Okay, I have just moved back into my parents with my 7and a half week old miniature dachshund girl - Molly. Also living here are my younger brother (16), 3 dogs and another puppy. The three eldest dogs are fine and don't really need much training (we are working on reinforcing a few things with them) but Molly's training doesn't seem to be going very well. I'd also like to work on some training with my Mum's 17week old Teacup Yorkie - Maddie.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Molly - I've had her for 1 week at my old house and we were doing great with training - she had reliably learned "sit" "paw" and "come" as probably only had about 5 housetraining accidents through the whole week. We have only been here 3 days and already she seems to have completely forgotten "come" and will only "sit" and "paw" if the other dogs aren't in the same room as she gets really distracted. It now takes a few attempts at getting her to sit/paw. Should I go back to pushing bum to ground as I say sit, giving treat and saying good girl and reinforce this for another few days and then start to work on paw again. Should I give her the treat of she sits/ gives a paw before I give the command as she sometimes gets excited and does this as soon as she sees the treat? How can I teach recall when she completely ignores me even if I wave a treat or toy at her?

Housetraining is now awful with her seemingly not needing to go when I take her out to the garden (every 1hour or so for 5-10mins) and then using the carpet about 10 mins after we come back in. It is pretty rainy and windy here in Scotland and she just runs to the back door to get back in even if I try to distract her with a treat or toy.

She is also getting pretty aggresive like when I pick her up (gently) to take her to pee she snaps and growls at me! Also sometimes when I pick her up at night to take her upstairs/downstairs in morning.

She also doesn’t sleep through the night, I have a dog bed with a ticking clock and hot water bottle wrapped up in it next to my bed. I can settle her in this about 10.30pm and she will sleep until 1am and then cry and scream until I lift her into my bed. I try to ignore her but she has woken my brother before. I can understand her anxiety as the breeder only let the Mum in once or twice a day from 4 weeks and half her littermates were sold by 5 weeks. I picked her up the day she turned 6 weeks and she has been playing with my Mum’s little yorkie puppy (17 weeks old) like she is a litter mate. The only time they are separated is at night when Maddie sleeps in my parents room.

Maddie - Maddie is a teacup yorkie 17 weeks old and my mum has had her since she was 11weeks. She is very very very hyper active and loves to run about and make a high pitched yappy noise. When she gets too noisy we give her a quick squirt with a little water pistle and she calms down for a bit. Molly and Maddie play great but Maddie can be very tiring wanting to play 24/7 and Molly can get aggressive with her. Maddie reliably knows "come" and we are working on "sit". She doesn't walk very well on the lead. I need a bit of advice on how to calm her down a bit! She sleeps next to my Mums bed when she wants to and then in bed with my Mum when she’s having a whining night.

We also have Flynn (Huge springer spaniel/pointer cross 2yr old), Amber (cocker spaniel 2yr6months old) and Gizmo (Shih Tzu 3 year old). These are all fairly well lead trained, know basic commands and have a mostly reliable recall.

Thanks folks

Firstly its a bit appaling that you have had this puppy from 6weeks of age.
Secondly there is no such a thing as a Teacup Yorkie, just a bad breeders expalnations for more money
Thirdly your puppy may be confused after moving and obviously unsettled
Fourthly I think you are expecting far too much from a 7 week old puppy

Good Luck

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Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can't eat it or hump it. Piss on it and walk away

It sounds very chaotic- if i were a babe like ur pup and had been uprooted to such a place i would probably regress.

What you need to do is get your self the gwen bailey perfect puppy book and get your mum to read it too.

My neighbour got her miniature dachshund at 6 weeks and he will be 8 weeks tomorrow and going for first jab. Ive been giving her tips as the breeder said pup was to eat weetabix and pedigree pup food then change to dried food.
Surely some of a pups training must come from the mum so must be harder/longer to train. Just keep going over the same thing & dont try to get pup to remember too many commands ............bless her

It sounds like a mad-house! When ever you train Molly, make sure it is fun & also make sure you are on a one-to-one basis with her. There is no way that you will get her attention with all those dogs running about & causing havoc in the background. Please remember, she is only a baby, I think you are expecting far too much of her at the moment. My mini-wire was quite easy to house train, but I do remember that he didn't like to go out when it was raining or windy.

1 - I know it is appalling, I was told she was 8 weeks old (on the phone) and travelled 100 miles to pick her up. When I arrived there was only her and two littermates left. One of the littermates had been reserved and another person was coming to see the pups a few hours after I left. The pups were small and kept in a large rabbit run outside. I asked their age (again) for reassurance. This was when I was told that they were 6 weeks old. I suggested leaving her another 2 or 3 weeks with the other two littermates but as said before 1 was already reserved and was being picked up in a few days and the other was sold later the same day. The breeder told me that they had been separated from their Mum from four weeks as she had taken ill and some of the pups had been hand reared. I thought about saying no but then what would the point have been? I also considered asking him to keep the puppy for 1 week until I had moved house, I changed my mind as the poor girl would have ended up even more unsettled being left outside all day and night on her own. If I didn't take her she'd have been left on her own anyway and may not even have gone to a good home. Yes, I spoke with someone about my concerns about the breeder but sadly there is nothing that can be done - I live in Scotland and there are no laws regarding when puppies can be separated from Mum and littermates.

