Your biggest puppy mistakes

[foreverinmyheart]

I am currently sat with an 9 week old puppy after a lovely 5am wake up call from him! Keen to get as much right as possible with his training and I wondered... Looking back what have been your biggest puppy mistakes / regrets that with hindsight you wish you could do differently?

Being too polite to people.I regularly had people just sticking out their hands to pet the cute puppy or calling him over without permission. Now he thinks everyone wants to say hello- I wish I’d told them to stop being so rude. It’s taken months to get him to stop thinking everyone is his friend

Allowing too many strangers to touch and bother my pups. I originally thought socialisation meant take them to a cafe or pub and let them meet everyone. As a result they all had a few experiences that knocked their confidence.

I now wouldn’t let anyone touch my dogs unless the dog asks for it first.

Definitely some themes here particularly around meeting people/dogs... So so helpful thank you! This is something I'll take on board for sure as we get the training going.

Lead training and sleep also big ones!

@cheeseisthebest just to clarify do you mean leave them on their own? Or do you mean telling other people to leave them alone? Sorry I wasn't sure! Thank you for taking the time :)

As PPs have said. Socialise to ignore other dogs and not encourage greeting every dog/ human. He jumps up too which is because of mixed messaging by DH. He let him lick his ears but not his face - I mean WTH? How can a puppy "get" what's ok and not?

Wish I’d done more to desensitise my whippet to have his feet handled and nails cut. Now I have to pay to get them done. Trying to work to get him used to me clipping his nails now but it’s a slow process.

Also wish I’d trained him better around (human) food. He’s a shocking food thief and will literally grab hot chips out of my fingers given half a chance 😮

Finally, wish I’d been more relaxed about his puppyhood and enjoyed the moment more. Being my first dog I didn’t realise how much he’d change and my life with a 6 month old puppy would look completely different to my life with my dog at 5 years.

I wish id trained nice lead walking as early and intensively as I did recall.

I also wish I'd desensitised him to water. He hides from rain 🙄

Is there a secret to lead training?

I agree with this. It means he then bothers people who don’t want a dog near them.
And I strongly dislike when other people give him treats without my permission - I too was too polite to object initially but now I do.

Regarding ignoring other dogs - I don’t know - dogs do love meeting each other. Unfair I think not to allow it. A little narcissistic of those owners who only want their dog to pay attention to Them.

My old girl was lovely, but I wished I’d trained her to toilet in a specific part of our garden when she was a puppy.

Her favourite wee spot was the grass next to the front door. There would be patches of brown grass. (Is it a female dog thing - hormones?)

Best book is the perfect puppy by Gwen Bailey.

@wheretogoplease the secret is consistency and patience. Every time he pulls I stop and wait until he's back in position by my side then don't start up again until he looks at me.

What really helped was a session with a trainer with my DH there. We both learned the same thing at the same time so apply the same rule.

DH has become lax about it so he still get pulled all over but for me he's pretty good now (when its just us). I even have a lead only I use so he knows that its a "mum rules" walk!

Wish I'd be able to teach mine to settle better. He has awful separation anxiety and it makes life harder for both of us.

He's a rescue who didn't have the best start as a young pup before being returned to his breeder for "biting" so that probably plays a huge part.

That's great thanks. What about when they don't want to move and you want to get the walk going again?

@wheretogoplease I've not had that problem. Mines a Dalmatian so always on the go and easy to get moving! He knows I'll let him have a good sniff at regular intervals so if he has to miss one or two to get some distance done he's ok with it.

Patience, kindness and remember you are their whole world and would die for you.

Ours is one now, reasonably good on the lead, has excellent recall and know when to be calm. We visited a care home last weekend and was very gentle with the residents.

We had patience with toilet training and all the essentials for a good dog. It being realistic that the first year they a silly and wilful but if you are kind will be wonderful companions.

We never crated as they found it too anxious for them, but I know some dogs love their crate.

Taking stuff out of his mouth. We fucked up a few times and did it without thinking. AwkwardPup is a cocker spaniel so likes picking stuff up, even with serious puppy proofing we had issues with stealing stuff.

