Summer 25 pups

[Lavenderdog]

Any other new puppy owners around this summer? Have been looking back at some of the old puppy support threads and can see how helpful it was for those posters to share their experiences.

9 week old mini schnauzer here - so toilet training and avoiding those needle sharp teeth are the current main activities here!

(And being tolerant of her determination to rid my garden of lavender plants. Hence my user name 😂)

@LandSharksAnonymous Funny isn't it how differently words are used – to me, 'wait', 'stay' and 'stop' are all different, though we don't use 'stay' because in this house 'sit' means 'sit until I tell you otherwise'. (Edited to tag @SpanielsGalore too on the same point!)

Emergency stop is the stop whistle, @VanGoSunflowers which should be one whistle pip. Pupsy is better at stopping dead on my mouth whistle than my actual whistle but it doesn't matter – whatever works. She does creep and bum shuffle a bit on it so I work on it all the time. I raise my hand to her too as a backup. She will sit up 100m away if she sees me do that – helpful if I'm talking to someone or something. There are loads of methods of teaching the stop whistle and it's super useful but I wouldn't do too much of it too early as he is still so tiny and you don't want to kill the joy. I definitely did it too soon. I have loads of thoughts about whistles and whistle commands which I can bore you with later haha.

Have you added 'this way' to his repertoire too? That's the command I use the most and I think one of the first I taught – meaning 'come back to my general area' or 'come to where I'm pointing roughly'. It can get you out of a lot of scrapes. I taught it by running around the garden madly back and forth and side to side – we both loved it and sometimes I still do it with her for fun.

@brushingboots I am finding 'this way' is working better than recall with K at the minute. When we get to the woods, she loses her head for the first 5 minutes or so. She'll ignore recall, but responds to 'this way', so we do lots of changes of direction to keep her semi-concentrating on me.

@SpanielsGalore I honestly think it's vital – I almost never do a proper recall, only if there's actual danger, like an approaching tractor or something. 99pc of the time it's 'this way' and that extends to 'this way into the car thank you very much'. I love playing hide and seek with her too but it is not lost on me that me thinking I am 'hiding' behind a tree is not quite hiding when she can see my foot sticking out the side, so it can only be truly performed in particular locations!

@brushingboots I'm usually outed by my pink coat. 😂

I'm never sure about hide and seek. On the one hand, I think hiding behind a tree and recalling them or waiting for them to find me keeps them on their toes. On the other hand, they sometimes look like they panic when they can't see me and I don't want to stress them out.
So I play it and then feel guilty for worrying them and don't do it again for ages. Perhaps if I played it more often they wouldn't panic. 🤷‍♀️

M has a look of panic too with hide and seek. That’s usually when he’s had his nose down for 5 minutes and suddenly realises we’re not there.
I would be more worried though if he looked up and wasn’t bothered!

😂😂 That is true.

@VanGoSunflowers thanks for checking on me. A better couple of days thank you, less manic nipping and some lovely behaviour out and about. Don’t think I’ve had any new bite injuries today! And no toileting accidents either.
Also got pup to settle better in the day time and get more sleep, so all going in the right direction

I think Rory would be an excellent gun dog but there’s not a chance he’s stepping foot in our local gun dog club that I talked about thread! 🙁

I’m having a little crisis of confidence today as I’m worried that he’s such a good dog that I won’t be good enough to help him to reach his full potential. I forgot to ask him to sit before food twice today 🙈. Mostly he does it automatically but he didn’t know he was getting a little snack so he didn’t. I know that’s only a small thing but it’s important to be consistent.

Also he’s been playing with 2 teenage labs who are a little ermmm untrained and I’m worried he’ll pick up bad habits. At the park tonight one of them went running over to another dog and Rory followed which I don’t want him to think is OK as I want him to learn to only go over when I say he can so as not to upset other owners. He did come back but by then it was too late and the owners looked a bit annoyed. I don’t want him to miss out on playing though either!

On the plus side he did learn “middle” during his bedtime snack training session (and he’s also learned to sit in the kitchen until his bedtime snack is provided since I almost forgot 😂).

This is interesting. SoupDog’s recall has gone south, but she’s good with “this way”. We’re still practicing recall with a whistle in the house and garden and she’s great then, but once out in the wild she listens to very little for the first 10 minutes apart from “this way”.

