training a puppy agggrr

[lisad123isgoingcrazy]

Ok labardoddle puppy is now 15 weeks. He can sit, lay down and comes when called. BUT he keeps stealing food from the children. They cant even eat breakfast without him jumping up at table and eating their food. If Im not in the room its hard to manage. We have tried to remove him from the room when eating but he barks the whole time and its very noisey and dont want to upset neighbours.

Any help on barking would be good too :)

Hi there! We have 3 labradoodles so I know what they are like. they are smart, wonderful, loving but as greedy as anything.

If the puppy is doing stuff you dont like, get an old washing up liquid bottle fill it with water and if he wont stop barking say NO! very loudly and squirt him in the face. It might seem drastic but he will get the message very quickly, it shocks them into stopping and doesnt do them any harm. Same if he tries to steal food from plates.

After a short while the NO! will have the same effect, withiout using the squirter. Tell him off for any behaviour you dont like using NO, he will soon cotton on, they are pretty smart and love to please.

Give it a go and see what happens

thanks, sounds harsh but worth a try.He'll get down when asked and is truely lovely. You eat everything, especially when outside. He'll also chew the kids toys and wait for you see then run off into the garden waiting for you to chase him lol

Buy this very enjoyable book and transform your life. Seriously.

re stealing food - you need to teach the "leave" command. start with the dog sitting. sit or kneel on the floor yourself with a treat - on the floor but covered by your hand. have a bigger better treat in your other hand behing your back. the dog will sniff and nuzzle the hand that's covering up the treat to try to get it. don't move your hand and don't let him have the treat. the second he stops trying to get it give him the other one and make a fuss of him. repeat until he susses that the way to get a treat is to leave the one under your hand. it won;t take long. once he has sussed this repeat the whole thing but say the word "leave". the next stage is to lift your hand, just a little bit, from the covered up treat, saying the command "leave". if he goes for the treat you have to cover it again with your hand so he can;t get it. if he doesn;t go for it give him the treat from behind your back. over several training sessions you should be able to move your hand further away from the treat on the floor. and he should have sussed what "leave" means. you can then start using it in other contexts - as soon has he takes an interest in something he's not allowed to have tell him to leave. it's a hard command to teach but it can be done. my lab will leave anything - even if it's on his nose.

the other thing that would help would be the way you feed him - do you let him at his bowl the second you put it on the floor? if so you shouldn't. when you feed him get him to sit. put his food down a couple of metres away. if he comes towards it lift it up again. he will quickly work out that the food will only stay in the floor if he stays sitting. this allows you to teach a release command. once he remains sitting you can say "ok" and encourage him to get the food (he won't need much encouragement, obviously). You can extend the amount of time he has to stay sitting - always pick the food up if he goes for it without being told "ok". you'll be amazed how quickly they learn this. the "ok" can then be used in other situations - it's a release - ie it means "you can stop doing what I just told you to do (sit) and you're allowed to do what you want now".

Remember that sit is a very good command that you can use to stop them from doing something else. it's much easier to get a dog to sit, ie to do something positive that they understand and get rewarded for, than to teach them "don't jump up at the table and steal food" - a negative that's very hard to grasp. and when you've got them to understand a release then "sit" starts to mean "sit until I tell you otherwise" - unbelievably useful.

re barking - never reward him by giving him what he wants - attention or being let into/out of a particular room. if he's barking you need to reward him the second he stops (of his own accord). then start to label this - say "quiet" - again he'll soon associate "quiet" with him stopping barking and rewards.

thanks, he does sit and wait for food to be placed down before he goes for it, taught him this quickly as the kids like to give me dinner
will attempt the leave training. His pretty good at this with people and sometimes other dogs but when it comes to food his terible!

Does he have a crate?

the quickest way to get a dog to learn not to do something is to remove the dog when the behaviour is not acceptable. Not great for your digestion re meal times but it will work!

Either crate the dog when you are eating - he will bark like mad but eventually he will have to stop to breath and then give him a titbit. He will carry on barking but the second he pauses give him another tit bit. He will learn that silence means titbit. It may take a while but he will soon cotton on if you are consistent.

Or do the same but put him outside the room and again he will go quiet for a millisecond if only to draw breathe for the next load of barking then treat him and let him into the room. The minute he starts to show interest in the food remove from room.

It is time consuming but very quickly he will learn the behaviour that gets the rewards.

Labradoodles are quick learners especially if a bit of cheese is involved!

lol he loves carrots! yes he is crate trained and is put in his crate for naughty behaviour like nipping the kids when he gets excited or eating food he shouldnt. loads to try, will work on it over the weekend