Q. Where do I start with training my my puppy?

I require all my puppy buyers to commit to a minimum of “Puppy Kindergarten” in a good, positive-based program, and I strongly encourage even pet people to continue training at least until their young dog can pass the AKC “Canine Good Citizen” program. This is a title for dogs who have been taught a minimum level of behavior to be good community members, which I think is good for all dogs. I provide a cash incentive to every one of my puppy buyers who achieves this goal with their puppies. That’s how important it is to me that my puppies become “good citizens”!!!

If you purchase a puppy from me, I will do all I can to help you find an appropriate puppy kindergarten for your pup. Be aware that good programs fill fast, so sign up for a class well before bringing your puppy home!

I also send all my puppy buyers home with a voucher for a free on line class from Puppy Culture, called, “With Open Arms and a Level Head” taught by Jane Lindquist ($99 value) I expect my puppy buyers to complete this program before their puppy goes home, so that they have a good idea what to with their puppy when they get home, and all the work that THEY as the new owners need to do to raise a happy, well adjusted, well socialized puppy. It takes a lot more than once week puppy classes! I put a lot of work into my puppies and I want to see them succeed once they leave me!

Q. How do I start potty training?

While it is up to you where you decide to train your puppy to eliminate in the long run, our puppies will be sent home having learned to use a potty tray. It has been our experience and that of many other Havanese breeders and owners that puppies that are trained to use an indoor potty solution FIRST, transition easily to using the “Great Outdoors” all on their own, without any special training other than praise for when they do it! Puppies that are afforded an indoor potty option are MUCH faster to get to “no accidents” in the house, especially if their owners are really diligent about watching them really carefully when they are not confined.

Whether you continue with a potty tray when they are adults is up to you. We live in the “Frozen North”, and we really like the fact that our dogs have an option when the snow is too deep for them to get out the door or when it’s driving rain outdoors. They prefer to potty outdoors, and that is always their first choice. But if they can’t get outside, a quick “Use your box!” is all it take from us to send them to find a litter box instead. We have chosen the convenience of having cat-sized dogs, why not take advantage of their size in this too? Remember that even though our puppies are using their potty trays reliably when they leave us, they are little babies, and will need a LOT of reinforcement in their new home, and may very well take a step or two backward when you get them home. Potty training is by no means finished! As a general rule of thumb, you should not expect a small breed puppy to be completely and reliably potty trained and trustworthy in your entire house until they are at least a year old. Here is a link to how you can continue the good start they received from us on potty training. Remember, we are always here as a resource if you are having trouble!

If you didn’t get your puppy from us, talk to your breeder! They should be there for you too!

My puppy won’t eat his meals!

Your puppy will probably have been sent home from the breeder with a small supply of the food he has been eating. Since I feed a frozen lightly cooked commercial diet, I have people arrange to have this delivered to their homes before their puppy arrives. If there is a problem, I can send them home with some, but it is more complicated than sending home kibble! Whatever your puppy has been raised on, keep them on that food for their first few weeks at home. To change their food when they are adjusting to all the other new changes in their environment is tempting fate. You could end up with a bad case of diarrhea, and no one wants that! It’s also not unusual for puppies to skip a meal here and there during their first few days home. Don’t make a big deal of it, and it will just pass.

But assuming you are past that period, and your puppy has settled in nicely… And NOW the darling little tyke has decided to play the “picky puppy card” on you…

Havanese puppies are smart.  They are Master Manipulators!

Put down quality food of your choice at a time of your choice. Pick it up after 10 minutes, whether the puppy has eaten or not.  Repeat at the next meal time.  Do not offer it again, do not offer anything else, do not coax or cajole, and NO SNACKS!  For a couple of days, skip other training, so you are not feeding training treats. This is more important training at the moment. Your puppy gets nothing but her regular meals right now.  Assuming that she is healthy, heathy dogs or puppies WILL NOT starve themselves, even if they skip a few meals!

What is needed here is some tough love. puppies that will not eat their food, in the absence of any signs of illness, are manipulating you, and this breed is well known for it. Believe me, if you let this continue, it will only get worse.

