Questions about clicking w/an 8 week-old

1. You need to find somewhere that you can work with her separately.  Garage?  Basement?  Friend's house?  One of the best things you can do, also, is to take her to puppy class (it's not too soon, if the class will take her - we do, because we figure that the risk to dogs from disease is less than the risk to them from behavioral issues [sm=uhoh.gif])

2. Don't allow her to play with a huge group of toys.  Rotate them, so that each one only comes out periodically.  That way, they always seem novel.  Good toys are ones that stimulate her mentally - buster cubes are great.
Also, if you play with her, then have a little training session before she gets free time out of the crate, she will be a bit more tired than if she just gets out of the crate and gets free time.  A tired dog is a good dog. []

3. Sometimes you need to yelp like you were hit by a car to have it be effective.  If that doesn't work, you might want to think about painting a little Vicks Vapo Rub on your hands to make them unpalatable.  Another choice - when she bites you, you disappear. (I use the bathroom for this []).  Be sure you aren't somehow rewarding her biting by pushing at her, or using physical discipline.  HTH

Thanks Spiritdogs! Excellent advice on all fronts.

Yesterday, my husband took the "older kids" on a walk and we were able to get a good session in then. We're trying to get her into puppy class asap, but she's only had one round of vaccines and nobody will take her yet. Ugg! I 100% agree that is crucial for young pups!

1. I always train my dogs at home on their own. The only time I'll work with a dog in the same room as another dog, is if that dog is also being worked by somebody, so that they both have someone to focus on. Otherwise dogs just get in the way, and puppy loses concentration on you. If you must, why not put the dogs up in a room with some nicely stuffed Kongs while you work on training in another quiet room (the bathroom was my starter room for a while, but any empty, quiet room will do). Or put them out to pee if you have a fenced yard? Or simply shut them in another room so they can't be in the near area bugging you.
 
2. Be sure to make her toys exciting for her. Ensure they are good for her current needs, that she has a variety depending on how her jaws are feeling - soft and stuffed, hard for gnawing, rubber for sore gums, rope for pressure but with some give, etc. Stuff Kongs to make them exciting. Soak a rope toy in chicken broth and give it to her. Soak a facecloth in broth, freeze it, and offer it as a treat.
 
Ensure she doesn't have the opportunity to be ABLE to chew on other things. My rules of housetraining is that while puppy is out, my eyes are on her at ALL times. If I need to use the phone, or go to the bathroom, or get the mail - puppy goes back into bed or x-pen with toys. The biggest factor in successful housetraining is preventing reinforcement histories from developing at all. If you don't like the idea of kenneling each time you can't watch her, you can create tie-downs in the same room for her as well, or set up and x-pen, but it has to be somewhere she can't practice chewing up undesirable items. The more successes she has, the more apt she is to do it. Make sure she only has access to her own toys for playing items, but also make sure those toys are something she actually likes!
 
3. I don't teach pups bite prohibition. I teach pups inhibition. I encourage ALL puppies to mouth and bite me. Whether you want them to or not, they are going to for a while. Your goal in mouthwork with any puppy should never be to stop biting altogether, at least not at first. Your ultimate goal, should be to take advantage of this, and teach your puppy HOW to use its mouth. Because you just never know when that pup, as an adult, is going to place it's mouth on somebody, and you're going to be in a heck of a better situation if you teach the dog HOW to use its mouth (very softly) rather than punishing it altogether before the pup learns to be gentle. Otherwise you'll have a dog that doesn't bite, but when/if it does someday, and you don't really know if that might happen, the dog is going to have a mouth of knives. Here's an article I wrote on bite inhibition that you should find very helpful, and yes, eventually it can lead to teaching the pup "no bite", but NEVER until you've taught the pup HOW to use its mouth.
[linkhttp://miniatureschnauzer.ca/training/biteinhibition.htm]http://miniatureschnauzer.ca/training/biteinhibition.htm[/link]?
 

Thanks Kim!   Re: the chewing, it#%92s not that Luna is ever loose and out of my site – she spends the vast majority of her day in her x-pen in my office, is in her crate overnight, and has some free time in the morning and evening, plus trips outside to potty and play. (As an aside, her house training is going really well, and the few accidents she#%92s had have been because my husband or I missed her signal to go out.   The chewing on furniture is a situation where I am on the couch, she is right in front of me and decides to bite the coffee table leg. Even if I wave a toy or clap to get her attention, she#%92s focused on checking out the table leg and gets say one, tops two, bites in. Which is obviously bad, because she#%92s then rehearsed chewing the table leg. I can pick her up, but I don#%92t think she#%92s learning anything then, except, “when I bite stuff Mom picks me up.”   What should I do in that situation? Don#%92t I need to be rewarding her when she chooses to chew on the things that are OK to chew?   Also, thanks for the article on bite inhibition -- that#%92s an approach I haven#%92t heard before.