Puppy survival thread. Oct/Nov fireworks!

[sandwiches77]

New thread...

One thing I'll add is that I did have a "oh god what have we done" moment the first night, as putting her to bed she was whinging a lot. But actually she was just overtired from an exciting day and lots of new places and she slept really well once she'd settled. She always gets a bit grumbly if too tired and can't just go to sleep quietly.

FawkesPup has had a lovely long off lead wander this afternoon. I needed it too. Was great to get some headspace and quiet, just me and the dog. He's now crashed out!

I looked at the Eden wet food as a topper but I'm afraid as my walking dustbin puppy seemingly will scoff his kibble dry I am planning on switching the flavour each bag and just topping with meat/wet/sardines/pumpkin etc to keep it interesting.

Titspup is gorgeous. I'm also in the camp of small people and a puppy? 😵 nooooo!

Guess who has nicked the puppies new bed....

The no logic makes sense - I'm only using it for biting mostly. However - the puppy is weeing on his dog bed repeatedly, any tips? We remove him from it when he does it but he's not getting it so far.

We waited a year for my youngest to hit 7 to get a puppy because I definitely can't do both types of small person, such hard work indeed although just as with the two in two years theory things will improve quicker I suppose as they all age together.

Grrr working on pup not wanting to greet every dog. Still only on pavement walks so walking along by a fairly busy road, pavement only on one side so no alternative and a man with a collie appears from an alley. Collie is obv pretty well trained as walking off lead by a road. I get pup to sit and "watch me" and stand in front of her to block view of collie. All going well and they pass us, it's obvious I'm training the puppy not to greet and suddenly he lets his collie run back to us and get right up nose to nose with pup! Honestly so frustrating and pup had done so well to focus on me, especially with a collie nearby as her best dog pal is a collie so whenever she sees collies she thinks they all want to play with her lol.

Pup have me a right scare yesterday. We were practicing walking off lead and recall on the field outside my house... He ran off! He didn't go far but he started running off down the track that leads to the road. Fortunately he didn't get down to the road, but it really shook me up and I don't really want to risk it again.

DH is away and but he usually puts Legspup in the crate at night. It's usual bedtime but pup is having none of me putting him in there. He's barking the house down and whining.
What a pest. He's currently quiet but stalking me with face to the grate while I sulk on the sofa nearby.

Thank you for your kind words. Was feeling a bit sorry for myself yesterday - it’s almost worse when it’s all your own (and DH’s) doing! Oh well. Fingers crossed it gets easier soon.

I had my very first ‘Fenton’ moment in the park earlier. Pup was on the long line but it was wet and when she spotted a bird she zoomed after it and it slipped from my hand. Thankfully she came back, but so embarrassing…

Oh pardonmytits I really feel for you. I have a 10 month old now and she still feels to me like a full time job. I have primary age kids. And between sorting housework and looking after the dog I don’t have a huge amount of energy left. You are amazing for managing all that you are. In a year or twos time you will feel the benefits of a lovely dog to be friend to your children though. It will be worth it

I think Positive Training is complete crap - at least the evangelical kind. As pp points out, you must be clear and not go "No no no no no no" about everything, but only positive training can be as confusing to a dog as telling it off all the time.

Hardcore positive training relies on distraction - but that is no good if you are not there. They will still do the unwanted behaviour if there is no one leading them away from it. They need to know that certain things are wrong, or places out of bounds.

Dh actually got into a row with the trainer at Positive Training, when she was declaring that you must distract your dog from going in the oven when you open it. Dh was saying this was hopeless if a dog was in danger - you must be able to stop it doing something immediately, not faffing around encouraging it to look elsewhere.

We all know how children turn out whose parents "discuss" their spirited behaviour with them and "negotiate" over outrageous demands.

We tried Positive Training (we walked out) and Kennel Club Training (left by mutual agreement - ie thrown out ) until we found a lovely personal trainer who did the kind but firm route.

I hear what you are saying dottyharmer. I think it is important to find a trainer you feel you can work with. There is a balance to be had occasionally.

We are having difficulty with puppy jumping up. And not sure how to handle it. I took her to my parents house to have a practice session and it was so hard, I had briefed them to ignore when we arrived and not speak to her until she was calm and settled. But they just kept forgetting and not sticking to the plan. I can’t blame them really. It is not easy. Not sure we accomplished much !

I totally agree with the positive evangelist being OTT. I do think correction needs to happen, bit it can happen in a way that is not 'abusive' as some label it.

