Hello! Bonny has now been home since Saturday and yesterday we cracked "sit" and "lay down" HOWEVER. She will only lay down or give paw (haven't cracked that one yet bit mostly) when we give her a treat or are "bribing" with chicken *whoops* How do we stop that? Also - I put her lead on the other day so if she wriggled on the short walk to my aunts (to socialise with her lab) and tried walking her to the end of the garden with it on but it was a definite no go! She just sat and wouldn't move!! Night times are still good, she's getting up once through the night for a wee but to be fair, we do go to bed around 9pm as we have young kids who are early risers! So she sleeps from 9-6 with one wee. Also - we have so far had 2 wees in the house - she is good at taking herself outside when the door is open but when a closed she doesn't have a clue! How do I get her to "ask?"
Re: Lead? And training treats? On the lay down without using chicken - it sounds like you are luring her (nothing wrong with that at first). You need to shift away from a lure to a cue (a hand signal is easiest). Here's a video to get you started (don't let the title "stay" put you off - the trainer teaches sit down stand first then adds the stay, so what you need is towards the start of the video where she fades out the lure). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk4PPcE1CqY She doesn't know how to walk on a lead. The best thing to do is teach her to walk alongside you first, without the lead, then add the lead once she knows what "walking with you" is all about. Pippa has an article on this here: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/clicker-training-heel/ Before you have taught her to walk nicely, it is best to use something different - like a harness - when you need to get somewhere and aren't training and say a collar for training. Open and closed door when house training - a dog needs to be completely house trained before it will "ask" to go out. If you are just letting her trot out on her own, and not going with her to reward, then yes, faced with a closed door she will just wee on your carpet. She won't ask for quite a while yet. Complete the house training, when she has a strong desire to go outside, she will start "asking".
Re: Lead? And training treats? Thank you for all the advice!! I am louring her I suppose into the position so will need to stop that! I think I'm expecting miracles on the potty training side from the sounds of it Puppies are more complicated than they seem!!
Re: Lead? And training treats? [quote author=LovelyBonny link=topic=8081.msg114153#msg114153 date=1412192908] I am louring her I suppose into the position so will need to stop that! [/quote] Nothing wrong with luring, it's very effective - just transition to a hand signal cue as soon as you can. If you are just holding out the chicken and saying "sit" then, yes, that's a bribe.
