Hi Everyone, We have had our new black Lady Lab Perci for 30 hours now and all going fine and she seems like a really great dog. Our first dog so we have been prepared reading all the good advice on this forum. Amazing source of knowledge, thanks for all these contributions. I have 2 specific questions: 1. When we crate our dog during the day, she settles down really fast when empty and tired. However, we have no sense how long she will rest for until we have her wake up and start making noise. It has been between 30 minutes and 2 hours during the day. Similar at night but there I will now set my alarm and wake her up hopefully before she wakes. But what during the day. When she makes noise, I normally, wait until she is calm before approaching and opening the door? Am I doing this right or am I teaching her that noise gets attention? 2. When we go out into the yard, I would like to train her to use her potty spot. so far she prefers the yard or lawn. Neither I like. But as she has not really learned the leash, I struggle to have her stay in my preferred location until she does her business. During the first night she did it within 30 seconds, but in the yard next to it. Should I use a leash or what is the best way to teach her one specific location. PLUS how to I get her to stay of the lawn, short of knowing she is empty before letting her on? thanks for any advice in advance! best, T
Hi, on the crate training I have gone and reread Pippa's and Jo's article which are both super helpful. The night sessions have been relatively straight forward, as Perci settles quickly on the return to the crate. I need to ensure to get up at the right time so to avoid her waking before me. Have also changed the day time routine, in as much that we have put her in the crate for short duration, sitting next to the crate and ignoring her. Crate time btw 5-15 minutes max. Which has worked surprisingly well. When she does falls asleep, we then quietly open the door so she can exit when awaking. Not sure if that is what to do, but she once decided she would stay in the create longer. I guess we also underestimated the value of the Kong, so tomorrow the Kong will be introduced. So far we used treats and a bone which she loves to chew on. the outdoor potty routine has been a disaster in the sense that she feels the whole yard is "in play" for her. We started introducing the leash in general but not yet for potty training as she still bites the leash if she can and gets quite distracted. Once the leash is working better, I hope to then limit her to our preferred area until she does her business. Not sure if it will work. I also always say "Pippi" when she does her business (recall reading it could become a future trigger) and try to make a big fuse (likely could do more here). Not consistent on giving her a treat as well. Would that help? I have not yet introduced the clicker but would that actually help my efforts and how would I break down the training? hope this makes sense and keen to see if anyone has some suggestions on how to improve with Perci. Best, T
Hi, thought I update those who take in an interest in my progress. the outdoor potty routine has ended up being much easier than anticipated. I took the advice from an old book and simply made the potty in the target area a five star reward. Now that changed things dramatically. we are now at 75%. when we go out we go in that area first. the other 25% are due to being in the wrong part of the yard at the time the bladder calls. then she still gets praised but the reward is of much lesser quality. the crate is also progressing fine. We added a play pen for periods during the day so as not to confine her to the create too much. Unfortunately we don't have a puppy room so this is the best we could do. but she likes it less. I read we should not let her room the house early on and instead keen her mainly in the pen or crate. Nights are like a charm. She calmly went from 1am until 7:20am without any noise when I came to take her out. We wanted to keep the first feed somewhat random in terms of timing in the morning which can be though though on her. But again she seems to adapted even if she does not like it. I am working on may other things of course like sit, recall (based on Pippa's book), leash manner, etc. I have learned quickly to break things down into smaller parts and it generally makes the learning curve for both easier and frankly steeper. in that spirit Best, T
The complement to this training is to use a house line whenever the dog is supervised. In doing so, one doesn't need to attach a lead to do potty training because the house line is already on the dog. One can prevent to dog from going to another area in the garden. Just stay in your area designated until your dog toilets. Remember dogs don't like urine running around their paws, so make sure the designated area is not a hard surface.area Excellent. It's okay to leave the door shut. In doing so, you prevent her from getting into mischief if she should wake before you. Although there is no precision, I have worked on the rule that a puppy can hold its bladder for one hour for each month of life. Hence the question about the age of your puppy. Your puppy should be able to hold her bladder for about 2 hours. The figure is less when the dog is awake. So during those times frequent potty trips are needed.