I dealt with FawkesPup jumping up and biting by getting everyone to turn their back on him if he did it to them. Arms folded, no eye contact, saying no in a firm way. It's taken until now at 5 months but he's stopped doing it. He also understands "down" and is rewarded for doing the right thing. Stop biting/jumping and someone will play with you. I've also used it to block him from his irritating jumping on sofa and bite kids thing which was also "play with me" puppy biting but hurt DD in particular and he has to learn he cannot just demand play with biting. I physically blocked his sofa access with my body, arms folded, "no" whilst he jumped up at me. As soon as he stopped and sat, loads of praise. Worked a treat. Only took a few repeats and he's stopped.

To me it's about being calm and consistent and clear about what you want the dog to do. Agree no no no no is just confusing for them. I will say "no, get down" or "no, sit" or "no teeth, gentle" though?

Our dog doesn’t really jump up too bad with us now. It’s pretty infrequent . I think we aren’t all that exciting. It is other visitors or family/friends. But it’s hard to be consistent with them. I think I need a few practice sessions with fully informed family.

Well I'm a fan of positive training (knobhead currently loudly barking and testing this). A targeted 'no' as opposed to clicking the absence of something can work. But I'd choose to use positive more often than any negative

Big fan of positive generally as it definitely works....just not always and for everything. Every so often you need a bit of intervention. Like with hot ovens, roads and water.

I definitely like to use positive training methods and positive reinforcement, praise, etc. However, the idea of never saying no to a dog makes about as much sense to me as never saying no to a child. In other words, no sense at all. I say no or stop or ah-ah to my dogs in various circumstances.

Funny story of today: FawkesPup now revises to leave the cafe where DH takes him and he gets spoiled with fusses and bacon. He had to be carried back to the main road, where he parked his arse and whimpered and tried to go back 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Ah, bacon….

I had a special command for not jumping up: “Four Paws!!!!” Dog knew to stop short and plant all four feet on the ground. He had to be shown this a few times. Then of course highly praised.

He was a big lad and so jumping up was a no no. I think that people make more effort to stop big dogs jumping than they do with smaller ones. It is still annoying when small dogs do a flying leap at you or scrabble at your shins. I love dogs but not a huge fan of unruly jumping!

I’m also in the balanced training camp. If I have to say ‘no’ to something, I’ll then immediately over praise the correct behaviour so he learns that he can’t do that but he can do this. For example if he goes to jump on the sofa I’ll say ‘no’ and point to his bed and say ‘bed’ the give him loads of praise for doing the right thing. This is what I advocate with my families at work too.

Giving Billy a bit more exercise is definitely helping with his adolescent behaviour, he’s been the most chilled out dog lately 🥰.

Jumping up is definitely a challenge here too, we say floor which should mean all four paws on the floor and it works in that she'll get down but doesn't prevent the behaviour in the first place. She can jump high enough to take a hat from my head now so something we need to work on. Even other lab owners are surprised at how high she can jump.

We've just met with a dog walker today who is going to take her on a trial walk next week. Just so we have backup if we have to isolate or something else happens. She was impressed with how calm she is in the house, we'll see if she still thinks she's calm when out on a walk!

I could do with a walker. DH away and DD recuperating and I'm working 9 hr days, up at silly o'clock to walk them and now about to take them out again. 😴

I'm really really exhausted

We’ve used positive training methods here. Of course I do sometimes teacher voice PoirotPup without thinking but it doesn’t ever stop it happening again. We’ve just used the technique to train an alternative behaviour we do want instead. So for example he had started to bother/sniff at the table when we ate. So we’ve trained him to lie on his mat instead. Now when we sit down to eat anywhere he automatically lies down and waits for his treat!

Of course I would physically prevent him from harm eg by a hot oven if needed. I wouldn’t personally use any aversives like figure of 8 head lead, shock/air/noise collar etc etc I’d personally choose to train the behaviour I do want to see instead.

With jumping up, we have a gate in our hall that stops him accessing upstairs. I got a few friends to come round and ignore him when he was jumping at the gate and then praise/fuss him and give him some kibble/treats as soon as his paws were on the floor. Then we did the same in their house (eg ignore any jumping but fuss and reward four on the floor).

He’s 9 months and generally pretty good for a teenage dog….

I really rate the DTAS Facebook group. Initially I was frustrated because their response to every enquiry was stop the situation that was the problem rather than stop the dog reacting to the situation (or that's how it seemed) but actually the theory is prevent (a circumstance) them wanting to operate that behaviour so you can condition with rewards alternative behaviour.

It finally clicked for me when I saw it working.

We really struggle with jumping up. I think it comes from hardly greeting anyone until she was nearly 7 months (thanks to lockdowns) and also people letting her jump up. Issue is she sometimes leaps with all four feet off and can do that to head height if she really wanted to.

Not jumping up at us is probably 99.5% perfect now but we can't seem to generalise. Even family members we've trained in advance give in. So far the only thing that is helping is keeping a lead on it and scatter feeding at a distance, getting gradually closer. And if they come in the house the reward has to be cheese or sprats to even stand a chance of working.