new jack russell, house training advice needed

sleepyescapade

Hi all, got a new dog a few days ago - a jack russell who is a few months old. We haven't had a dog in about 10 years (had cats) and have never kept a pet in the house until now, so really looking for some training advice? Thanks all

mymo

Congrats on the new addition.
It's pretty much a case of bringing the pup out every half hour and waiting for it to go. Especially after food or a drink(10mins or so after).
If you see the dog going say do you business or some other phrase, then praise the pup for going. The phrase must be the same all the time and everyone must say the same, but after a few weeks you'll be able to bring the dog out and say the phrase and the dog will go. Very handy if you're in a hurry or need to know the dog has done it.
Don't be cross with accidents (a simple no then placing the dog outside for a couple of minutes) as the pup won't know why its being told off, just watch closer next time.
Clean up accidents with warm water and biological washing powder, as this gets rid of all traces and prevents going in the same place it smells the wee.
As for other training, look for classes locally. A good way to get them walking on lead nicely is to tire them out first, them short walk with a pocket full of treats and praise nice walking, stop and change direction when pulling.
Sit is easy, call pup over stand right in front with a treat held close to you body and a small dog will sit to look up at you better:D
Best of luck.

sleepyescapade

thank you! had first few steps of progress earlier, we cuddled him and gave him a treat. hopefully he'll keep it up

mymo

That's great.
Have you thought of crate training?
It can be useful at night, but you may still need to get up in the night if the pup is young. Also handy for dog to have somewhere to go out of the way when it wants some peace and quiet.

Fatcat

Hi Megcork,
Congratulations on the new arrival - he's gorgeous!
I would recommend Dr. Ian Dunbar's books - available on Amazon. They're excellent and are written in a very clear and easy to understand way.
Dr. Dunbar is world renowned for his expertise in dog behaviour.
Best of luck with the new arrival!

sleepyescapade

Update: Things have been going well, although for the last few nights he is having more accidents during the night, we haven't changed his feeding times so not sure how this is happening especially as we make sure he is brought outside to go before we go to bed, and sometimes this is as late as midnight. We are going to change his evening feeding time to see if this helps.

Also noticed strange behaviour but he may be just playing? - he is kept in the kitchen/extension of our house where the back door is (he has plenty of space to play). Lately if anyone is in the kitchen with him and we go towards the kitchen door, he runs down to the extension and goes to the back door / hides behind the curtain of the back door. We are not sure why he is doing this because if we go down to open the door for him he just sits there looking up at us and then does the exact same thing again if we go to leave the kitchen. Does he like hide and seek or is it just a clever tactic to get people to stay? :P