Puppies learn very quickly, so it is much easier to train correctly that to let bad habits develop. After several days, I believe the most important thing to train your puppy to do is to COME. To do this I suggest each morning your set out 15 small or minute pieces of cheddar cheese on your counter. When the puppy is away from you, call by name and give the command COME. If you do this 15 times a day for 7 days you will have instilled a conditioned response in the puppy. DON’T FORGET TO PRAISE THE PUPPY EVERY TIME HE OR SHE COMES. Never chase your puppy, that will become a game and they will really enjoy it. Turn around and go the other way and the puppy with be afraid of losing you and will follow.

The second week you use 15 pieces of cheese and when the puppy comes you then push the cheese up over the nose with the command SIT. After another week you have a puppy that will come and sit.

The third week you can use another 15 small pieces of cheese ( I use cheddar) and start the puppy with come, then sit, now STAY. By this time your puppy should be used to a lead and you can use the lead to control your puppy.

You can also use the cheese to lead train your puppy. Sometimes Scotties are incredibly stubborn about lead training. In this case, I just put a collar on and let the puppy drag the lead around for a bit. I usually feed the puppy with the collar and the lead on. I do not take the collar off, just the lead.

I recommend that you are most careful about where your puppy goes until one week after the second shot. This is about 12 or 13 weeks of age. Parvo is still alive and well and puppies often don’t have a lot of immunity to it.

When you puppy comes into the house I recommend that he or she have a place of their own, where their kennel is. This is their territory and I do not let children bother them when they are in there.

Please also remember that puppies need lots of sleep and rest. They will attempt to keep up with children or an older dog, so you want to be sure and put them in their crate for rests during the day. This is important until about 5 or 6 months of age.

Your puppy has been eliminating on newspaper and when running free in the kitchen has had paper to go to. You may or may not wish to continue this. Scottie puppies can generally go straight outside whereas Dachshund puppies, in my opinion, should be paper trained so that when it is extremely cold in the winter they will eliminate on paper.

Scotties are not the easiest breed to do obedience work with. But they have accomplished titles in that area and in agility and flyball. It will be a test of your endurance and patience if you wish to do this with your Scot. All dogs should have manners though, and I encourage you to make sure you can take toys and bones away from your puppy. I suggest you put your puppy up on either a washer or dryer on a towel and go over your puppy, checking teeth and running your hands over the dog as the vet would. If puppies are conditioned to this vets are very happy, and it makes it so much easier to deal with your puppy.

If your puppy wants to the ALPHA, you should put the puppy in your arms as you would a baby. Upside down. You do not let the puppy up until he or she stops squirming. You make a funny noise so your puppy looks at you and you stare your puppy down. You are very easily asserting dominance the way the mother would do so.

If your puppy is a real biter and when those needle teeth are coming in they are extremely sharp so you want your puppy to not bite. It do this you place your hand at the back of your puppy’s head and taking two fingers with the other hand put them into the back of the puppies mouth until you get a gag reflex. Generally after 3 or 4 times, in which you say "well if you want to bite you just go right ahead and do so", in a calm and even voice, a puppy will get the idea that this is not a good idea.

If your puppy is chewing the leg on your antique wooden chair leg that was your Mother’s prized possession, you must deal with him or her the way the mother dog would. She would do a scruff shake. This means taking the puppy by the sides of head just below the ears and giving a firm shake with the command NO. In young puppies I try to distract them rather than making a big issue out of it. I often try and block them out of a room if there is good furniture. I suggest that if a puppy is a real chewer you get beef bones RAW and give him or her a knuckle bone or a shank bone to chew on.