- This topic has 64 replies, 27 voices, and was last updated 2 years ago by RustyNissanPrairie.
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Puppy training advice.
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Futureboy77Full Member
OP, I’d have look to see if there are any breed specific training books as they might cater more to breed specific traits. I got one from my breed club.
If you are interested in diet (which can massively impact behaviour), then there is a brilliant book called Feeding Dogs by Dr Conor Brady.
Other than that, have patience and enjoy the ride.
……..though there I go, mentioning rotten teeth…..
Dentistix!The biggest ingredient in Dentastix is cereal (corn or wheat) carbohydrates which a dogs body turns in to sugar which can lead to poor dental health. The very thing they are meant to prevent.
HazeFull Member5 month old Working Cocker here, plenty of good advice above…we read loads before she arrived, lots of it was conflicting and sometimes difficult to decide which way to go.
We’re probably bundling through really and I’m sure we’ve made mistakes along the way, but with lots of perseverence and consistency she eventually picks things up…some things sooner than others, but it’s an absolute joy watching her trying to work things out!
TiRedFull MemberWe’ve done clicker training for three recalls for Henry (5.5mo cocker and our third). The single most important one being “Middle” where Henry will return and sit under the legs#. He always gets liver cake for that. Out trainer said this was the best for lead attachment. Another is “touch” put your hand out for his nose to touch on recall. Also rewarded. Whilst it is easy to criticize, I think @boxelder is not wrong. Dogs are always trying to assert their position in the family. A single act of dominance to tell them it’s not acceptable is required. Henry doesn’t pester me for food or bite me. Mrs TiRed’s clothing tells another story. A well-trained dog is a happy dog. It just takes time and effort. And liver cake.
#That being said Henry disgraced himself chasing a moving golf ball this morning on the course off the lead. A first time!
9 month old (almost) mental working cocker spaniel
The Ferraris of the dog world! Go fast or sleep.
stcolinFree MemberAnother is “touch” put your hand out for his nose to touch on recall. Also rewarded
Works really well on Murphy. Inside. But when this dog goes outside, zero anything. No recall, no manors, no nothing. Walking him is a nightmare, his pulling is horrendous and the various methods that have been worked on for every single walk have yielded no results. He does not ignore any dogs, in fact he will want to go to every dog he sees and nothing that I do will stop him or get him away. No high value treats, no whistle, no nothing. There have been too many stressful and embarrassing incidents already that I hate walking him. It’s so demoralising. He is nice to be around. When he’s sleeping or exhausted.
ThePilotFree MemberMight be a silly question @stcolin but have you tried a behaviourist?
tthewFull MemberOof, that’s tough stcolin. Ours is also better at commands in the house than out, recall in particular but one thing he is good at now is ignoring other dogs and people. Now I’m no expert in any way, but this is what helped us out with that.
We went to a place where there were a lot of dogs. Didn’t walk him, just sat and held his attention with treats, (or whatever yours is motivated by) while other dogs played and walked around. Rewards when he sat still without trying to yank the lead out of our hands. Took more than one session to get it, plus distraction/reward in a similar manner when out walking. I’m not promising it’ll work, but sounds like you’d be willing to try.
HazeFull MemberOr girl gets super excited when she’s around other dogs and people, jumping up and rolling on her back to get her belly tickled…although typing that I’ve just realised the latter is becoming a little less frequent. So far I’m thinking it’s just her age so we’re trying to socialise her a bit more, open to trying other techniques though.
We get the same pulling especially towards the end of the walk, she will come to heel but won’t stick around too long without a treat. Just going to keep working at it, leaving slightly increasing periods between clicks.
stcolinFree MemberHaven’t gone as far as a behaviorist. He is pretty good in the house, does well with commands and training and is pretty relaxed and chilled out most of the time. He is in his secondary teenage fear stage so is barking a lot at random noises etc.
It’s when he is outside he is just so so difficult.
We have also tried taking him to busy areas, sitting and watching and rewarding quiet behaviour but he just gets so worked up and wants to go and play with other dogs and say hello to people that we need to start moving. I’ve gone passed hoping he will grow out of it. Friends have a very similar cocker who was manic for the first 6 months but now couldn’t care less about other dogs and walks off lead really nicely.
He gets exposure to lots of dogs and people, has been to a lot of training classes, but nothing sticks.
Anyway, this is not a normal dog OP, so I’m sure you will do just fine with the majority of advice.
PierreFull MemberWe’ve got a half-border-collie (the other half is poodle) and they are very bright dogs with massive stamina. If he’s not exercised regularly, he gets bored and if he’s bored he misbehaves or destroys things. We were told (and experience has borne this out) that intellectual challenge is much better at tiring them out than physical challenge. So learning good behaviour, learning tricks, working out how to get a treat out of something, is much more challenging to him than just running round the park for a hour.
