So I know that training, certainly more modern training, focuses on rewarding/reinforcing good behaviour and ignoring bad. We are managing fairly well with this approach at the moment, and can usually distract or ignore until he does something good, then we reward. We have taught a pretty good ‘drop’ for stones and such, a ‘leave’ which is in its early stages, and sit, gentle etc. But I was just wondering, if he gets a bit carried away, which seems to be around 7pm (I know about zoomies etc), what is the best approach if it can’t be ignored, ie he puts himself at risk or begins to do more damage than we can ignore? Is distraction best? A ‘no’? What constitutes ‘punishment’? Buddy is very good on the whole but with the nightmare adolescent stages approaching we are keen to be well prepared. He is fully crate trained and in a good consistent routine which really helps, just didn’t want to get the bad (I know it’s not really bad) beaviour wrong, thanks!
Hi just had to send an encouraging message to say"well done" to you and Buddy,he seems to be running along very nicely,learning fast, especially with the drop command. I would love if my Isla would do that!
Hi I agree you are doing really well. Very occasionally we put Mason in his crate for a minute or two to calm down and we tried brain games hope this helps
They often do seem to have a mad period in the evenings - my OH calls it 'happy hour'. I feel the best way to cope is to plan in advance for when you know the dog is likely to be like this and start some sort of activity. This could be a short play/training session - I often do trick training in the early evening as I'm very laid back about whether we actually master the trick or not so it's stress-free all round, and actually Molly loves it. Or it could be an extra short walk - or with a puppy even just standing on the front step watching the world go by. Or it could be giving the dog a chew or saving some of its food to put in a kong or plastic bottle. I hope this helps a bit.
Thanks! Tonight it was a frozen plastic bottle ha ha! Yes we thought this might be best, I think I’ll try some training around this time now we know his routine, and/or a walk when he’s allowed out, hopefully these things will work, thanks for your input
Well done on training the 'drop' and 'leave' - make sure you always reinforce these great responses, so they stay strong! (I like to have a few treats in my pocket at all times, with pups!). Yes, the majority of puppies will have a crazy-time. Usually in the evenings. When they race around the house, leap on and off furniture, terrorise any older dogs around and seem unable to hear you or engage with you in that state of mind. This isn't about the puppy being disobedient, and we don't want to 'discipline' or punish them for it. They would be very confused by this. They are just feeling very excited and happy. So - what to do? Firstly, anything that involves licking or chewing will naturally calm puppies and dogs down. So having some pre-prepared stuffed Kongs, in the freezer, to whip out at times like this, helps loads. You can stuff them with wet dog food, raw mince, mashed banana... You can crate the pup when you give them the Kong. It's important not to do this with anger or with the attitude of 'right, that's it - in your crate...' (like a child being sent to their room), because the crate isn't a place of punishment. But if you just calmly grab the puppy and gently deposit pup in crate with a Kong, it won't be experienced as a punishment. By the time the pup has finished the Kong, they are usually in a different state of mind and able to come out and be calm. Lastly, it can be hard to get hold of puppies when they are whizzing around the house like this and a puppy may just love the game of chase which ensues and be even more encouraged to run around, by it! A puppy house-line or tag-line is really a great and cheap tool which has many uses. This being one of them - instead of having to grab bitey and over-excited puppy, you can just grab the line itself. Clix make a 2.5m puppy house-line. Hope that helps!
Great thanks very much! All good advice here. Yes we have been very careful not to make his crate ‘the naughty step’ so he’s always fine going in there. And yes we are expanding our reportoire of chew toys etc, so we’ll be sure to get these out at his crazy time, thank you!