Waving at @Unmute from our bit of the Dear Green Place.

How on earth do you teach recall?

Pup knows exactly what I mean, but will happily ignore me if she'd rather carry on what she's doing. I'm practicing in the house with no distractions, but as soon as we get outside she goes deaf.

She's only 12 weeks, so I'm telling myself that continued practice and a bit of maturity will crack it..is that right?

It doesn't help that she is the cutest thing and everyone we meet wants to fuss over her and give her treats and cuddles when I'm trying to attract her attention!

@brushingboots it’s really interesting! I think it’s why DMum struggled so much with Satan as she’d been taught different commands, so kept doing what she thought was ‘right’ even though it wasn’t what we thought was ‘right.’

@Unmute when they’re young they find everything very exciting. So you have to make yourself the most exciting thing - big fusses when they come when called, nice treats etc. If people are bothering her and mucking up your training, recall her to you ahead of seeing people - that’s what I do with mine when they’re young 😄and don’t be afraid to tell them not to bother her. Dogs need to learn to ignore people, not that every person will fuss them!

@Unmute at 12 weeks old, I wasn’t ‘recalling’ Pablo in the traditional sense of the word. Our walks were always in a nearby field at that stage and we nearly always had the place to ourselves so there were no distractions. I think I read somewhere that you’ve got to set them up for success and try not to use a command if you’re not reasonably sure they will respond to it. Although that obviously takes a bit of guess work 😂

At that point, Pablo was off lead and I was rewarding him when he made the decision to come to me himself if that makes sense. So he’s a bit further away having a little sniff, looks up and sees me - as soon as he decides to come running over that’s when I call him and give him the treat (high value ones!) and the fuss. We did this over and over and over again. I do it in the house as well where he was more likely to respond (still do that now with the whistle and small bits of cheese!) make it more interesting by running away from them when they’re nearly at you so they have to chase you. And as @LandSharksAnonymous try and get her back to you before people come near her. Or don’t be afraid to tell them to back off 😂

I like to think Pablo’s recall is fairly decent for his age (4 months tomorrow!) but he still ignores me sometimes if he’s found something that smells particularly wonderful or is nibbling on god knows what he has found in the grass. So I wouldn’t say that he has learned to recall yet because he doesn’t do it in every situation, every single time. I think that might take years 😂

@brushingboots thank you and I definitely won’t find your thoughts on whistle
commands boring! Is ‘this way’ kind of “I have changed direction and so you need to do this too?”

I need to get my head around stop, wait, stay etc. I probably use them slightly differently to other people 😂

@Lavenderdog thats great news! I’m so glad it’s gotten better for you. I haven’t cried over Pablo (other than the other day, nearly in a soppy way 😂) for a few weeks so I am taking that as a win 😂

@Idratherbepaddleboarding did I miss something about your local gun dog club?
Ive had the same crisis with Pablo a few times. Convinced myself I’m not experienced or clever enough to give him what he needs and deserves and to make sure he is fulfilled but I know it’s irrational. He is a very happy puppy and I’m sure Rory is too. He’s lucky to have you!

@LandSharksAnonymous or anyone else with an opinion on the topic of asking people not to bother your dog… the thought crossed my mind yesterday to get him something to wear that says to leave him alone because he’s training or something. That may sound a little drastic but I have to admit, I’m getting a little ‘ugh’ at having to have the same conversations over and over again with people 😂

The other day, I was clearly trying to get him to ignore a man walking his cockapoo, clearly holding treats and asking him to ‘heel’ and the man makes a beeline for me with his dog and starts saying “your dog needs to get used to meeting other dogs” I wanted to say “I will decide what he needs thank you very much” but decided not to in the end. Same with every conversation I have with someone that asks if they can say hello (some don’t even ask) when I say they can but they need to ask
him to sit first so he doesn’t jump up and the response is nearly always “oh I don’t mind” then they proceed to loom over him, get him all excited and he’s jumping all over the place.

I wouldn’t mind but I try and do walks where we won’t come across people but it’s not always easy. Do you think I need to be firmer or just go with the flow??

