Hi all! I'm posting this so I can look back at all the progress we make with 14 week old Chewie. He is a companion dog, but down the track we might look into dog sports as something active we can do together. Today was week 3 of puppy school. He is currently knackered and fast asleep on the sofa in front of the fireplace. He had already learnt sit, down and come here before today. We were super proud of him today because he was able to "leave it" with an open hand of kibble for a few seconds. A big achievement for such a ravenous boy. We think that learning to not get what he wants immediately and dealing with frustration will be really good for him. We are also working on his demand barking for food (see my thread in the puppy forum). This is related to my earlier point about frustration! He is a lovely boy. Most of the time!
Well done! For us the waiting for some kibble was so difficult to master. Harley would snatch and then I would pull my hand away which made the cycle worse. Also using a closed fist to let them learn to not take roughly. All I had was bleeding fingers. Those razor teeth! Sounds like you guys are doing very well.
The closed fist helps so much. I swear he nearly took off my fingers a couple of times! He is just so clumsy and hungry. It is literally 2 seconds of restraint at the moment. Our trainer prefaced this exercise with a warning that it would require patience. He still has a wee accident every 2-3 days but he will wee on cue most of the time when you take him outside. We managed to have dinner last night with maybe 1 bark. But he was pretty tired!
Yesterday was more puppy school. We did the intro to loose lead walking. He was a champ and actually lapped most of the other dogs. He had a little headstart as my OH has been introducing him to little loose lead walks at home. He barked a lot at puppy school. Over excited I think. Hopefully that settles down as he matures. It's not like at home where we can just leave the room and he gets the message to stop yapping! The barking at home is very slowly improving. He barked at me while I was cooking a bit (but not as much as he would have 4 weeks ago) and then we ate dinner in silence! Still feeding him his dinner while we eat, which works reasonably well. Also, no toilet accidents for a week!
Thank you! It's all him really. He seems to really look forward to training sessions and is so attentive for well... a toddler! The labby food motivation definitely helps a lot. He will do anything for a piece of liver.
We graduated puppy school today. We did a short walk this morning and he walked so well on the lead, except when we are crossing roads. He freezes in the middle of the road, almost like he is confused by the lack of a path. We have to pick him up every so often. Any ideas? We have been luring him with treats and praising when he follows us (which we are doing anyway). I had a massive scare though. I took him out to the park across the road and obviously hadn't done his harness up properly. He saw a little dog and ran for them, escaped his harness and both dogs ended up on the road. Everyone was okay, but I felt so terrible afterwards. And still feel a bit rubbish. Learning point: check the harness thoroughly before going out. We are hopefully signing up for a "manners" class with our very good +R trainer. It sounds exactly like what we need, aimed at loose lead/off lead walking and manners at cafes etc. Looking forward to that.
We have officially signed up for the "manners" class. Hooray! We really like the trainer and a lot of the class is practical and held out on the street and in the parks. AND it's a maximum of 4 dogs per class. My OH taught Chewie to "shake." Now he offers his paw whenever he wants something. Thanks husband! Of course he only gets rewarded for solicited paw-offering!
We've discovered that being outdoors is very distracting for training! I can get a sit, and get Chewie's attention when we are out, but he is far too excited to lie down. I try to go to the park during quieter times to gradually introduce distractions. He is generally quite good and walks on lead like a champion. I even got him to ignore two people who walked right past us while we were sitting on a bench. I may have been waving a piece of kibble at him. He seems VERY confused by crossing the street. We have been getting him to sit, treating and then using our "walk with me" cue. He either doesn't want to step into the street or stops in the middle and we just pick him up. We are planning to find some tiny quiet streets to practice on, maybe with higher value treats. If anyone has any tips that would be great!
Did some really good recall/off lead time in the park this morning AND his daycare carer commented on how great his recall is. I was a very proud mum.
Hi Chewies_mum. Well done - really enjoyed reading your updates. I love how you're focusing on all the positives so I'm going to try and take a leaf out of your book and do the same. Luna is 12 weeks now and has definitely improved in the 4 weeks that we've had her but all I find myself doing is getting frustrated that she's not like the dogs in the Kikopups videos which is hardly fair Keep updating us on Chewie's progress!
Hang in there! I found that it really started to get better at 12 weeks and the improvements seem to be exponential as they mature. It does help to look back at how they were just a few weeks ago so you can realise how much progress you've made. Even if they aren't like the pups in the videos.
Thanks Pippa. He is my first dog and I'm really enjoying training- largely because he is so enthusiastic and quick to learn. Labs are amazing.
Apart from barking, training is going well. We drove to a securely fenced dog park and had a ball. Brilliant recall and so much romping around. It makes me so happy to look at his little face when he zips around! He even recalled from other dogs. We are also both playing "its yer choice" with him. I was able to leave the treat pouch on the ground in front of him yesterday (closely supervised of course) and only half hearted mugging attempts were made. I'm using the clicker again, which seems to help with things like the self control exercises and clicking for calm behaviour, except when he is in frenzied crazy pup mode. Then it just seems to excite him more.
19 weeks today. Starting with the positives, we had a very productive trip to the park today. Unbeknownst to us there was a fair at the park. We did a lot of "look at that" with only minimal pulling on the lead. We then settled on a picnic bench and he stayed in a "down" even when some kids started jumping on the table right behind us. I also did some human training. I went for my first run since we brought him home. My OH pottered around with the pup while I ran. On to the not so positive... He had an accident in the house last Thursday. Oh well. He also peed on his outside bed today. I suspect today's accident is a combination of marking and not being sure what's okay, because it's outside and since he spends his nights in our room maybe he doesnt see it as a "bed" as such. Washing and drying it in winter is such a pain. I know he'll get there. And to be honest, I would rather have little setbacks with toilet training than have problems with temperament or socialization.
