how do i discipline?

I have been on here before and was given good advice but my puppy does not seem to understand discipline!
She sleeps in the kitchen and is also left in there when we were out, this is where i put her for a 'time out' when she is being naughty.
She just seems to run wild around the house, she can be lovely when she wants to and when she is she gets lots of praise and attention, however a lot of the time she is destructive (although she has lots of toys and things she is allowed to chew on), she 'steals' anything she can and chews it, she scratched the sofas, she pulls on trouser legs and socks whilst growling, she bites when we are playing with her (have tried bite inhibition), she pulls threads out of carpets and ruins them.
We have bought a water spray which stops her for a few seconds but she immediately starts again and no matter how many times she gets sprayed for doing something she always does it again.
If she won't stop doing something she gets put in the kitchen by herself but it often takes forever to even catch her as she tears round the house! But even being repeatedly put away on her own doesn't seem to sink in with her.
I don't know what to do with her, I must be doing something wrong seeing as we have had her from the age of 8 weeks but I don't know what!
I am open to any ideas, I think we will have to have a behaviourist to come to the house but ideally we could do without spending that money, if we could do it on our own that would be brilliant!
Thanks

How much training ,games etc do you do with her as she sounds as though she's bored. A houseful of toys won't help this, only teaching her games with them. Often a dog needs more mental than physical activity to help them relax.
Sorry if I've misread the situation & you already do a lot of this, Hope others canhelp more.

Hi, thanks for your reply.
You may be right about her being bore, I do play with her quite a lot but she often bites when we are playing and I then end up shutting her away on her own, also she needs constant attention when I am in the house so although I may have a play session with her, when I then need to do something else she misbehaves so I end up having to give her my attention again instead of doing the housework or whatever it is I need to do.
I don't mind giving her attention and playing with her, I enjoy it (when she is not biting) but I can't do it constantly, it is difficult when she seems to want 24/7 attention.

Hi Nic,
Puppies are a bit like toddlers in so far as everything is a game to them. There is a whole new world out there that they love to explore - and one wayof doing that is by chewing - just like babies - everything goes in the mouth!
I don't think discipline is the answer because your wee puppy is not really doing anything wrong. Just behaving naturally for a pup.
So, you have to be prepared, and remove all the things that you don't want chewed. As for furniture and carpets, try distracting the pup with a loud noise or with a toy when the chewing starts. The pup may then associate chewing the carpet with the horrible noise and be less keen to do that in future.
You don't say how long your wee pup stays in the kitchen, but it may be that getting into the lounge or the rest of the house when you come home is one big treat and she gets really excited about it. She may be bored in the kitchen, so make sure she has plenty to amuse herself with.
You have probably heard all this before but I am sure someone on this site will have just the right answer for you.
Best of luck

Oh by the way - what are you feeding her?

Hello Nic

The advice you have already been given so far has been very good. I used to keep Max in the kitchen a fair bit when he was a puppy, as whenever he came into the lounge he used to have little accidents. He also used to behave like a total nutter when he came in! Stealing things and running off...no point going after him because it became a game of chase! He would jump all over the furniture which he wasn't allowed to do, chew the carpets and tear around like a loony!

I think the problem was, as maebme said, it was a big thing for him to be in the lounge with us and so he got really excited when he was let in.

He now stays in the kitchen of a night time and when we go out, but the rest of the time he spends in with us. Since we have had him in the lounge pretty much all the time he has really calmed down! He comes in, has a little wander round making sure everything is as it should be sniffs absolutely everything, then he either settles down or has a little game with one of us.

I hope you manage to sort out the problem soon

How old is your puppy ? I know exactly how you feel. My dog wants attention ALL the time and sometimes it's difficult to ignore her. When your puppy pulls on trousers or socks , could you distract her with her favourite toy , then praise her for playing with that instead of your clothes. Rather than punish or discipline her for wrong behaviour , praising her for wanted behaviour may work better. It sounds like everything is just one big game to her and if she can get you to join in , all the better ! If it takes running off with socks or whatever to get you to join in , then that's getting her what she wants. Does she know " Leave" ? Maybe you could try teaching her this if you haven't already done so. When you ask her to leave something and she does , praise her as if it's the best thing she's done in the world ever. I hope you get this sorted out as she sounds like a lovely dog with loads of character. If it makes you feel any better , my dog is nearly 3 years old and acts like a 6 month old pup. She's just spent the last 2 hours trying to get my attention. Nudging me with her nose didn't work. Pacing up and down , whining didn't work. (I let her out to the toilet just before she started attention seeking). Dragging all of her toys out of her toy box didn't work either. THEN .............. she went to jump up on my Mum who was dozing on her chair. I had to stop her from doing that but now Missy's learned a new way of getting attention. She went to do it again so I decided to let her out then feed her 10 minutes early. Why is she behaving like this ? Because I have a packet of M & M's by the computer and Missy wants one ! It took me a while to figure out that when my dog was " misbehaving" , she was in actual fact attention seeking , and ignoring her works best. She stops eventually .