My puppy is biting and won’t stop!  He doesn’t listen when we say “No bite!” 

A. Your puppy hasn’t got a CLUE what “no bite” means. And it is MUCH more difficult to teach a dog NOT to do something than it is to teach them to do something. So what you need to do at this point has several parts. Most of it is protecting yourself while waiting for him to grow up a bit. The rest is teaching him self-control.

1. Do NOT play games that rile the puppy up. At all. No matter how much fun it seems. To little puppies, biting is part of the game. They do not understand how fragile human skin is. Teach everyone who interacts with him that all interactions must be calm and quiet.

2. Give him appropriate things to bite on. When you DO play with him, ALWAYS have a toy in your hand to put between yourself and the bitey part of the puppy if he gets riled up. Tell him he is a good boy when he bites the toy!

3. When he gets bitey and you can’t settle him down, gently pick him up, bitey parts away from you, (make sure an adult does this) and gently place him in his ex-pen until he calms down. This is not a “punishment”. It is a chance for him to get his short-circuiting brain back to where he can calmly think again. Then you can take him out again.

This will take many repetitions. You need to be patient and persistent. He’s a baby, and you’ve got the bigger brain! Most important, remember that this is a phase.  He WILL grow out of it and you will all survive.  Be persistent and patient.  This will pass!

Q. How do I get my puppy used to staying home alone?

A. By all means give your puppy a week to settle in and get his bearings in his new home before leaving him alone if you have that luxury, but by the second week after the puppy gets home it is time to start this training. That way the puppy does not come to believe that having someone always at home is normal life.

You need to start separation training with really short periods. And while practicing leaving the room can be helpful in training for THAT, it does not help the puppy in terms of you leaving the house.  Don’t kid yourself.  Even a very young puppy can tell the difference!

The first day, leave the house for only 30 seconds. Make sure he has had a good play session first and is settled down in his pen or crate, then quietly leave with NO fanfare. Wait 30 seconds and return. With NO greeting. Hang up our coat, put down your keys, then quietly let him out with a quiet greeting.

If everything went well, do this for 2-3 more days. If it is NOT going calmly, do it until it DOES go calmly. If he was calm for 30 seconds, you can increase to 5 minutes. If he was not calm initially at 30 seconds, I would not go for longer than 2 minutes for the next step. Repeat as step one.*

NOW is where you need to really think things through, and gauge your puppy’s response. As long as their response is fairly calm, and they are not seeming stressed, you can start to “ping pong” your times. This means that sometimes you will stay away longer, other times you will return quickly. It will help to keep notes on the times, or you will have a hard time remembering. The important thing is that so will the dog! He will not get the idea that every time you leave, it will be longer than the time before! THAT can be VERY distressing to them!!! So, for instance:

day 1-3: 30 seconds

day 4: 5 minutes

day 5: 2 minutes

day 6: 10 minutes

day 7: 5 minutes

day 7 12 minutes

day 8: 2 minutes

day 9: 15 minutes

day 10: 10 minutes

day: 11 30 minutes… by now, you are at a point that you are probably able to mostly do genuine errands with your time.

By the time you can calmly and quietly return after an hour, you are pretty much “free to move about the country,” as the ad says! LOL!

Any time you see signs of stress, go back to a shorter time, keep ping-ponging BELOW that time, being VERY careful to keep leaving and returns VERY low key, Some dogs find a chew item helpful while their owners are gone, for many, it is just a cue that they are going to be left and a REASON to become stressed, and they won’t use it anyway. So you can try it, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work

*It probably will go fine and you can move along quite quickly with with a young puppy who has been well socialized by the breeder.  People have problems if they wait longer before starting this, which is why I’ve written what to do if there are problems.

Q. How long do I need to puppy proof my house?

I am puppy proofing home before pup arrives . I am curious how long I have to keep my house this way or if it’s only temporary in the first year

Getting rid of houseplants - am I better to permanently get rid of my house plants as they all seem poisonous . ?