thank you, Michael! What exactly do you mean by "house line". Is that simply a different leash which stays on the puppy through the day? I ordered another thinner, longer retriever leash which I want to leave on Perci for periods during the day so that it becomes second nature. I have also started basic leash training to help with compliance. Gets better with each session. Again, using treats as lures to solicit behaviour. The issue is that once Perci has done her potty and we let her roam the whole yard where she then either goes again somewhere else or was outside long enough to trigger a second event. I try to monitor it but not so easy. last 24 h we are back down to 50/50%. I am concerned we are conditioning her therefore that she can use whole yard despite the higher award in the target zone. Equally, I do not want to monitor the whole time when in the yard. I guess it is a matter of persistence and time. Related question. How much access should the puppy have to water throughout the day. we do control it, ie not always available but whenever we take her out she can have all the water she wants at the beginning of out door session. from 7:30pm we remove water until morning. best Thomas
Hi @TEE Thomas House line link https://www.amazon.co.uk/Company-Animals-Puppy-Assorted-Colours/dp/B005TFNPK8 She wears it while you are there to monitor and supervise her. Try to put urination and defecation under cue. When she is doing it, say wee (whatever word you want to use) when she finishes say Yes and then give a treat. It might help to keep a diary for now. You might notice a pattern. At this stage puppies do need to pee and defecate quite a lot--little or no control. So you have to be taking her out regularly. Have the treats on you. You can try giving jackpots when she goes in the target area. One treat after another--say three threats. Just one treat when she does it in the non-target zone. I never restrict the amount of water, except for the proviso mentioned below.. My dog can drink as much as she wants, whenever she wants. I have a large water bowl over an old newspaper to catch the drops. I can understand a puppy might want to explore the water. And for that reason I wouldn't have a bowl in her crate. But since we humans can't ask her how much our dogs want to drink, I wouldn't restrict it at other times. I just keep a check of how much she is drinking. I realise that toilet training is a busy time but it will soon settle down.
Michael, thanks as always. I got myself a longer thin retriever line which is not quite the same but close. will try that for a few days and then will switch to the recommended house line if no success. As far as putting her under cue, how long do I need to do that bevor I can actually apply the cue? Best, Thomas
Hi @TEE Thomas you will be using capturing as the training method. So say the cue as the stream of urine starts. You can have separate ones for urine and faeces. I have two cues. Or use just one word. When flow of urine stops, or she finishes defecating, then say Yes and give a food treat. Do that for many repetitions. Maybe 20 to 30. Not sure, if that will be the right number. Depends on your dog, and you as a trainer. In any case start to see whether you can get the cue in just before she begins to urinate or defecate. If so, you're on the home straight. Then try to get the cue in say one second repeat. Then two seconds before. Then 3 seconds until you have the behaviour under cue. Don't expect immediate compliance. Her brain has to hear the cue, process it and then communicate with the bladder.
HI Michael, sorry for the late response. Let me start with saying how grateful I am for yourself, Jo and others offering advice to all the questions in this forum. when we have questions it is so comforting to have a place to turn to and ask. I seem to learn on every thread I read. so thank you. as for Perci well she is growing fast and we are making good progress. Capturing as described above seems to work, although today I said Pippi a bit early and she stopped and looked at me. I guess she wanted a treat my newest issue is that when we are outside taking a walk, and we live in the city, she is to distracted to do toilet breaks. there are simply to many smells. Hence I am trying to limit these walks and go more into nature. it also helps with the leash drill. The other issue is that she has at times started to ignore me a bit. So I am shifting in giving her attention and ignoring her. I also call her name to often... funny so much to learn, but a fun ride so thanks again T
Good to hear. You got it. Don't break the flow. Let her finish before marking and giving a treat. Do a bit of both. Change the destinations for a bit of variety I don't fully understand. Can you please explain what you are doing? Indeed it is.
Michael I noticed when I am to focused on doing things with her she starts ignoring me particular if she is in a familiar setting. Hence I try to either make sessions shorter to keep her attention or walk off and in turn ignore her. I noticed that she does then come and check on me, which I praise or reward. Not sure if that makes sense. best, T
