New Puppy Mummies Part 2

[SallyBear]

Just thought I'd start the new thread!

Toby (foxy coloured yellow Labrador) is now 13 weeks old. Long, lean and lanky. Still wonderfully tempered and is sleeping through and no longer messing in the house.

That's horrible life so so sad, poor you

Oh how sad lifeis

Thanks for telling us that. It must be hard to say, you know type as it probably brings back the upset and sadness.

I had read about sticks being harmful and had planned to just have balls and a thrower on walks eventually but I hadn't thought about sticks in the garden moose. I'd better go round picking them up.

I'm trying the 'capture calm' approach of kikopup and I'm sure it will begin to dawn on puppy soon!

I hadn't thought about it either mintchoc and I'd had dogs for over 20 years by the time that happened to Oldgirl.

Fitz has started jumping up very excitedly when I'm getting his food ready - even if I'm just getting a carrot for him .. (mind you, he lurves carrots ..)

I've been following the 'stop jumping up' video on kikopup but he refuses to jump up when we're doing the clicker sessions - as soon as he sees the clicker he starts behaving absolutely perfectly (grr) so it's hard to proof the staying on the ground in all situations

How can I get him staying on all four paws when he's mega-excited? It's tricky clickering at that point as I've got my hands occupied sorting out food

He had his second lot of jabs today and the vet said it was another TWO weeks until he was safe (sob)

When you are clicker training, try to keep the clicker and treats out of sight. That's why Kikopup often extends the exercises to include eye contact, as it ensure the dog is working with/for you, rather than just for the click or food. You can keep the clicker to your side or just behind you and have the treats either in a hip pouch or in a pot at arm's length. As long as you treat within a second or so of the click it will still be reinforcing and better a 30 second delay while you get a treat out of the pot than a dog that watches the treats instead of you.

If you're struggling to juggle the food and clicker, get him used to a marker word as well, so you have the option to use either. You might have noticed Kikopup using 'Yes' or 'Yep' sometimes instead of a clicker. I use 'Good' said in a specific way.

If a dog is only responding to cues when they can see the clicker or know you have treats, you need to go right back to the beginning and only reinforce responses that genuinely respond to the cue, rather than those that are anticipating the click or treat. A good way to test it is to do an exercise on teaching eye contact. Try putting the clicker on display and only reward the dog if he looks at you not the clicker. If he struggles to look at you and instead stares at the clicker he's working for it, not you. You can do the same with treats. Hold treats in your extended arm whilst waiting for eye contact. If the dog watches the treat hand and can't reliably give eye contact he's focussing on the treat, not the cue. Go back to the beginning, keep clicker and treat out of sight and only reinforce responses that don't involve anticipating the click or treat and/or responding whilst trying to look at either of them instead of you.

The other thing is to ensure that the dog is 99.9% reliable with the behaviour before adding the cue. If you add a cue too soon and he doesn't respond appropriately each time, you are effectively teaching him to ignore it. You need to ensure reliability before adding the cue and also make sure you proof the cue in as many different locations and situations as possible. Each time starting with a low criteria for reward and quickly raising the criteria as he achieves each one.

:( I feel like I've been doing it all wrong (sigh) plus we had wee AND poo in the crate for the first time ever this morning (double sigh)

Have NC'd just in case RL intrudes after my post above but I have Finn the Border Collie.

basildon I think it's like having children, just when you reach despair mode and are about to dump them under the nearest lamppost they suddenly start to behave, at least that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
The wee and poo may be because he had his jabs yesterday. It's difficult to tell if they're feeling a bit off colour but not properly ill IYSWIM.

A quick question for experienced puppy owners. I've got to do my first day shifts this weekend since Finn's arrival. This involves getting up at 4.00am and I obviously have to go into the kitchen where his crate is. Do you think it would be best to get him up and take him out for a wee then put him back to bed when I leave at five?
He normally gets up at 6, out for a wee/poo then breakfast followed by another sleep (currently still asleep on my feet).
I really don't want him getting used to a 4am awakening.

Basildon, you haven't been doing it all wrong, you're doing great. I have the same issues with some exercises. All trainers need to stop, look at where things have gone wrong and back-track - it's just part of the process and the beauty of clicker-training is that it's so quick to fix problems. They already know what you want, to them you're just upping the criteria, so they'll zip through the recap and become more reliable in no time.

As for wee and poo in crate - it happens. Excitement, overtiredness, metabolised things a bit more slowly or quickly. Just ignore it and carry on as you were - you are doing great.

In fact, just read he had his jabs yesterday - it's more than likely connected to that as NCIS said.