- are gates installed permanently for when you leave the home with older dogs or are they only for the first year ?

- is this gated area a permanent feature in everyone’s space or do adult dogs outgrow it ? I hear about some dogs climbing out .

- my son will be moving all his toys into his room . I will plan on not allowing dog into his room so to avoid toys being eaten . At what point is blocking off toy areas no longer necessary?

A. Some of this is dependent on the individual puppy/dog and only time will tell you. I keep all my potentially toxic plants in one area of the house that the dogs do not have access to. Do they regularly chew on plants? No. But why risk it? As far as other puppy proofing is concerned, in terms of cords, baseboards, expensive rugs and furniture that could be damaged… This varies widely, depending on the puppy. Ducky chewed on almost nothing, but was TERRIBLE about getting into the trash. Kodi was a termite while he was teething, but then stopped. Lili does not chew wood, but could not be trusted around charging cords for a long time! They are all different!

I believe in ALWAYS leaving my dogs gated in a safe area when we are out. Even when they are older and won’t get in trouble. In a fire, dogs that can be found quickly get saved. Those that are scared and hiding under beds or behind couches… die. So when we had just two, they were gated in my office. Now that we have more, they are gated in the kitchen.

As far as children’s toys are concerned, that may ALWAYS be a problem. The toys have your child’s scent on them, so will be particularly attractive. And small things, like Legos can be swallowed, even by an adult dog, and cause a bowel obstruction. So it will be very important to teach your children to either clean up or keep their room door closed

Q. Today I took my puppy into the backyard, he grabbed something he should not be chewing on and ran off with it. We've been practicing 'come' and so I calmly, but firmly Called him back with a treat in my hand. He looked at me, and then decided this new thing was much more interesting, and ignored me. I tried trading a high value treat for the thing, and no luck. I tried running away from him in hopes that he would chase me and drop the thing, but he just ran with the thing in his mouth. Long story short, I ended up chasing him around the yard and then prying the thing from his mouth - not an experience I would like to repeat. What could I have done differently in this situation? I know it's best to be proactive, so we're going to work more on 'drop it' and I'm going to inspect the backyard more carefully for hazards like this, but neither of us is perfect, so this will probably happen again.

A. If there is ANY chance that you will be put in a position where you might feel the need to chase the puppy, he should be wearing a harness and a light weight (paracord) long line. (My puppies go home with one! I usually make them about 20ft long, and make them out of bright colored paracord, so they are very visible on grass or the ground)  While the puppy may not let you approach them closely, they will always let you get close enough to step on the line.  Then you (very sweetly) say "come" (no matter how many curse words and horrible names you are thinking in your brain!) and gently reel him in to you!  When he gets to you, have a party and give him a number of small yummy treats, if it was just that he wouldn't come.

If it is a case like this, where he has "contraband", the first thing to try is dropping a hand full of the "yummy stuff" on the ground, once you have reeled him close.  Then squat down, paying NO attention to him, and say "Look at this!!!" and start pretending to pick the treats up and eat them!  Make a BIG DEAL about how good they taste!  Dogs are SUPER gullible!  Even adults can rarely resist this, and will usually drop their prize to get some of what the people want to eat.  Then you can get the garbage without a fight.

If he still resists, or if what he has is truly dangerous... You may still have to wrestle him for it, but at least he can't get away.  Obviously, KEEP working on trades, as often as you can, outside this high intensity situation, and hopefully he will learn to trade soon!  But I think most of us have had to do a "cavity search" at one point or another!

Q. What reading Material and Resources do you recommend?

A.There are many good resources out there for new puppy owners. This is a list of the ones I think the most highly of.

Since my puppies are raised using Puppy Culture, This is a wonderful bundle offered from the Puppy Culture folks. You can follow along with what we are doing with your puppy here at each stage, as well as know just what to do to continue the good work when you take your puppy home: Puppy Culture

Puppy Culture’s “Madcap University” offers, I think, the BEST on-line, puppy training course, “With Open Arms and a Level Head” How to bring puppy into your life”. I recommend that all my puppy owners use this program on top of their local puppy kindergarten program.

