Hi Ladies,

Well I am much much more experienced with cats, although I grew up with dogs, and its been a good few years since I had a puppy!

My little chap is from a very good breeder, who to her horror had an accidental litter. She keeps two breeds, and the randy little yorkie boy broke out of his pen inside and got to one of her girls. Anyway My little lad is scottie/yorkie mix and has been very very lovingly raised just like her pure-bred pups. She had been considering having the litter aborted, but the scan revealed only one pup and so she let the pregnancy continue.

Well he has been home now for about 9 weeks, he was 11 weeks old when i got him. He is tiny - about 8inches high at the shoulder. Perfectly healthy and fully vaccinated by his breeder.

***He is being fed arden grange (and or burns) puppy food, soaked and mixed with raw pet mince. I have been trying in vain to get him to accept his buscuits as they are without soaking, and preferably without the mince. But he's having none of it and will go without food, which i am sure isnt good for him.

His breeder has said that she always feeds a mix of raw and biscuits together and so dont worry. However as i feed the cats raw food, they are eatng the dogs food (well yummy mince who wouldnt), and of course i know that the dogs biscuits arent good for them. Even more so as i have a (rescued) cat who is convalesing from a c-section and nursing her 2 kittens.

I would really like to get him to just eating his biscuits, dry. Any ideas?

I have a few other issues lol too that i would like advice on....

***Toileting, well he refuses point blank to go outside, I sit out there for up to an hour (i know his signs), but he just refuses to go. The minute his feet touch the carpet inside, he runs to his paper and piddles there. If i manage to avoid another paper piddle we then begin a game of inside/outside until literally he piddles all over me while i am helping him over the step. He doesnt really like the big wide world yet..... which brings me onto another problem

***Walking - he hates the lead!!! I have a soft harness (pucci style but cheaper lol), and he has a soft flat collar too. Either way he will run around the house happily dragging the lead behind, he will go into the garden dragging the lead behind, but the minute i pick it up he puts the breaks on. EVEN IF I@M NOT TRYING TO DIRECT HIM - JUST FOLLOWING.

As he isnt enjoying the lead yet, we havent been able to go on many walks, and i would just love to take him out properly!

Right i think thats it for now, i'm sure i'll think of more!

bbm xxx

Hi
I think I read this right, you are feeding your cats raw food. If the pup knows that there is really wonderful smelling/tasting food around, he is less likely to eat dry biscuits. Try him on a wet food like nature diet.
With the house training, have you tried putting paper in the garden for him to go on? If he is used to using this it may help. try a bit that is already soiled
As to walking on the lead, I'm not sure that this will help but how about carrying him a few yards away from your property and trying to walk him home.
He sounds like a typical stubborn terrier,

Is there a reason why would want to feed him soley on dry?? Nature diet puppy (although mine prefer the lamb) is an excellent food, as is the forthglade range, and will hardly cost a fortune with a small dog.
DT

The cats get raw food yes, but in a different room for one meal a day - the rest of the time they have bicuits available at all times (at the top of the cat tree so well out of his reach).

The reason i wanted to put him onto just dry was for convenience, And for his teeth, as the vet advised it would be better for him to be crunching biscuits than soft food. I have been told about nature diet, and i wouldnt mind feeding him this or sticking to a totally barf (raw) diet, but with the cats i'm a bit unwilling to have whole raw bones around. I will certainly look into the nature diet a bit more though as it could solve all our problems.

The mince i buy for the cats i have made at the butchers for me. They make me 6lbs of steak mince, a lambs liver, lamb and ox kidney, ox heart, chicken wings, diced chicken/turkey/duck, oxtail, lambs lungs and occasionally mix in some cleaned and prepared tripe, all put through their industrial mincer. This I know is a balanced diet for the cats (i also us supplements and occasionally mix in some cooked and pureed vegetables), but not sure about puppy handling it. The only mince he has had is the "pet" mince from the petshop, as this is what his breeder used.

I would need to study a bit more on feeding a raw diet to a dog, but even so i thought they needed more raw bones - do minced bones count? - as there always chicken wings and oxtail minced into my cats mince.

Toileting

Yes i have tried using some new and some soiled paper outside, its like he is still a bit nervous of the big wide world, and tends to stick very close to me. All ideas of toileting leave his head as soon as he goes outside. should i spend more time playing outside, so he feels its a really fun place to be?

re the walking! - fantastic idea about walking him home, will try that!

I do feel that if he is nervous outside, then spending more time there will be a good thing.
the weather has been atrocious for training a pup outside and it can't have been a very appealing place to be, hopefully with the better weather, things will be easier

We have just spend a happy 10 minutes no pressure to poop/pee outside, chasing a pingpong ball around the garden! He really seemed to enjoy it! will keep doing this until he realises that outside is fun fun fun, and so will be less self concious about eliminating!

thanks for your advice everyone.

No idea on the food thingy

But for the walk all I can say, based on what you wrote and advice given; spending more time outside with no pressure will certainly do wonder and eventually he should relax and start doing it outside more than inside..and very importantly; when you go for a walk, you should lead him outside, confidently, not follow him, since you are the pack leader and your assertiveness should (in theory) tell him that there is nothing to be worried about, you are in charge and he should not worry or get involved in the decision on whether or not its time to go out! If you are relaxed, hopefully he will relax. And if you try to tire him out real well outside hes bound to pee/poo there and then!!

Good luck!

How have you tried to encourage him to accept the lead? It is obviously not working just putting it on. How about using really tasty treats like chicken. Call him to you with the lead on the floor, give him a bit of chicken once he has done this. Then let him smell the lead, if he tries to run then you will need to tempt him again with the chicken. Don't ever put it on when he is unsure otherwise it becomes a negative experience. Also maybe try putting it on in the garden.

Hi everyone

I use treats to reinforce positive behaviour with the lead. He is happy to trail it behind him in the house and garden - no problems!

He really enjoys going outside to play in the garden (no toileting yet - but i'm sure it will come).

We did have a very successful walk today!, i took my parents elderly reliable (yet grumpy old man) chihuahua out with us, and woooooooop! he loved it! he pranced, walked well on the lead, had a good run offlead and did his recall really really well! Very proud of my little man!

Well done, I'm sure he will be ok soon
Especially with, what is obviously a very thoughtful owner