i have some friends that visit once every couple of weeks with their children and they are not keen (slightly frightened of dogs). When they came today. I kept Storm in her crate for a little bit with a chew and then kept her out on the lead and just practiced some training on her lead while I was taking with my friends. We then played a little tug of war. I know she was tired and if it was just me and her she would have settled down on the sofa. Because we had company she wouldn't settle down. Once the treats ran out she started barking at me. Any tips ideas to make these interactions run smoothly?
I use a chew or rice bone. I hold the chew and hold the pup. We are usually out quite a long time so the pup goes to sleep and I put her on her blanket. At the Christmas Fair folk were walking round Mollie snoozing away for nearly an hour! This then becomes a habit (snoozing in public). When the pup gets older I keep them on the lead and give a chew followed by a filled bone (hollow bone filled with soaked, frozen kibble). I make sure they have their own blanket to settle on wherever we are. Settling in public then becomes a habit and, eventually at about 9 months old, they don't even need a chew. 'Tho Bruce did, he knew everything that was in my bag and didn't settle until he'd had the lot! ...
Thanks Boogie this is helpful. Storm has had lots of problems with food so have not been giving her anything else. Have recently started giving her cerea chews in her crate for while we are eating. What sort of bones do you use? Do you think that this would be ok for a pup with a sensitive tummy? Any other suggestions for a pup with a sensitive tummy? I'm hoping once we get her food right we can start to branch out a little. We have lots of kongs but no idea what to put in that won't affect her tummy!
Just use her normal food stuffed into kongs. I'm going through the 'settle down' thing with Betsy now. The places and situations that she is able to settle in are those places I got her to settle when she was very young. So she can settle at Gundog training, and a group training class - yay! But she can't settle if there are visitors in the house. This is just because I took her to Clicker camp when she was tiny, and she had hours and hours of us sitting around doing nothing, but I don't get a lot of visitors (I don't want to sound like I'm sad it's just my friends tend to live in central London and we meet up going out, they don't come round much). It's got quite bad with Betsy, so I now have my dog walker and her assistant coming round for a cuppa when they are on a break, so I can get Betsy to settle around visitors (who will do what they are told and ignore my puppy)! Sigh.....I asked them whether other people have to do things like this, and they said 'no, only Labrador owners'!
Usually train ours to lie on a pet blanket (no sofa's here, where would we sit LOL) with a stuffed Kong bone, put your foot on one end and allow them to nibble the other, if they get up the bone is taken up. They soon learn to settle on the blanket. How about this lot!
I ask visitors to totally ignore Jessie to start with, because the slightest attention turns her into a raving nutter/ pain in the bum! If she's ignored during initial arrival she is much better and settles down!
We've been working with Cally from day 1 (9 weeks old) to lay on a bed or blanket. She peed on two beds!?! Then we decided not to spend the money or time and we focused on training other things for a while. We noticed whenever she had a toy or treat she would take it to the mat by the front door. So, we just bought her a second mat for the TV room. It'seems been quite a saga.... She had diarrhea on that, so out it went. Then she got an infection so we started using a blanket because she would shiver with a fever. She now seems quite attached to the blanket! Luckily we have two of the same for back up now. We just fold it up like a mat and put two or three of chew toys (nylabone, rope, and she has a "fake" pinecone) on it and she seems to settle down now (4 months old now). I feel as if this was one of the hardest things to train her to do. I would say she still only settles down when it is just family at home. We had family visiting at our American Thanksgiving and it was so frustrating because they kept commenting on our "wild dog." We had only had her one month basically!