@VanGoSunflowers Be firmer or you'll end up with a dog like P. 🙈
By 4 months old, I had taught her recall to sit and to sit for a fuss from strangers. Then we met far too many people who actively encouraged her to run across the beach at them and jump up. And because everyone thinks she is a springer puppy instead of an adult cocker, she got attention from people for longer. A 4 year old dog leaping up head height at someone is not as cute as a puppy doing it.

Yes 'this way ' is a change of direction. I didn't train that as such. I just realised one day with my first dogs that they followed me when I said it. So I have kept it up with the others. At the minute when we first get to the woods, K will run off in one direction. If I recall her, she'll ignore me, but if I shout 'this way' she'll change direction and follow me.

And I don't think it really matters which command words you use for what actions. You could use pea, carrot, tomato for sit, wait and stay if you wanted to. The dog learns an action associated with a sound. The dogs in Columbo were trained to kill to the word Rosebud. 😁

@VanGoSunflowers yes exactly! That's the way to teach it and if you keep using it it should become a general sort 'come in my general direction and avoid that annoying dog/pigeon' etc.

Ultimately it doesn't matter what you use as long as you're consistent. I say 'sit up' interchangeable with 'sit' but also 'what do you do?' means 'sit' in this house too as my mum said it once to her with her own two dogs and she sat.

@VanGoSunflowersI use a loud “not today SoupDog” while I have her sitting waiting for people to pass. It doesn’t always work but does make most people back off. You’d need a taser to repel the men who insist on telling you what you need to be doing despite you not asking!

@brushingboots ‘what do good puppies do?’ means ‘sit’ in our house, but it’s a bit of a mouthful at agility (and I also felt a bit embarrassed saying it at the KC bronze class) so ‘sit’ is used in those public situations!

@VanGoSunflowers I'm really firm (to be honest, to the point of rudeness sometimes).

Ultimately, my dog is my dog. If other people have views or opinions on my training methods, or think their dog/child/guinea pig should be able to say hello to my dog...that's very nice for them, but I really don't care 😃They might not care now, but you can be sure they will care when the dog is an adult and has no recall because people like them made training in public places impossible, or my dog races up to theirs or jumps all over them etc.

I firmly say to them, "no. I am training him and teaching him/her to ignore people."

Then if they push it, or say "oh I don't mind if he/she jumps up" or "it's good for them to say hello," I usually follow up with something along the lines of, "that's great, but he/she is my dog and I am training them. This dog will grow to be at least 35kg and it is a lot easier to teach a dog to ignore people or other dogs, than to correct bad behaviour that people have inadvertently installed. Please do not pet and/or keep your dog under control."

And sometimes I resort - usually when they ignore me, or push it again - to a nice and clear "piss off" (or another slightly ruder variation).

We use ‘this way’ a lot. Our trainer said it’s a good command as it’s less formal than a proper recall so you can be a bit more loose with it. We taught it by throwing a treat in one direction, then going in the opposite direction and throwing a treat again and just saying ‘this way’ each time. It was dead easy and he picked it up really quickly.

@VanGoSunflowers stay firm, as @LandSharksAnonymous says, it’s your dog and how you train him is up to you.

I’m faced with the same challenges- M is 24kg but that’s a lot of dog to jump up. Every time someone says ‘I don’t mind him jumping up’ and sticks their waving hands at him (as I’m trying to redirect him) it reinforces that jumping up is fun. I can get quite cross with people. My family know to ignore him until his feet are on the floor so he’s much better with them, but it’s the random strangers, who seem to think that dogs are public property, that are the main problem.

@soupmaker love that! I said, quite loudly and brightly, to a very rude Labrador this morning with an owner who couldn't give a stuff, 'no thank you, we're busy!'

If ever people say 'I don't mind' about anything undesirable that pupsy does I say 'well I mind and she's my dog'. I said this once on another adolescent thread but once a lady I know locally told me off when I told pupsy off for stealing her dog's ball. She said, oh lighten up she's just a dog, and I snapped, well she's my bloody dog and I don't want her doing that – or something along those lines, and I promptly stomped off. Can't bear being told how to manage my own dog by people who clearly do no training themselves.

Most people are well meaning but it doesn't make it less irritating.