[shibbi3]

Hey everyone, just joined the forum.
I have a 10 week old alaskan malamute who just came home 2 weeks ago.

Some positives:
- responds to house=crate
- Goes pee in same place when told to
- Trained to sit

Negatives:
- bites and pulls my pants/ankles
- jumps when I bring his meals
- thinks outside of crate, inside the house is ok to pee
- hard to keep his attention when trying to train walks around me and sniffs

Is this normal for a 10 week old? I've seen videos of 13 week old malamutes that are amazingly trained. I'm a bit worried because my Malamute seems to be very stubborn and acts out.

Things I've done:
- enrolled in classes
- continued to try and train

I know you are not supposed to yell at a puppy, but it seems to be the only way to get him to stop pulling at my pants and ripping it. When I yell, he jumps a little and walks away scared. I found nothing else worked except for this (treats, toys, ignoring him etc.)

Looking for advice on how to keep his attention and calm down for training... does it get better as he gets older?

 

[Thisisme19]

First thing I would recommend is not to compare your dog to any other dogs and what they were doing at what age. Each dog is an individual and will be trained at their own pace. Even for 1 dog to learn different stuff can vary in length. For instance, I taught my pup to do a 'kiss' trick the other day. I'll ask him for a kiss and he'll touch his nose to mine. This took me 2 sessions to get on a cue that he responds to 95% of the time. We are also working on 'spin' We've worked on this frequently for about a month. Picked up the hand signal easily, can't get him to link the cue word to the action. I've made progress with him on it but it's been a super slow process with very slight improvements.

All of the things that you mention are completely normal for a puppy.

Some tips.
- when he bites and pulls at your pants you should redirect him to a toy, if he goes back to your pants, redirect again, if he goes back yet again, put him in his crate or playpen for 30secs - 1min. If he comes out of his crate and starts nipping again start the process all over again. This can take quite a while to get through to a puppy. Be consistent. Stay calm and never yell at the puppy.
- When you bring his meals, ask him to sit, then lower is bowl. as soon as he starts to jump up take it away. Keep up the process until you can get the bowl to the ground with out him jumping. If you want him to wait until you tell him it's OK to eat you can work on it the same way, as soon as he makes a move to the food bowl before you say it's OK, take it away. It might take you a while to get his food bowl down the first little while, but he'll probably learn this one pretty quickly.
- If the pup is not in a crate or playpen your attention needs to be on him at all times. At 10 weeks old he should be let out to potty every 1-2 hours + immediately after a nap, after drinking a lot of water, after eating, after a play or training session. When he goes potty outside he should get lots of praise and high quality treat.
- expecting super focused attention for a 10 week old puppy is the equivalent of expecting the same from a 3 month old baby. Work with what you get. Keep training sessions limited to 3-5 mins and be as consistent as possible. Also try starting off training sessions with 5-10 mins of solid play to tire him out a bit. That should help a bit with his focus.

 

[annageckos]

Please don't yell at him, it won't help your relationship with him. I know puppies can be frustrating sometimes, but it really helps to keep calm and walk away for a little if you feel you're about to break. He sounds like a normal ten week old puppy. I brought my dane puppy home at around ten weeks and she did a lot of the same things. Remember, they have no idea what you want or what is expected of them. Plus they don't speak English. I'll go through your list one by one.

- bites and pulls my pants/ankles
Completely normal. Two things that worked for me. One is redirect to a toy or chew. The other is to either leave the room for 30 seconds or put the puppy in his crate or behind a baby gate. It may take some time but keep at it. You need to be consistent. You also have a more independent breed, sometimes training take a bit longer. You will need to keep repeating this, it may take three or four tries or it may take ten. It really depends on the puppy.

- jumps when I bring his meals
Simple trick to this. As long as he is jumping he doesn't get fed. Make him sit and only put the food down while he is sitting. If he jumps or gets up while you are lowing the bowl pick it back up and say uh-oh or something like that.

