How can I punish without disciplining?

Question

I recently got a little puppy. She is about 6 weeks old now, and acting like it. She eats shoes, bites at my feet, digs in the garbage, pees on the floor without whining (she usually whines when she needs to go out). She yelps for no reason, and is just doing the typical puppy stuff. I tried gently slapping her nose, but I feel bad. I wouldn't slap the nose of my children, and I dont want to slap the nose of my dog. I bark at her sometimes, and she stops being naughty, but she seems scared and distraught. Please give me a simple way that I can teach my dog obidience without being mean to her. Thanks.

Answer 1

Reverse the question. How can you discipline without punishing.

First of all, at 6 weeks she should still be with her mother and littermates. They would be doing a lot of this teaching. At this age she is a little baby, you wouldn't slap a baby or expect it to know how to behave, would you?

She must be supervised constantly when loose (just like a toddler). She should be crated when you can't watch her (like a kid in a play pen).

If she goes to chew your shoe, take it away and give her something she CAN chew (puppies chew, it's what they do). And put your shoes away so she can't get them.

If she bites at your feet, yell "OW!" and don't play with her. If she persists, give her a "time out" in her crate.

Put the garbage away.

She's too young to be full housebroken. Watch her carefully, you should be able to see the signs that she needs to go out. If she pees on the floor, take a rolled up newspaper and whack YOURSELF with it, repeating "I did not watch the puppy closely enough!".

Puppies yelp for no reason (unless they are hurt). Kids shriek for no reason. It's something they do.

Answer 2

6 wkl old puppy should still be with it's mama. At 6 weeks of age they couldn't be getting into that much trouble.

Any way, use a spray bottle and you can correct most issues. When you see your puppy being naughty squirt him with the water. It startles them and it's not a real fun thing to happen to him, plus he doesn't like the deep growl sound coming from you as you say deeply and gruffly say 'NO'.. A mama dog would bite the pup, which you can also do.

Your dog is trained differently than your children. You can correct bad behavior just by using the spray bottle of water the puppy and the children. It does not hurt but you got their imediate attention, followed by a deep, stern 'NO' and of course you have to display the aggressers pose(to show intention). There are several long distance training tools besides the simple water bottle. If you have a stubborn, head strong and the spray bottle didn't work on him. the next step is to take pop can/put in a few pebbles/seal opening closed with tape/make bail/attach to can. Using the bail toss can in the direction of pup missbehaving. This will startle him BIG TIME and will soon accociate this terrible noice with bad behavior and the evil tones coming from you.

As soon as the inccident is over forget any further corrections and love that little critter. you don't want to be negative all the time but there is a time when it OK to teach and next thing you know you can't remember when the last time you had to correct for something.

It is fun to watch them learn. Enjoy

Answer 3

Slapping the nose of a 6-week old puppy is comparable to spanking a 3-year old child for wetting their pants. It sounds like you mean well, but you need to understand that your puppy is not physically capable of what you're asking for at this point, and your well-intentioned punishments are terrifying her. Your pup needs to be watched 101% of the time, and if she has any accidents in the house, it's because you weren't taking her out often enough or missed the sign that she needed to pee. She should never, ever have the opportunity to get into the garbage or chew shoes because you or a family member is watching her every single second, and when someone is not watching her she is restricted to a crate, x-pen, or puppy-proofed room.

Answer 4

She actually whines when she WANTS to go out, not when she needs to go out. She has not had the pee outside braincell fire up yet. She is pretty young to train , you might have to mellow out a bit for a few more weeks. Anyway, this is what my brother did to train his too young pup. He carried it. 24/7 that pups feet only touched ground at potty time. He would feed it. Pick it up and carry it outside. Then carry it back in . Every 30 minutes he carried it out, then back in. When he had to work he put Toot in a small kennel. The minute he got home he carried him out then back in. If they wrestled or played, the instant they were done; out he went.

When Toot was about 10 weeks, he graduated to a lead which my brother held at all times. Now the pup would sit by my brother and about every hour he would walk him outside, then bring him back.

This sound a bit hard, but my mom hated dogs and would have used the first puddle as an excuse to dump it. The dog was awesome. He also trained a wolf pup the same way, it adored him.

Answer 5

Paying attention to a dog when it does something you don't want it to do, sometimes they do destructive things to get your attention, and to them, even negative attention is worth it. When she chews on things you don't want her to, distract her with a toy that she CAN chew on, and that she likes to chew on, like a flavored puppy nyla-bone, or a favorite chew toy. At this age their teeth are growing in, and it feels real good to chew things. When she chews on her own toys, praise her and tell her shes a good girl. She will soon learn that chewing her toys feels just as good as chewing on a shoe, and that when she chews on her toys she gets attention from mom too! For the garbage problem, spray it with bitter-apple spray (available in pet stores) and she will realize that it takes nasty, and, again, have plenty of fun toys for her to play with, and some toys that she has to work at, Kongs stuffed with doggie treats, for instance, are good toys that dogs have to work at to get a reward. Also, take her to a Puppy Obdience class, not only will the instructor help with the unwanted behaviors, but she will meet new puppy friends too :-)

Answer 6

Clue.........you have a computer. USE IT! to get free information on dog training. Your puppy is doing the thing it likes best........Chewing,... another name..........teething. Try this........it worked for me,.... find an old boot.........(leather) Let the pup chew only on that. If the puppy starts chewing on other things say NO! that's mine! then hand the pup the boot and say HERE!.. Make sure if you take the puppy somewhere always take the boot with you. My Pooter loved HIS boot!

Answer 7

Please immediately sign up for a puppy obedience clas and learn the appriopriate way to train your dog.

Answer 8

well you could yell.