There’ll be plenty of other advice above, good and bad, but the main thing I’d recommend is expose your puppy to as many different sights, sounds, smells, people, environments and stimuli as possible, as much as possible, as early as possible. A friend of mine trains Guide Dog puppies and this was his key advice in the first few months. This will set them up well to be calm later in life – now is a good time to get a new puppy because hearing fireworks and getting used to them when they’re very small means they’re less likely to dislike them as they get older. They learn the world is a weird place full of different colour and shape people, sea, fields, traffic, busy environments, silence, cooking smells, farmyard smells, concrete, big animals, etc. and they’ll be much more chilled out as they grow up.
Get your puppy around other dogs as soon as possible too. She needs to learn how to be around other dogs and that not every one wants to play, but how dogs communicate with each other. Lots of “lockdown puppies” were kept indoors or just walked on their own in the first few months of their lives and we see all sorts of anti-social or unpredictable behaviour in the parks from young dogs that have never learned how to be around other dogs.
Training varies in style from person to person, but I’d recommend that you do it yourself – don’t outsource it to someone else or your dog will never learn to respect and obey you in the same way they learn to respect their main trainer. I strongly recommend positive training only; your puppy needs to learn to respect you, not to fear you. I found Zak George and Fenrir Canine Training useful on YouTube – the latter particularly because he focuses in a practical way on not only training your dog’s behaviour but also training its temperament and teaching it to be calm and always look to you as a leader, which is vital.
One key thing we found useful when teaching our son to train the dog was “don’t set him up to fail.” Don’t expect too much of your dog at first – don’t leave stuff that you don’t want chewed or pulled apart around them if you don’t want it destroyed. Your dog doesn’t know the difference between a toy that’s meant for her and a TV remote that’s been accidentally left on the floor.
Our little bundle of fluff has grown into an intelligent, patient, lively, happy family dog and I’m so glad we put in a LOT of effort early on to train him, because it’s now paying off. I very rarely have him on the lead when I take him for walks because he doesn’t need it – it’s mainly when mandated by signs in parks or for the assurance of others around us if we’re somewhere with lots of traffic.
I can’t see the photos of your dog but I hope you can put in the time to train her well now – it will pay off massively in the future and I hope she’s very happy with you!
ThePilotFree Member^^^^
Have you thought about changing his food, @stcolin?
I don’t know what he eats obviously but a BARF diet might help him.
Also, a herbal stress supplement.I’m thinking of getting a behaviourist for mine. She is from Romania and has made the transition brilliantly. At first, she was friendly with all dogs but now she is quite unpredictable. Not sure if it’s something I’ve done or if it was always going to happen. It’s quite manageable but can be difficult especially as there are so many idiot dog owners about. We saw two greyhounds out today. We’ve seen them before on lead but the people have never let them say hello so they’ve never been properly introduced. They have now started to let them off lead. Today, they both came charging over to my dog. Nothing happened but next time it might and it was just all so totally unavoidable.
Btw, mine is not raw fed anymore. Didn’t agree with her. I give her herbal stress supplements at different times but not really noticed a difference! It might be worth a try.PierreFull Member@stcolin have you seen Will Atherton’s videos on YouTube? He does a lot of material on the basics of dog training, with a variety of different and sometimes “difficult” dogs.
Search for “fenrir recall” on youtube and you should find a few of his videos. He deals quite a lot with the psychology of both dog and owner, and I’ve found many of his tips really useful. The one about training a puppy to wait for you to give it permission before it tucks into its food bowl or runs out of the front door feels mean at first, but has paid massive dividends as our dog patiently waits and looks to us if there’s something he wants, because he knows and trusts us that we’ll say OK when we’re ready!
tthewFull MemberShe needs to learn how to be around other dogs and that not every one wants to play, but how dogs communicate with each other.
The number of times ours got snapped at* by bigger dogs by just bounding up to them and interrupting was comical. The owners were unfailingly apologetic, our reply being, no worries, he needs to learn no to be a ****. As I said, now he knows when it’s appropriate to join in or leave it be.
*a growl and teeth snap, not full on savaged obviously.
AusFree MemberExciting times … my only suggestions would be
– take your time, give the pup lots of time
– patience is king
– lots of puppy training is actually quite boring – time, patience, repetition … but hugely rewarding
– there’s so many opinions out there, worth considering plenty and then making your own mind up on your set of principlesThese videos quite insightful https://youtu.be/frKpFffdhgQ and https://youtu.be/AuB4u42fnD8
Enjoy!
toby1Full MemberIf behaviour classes are an expense you can’t afford I hope your insurance is good or your dog doesn’t get sick.
I’m about £6k into personal expenses after my insurance cap was hit and we still had a sick dog.
Owning a dog is something I always wanted to do and now never want to do again.
stcolinFree MemberWe have changed food 3 times now. Other than his stools still being all over the place, there has been no change. He gets lots of mental stimulation. We rarely feed him out of his bowl. We have a big snuffle mate which he loves, or we feed him from hand using commands and training. I’ve just fed him his lunch by hiding little piles of it in the room and getting him to sniff it out.