- thinks outside of crate, inside the house is ok to pee
Do not give him the chance to pee in the house. Keep him in your sight at all times while he is out of the crate. Keep him leashed to you if you need to. Make sure you are taking him out often. Start with every 30 minutes-hour. He is still a baby and has no bladder control. After some time if he doesn't pee outside keep in the crate and take him out every 10/15 minutes until he does pee. Then he can get out and play. It's a lot of work but it will pay off.

- hard to keep his attention when trying to train walks around me and sniffs
He is a very young puppy. He doesn't have much of an attention span at this point. Keep training short, just a few minutes. You also have to remember that Malamutes are more independent and less handler focused than some other breeds. You have to make yourself more interesting than whatever it is he is sniffing.

Now, do you have any photos of him? I love malamutes, always one of my favorite breeds. I'd love to see him.

 

[shibbi3]

Please don't yell at him, it won't help your relationship with him. I know puppies can be frustrating sometimes, but it really helps to keep calm and walk away for a little if you feel you're about to break. He sounds like a normal ten week old puppy. I brought my dane puppy home at around ten weeks and she did a lot of the same things. Remember, they have no idea what you want or what is expected of them. Plus they don't speak English. I'll go through your list one by one.

- bites and pulls my pants/ankles
Completely normal. Two things that worked for me. One is redirect to a toy or chew. The other is to either leave the room for 30 seconds or put the puppy in his crate or behind a baby gate. It may take some time but keep at it. You need to be consistent. You also have a more independent breed, sometimes training take a bit longer. You will need to keep repeating this, it may take three or four tries or it may take ten. It really depends on the puppy.

- jumps when I bring his meals
Simple trick to this. As long as he is jumping he doesn't get fed. Make him sit and only put the food down while he is sitting. If he jumps or gets up while you are lowing the bowl pick it back up and say uh-oh or something like that.

- thinks outside of crate, inside the house is ok to pee
Do not give him the chance to pee in the house. Keep him in your sight at all times while he is out of the crate. Keep him leashed to you if you need to. Make sure you are taking him out often. Start with every 30 minutes-hour. He is still a baby and has no bladder control. After some time if he doesn't pee outside keep in the crate and take him out every 10/15 minutes until he does pee. Then he can get out and play. It's a lot of work but it will pay off.

- hard to keep his attention when trying to train walks around me and sniffs
He is a very young puppy. He doesn't have much of an attention span at this point. Keep training short, just a few minutes. You also have to remember that Malamutes are more independent and less handler focused than some other breeds. You have to make yourself more interesting than whatever it is he is sniffing.

Now, do you have any photos of him? I love malamutes, always one of my favorite breeds. I'd love to see him.

Ssure, send me a pm and I'll send you a pic.

 

[shibbi3]

I've made some progress with the wait for food. He knows he has to wait now.

Should a puppy be kept on a schedule all year long? I'm just wondering when it is generally ok to have the puppy be around the house and not crate him on a set schedule.

 

[Thisisme19]

Ideally you'll want to keep his food and walk schedule consistent from probably about the time the pup is 6-9months old onward. (for some dogs it takes more time, for some less)

For a 10 week old puppy you should be splitting his food into 3 portions and feed him 3 times a day. I would keep this up until he's about 6 months old then you can switch to twice a day, roughly 12 hours apart.

For walks you should wait until he's had all his shots before going very far, or anywhere other dogs frequent. You should be taking him out for potty breaks every hour or so. As he gets older you can wait longer between potty breaks. Ideally you'll want to get him to about 4 potty breaks a day. Some people do this with 4 short walks. Some with 1 or 2 longer walks and 2 to 3 potty breaks. I opt for 3 x 20 mins walks and 1-2 potty breaks as needed. I have a small dog that doesn't require a whole lot of exercise though. I image with a Malamute you'll be taking long walks when he's older.

As for the crate, you can let him out of there once you are 1000% sure he's potty trained. Some dogs are good around 6 months, some take years. My pup got free reign of the entire house when he was about 10 months old. He got more and more freedom as he got older. Started with a play pen, then at about 5-6 months could be left in the bedroom with out problems, a couple months after that he got the bedroom and living room, and then the whole house (except bathrooms)