I wanted to ask the group two training questions.. Open to all thoughts and suggestions! Stairs: Emmy really doesn't love going down the stairs. She will sit at the top of them and even with a harness and a leash she refuses to come. I am not pulling her down as I don't want to do the work for her, but I am speaking kindly and offering treats as she goes down them. Sometimes she has no problem with them and will run right down them. But I've noticed that she will sometimes just sit and look at me. Walks: How do you train your pup to keep walking even when they see another dog or a person? She is so excited to see people/dogs that she will stop and just wiggle her butt! I want to train her to keep going, but I do not want to deter her from loving other people/dogs. Today we went out and practiced running, which was a slow jog. She did OK with not being distracted, but it always involves a ton of treats. I would love to hear what has worked well for all of you!
Guide Dog pups need to be very confident on steps and stairs. Mollie wasn't - she'd just sit. My supervisor said to take her to the stairs and give her the opportunity to go up, but not to coax or persuade her. I did this for seven weeks and suddenly, one day two weeks ago, she put her paws on the bottom step. Then she started to go up three or four and stop (I carried her the rest). Now she will do any stairs even open tread ones! I was really surprised and pleased. My other four pups didn't have an ounce of trouble with stairs so this was a new one on me.
I'm just back from walking my 17-week old Luna through the village. It's a ski resort and it's half term, and I chose the busiest time of day to take her. We were practicing not talking to people. She is super friendly and wants to say hi to everyone. So, at first, I was just distracting her with treats, but this isn't a long-term solution. So I moved on to letting her make the choice to pull towards the person, but I'd just stop and not let her approach. I had to tell people to ignore her, too, if they started to approach her. If she turned back to me, she got a stream of treats. If she didn't after a little while, I'd make a kissing noise to get her attention, and she'd get a single treat. It really didn't take too long (I was out for about 25 minutes) and she was looking towards me for treats instead of the people. Even when she saw my husband walking towards us, she looked at me for treats until I told her "say hi", and then she became all sorts of silly with her bum wiggles I always have Mags' wise words echoing in my ears - don't let your puppy practice behaviours you don't want her performing when she's a full-grown dog. Most people don't want a big dog to come and "say hi" on the street, so she doesn't get to do it now, as a puppy, unless I tell her she can.
Our house has stairs, so the issue with Wuki was exactly opposite. We just wanted him not to rush on stairs, and always had him on leach when going up or down. He now waits for me to go up most of the times, but sometimes when he is too nervous, he just goes up to the kitchen to attack the trash can... :/ Crazy dog! Fionna, i work more or less the same way as you're explaining. But people at my neighbourhood are very dog friendly, so most times i say to people "just ignore him, cause he needs to understand he can't jump at people", they make it even worse saying he only wants to play and start petting him, and allowing him to jump up. I guess i have to train the humans first! hehehe
When Ella was a puppy she would stop, wiggle, bounce and lunge when people were near us on walks. All I wanted was for her to keep walking with me! To start with, I did the complete opposite and taught her to sit and wait while people walked past. So, as soon as I spotted someone walking towards us, I moved to the side, asked Ella to sit and heavily rewarded for calm behaviour. After a few months this became second nature so we began to try walking calmly instead. It took a long time but now, in most cases, she's fine
You HAVE to be quite abrupt with them. You can come across as a bit rude, but it gives you a chance to explain later, if you choose. So, I'll put my hand up in a "stop" sign and say "Don't touch the puppy!" or something similar. It normally causes them to stop in their tracks, at which point I can say what I'm trying to achieve and why - and what they can do to help. Most people are more than happy to help out with training, as it makes them feel useful. You just have to build up the nerve to potentially put people's backs up in the first instance.
Well it's ok to do that to a stranger, but to "cross the street" neighbours... And we have a neighbour with a big lab, and he did not train him at all. The dog is quite calm and does not jump too much.
