Puppy woes

DH and I have a 12 wk old puppy who is so adorable but who was a complete terror last night. She kept us up all night. I guess it doesn't help that we let her sleep in our bed .... but the problem is that I disagree with DH on how we should discipline her. Has anyone run into this problem or a similar situation? How did you handle it?

our puppy slept in our bed pretty much right away...but he is a good sleeper...so we only had to get up to help him back on the bed (when he was too small to jump) when he used the wee-wee pads...


as for discipline...dogs are really too stupid to be disciplined by humans...a strong 'No' usually works for me.


also DH plays with our dog every night and I think because of that he sleeps well

I just got rid of their crates but I put a pillow and blanket in and they loved sleeping in it
I would leave the door open to the crate and close the door of the room they slept in so they could go out of the crate and roam around but I would always find them, especially my little one in her crate on her pillow w/ the door open

ETA: I dont like to hit them but a LIGHT TAP On the nose or tush is okay for them to get the message, my yorkie ran out the front door one day and I screamed and hit her lightly on the nose with my finger and yelled NO
SHE NEVER DID IT AGAIN in fact now she goes to the door to look out but when me or anyone opens the door she runs away from the door b/c she knows better

I do not disagree with the use of cages/crates, we use one for when we are out of the house and it was very beneficial when it was time to housetrain our puppy and to protect our furniture. I just disagree with using it to disipline them because then they might get confused on why they are getting put into the cage.

Maybe you should ask your DH if he would like to go training with the puppy. A trainer could teach him how to control the dog without hitting.

Our dog is pretty good and a stern NO pretty much got the message across, but we also took her to training just to teach her how to walk correctly on a leash and not to jump up on people.

Good luck!!

I would think twice about letting the puppy in the bed. If FH saw this, he would call me a hypocrite because my dog has always slept in bed with me. Now that we are co-habitating, she still does it and now seems to think the bed is hers. So, I think if I had the chance to go back 10 years, I may not have let her sleep with me.

I've never been a fan of the crate (but mostly because I'm old school - the only puppy I had was when I was a kid and no one crated back then) but you should designate an area that is the puppy's.

Also, a lot of yelling will just confuse the puppy. Try to stick to NO. Why not pick up Puppies/Dogs for Dummies?

My fiance and I definatley differ on this topic. He claims I baby my puppy and that I should stop...I just tell him no and continue to do it ..so what if I baby her, she is a baby!!! I also tell him that he better not be like that when we have children. I give a tap on her butt because she likes to bite my feet and pants, she also sleeps in our bed..., I try to train her with treats. She knows to sit... She acts good when I have a treat in my hand..

I also like to leave the lights on when we go out at night at that bothers him...we wind up leaving them on though....We don't agree much when it comes to her.

I think that many people will disagree about how we have raised our dogs (we have had 4 throughtout my life) but it has worked!

My dads theory is that dogs are domesticated yes but in essence they are still wild animals and they need to be in some senses treated like such. He was always the disciplinarian with our dogs! He was never the cuddler he left that to us. SO he is the the one who my dog fears (although we do hit our dog we have never hurt her)

I agree with this 100% because I have a dog that the minute my mom brings food towards the dining room, she leaves (she is not allowed in the room during dinner), she has never been on our furniture, bit anyone, ruined any thing (since she was 6 months old - she is now 11 YO), SHe does not jump on people, etc. She is also a dog that from the time we got her at 5 months old she was home alone all day from 8 until 4 and she was great!

I think that hitting a dog is okay to be honest! If my dog does something wrong I hit her on the nose (she has bad back legs a common issue with her breed) and I tell her he is a bad dog and I dont play with her. She hates that. It takes awhile but they do learn and when she does something good that I like I let her know but praising her.

In the same respect we have never crate trained a dog. Before she was house broken she was confined the the kitchen and each morning she got repremanded for accidnets. When the accidents stopped she got run of the house which she still has and she sleeps wherever she wants and in 10 years I think we have had maybe 3 accidents all came when she was sick!

I think you and Your FH need to decide how you want to discipline them and remember this is a dog as much as we love them they are not our children and raising a dog is very different. Dogs need positive and negative reinforcement, IMO that is how they learn right from wrong.

Also, be careful what you allow your dogs to do now because it may bite you in the a#$ later on. My friend has always allowed her dog on her bed, sofa etc now she is getting new furniture and not sure what to do. If you let a dog play with stuff animails/toys later when you have kids they make view the childs toys as theirs....the saying is true its hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Good Luck!

ETA: I realize that every dog is different and these are just what we have done and it has worked! Everyone has their own methods!