I have an 11 week old Chiweenie female puppy "Teeny." Currently I’m still fostering her last 2 sisters (same breed, age. Duh.)
They’re usually in the big bathroom we have upstairs because our older herding dogs who normally remain downstairs, are still getting used to them. The puppies beds, blankets, food/water, toys and pee pads are in the bathroom. I’m aware they should probably start going outside in the backyard now and I plan on getting them used to it, but it’s hard because of my schedule and having to train all 3 of them to let me know when they need to pee. All 3 of them cannot be downstairs 24/7 with our older dogs yet. (Not that they don’t go downstairs ever)
Anyway, there’s a plastic gate between the doorway of the bathroom we always have up so they don’t run around the bedroom and start getting under the bed (they would not be able to get out). All of them keep chewing the plastic of the gate and now there’s a small hole in it… I’m not sure how to go about training them out of that through redirection. They ARE smart, especially Teeny. Poppy, her sister, is more hyper and takes slightly longer to calm down + learn. I don’t want to constantly give them treats for redirection, and teething toys only work for so long before they go back to chewing at the gate. This is a problem with their pee pads too.
I’ve thought about teaching them "stop" and doing my best to further discipline that command so they really understand it‘s implication. But I don’t know if they would grow out of this chewing after enough time of giving that verbal command? It’s also just a little stressful for me as I’m the sole caretaker of them, and my family cannot/does not help depending on the relative. We can’t hire an in-person dog trainer either
submitted by /u/_lu1uu
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