Mouthing and Barking

[Gene]

Ok so I received Brodie last Thursday and he is barely 10 weeks old and he is going through his mouthing phase.  I do not allow it and give him a sharp "No" and then redirect his attention to an appropriate chew toy.  The problem is sometimes instead of him getting the picture he becomes what I would consider determined and bark at me (tail wagging like a game).  I've started giving him a time out in his crate each time he does.

The other issue I'm having is if something startles him that is new to  him he starts barking and it is very hard to divert his attention short of walking him away.  So I've started on the "Leave it" command and I plan to start teaching him the "watch me" game.

I am training him and working with him, heck he just learned what his name is.

Any suggestions?  

Oh I'm socializing him as much as I can with all the neighborhood friends and children that walk by my house for school.  I will enroll him into a training class once I move to Italy in September, they don't offer them here in Japan.

[Gene]

Hi Lisa,

That is too funny, congrats on your new edition.  How old is Axel now?

[Gene]

Oh because I mentioned rolling in my very first post I wanted to provide an update on that as well.  I continued to do it for about a month after posting, the technique I used was not done for a corrective measure but for bonding.  I would sit down with my legs open and have Brodie to my right facing my feet.  I would reach around him and then roll him over my right leg until he ended up on his back.  Because I did it with him from day one he was ok with it.  But now he is much bigger sitting at close to 50lbs so it's like trying to roll a small log over my leg.  However, he is a huge teddy bear and willingly gives up the tummy just by rubbing his side.  

For those who were interested I learned that rolling technique from the tenderfoot training videos.  

[Lisa Tiro]

Thanks Gene. Axel will be 19 months in 2 days! ;)

Gene said:

Hi Lisa,

That is too funny, congrats on your new edition.  How old is Axel now?