I do it to anyone, including friends and random acquaintances. It's fine; they'll look shocked but then you say why you're doing it, and they are happy. Asking them to help out, for example, ignore the puppy while you have a chat and when he's calm, you tell them it's ok to pet him; that's the best of both worlds, because they help with your training and they get a puppy cuddle. I had someone in the street this morning who I've used this tactic with previously. She hadn't met Luna yet, but the first thing she did was ask me if it was OK to say hi. It works
Training other people (especially strangers) seems to be harder than training the dog. My role model for drawing the line in the sand and sticking to it is my friend in Germany who has a chihuahua. She is adorable and in addition is a "store" dog, so spends the day with my friend in her clothing shop. Whether in the shop or on the street, people are always wanting to pick Fine up, which is strictly verboten. My friend calls her an "offroad Chihuahua" in the sense that she is tough and rugged and should be treated like a "real dog" and that means that no one is allowed to pick her up but my friend. If Fine goes for a walk, her feet are on the ground and she's moving - she's no purse dog. The reason she is my "tough love" role model is that she is absolutely adamant that no one picks Fine up and has to be really aggressive about it sometimes, even to people who are very nice and mean well. She certainly trained me - I knew Fine for two years before I worked up the courage to ask if I could hold her and was granted the privilege. It backfired on me around Christmas, though, when I dogsat her for a few days. It was snowing and she didn't want to go out, so when I put on my coat for the evening walk, she ran into her carrier. As I've been taught so well to treat her like a big dog and not just forcibly dig her out of the carrier, I finally gave up when the usual "Hier hin" didn't work. When my friend collected her, I told her that Fine apparently has an amazing bladder because for 1.5 days she didn't go outside to wee and dove in the carrier if I put my boots and coat on. "Oh yeah, she does that to me too - she just hates the cold," says my friend. "What do you do then?" I ask. "Well, duh - I just turn the carrier upside down and shake her out of it!". Um, so much treating her like a big dog. Sorry, that was off on a tangent. I swear that story had something to do with training your dog in public when I started.
I'd also love to know how to get George to DOWN stairs. He's afraid of them, and will either a) refuse to try, or b) launch himself off suddenly, and rush down the steps, almost tripping over himself repeatedly. (He can handle the 4 steps to our house, but not the 10 or so at his training class, or other staircases we come across in public). We've tried coaxing with treats, walking right in front of him so he can't rush... any other tips? Is this something that will come more easily with age, when he has a bit more paw-eye coordination? I know pups shouldn't be doing a ton of stairs, but he's getting to the size where I couldn't help carry him down if I tried!
That's what I've been trying. Having her sit and rewarding the calm behavior. Glad to hear that worked for you. I guess I just need to give it time. If I think back to my first week or two, she would refuse to go in her crate. I slowly trained her to go in and to wait to be released. And now she loves her crate! So I guess I need to apply the same concept. Patience and consistency!
Yep, we actually got to the point where we would see someone and Ella would automatically move to the side and sit down, waiting for her treat! Ugh, the two hardest things ever.
Stairs....when they're ready they will do it. Like swimming and fetch and walks. One day they won't and the next day you wish they couldn't, just like kids. We humans give our animals time lines based on our expectations. It's not a big deal. For example, my wife thinks Duggan should walk with her cause she's a walker and a jogger. As someone said earlier on a forum who is the walk for? If it's for the puppy then who cares how far or if he sniffs everything. An affirmed confident dog will time line favourably. Just let the process occur naturally.
Lucky was scared of stairs when we got him at 7 months, and we lived in an apartment without a lift so he had to go up and down them every day. I tried coaxing him and luring with treats to begin with, but I think he felt under pressure to do something he was scared of, and just needed to take it slowly. So, I would put a treat a couple of steps below him and said "go on go get it" and then was very quiet and calm without putting any pressure on him and gave him all the time he needed to go down and take the treat. It took a long time to go up and down every day! Maybe this would also work with a puppy? I do the same as other people on the street. Usually I just stand still and wait for him to redirect his attention to me, then give him a reward. He does this pretty quickly by himself now. If it's a really exciting situation for him, I make a noise to get his attention or lure him into a sit facing me and not looking at the other person, and give him a treat every few seconds. I find if he's looking at me, it's easier for him to control himself then if he can see the exciting new person.
Stairs - if they are solid its probably just getting use to knowing they wont trip etc if there are gaps they can see through some dogs even adults arent sure about them and can take a while. Coming away instead of stopping when walking - we go to dog obedience and when we were in puppy classes (and now its just normal) but you get there early and find a spot and just get you dog to sit and wait calmly and meet and greet others but with everyone moving about when you get the chance getting a sit (and rewarding with praise) does let them learn how to contain excitement - and not to let them get too excited when meeting others. During the class they need to focus on us and ignore the other dogs (yes we correct them and use food to keep attention) but in puppy classes at the end they taught us to let them socialise then call them away and then go back. That training has helped immensely - I just say come on when walking and the puppy just heads off where we are going. Older dog who never had that training is a lot harder to move on if there is a dog behind and will keep looking back.