It's important for us to remember that although they've grown such a lot since they arrived with us and it feels like a lifetime that we've been training and cleaning up after them, they're actually still such babies. Their puppyhood is such a tiny part of their lives. This part is the most intense, then there's adolescence, which doesn't hit all dogs as badly as you often hear, then once they hit 18 months/2 years you suddenly realise you have an amazing friend and companion and then you get 13 years or more of loyalty, fun and happiness from them. This bit is the hardest part, but it is worth it in the end. I think it helps when you have an older dog around to remind you where you want to get to.

NCIS, we've had this issue over the past week or so, because the dcs have been tag-teaming getting up for the toilet in the middle of the night and ours is downstairs, through the kitchen. The first week we let him out then put him straight back in his crate and he went straight back to sleep. This week, not sure if it's just the rain and cold meaning he doesn't want to leave his hot water bottle but he's just been lifting his head to see who it is and snuggling back down until 6.30.

I'd try just letting him out for a wee and putting him straight back to bed and seeing if he'll resettle.

I hope he resettles, 4am starts are bad enough for me, the rest of the family won't be impressed if they have to get up that early at the weekend!

I change to nights for the first half of next week so will hopefully be arriving home just in time for his wakeup call. Then he's DD's responsibility for the rest of the day.
Hope your day gets better Basildon

I am going to read and re-read your post from 739 this morning Moose. Words of wisdom!

It is early days like you say, I am just shocked by the intensity of it and the amount of mental energy it takes.

We went out last night for 2hours! Came back to a manic puppy but no problems and no accidents or nipped children. I had left a new toy as last resort for babysitter and it was still in its box so good sign. We might get time for 3 courses next time or a pre-dinner drink!

BB - we have occasional accidents too at 13 weeks. Not a sign of going backwards at all.

Moose - good luck with Pips classes! Are you looking forward to them?

TMI alert!!
Woke up to the pleasant sound of Toby retching by the bed. DH rushed him outside, I looked at the the little posset and there was a hard looking object. Cleaned it up and it looked like a piece of thick air dried bacon. Never have anything like that here, and cannot remember when we last ate bacon! It must have been something he found out on his travels yesterday. Disgusting. Hope to God it wasn't tainted, or that some swine lobbed something over our fence (can't think why anyone would).

Mintchoc - glad you had a couple of hours off and the babysitter had no problems with pup.

Thanks for the good luck wishes. I'm actually really nervous about puppy classes. He's a lot older than the other pups and I think I've become a bit well perhaps just more than usual socially anxious having been stuck in the house for so many weeks now. My Mum is driving me there and says she'll stay though, so at least I don't have to face it alone.

Unfortunately, we are away for the third lesson and Mum is away for the fourth, so we're going to miss 2 consecutive weeks out of the 6 week course and not only does Pip desperately need to be there, I've also paid upfront.

Sally, you'd be amazed. When I had my first ever puppy, my neighbours thought they were being kind chucking their Sunday roast bones over the fence for her every Monday morning. I used to have to go out first and retrieve them before she got there, as I didn't have the heart to tell them. More likely that he's dug it up in the park or something though. It's amazing what they manage to find, especially if it's somewhere people are likely to have been using training treats.

Hello all. We have had Sky our mini schnauzer 9 weeks old since saturday and getting on really well so far. She was extremely shy and nervous the first few days mainly sleeping in her bed but she is starting to find her feet now! She has been really good sleeping in her crate with no fuss at night. Bit hit and miss with getting wees and poos on actual training mat as sometimes hangs off edge. Tried her outside but she made that incredibly cute squeaking noise and would not do anything. One problem I had was I thought I would vac while she was in her crate. I thought she was fine but when I turned it off she was making the squeaking sound and went and hid under the sofa for hours Think I will have to leave the vacuuming till the weekend when someone else is around to reassure her?

So sorry to hear the stories of sticks will definitely bear this in mind.

Welcome kerstina. I love Schnauzers - I'm a sucker for a beardy faced dog.

Try getting the vacuum out and leaving it in the room but not using it, then giving her a treat every time she looks at it, then when she touches it. Then get someone to hold her and feed her treats while you switch it on, then immediately off. I'd start out with just having it in the room and ignoring it to begin with though. If she's showing signs of stress having it in the main room, put it somewhere less prominent, where she can see it regularly, but doesn't have to be close up unless she wants to.

Thank you yes Moosemama that sounds a really good idea will try that. The breeder had laminate flooring so vac must have been a big shock for her where as she has being used to being in a crate from day one so very at home in hers. She is in there fast asleep now even though the door is open

Does anyone else find their pup completely ignores them when there are distractions? Stanley is brilliant at his basic commands, until we're out on a walk, or at puppy class. Then he turns deaf and just stands there wagging his tail, refusing to even acknowledge my existence.

