes, I take her back inside.

you might find the link below has a bit easier to follow nethodology that works on the same principal of using play time as a reward.

Potty Training Tip

Ok, here's a great little trick I picked up while fostering an 8 week old greyhound puppy last summer. Get an x-pen, also called a puppy pen or an exercise pen. They're small pens made of heavy metal wire fencing. They give the pup an area not too much bigger than a large crate, and they sit right on the ground. Set up the x-pen in a grassy area with nothing else on the ground inside it, use a few tent stakes to stake it to the ground so it can't be knocked over if the pup jumps up against it, and put her inside. She doesn't come out to sniff, or play or go inside, until she goes potty. As soon as she goes potty, out she comes with much rejoicing, apply treats to puppy liberally, and then it's play/explore time, or whatever else she wants to do. Her reward for pottying is to get out of "potty prison".

A operant conditioning/learning theory educational moment

The use of another behavior to teach/train/encourage/reward an other behavior is quite common technique. Usin a behavior that is more likely to occur to reward a less likely behavior is known as the Premack Principle

that more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors. The principle was derived from a study of Cebus monkeys by Professor David Premack, but has explanatory and predictive power when applied to humans. This is evidenced by the fact that therapists use the principle in behavior modification. Premack's Principle suggests that if a person wants to perform a given activity, the person will perform a less desirable activity to get at the more desirable activity. In behaviorist terms, activities become reinforcers

...This common statement made by most mothers easily show us how Premack's principle is used "You have to finish your vegetables (low frequency) before you can eat any ice cream (high frequency)" .

 

[Mikey T]

I had not seen the bite inhibition link you posted. Thank you for this!

there are a lot of site that promote saying ouch, and leaving technique for dealing with puppy bitting but the never say why. IMHO if you know why and the reasoning behind the advice/technique 1. you are more likely to do it correctly, 2. do it at all, 3. be able to make adjustment to suit the individual involved in a constructive way which is alway necessary.


in case you missed it abehind bite inhibition but slightly ahead fo house training The next most important aspect of training for a puppy is habituation and soc ilaiazition. between the ages of 8-`20 weeks puppies are very open to exporing and discovering new things. After this time period new experience are likely to be met with fear. and contiue on until adult hood. So the Dog that is afraid of men is not ussually a dog that was harmed by a male but one that did not see or interact with them . I had a rescue that canme from an single older lady. This dog had absolutely now dog v dog skill Obviously it was removed from the litter very young and lived as an only dog. It never aquired those needed skill the rest of its life even when dillegently trying to teach them. Theere are certain thinks that there is a time limit on. It is not necessarily a death sentence if you miss the time frme for training but it certainly makes it 1,oooo's of times harder.

dogs that are afraid of vacuums unlikely had exposure to them as pups etc.

see Puppy Socialisation and Habituation (Part 1) Why is it Necessary?

In one year my practice treated 773 dogs - 79 of them, that’s 10 percent, had problems of fearfulness towards people or the environment due to a lack of early socialisation or habituation and a further 4.5. percent were inept at relating to other dogs, again due to a lack of early socialisation. The problem is immeasurably greater than these figures suggest. Many dogs show a weakness of temperament or inability to cope when faced with a particular situation, without their behaviour becoming problematical enough for the owners to seek help from a behavioural counsellor.

\Puppy Socialisation and Habituation (Part 2) How to go about it

 

[Geekerbell]

MikeyT, you are a wealth of information. Thank you!!!

 

[Mikey T]

raising a puppy is not easy but it is a lot easier to prevent problems than fix them early. I am often relunctant to link to the following article because when I think about it is becomes a bit scary

It takes a Pack to Raise a Puppy
Understanding what a puppy expects and needs from his family
It Takes a Pack to Raise a Puppy