Luckily we caught the emerging resource guarding signs early at around 7 months (taking stuff to his bed and standing stiffly over it, before it got to growling or snapping), got proper advice from the Dog Training Advice and Support Facebook group, & he now has pretty good drop and swap cues at 20 months.

I think it's always going to be something we are mindful of and we play a lot of games with him bringing us his toys and items I've purposefully dropped (teatowels, gloves etc) to practice.

Leaving them home on their own.

I would do dog training classes on my own (plus dog) rather than with DH and DC in tow then report back to them. I would also look for training which was outdoors. I thought it would be a lovely bonding family activity. Instead it was horribly stressful and it made me feel very incompetent.

Wow so many...! Thank you!

The resource guarding one is something I want to really avoid... So easy to fall trap to by the sounds of it when they chew or steal something they shouldn't! Thank you @AwkwardPaws27 will get working on the swop / drop etc. Lucky you caught it before it got bad!

I'm interested in the settle command too... going to have to look that one up as to how to train. We have a puppy school booked in July which might cover this.

@maeveiscurious love the points around continuous patience and kindness. I do think this makes such a difference so they feel safe, loved and can bond with you.

@MsMarvellous aww bless! I'm sure that makes it a bit interesting to manage..! Never heard of this before.

@bluetongue very true I can imagine the time goes quickly and it is a precious period to embrace! Will remember that when I'm cleaning up wee from the floor 😂

Sorry I can't reply to each individual but I have read each and taken it all on board :)

Take a charity collection tin out with you when you're doing socialisation in town. You raise a good bit from people who desperately want to make a fuss of the pup, and it also puts people off if they're only on the fence about saying hello so you don't get swamped and pup doesn't get overwhelmed.

Kind of an unexpected one because he's so good/tolerant of so many other noises we did gradually expose him to with lots of positive conditioning (treats) so he's great with things like our smoke alarm, vacuum cleaner, hairdryer, the bin wagon, the noise of huge delivery lorries and he was even fine, inquisitive even, with fireworks but a few weeks back on an evening stroll a gobshite in a car with one of this bloody awful low booming exhausts sped up the road and it terrified him to the point he's now regularly scared to go out on the street unless he knows we're going off in the car or he's being picked up for his group dog walk. Because we think he now associates being scared on a street walk with us with being scared, we've arranged for friends to 'accidentally' meet us outside the house and then he's fine to trot for a while so we're hoping the visit from the behaviourist we've arranged this week will help him move past this fear. Utterly heartbreaking to see this big, gentle lab scared.

So, lots of positive exposure to the kinds of noises you might expect to hear in your day to day experience as early as possible.

Sidenote: I f@cking hate those exhausts now for scaring my lovely boy. Even if he hears them in the garden now he gets spooked.

I think our biggest mistake was probably having formative puppy months in lockdown - despite our best attempts at socialisation, she's still a bit OTT with the doorbell and quite suspicious of new people.

That said, we were also good at not fussing around her too much, and as a result she's very chilled and undemanding in the house, and totally happy to be left alone...

Not chased her when she picked up things she shouldn't have! It's forever etched into her mind that picking up things results in a really fun chase game... Only just making progress with "drop it" at a year old. Now I get why the puppy trainer was so strict about not chasing!

We focussed on toilet training, socialising and sleep, which he grasped so quickly and does brilliantly.

We didn’t leave him alone enough early on, he now has separation anxiety and cannot be left for for long without making a racket. We’re working on it and things are improving but it’s tough.

We also didn’t properly train recall early enough. We should have been dropping the long line while he was a puppy and wanted to be by our side at all times . He just seemed so tiny and vulnerable! He is now a brave little monster with a very strong prey drive and selectively deaf so we can’t let him off lead in open places.

Decide what you want the house rules to be and make sure all family members follow through.

Behaviour others may object to might be fine with you. I love having our smallish dog go nuts when we come home. My Mum trained hers to be much calmer. I won't let ours on the sofa - Mum's dog lives on hers.

Yes yes to getting ddog on your schedule - but remember they don't understand about weekends! If you are usually up at 6am for work, that dog will still want an early walk on Saturday and Sunday. At least they like to nap!

I regret not crate training would have been so much better for leaving him.