A bit of work on building attention coming up I think!

TMB, yep. In fact he just ignored me in the kitchen because he was watching Lurcherboy in the living room.

You're right. Need to work on an conditioning automatic attention, then go back to basics with each exercise, proofing them in increasingly distracting places. I find this the most tedious part of training - endlessly repeating the training you've already done, because dogs are crap at generalising.

Hope you get on ok Moose - you might feel like the only nervous person there but I bet at least half the others are really nervous about doing something so new and their pups misbehaving! Especially younger pups, I know I'll be nervous because our puppy is so big I'm worried he'll be the hooligan of the bunch. So find the first friendly person who smiles at you and talk puppies! That's your strength. Good luck, looking forward to hearing how you and Pip get on.

Good luck Moose, we start ours next week and I'm nervous too.

Thanks.

It went very well. The trainer was as good as her word and had set us up in a corner slightly away from the other pups, she also got someone to wait with us in the entrance hall until everyone else was settled, then let me bring him in at his own pace and settle him down.

When we arrived outside he was totally freaked out at seeing so many puppies, tried to bolt, then flatly refused to move. In the end I picked him and the poor mite was shaking like a leaf. Would it be wrong to admit that I was relieved to see a few other puppies having to be reluctantly dragged in.

The only pup we were near was an absolutely gorgeous, tiny Border Terrier puppy. She's only 8 weeks, so hasn't had her jabs yet and was kept away from the other dogs for that reason.

Pip spent the first half of the lesson either behind or under my chair, being clicked and treated for every foray forwards and for calmly watching the other dogs. It took about 15 minutes for him to stop shaking and another 20 odd to start venturing out, but by the end he'd decided the most rewarding place to be was in front of my chair and he was happy to sit and watch all the other puppies being trained.

The Cockerpoo next to us tried all his cutest tricks to get Pip to play with him and Pip just sat and watched him with big eyes, but he allowed him to come quite close and didn't back away or panic - so it's all looking very hopeful.

The class is quite small - only 8 puppies including Pip. 2 black and white Cockers, 2 Cockerpoos, a Springer and a deaf Jack Russell and another pup that was on the other side of the class and I think was possibly also a Cockerpoo, plus the trainer's adult Toller and the teeny Border Terrier girl.

Mum took us for lunch at the dog-friendly cafe afterwards and Pip was able to watch another dog in there as well. He was so exhausted when we got home though. He ate his dinner in his kongs while I fetched the dcs and has been snoring away every since.

Unfortunately I now have a migraine (shouldn't be on here, but didn't want to leave you all hanging) and when I picked dd up, after her first day back at school she looked dreadful. Got her home - temp of just under 40 degrees. It's come down a degree with calpol, but she's having chills and is very sleepy. She's still insisting she's well enough to go tomorrow though. Praying she's well enough to go in on Friday, as she's so desperate to wear her book day costume.

Off to lie down next to dd myself now. Dh is coming home early - but is going out to a gig tonight, so I'm hoping dd doesn't get any worse.

Good signs I think for Pip. I could only find outdoor training and I really struggled to hear. Toby was freaked out by the barking, so we've not been back. He's doing well at home with what we are doing.

Poor you and poor DD. Can she take nurofen? The other thing is to put damp socks on her feet. Don't laugh but it helps bring down temperatures.

The training classes I can walk to from my house were outdoor - put me right off given I'll be there across Autumn/Winter. Then I read some crap about dominance and ensuring your pup knows his place on there site and it gave me the excuse to ask Mum if she'd mind driving me to this class instead.

The little JRT pup, who is deaf, at our class barks incessantly, but I think that could actually turn out to be a good thing, as Pip is really worried by barking and runs in from the garden if he hears any - not good as we back onto a park. By the end of today's class, with endless clicking and treating he was completely ignoring it.

I have taken Naproxen and Cocodamol and have a 'tamed migraine' but can't sleep. Dh is out and there's nothing on the tv so I'm back here even though I know it's a bad idea.

Dd's temp came down to 38.8, but then two hours later was back up to 39.5. She's now had Calprofen and is sleeping soundly, but I keep going up to check on her, although she was surprisingly perky - for a poorly person - just before bed when dh's best mate arrived.

I had heard the damp socks thing before - but had forgotten, so thanks for reminding me. If her temp is back up when I check her shortly I'll give it a go. Hoping if she gets a good night's sleep and we give Calpol and Calprofen alternately she might be a bit better in the morning. I have ds1's first parents' evening at his new school tomorrow afternoon - great timing.