Puppy Survival Thread - April

[Doje]

Starting a new thread....

Dropping not dripping!

What age is your puppy @RedLem0ns ? Ours is 10 weeks, and we're working on sit, lie down, up and come when called. Mostly going well, but he is a stubborn wee thing and quite often blatantly ignores us if there's something exciting happening, like a bee buzzing around.

We are 13 weeks and mostly doing sit, stay, leave, come, down. Also trying to do paw. And trying to show her the difference between stay and wait. I probably only spend about 5 or 10 minutes a day on training. I really need to sort out good walking on leash. But as she is a puppy the leash is normally loose as she doesn’t go very fast and sniffs everything. Or I find myself dragging her after we wait for ages and need to get her moving a bit.
I try to do capture calm but as soon as she sees/hears me getting a treat she is no longer calm so that doesn’t work too well

The other thing I am doing is holding her collar sometimes while I give her treats and it’s really helping with being able to hold collar/put collar on/ put lead on as she is getting more used to that

Any other tips on what is worth training at this age would be really good. I haven’t actively crate trained, we just put her in at bedtime but wonder if I should crate train properly. She never goes in during the day of her own accord and would be good if she did

He’s 10 weeks @17CherryTreeLane. He’s a lovely little guy (though I hear you on the stubbornness when there’s a better offer on the table!).

Down would be a good one to work on actually so might look at that.

At the risk of showing myself up as less clued in than your puppy @Turquoisesol, what is the difference between wait and stay?!

I am not entirely sure myself really. But I think stay means they stay where they are until released (you go back to them and touch them on shoulder and treat. Whereas wait is waiting until released and you are somewhere else when you give that cue. So, it’s handy for going through doors etc.
I am not sure how important it is to have the two different cues but the book I read seemed to think there was a distinct difference and pup would be able to tell

@Turquoisesol that sounds complicated!! I would just stick to stay myself!

I think stay is when they stay where they are until you come back to them eg if I go upstairs and want him to stay downstairs. Wait is wait there until I tell you to do something else eg when I unclip his lead he has to wait for me to give him his cue word to run off.

Yes we use stay for when I am answering the door and he has to stay at the end of the hall till I go back to him. Wait is a temporary wait till we are ready to do something, ie cross the road, eat his dinner, get his harness on.

I am trying to get him to stay whilst I go upstairs, he stays really nicely till I go out of sight then pelts up the stairs. I do constantly say good stay as I go up and also as I go out of sight but nothing can convince him to stay.

@PugInTheHouse how old is your puppy? Even getting as far as stay till I get out of sight is a big achievement! Does anyone have any good books or websites for teaching such things? I’m working my way through kikopup’s puppy compilation (watching it, not doing it all!) but at the moment it’s my Everest!

@RedLem0ns hes 6.5 months, we mastered stay when we answered the front door at about 5 months I think, he is very food orientated so anything for a treat however he is dreadful at being separated from me so me going out of sight trumps any food right now unfortunately.

@RedLem0ns I am out right now but when I am back on the laptop I will explain how we taught it.

Do others find their pups follow them around and try to sleep on top of their feet? When I stand at sink doing dishes she plonks herself on top of my feet.

@Turquoisesol I wish mine slept on my feet, she follows me but will only settle on my knee

Aw, sounds like fairly normal behaviour then

Mine does this too! It’s like he ideally wants to be in contact with his humans in order to feel safe enough to sleep. Having said that a nice patch of sunlight on the floor will do the job too.

@RedLem0ns we started teaching stay by getting him to sit, saying stay then stepping one step away (facing away from him) then turning round and treating him. If he got up to follow we just say uh-oh and reset. We just kept increasing it by a step or two at a time. The trick is to not leave them staying very long at all at first so they are successful at it. Also only praise when you are right back to them.

For the longer stays (such as answering the door) we sat him at the threshhold of the lounge then said stay and walked to the front door regularly saying 'good stay' and looking round at him. If he followed then ushered him back and started again. We practiced several times a day for a week by getting DH and the kids to ring the bell. It is good to use somewhere where there is a clear line of where they have to stay behind. I didn't find it took long, maybe 15 mins to get him staying long enough to walk 10 steps and back. For a few days with answering the door it would take two attempts to get to the door. I guess for us the idea was that we would have enough time to get whoever is at the door to close the gate so he was at least safe but actually he is really good at staying where he should giving me enough time to either get a parcel or get someone indoors with the front door shut, he will only run down the hall if i walk back to him and say 'go say hi'.

Thanks @PugInTheHouse that’s really clear. He’s starting to get the sit cue now so it’s great to have something I can build on with it.

Also wait is quite easy, we taught it with his dinner, making him sit and wait before diving in, literally just lifting the bowl up if he dives for it, due to the fact that pugpup is a greedy sod it only took one meal time of me lifting the bowl a couple of times till he sat and waited for me to say go eat. He now automatically just sits away from the bowl. What is so funny is that when he does a leave it or a wait cue when food is involved he always jumps backwards away from it as if he us moving himself away from the temptation in actual fact for 'leave it' he will be sat and will jump backwards up onto all fours which is hilarious to watch.

Aw, that’s really cute!

Morning all, I need a hand hold today. DPup has been a superstar in her crate at night ever since we brought her home 10 days ago, she's even gone a few nights without waking for the toilet. Until last night, she absolutely howled when I put her in there and continued for about and hour and a half. She eventually settled but I am feeling like the worst dog parent in the world now. I had to put her back in when I had a shower this morning and she howled again. She's cuddled up on my knee now but I feel absolutely sick with worry that I've distressed her that much. I'm going to put her in her downstairs crate with a frozen kong whilst I dry my hair in a bit and I'm dreading it.

Mrsrandallfraser I am sorry to hear that. It’s so hard to know what to do. If you let them out of the crate just into their own basket then toilet training is harder and you just don’t know if they would settle there anyway. Have you done much crate training in the day to encourage her to think it is lovely in there and a place she wants to be.

Having said how well solo walks we're going, I just had a fairly bad morning walk. Pup started out quite pully on the lead which isn't unusual, then he was desperate to say hello to a family and I had to drag him along the pavement away from them. And then it was as though something spooked him and he was on constant 'high alert' as though he'd spotted a bird or something, and then he started barking and growling. Including at every person we passed, I had to drag him home as he was barking at a poor school girl who was minding her own business. He's six months. Is this hormonal? Anyone else had similar?

@MyRabbit79 pugpup has times when he's the same, from what i have been told it is hormonal behaviour. It has literally only started in the last couple of weeks to the extent that it is now. It can be really stressful though and quite embarrassing.