My very favorite book on raising puppies is The Focused Puppy by Deb Jones and Judy Keller.

Fenzi Dog Sports Academy is a fabulous resource. There are 6-week courses, one-evening webinars, and seminars that span a few days. Your choice and several different pricing structures including scholarships for those in need. Even if you don’t think that paid online learning is right for you, AT LEAST sign up for Denise’s free blog. You will still learn TONS, just from that!

Susan Garrett also has a great online dog training school, with a little more focus on agility rather than obedience. Her Recaller’s course is BRILLIANT! Can’t recommend THAT one highly enough. Crate Games is another awesome one! She also has a number of free YouTube video Blogs.

The Havanese Forum is a wonderful online community of people who truly care about their dogs, and are always there to help new puppy owners through those “what have I done!” moments that we all have when living through those first few months of adorable, terrible, charming, sweet, sharky, fluffy puppyhood!

Q. My young male has started to mark in the house but my breeder says he should not be neutered until 18 months old.. How do we stop this? He is trained to Potty outside and inside on his tray. Do I just train him using the same potty training methods... take him out often, keep him tethered to me if out of the expen, praise when he pees in his tray/outside? Do I tell him a firm no if I catch him marking?

A. Training for marking is the same and different than “potty training”.  Yes, you need to go back to close confinement and supervision, but taking him out more often will not help, because this has nothing to do with needing to urinate. A dog who feels the urge to mark, and has not learned that marking indoors is not appropriate will still lift his leg if he is completely empty and there is not a single drop he can coax out!  In fact, he will often hold some urine back when peeing, so he has some “ammunition”!

So this really is a case of needing to supervise him every moment that he has any freedom in your house. You need to also both confine him and put a belly band on him to prevent him from marking when you can’t have eyes on him.  Fortunately, if he is an only dog, or is at least not around other intact dogs leaving THEIR scent around, it should not take as long to get this message across as potty training did.

Unlike potty training, where it is vitally important that you teach the puppy where it is appropriate to potty, there is no physiological “need” for him to mark.  He already knows where he can go to urinate.  Believe me, dogs DO know the difference! We think of them as the same thing because they both involve urine. Dogs do not!!! So unlike potty training, where you do NOT want to use aversives, it is absolutely fine to get after your pup for inappropriate marking!  Now, be careful with this. Havanese are small, sensitive dogs, and most of us have it (appropriately) drilled into our heads to use positive reinforcement methods with our dogs.  But to yell and clap your hands loudly the moment you see that leg go up, and then march him straight outside is usually plenty aversive enough to get the message across pretty quickly to our little guys.

Obviously, allow your dog to mark outdoors, but I do NOT allow my dogs to mark at every single vertical surface.  We have our brisk “walk”, and then I allow them some “sniff walk” time, where they can “be a dog” at some point along the way, mid-walk, not always at the same place. (BTW, many girls mark too, and enjoy this sniff walk time also!)

Again, if your puppy is not in a “sexual environment”, like a breeding home (that will make it harder!), you can usually get a handle on this relatively quickly.  In Europe, most dogs are not neutered, and are taught that this is not appropriate behavior inside buildings.  It is just considered a normal part of raising the puppy!

Q. My puppy doesn’t come when I call him even though he knows to come. Sometime I think he is blowing me off!

A. He is not “blowing you off”. The behavior isn’t strongly enough reinforced at this point for him to do it in a more challenging situation. At this age, you should never be asking for a recall unless you are at least 90% sure your dog will comply. And then you should treat, treat, treat for prompt compliance. If you are not almost positive the puppy will come, go get him!

You should be doing lots of short distance recalls in non distracting, low consequence situations, where you put your hand on his collar, pet him, give him treats, tell him he is wonderful and then let him go again. You should never call him to you to do something unpleasant, like end play, leash up, give him a bath, etc. In these instances, you should go get him.

If you find that he runs from you often right now, keep a leash or long line on him at all times, so you can step on it, and keep him from getting away from you until his recall is more reliable.