Help!!!

[Absolutelysteph]

I am new to dog ownership although my male chihuahua, Tyson, is about 8 1/2 months old. This is my first dog and I am beginning to wonder if I got myself into more than I can handle. I know of plently of people who have dogs and their dogs are a pleasure (Tyson is a pleasure as well), but I fear I ahve created a monster! Here are the things that I need help with.

1. Housebreaking. Tyson has successfully mastered the pee pad, but I would love it so much more if he would go outside. I've tried trainging him to go outside, but he doesn't go. What I mean by that is, I'll feed him, and bout 15 minutes later take him out, and we can stay outside for 20 minutes sometimes longer and he won't go. But when we come back in, he goes on his pee pad. What can I do? The pee pads smell.

2. Whining. Tyson is a whiner!!! In every bit of the word. I'll admit that is has gotten better over time, but it is still bad. He whines when vistors come over and I won't let him jump all over them. He whines when riding in the car. He whines really loud if I ever put him in his crate. And he whines if I leave him in the room alone.

3. Nipping. He has started to nip. While playing, if I grab one of his toys, not only will he growl and tug at the toy, but after I let go, he'll come over and nip at my hand. Is that normal? Is he playing?

4. Playmate. I work in retail, so my schedule is not the same everyday; eventually, I would like to get Tyson a playmate so that he's not lonely during the day when I'm away. What type of breed would be good for him other than chihuahua?

I'm sorry if I'm bothersome, but I want to be a good mommy!

[RiverKayleesMuM]

well I can help you out a little with that but I will post 2morrow. What a will tell you tonight is that try putting the pad out in the yard when you take him out and also I reccomend a rat terrier. Great dogs and if your chi is hyper it should help!! I will post a lil tomorrow it seems as one of my dogs drug the mouse off while I was typing and it erased everything!!

[GretaJack]

RiversKayleeMum is right, try taking the pee pad outside and see if he will go on that, possibly a soiled one. He will smell the smell and hopefully associate it with where he should potty.

Whining-- the hardest thing to do but the best is ignore him. Or try to redirect him to a toy or bone but don't give in to his neediness of having your attention

Nipping--sounds very normal, but not acceptable. A firm no! and redirect again to something appropiate to chew. Otherwise, is that doesn't work, I would recommend a lip roll. This is where you take his botttom lip and roll it over his bottom teeth so when he bites it hurts him. I have no idea how this works with a little dog though. I own labs. Very much different than a chihuahua. Otherwise, if you can predict the behavior, put bitter apple spray on your hands so that when he bites it tastes horrible. Just don't put your hands in your mouth or eat any food. It tastes just as bad to you as to him.

Playmate--not very familiar with small breeds. A rat terrier would sound like a good choice. But there are plenty of other small breeds that would do well, also. But once again I am not a small breed owner, so others here should be able to help you out better.

[Moo]

1. A huge mistake that lots of people make. I really, really dislike pee pads, for the reason that they teach the dog that it is okay to pee in the house. And the texture is nothing like grass, so it's harder to make a transition. I would just take them away, put them outside and basically work from the beginning. Watch him like a hawk again.

2. Ignore him. For the crate, put him in, and do not even speak to him until he is quiet for several seconds. You want him to learn that whining is unproductive.

3. Nipping. Withdraw your hand, lean over him and yell "OW!". No niping allowed.

4. I would take this one step at a time. When Tyson starts to mature some, and you see his personality more, you may be able to tell what would balance him out. It's hard to have enough trust to allow one dog home alone, let alone two.

[Dobielover]

1. Try the pee pad outside and if that fails try crate training
2. Completely ignore the whine and praise him when he stops by saying "good quiet" this will teach him quiet at the same time as enforcing no whining. One of the best ways to praise a dog is to include the command, like when the dog sits well say "Good sit". Another thing that you can try to stop the whining is to teach the dog the command "Speak". Then, if the dog learns that, sometimes he/she will think that it is only ok to make much noise when told to speak. This worked very well for two of my dogs but I'm not sure how effective it is on other dogs. It is good if you can get Tyson to whine or bark to ask to go outside and pee. If you teach him the speak command, make him bark before you let him out . This will teach him that he must bark in order to go potty. Then you should also give him a command for doing his doodoo. Try "business" or "duty". When he does it, even if it seems that it's not because of the command, praise him, and he'll get it eventually. For example, as he's doing it say: Good business! and do it really lavishly! Even have a treat if available for good measure. I think crate training is a whole lot better than peepad training.
3. Do not allow this at all, yell "NO!" or grab his mouth shut for a few quick seconds and say "no" more softly. Or you can try making a loud noise at the same time as saying no, like whacking the floor with your hand or a newspaper. My current dog was very stubborn about stopping nipping as a puppy and it sometimes got to the point where it really kind of hurt and I'd have to give her a little rap on the nose immediatly as she nipped, saying no at the same time. That stopped it quickly. Make sure you praise her when she improves
4. A rat terrier sounds great to me!

good luck with the training!

[Dobielover]

This may seem really weird but here is how I taught my dogs to speak: I just stood in front of them with a cookie and said speak a billion times, and when they got frustrated trying everything they could think of they'd bark. Then I'd praise them and IMMEDIATLY give them the cookie. I'd do this and both dogs in about a half hour learned it. It works really well! Give it a try with Tyson!