I'm trying to spank him to teach him not to do something

Is this a serious post? I mean that's just wrong. At least you have taught the dog one thing...to run away so he doesn't get hurt

 

Well first things first, please stop smacking the poor dog, it’s cruel. If I’m like that at you smacking you just imagine yourself as a dog probably thinking what is this person going to do to me, I fear this person because I get smacked.

 

As has been said, spanking a puppy achieves nothing, other than making him fearful of you. It is abuse, really. Similarly, saying “what did you do” to him achieves nothing. The dog does not understand English, any more than you understand dog communication. And he will not relate something he did earlier to you giving him a hard time now. If you pick him up and point his nose at something that he’s done, he will no doubt get scared, but only because he’s confused as to why you’re angry and what you’re doing. He does not know that he “pissed you off”. He goes back to it, only because whatever he’s doing is enjoyable to him, not because he’s being deliberately naughty.

You have a very young puppy who is desperately trying to learn to understand this strange world he’s now living in. Remember: he is VERY young. Imagine if you were thrown in amongst a pack of dogs and they kept nipping you and dealing with you as dogs deal with each other and you just did not understand how to communicate with them or how to behave. All you can tell is that they seem to dislike you for some reason.

You have a great opportunity to make this puppy a lovely dog who will be your best friend for the rest if his life. You won’t achieve that by punishing him, or by shouting at him. You achieve that through kindness and by being gentle and understanding. You need to make it so he WANTS to be with you, because you are where the fun is, or the treats, or whatever it is that motivates your dog.

So, that’s a start. Now, as long as your post is, and as much as you said about the things you have been doing to your dog, it’s not actually clear to me what you want help with. If it’s just that his attention drifts from time to time, well, no kidding! He’s a puppy and it’s a big, interesting world that he’s in. He’s got a lot to learn. He will not really be mature, ‘grown up, until he’s 18 months to two years old. If he thinks YOU are wonderful (because you’re kind and gentle to him, you play with him, etc), he’s less likely to wander off or whatever. But if he doesn’t like you, why would he hang around?

Is there anything specific you want help with?

 

I recently got a puppy a couple months ago and he's around 6-7 months old. He listens but when distracted or in a playful mood, he doesn't.. sometimes but rarely.

Also, when I'm trying to spank him to teach him not to do something, he runs super fast and he's quick and also thinks I'm playing even when I give him a tone of voice as well. He chews on my house (a certain spot) when I put plaster to cover/fix the part he chewed into, he goes right back to it even when I tell him "no" and "what did you do" in a angry voice he still doesn't listen. I've also picked him up and put his nose and pointed to what he did and he gets a little scared and I think knowing what he did pissed me off but goes right back to it when I'm not watching him for a split second.

He knows how to stay and wait until I say "come" or make a hand gesture and also knows how to sit and lay down. But this is only when he's not distracted and or is maybe somewhat distracted but sometimes listens occasionally.

The main thing I want him to learn when and wherever, is to come, stay, and also listen to no. Regardless of the situation. I tried dropping a treat near him and saying no then rewarding him and also pushing a treat close to his paw while he's laying down or sitting and same thing then rewarding him.

He's a chihuahua mixed with long legged Rat Terrier (Ratcha).

My Dad is currently in the hospital in critical condition and he can't train him like he did with my other dog which is really well trained and my Mom bought the dog for it to be her dog but she has no time to do that so he basically became my dog and become closest to me. I want to keep him but it's hard, he doesn't listen when it's really needed. But I am thinking of giving him up but I don't want to.

Thanks.

Hi @Malphaze welcome to PF

It sounds like you've gotten some outdated, and as you've seen, ineffective information about how to train your dog.
Dogs do what works. They will respond to cues if they understand the cue, and are sufficiently motivated to comply.
Your dog doesn't understand what you mean by "no" from what you describe. And really, "no" is not a very informative cue anyway. What does no mean? Does it mean stop chewing? Does it mean look at the wall (you pointed his nose to the wall, maybe that's what 'no' means), does it predict you about to smack him? In which case maybe 'no' means get away from you fast to avoid being smacked.

Generally a much more effective way to get dogs to stop doing unwanted behaviors is to give them an alternate behavior that makes it difficult or impossible to do the other, unwanted behavior at the same time.
The classic example is the dog who jumps up on people, you teach him sit, reward it very highly so the dog is very motivated to sit, and then ask for a sit in situations where the dog would usually jump. It's impossible to sit and jump up on people at the same time. Make sit more fun and more rewarding, and ta-da! Jumping solved.

In the case of something like chewing the wall though, you can simply practice management. Does this pup have a crate? Have you introduced it as a happy place? When you can't watch him, pop him in his crate. Or block off the room where he likes to go chew. Since chewing is a real need in dogs his age, also give him appropriate things to chew on instead.

I would guess your struggles with getting him to come to you are very much related to you smacking him and shoving his nose towards the wall. I wouldn't want to come to you either if I didn't know when you were going to be nice and when you were going to smack me. Try working on building a much stronger relationship with him. Reward, reward, reward. Teach him that every time you say his name, something nice will happen. Maybe a treat, maybe you're pointing out a good place to sniff out on a walk... But always his name should be a predictor of something good about to happen.

I bet you would definitely benefit from some good training classes too. Where are you located? Perhaps members can suggest good trainers in your general are?

 

I am not smacking the dog hard. I am literally tapping his butt. So aside from that.

 

It's still not appropriate to do this to him. He's not going to be taught anything via this approach except run away

 

Didn't answer to what I explained, but I need him to stop chewing on stuff and listen to where I don't want him to do that. What do I do? That's all I need to know.

 

Pretty sure I answered that in my post....
Always nice to spend time typing out a thorough, and one hopes, helpful reply, only to find out the OP doesn't even bother to read it

 

Please don’t smack your dog and shove his nose in the mess he’s made. All your going to achieve by doing that is a nervous/fearful dog.
If you’re angry he’s not going to respond to you. You need to be calm, inviting and exciting to him for him to learn.

Provide him with suitable chew toys, you can find loads on the internet and your local pet store. Also make sure your exercising him enough for his age, walks and play included.

Puppies chew on things. My own destroyed a corner in the sofa/skirting boards/linoleum and chewed a hole in my carpet. You have to correct them in the act. That means putting your hand on whatever he’s chewing, telling him no and replacing the item with something suitable. Not smacking/punishing him which he doesn’t understand. He’s probably chewing on things more because he’s nervous. He doesn’t understand that’s whats making you angry!

As others have said I would suggest hiring a good trainer or at the very least research online about dog training. And remember it won’t happen over night. Training takes time .

 

I want him to learn when and wherever, is to come, stay

in that case, you need to be the best thing that ever happened to this dog. Do you think you are that person?