2 - I know there is no real breed standard teacup yorkie, it is an expression we use as she is the runt of the litter and this is why she was kept with her mother until she was 11 weeks. She is now doing very well thank you and the only advice I was asking was on her training as her hyperactivity tends to interfere with this. Yes, her hyperactivity is probably influenced by poor breeding!

3 - Of course the puppy is confused and unsettled, I have had her in the bedroom with me since I got her to help her settle in and will gradually move her into the "dog's living room" where the other dogs sleep calmly in their own beds. Again, I was asking for tips on how I can do this. She is not unsettled throughout the day, we have constant routine with the dogs for walks, playtime, feeding time etc. (of course I'm not walking her as she won't get her final vaccine until 10weeks) and this has helped her immensely. She doesn't cry throughout the day at all, loves to play etc. and is very clever.

4 - I realise this now, I was fooled as she learned her name and the commands "come" "sit" and "paw" in the first week excellently. I now realise that this was my mistake to teach her this quickly and we are now forgetting about everything except reinforcing her name and the come command this week.

5 - You are making us feel like awful owners! Reading back, my post has come across all wrong and chaotic. I'm only looking for some tips on training little Molly. Mum only works 2 nights a week and I work 5 days a week so there is someone with the dogs 99.9% of the time. Mum devotes her life to the dogs and would do anything for them. We make sure we feed and walk/run them appropriately.

We've trained the other dogs excellently but just seemed to have let things slide this time and I was just looking for some tips from personal experience on how to get things back on track.

House training has improved dramatically, no accidents today - must just have been the upset from moving, I should have known this.

I don't seem to have any friendly replies, we are nice caring people, I just come across awful in that first post. Our dog Flynn is a rescue cross we got at just 4-5 weeks from a canine rescue centre. He is now a confident, friendly obedient dog! Whe was 10 weeks old Mum fell in love with Amber - our 2and a half year old cocker. She spotted her while walking the dogs and was told that she was a gunshy working dog and was kennelled all day except for one walk. That was it, she just had to have her! She already knew her basic commands we have just built on these. Gizmo - Shih Tzu was a foster dog we got when she was a year old, we ended up keeping her and she is now well trained although stubborn. We didn't plan on getting any more dogs and then came the advert for poor tiny Maddie - same story all over again had to have her! We then decided to go for Molly as Flynn prefers his own company while Amber and Gizmo have a strong bond and like to be just the two of them. So Molly is Maddie's "buddy".

Sorry this is a huge essay.

Thanks.

Thanks very much Beardy and wooliewoo, just needed some reassurance I was doing the right thing ans wasn't going to end up with a poor traumatised puppy. RE the housetraining am I supposed to do anything when I catch her in the act in the house? I have just been firmly saying no, picking her up when she stops and then taking her outside and praising her if she finishes.

Thanks.

Everytime you feed your pup or she has a drink or wakes up from sleep take her to your chosen area and use the command you have chosen for instance ours is 'hurry up' now when we go to shows or take them anywhere we can tell them to hurry up and they empty out you are doing the right thing but if you can catch her before she starts she will learn alot quicker and no smells in the house for the others to 'mark' either.

Take the basic training slowly let her have some fun first and just teach her one thing at a time her little brain will not be able to take too much in I would try and crack the house training first and then move onto the basic commands - dont try to pack too much in she has had a lot of upheaval in her young life already and perhaps didnt have an awful lot of socialising where she came from.

Good luck with your tribe it will work out stick with it

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Once she's settled a bit better she will also learn from the other housemates, its just a time game at the moment especially as in an ideal world she would still be with mum. This time next week it will be a different story im sure..........one of the new owners of my pups visits weekly, each time they notice a dramatic change in the pups and they are still only 4 weeks old, enjoy her as a puppy....... soon she will be a "grown up"!!!!

I have three great golden retrievers, a 9 yr. old, 1 yr old and a 15 wk old (I know we're crazy). but I am having hard time training the baby without the 1 yr. old getting jealous, and really acting left out and sad. Any suggestions on how to train him at home without the middle child getting in the way? he is SO smart, but he can only sit and lay down. When there were just two, I was able to train our 1 yr. old on many things far quicker. The baby just wants to follow the others around, and sometimes it's as if I am not even there. i am grateful I trained the 1 yr old so well to come, and stay etc., so he follows suit, but I need to train him 1 on 1 so he know's I am boss. i would prefer to do it onsite, but maybe someone has some input on advice?
Thx.
Major dog lover