Thanks everyone, I guess I will just have to keep on trying to teach 'leave' (she doesn't seem to get it, I am sure she is untrainable!) and not run after her when she steals, she definitely thinks this is a game but when she has managed to get up onto the table and is chewing on a tube of lip gloss, nail glue or as she has worked out how to do today, has taken the sky card out of the TV box, it is hard to not chase as I know that if I don't get it off her ASAP it will end in disaster!
She is coming up to 9 months old! I really think I am dong something wrong at this age, she is not even house trained yet, she was paper trained and still is but no amount of praise or standing outside will make her go outside, when she does go outside she isn't interested at all in treats or praise, she can hold her wee for huge amounts of time and then comes back in and wees on the paper, I have tried not putting it down but then she just wees on the floor in its place, she never does anything overnight but won't go in the garden when I take her out - nightmare!
Someone asked what I feed her - that is also an issue (what isn't!). She will hardly ever eat dog food (and believe me I have tried EVERY brand), I usually keep putting it down thinking that if she is hungry enough she will eat it but then sometimes end up cooking her some meat and veg so I don't feel like a terrible doggy Mum! Even when I don't make her anything else she won't eat dog food, very rarely she does but hardly ever, don't know what to do about that either, I might see what the vet suggests. I know it isn't a problem with eating in general because she wolfs it down when it is fresh chicken or something else she likes!
Oh dear what a dysfunctional dog I have and it must be my fault! She is an absolute sweetie when she wants to be and I just hope she will eventually grow out of all this craziness and be a normal dog one day!
Thanks for all the advice and sorry for the very long post!

She sounds to me like a Mini Max I had exactly the same trouble with his food! The first few days I had him he gulped his food down as though I would take it away any second, which probably had something to do with him being used to competing for food with his brothers and sisters. Then after the first week or so, he used to sniff at it, nibble a couple of bits and then wander off. The food would still be there at the end of the day! I, like you decided that if he was hungry enough and I left it down, and didn't feed him anything else he would eat it eventually! Guess what? He didn't

The best thing I found with him was to put his food down for 20 minutes, if it wasn't gone by then, the food was picked up and not put down again until dinner time (or breakfast depending on which end of the day it was). He had no treats during the day if the food wasn't eaten. For a while I considered giving him chicken etc but I thought if I do that, he would turn into one of these fussy dogs that will eat nothing else! And I would end up being one of these people that said "oh my dog only eats fresh chicken!" I felt absolutely terrible about it for a couple of weeks and was constantly paranoid that he was getting thin (which of course he wasn't it was just me panicking ) but I have to say in the long run it worked! now when I put his food down he normally eats at least 3/4 of it at once if he doesn't eat it all. He has his days when he will pick at it and wander off but then thats just Max! I don't know if this would work for your dog but it did for me.

With regards to the toilet training I have my usual training methods but I have always used them from a very young age so not sure how effective it would be on a 9 month old dog. I will tell you what I normally do anyway I always take the pup out first thing in the morning and watch until business is done. When puppy does it's business outside then he/she is a "very very good puppy!" and depending on whether the pup is food or play orientated we either have a treat or a little play session. I normally take puppy out at least every 2 hours and again if puppy does anything its "very very good" and treat/play time. If I find that puppy has been to the toilet in a place they shouldn't I don't punish, as they won't understand what they have done wrong. However if I catch puppy doing it, or if puppy looks as though they are about to go, I just pick puppy up and put them where they are supposed to be, so they associate toilet with that area. I try not to walk too close to bed time as this may make puppy thirsty, causing them to need to go in the night. I also normally take them out just after mealtimes.

I hope this helps you a little as I said I am not sure how effective it would be on your girl but hopefully you will find it useful!

Hayley xxx

Have you tried taking some of the wee'd on paper outside for her, and washing the floor where she usually goes with a biological washing liquid to get rid of the smell.?
I think you have one very intelligent pup there who needs her mind kept busy. Have you had her to obedience classes or thought of doing agility, she will be too young to do any jumping yet but it would get rid of some of her exuberance Kath

Hello!
There's been some brill advice already so I'll try not to repeat what's already been said.

Fist of all...food.
Our Biffters was a faddy eater and I would not listen when people said he'll eat when he's hungry, pick it up and don't offer it again til tea time. I also tried lots of food...he got more picky.
Choose a good quality food,stick to it.
She should be on 2 meals judging by her age, half of her allowance for breakfast and half for tea, with the meals being cut down according to the number of treats she has had in a day.
Put the food down. If she walks away at all, pick it up,don't offer it again until her next meal is due, if you think she is hungry do a training session with her, if you are feeding a kibble, use pellets of that as her reward if she has skipped a meal.
At teatime, do the same, if she walks away pick it up. Don't leave it down, don't entice her, don't give her anything else. If she starts to eat...then walks away...pick it up. Every time.
WE did this with Biffters in the end, he now clears his bowl within 5 minutes,it works and you will feel (as will she) SO much better when you have it cracked and it will probably have a knock on effect on her behaviour.

Toilet training.
Kath has offered fantastic advice about cleaning where she normally goes.
You will have to go back to square one and forget the paper.Train her to go outside not in. Don't put the paper down anymore, take her outside regualrly to spend, if you want to attach a word to it. Reward her when she goes outside, BIG, HUGE fuss, IGNORE accidents in the house. Offer her the opportunity to go as soon as she wakes up at anytime of the day, before and after food, after a play session, in an ideal world if she hasn't been to the loo, take her outside every 10 minutes if needs be. Dogs are clever she'll soon cotton onto it.

At her age she will bw going through a secondary teething phase as her teeth settle into her gums, make sure you give her lots of things to chew. Do you have a kong? Fill it (freezing it filled with chappie is one idea) and give her that to chew on whilst you get on with things round the house or go out. Freeze a flannel and let her chew on that, give her a carrot. The thing to do is to divert her attention away from chewing your furniture. PUppy proof your house, make sure she can't get to the sky card etc...

As for how to discipline a puppy? I don't, I try to mould the good behaviour..

Good luck, I hope this helps, apologies for the long reply!!!!