One thing he nailed from the start was toilet training. We had 2 accidents in the house and that was it. He is great at telling us when he needs to go and we haven’t had an issue since those very early accidents. Both were beside the back door and we didn’t read the signs.
stcolinFree MemberOh, and here he is back in May when he was 4 months old. I may have had some chicken in my pocket….
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kZt5xp]A happy Murphy[/url] by Colin, on Flickr
stcolinFree Membertraining a puppy to wait for you to give it permission before it tucks into its food bowl
Yes, he does this perfectly now. Took a while to get right.
Yea, I’ve looked at their videos and many others. Tried so many methods. Have picked up a couple of things that work at times, but not enough to be making any difference outside the house.
BoardinBobFull MemberStColin, this sounds painfully similar to my last spaniel. Perfect behaviour in the house. The second his lead appeared he went mental. Pulled constantly. The second his lead was removed he’d sprint off into the distance and had zero recall. Tried professional trainers, classes, behaviourists etc. Zero difference. You have my sympathy
SandwichFull MemberThe one about training a puppy to wait for you to give it permission before it tucks into its food bowl or runs out of the front door feels mean at first
Something that Bodie hadn’t been taught when he arrived with us. Two meals got that under control and it improved from there with other aspects of homelife (strangely there was no problem with removing the bowl or being close whilst eating). Learning no means no and how to wait for food are good disciplines. Leave is equally important if recall is slightly off.
baldiebentyFree Member@stcolin : Imagine that exact behaviour but with a 35 kilo Labrador!
She’s good as gold around the house, apart from occasional mad moments as she is only 2 1/2. Even often walks around with me glued to my hip, lets me through doors first etc. She’s basically a lovely dog. Get the leads out and she turns into an over-excited kangaroo on speed.
Once you actually get out of the door she’s diving off to the end of the lead and trying to drag me left and right, I’m the only one in the family strong enough to walk her! Endless rounds of attempts at training her with only minute improvement, very disheartening at times.
I watched one of those Fenrir videos on “the worst pulling dog I’ve ever seen” or something and thought it was so hilarious I was driven to comment on the video saying something along the lines of “If you think that’s bad pulling, you’ve not experienced bad pulling!”
tthewFull Member@stcolin – this feels like drip feeding, lots of good suggestions and, yep tired it, sorry – but for nice walking a slip lead made a big difference for us. I know some people think they’re cruel, but I’m talking about one that’s worn around the head to exert a bit of pressure and turn them back towards you if they pull, not around the neck to choke the dog.
Putting that on him even when he’s in the house and going a bit too nuts has a surprising calming effect, it’s almost like it’s become a safe space for him. Strange lad.
stcolinFree MemberI watched one of those Fenrir videos on “the worst pulling dog I’ve ever seen” or something and thought it was so hilarious I was driven to comment on the video saying something along the lines of “If you think that’s bad pulling, you’ve not experienced bad pulling!”
Yes!!! Think I’ve watched the same video and howled with laughter.
Slip lead in on the agenda. Still to decide.
PierreFull Member@tthew and @stcolin, I’m not a behavioural psychologist at all, but I wonder if there’s something about knowing very clearly where the boundaries are that makes the dog calm down?
We were camping with friends over the summer, in the evening our dog knew not to come near the fire and is trained enough not to beg for food, but couldn’t rest. He was running to and from us, across the field, back to us, sitting, getting back up and seemed really on edge (although he’d been really happy during the day either playing with the kids or just lying and snoozing in the sun near us). We put his lead on him and pegged it to the ground, to keep him in one place. He calmed down straight away, without even pulling on his lead to test it. He curled up and went straight to sleep.
I wonder if that’s why the slip lead helps with @tthew’s dog? If it’s a more clear reminder of this is the boundary, so he knows where he stands and is then calm about it.
@stcolin, you have my sympathy. I think we’ve been very lucky. Your dog looks lovely – that’s a superb photo!Futureboy77Full Member@stcolin have you looked at Halti Head collars? Stopped one of mine who was a puller and I know a few friends have used them with success.
Someone else mentioned it but I feed a BARF diet and the general consensus seems be to that it can calm dogs down.
RustyNissanPrairieFull MemberGet doggo used to having his teeth inspected and brushed from a young age. Don’t bother with Dentistix.
Our Karelian Bear Dog is highly intelligent and can easily do 25+ miles (as they do when working), you can’t tire them through walking.
Our walks have lots of direction commands – left, right, up, on, jump, go round, this way etc
He also knows hand signals for directions, and walking speeds (handy for when we hiking popular routes and catching up to people) etc.Visits to the local park are like dog parkour for him and he loves it, jumping and sitting on decorative rocks, using wood balance beams as jump hurdles, jumping on and walking along benches etc as well as his squeeky balls and frisbees.
I bend the frisbees and throw them so they land on their side and roll along the grass – Bert effectively runs alongside and grabs it rather than running full belt and stopping heavily as the ball/frisbee lands.Be consistent with commands – issue it once don’t repeat it or the dog knows to ignore the first one. If a word gets corrupted then use a different word or language (German/French etc) they are just sounds to the dog.
Getting a doggo is one of the best things I’ve ever done.
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