A not so long time ago in a galaxy not that far away... Here's Wuki!

Actually i'm giving the treat before he gets up. If he gets up before expecting i don't give the treat.
But what you say, makes pretty much sense!

So, Stay (only once), signal, treat (i'll try to stop repeating the command).
Question, if he's not sitting, i ask him and he does sit. This seems pretty much controlled, but how often should one keep "treating" him on previous learned commands?

Same question for Down, plenty of times he will get up, i'll have to say Sit (because I'm not teaching a direct down yet), then lure him to get Down and say down. But when i say sit to go to the Down command, should i give him the treat for sit, then for down?? Will this confuse him (for sure is confusing me... hehe)?

I mean... Sit is working wonderfully but i don't wanna loose it! Heheh...
My idea is this, and please correct me if i'm wrong... I want to teach Down, so i ask for sit, then teach down and then treat. But in between repetitions, i ask for a Sit command, and treat him for the Sit. Does this make sense?

Thanks in advance!

 

I keep treating for a long time. I want to build up a history of the behaviour being reinforcing to get what's called a trained response. If you stop giving a reward, then the behaviour will lose its value to the dog, and so they'll stop doing it. Now, that's not to say that I treat every time I ask my dogs (coming up 2 years of age) to sit. Over time, the rewards change. So, a "sit" may be the start of a chain of behaviours, at the end of which they get a treat. Or, their reward may be that they get to have a play. Or continue walking. Or go through a door. Or even be given another cue which gives them the opportunity to earn a treat.

Think of it this way. You do things because you get rewarded for them. You do your job, you get your salary. You cook a meal, you get to enjoy it. You tidy your house, it looks nice and neat. You do something for someone else, they give their thanks which makes you feel good. The behaviour itself may not be rewarding, but we get some sort of gratification at the end of it. If you are constantly doing something for another person and getting nothing back, then you'll pretty soon get grumpy and one of two things will happen - you'll stop performing the behaviour (probably doing it sloppily a few times before giving up completely), or you'll have a word with the person you're doing it for and demand your reward.

Dogs are just the same. They do the things they do because they get rewarded or punished. Scientific research shows us that it's preferable to teach using rewards than using punishers (as you could easily imagine if you apply the same thought process to yourself). If an action gives them neither a reward nor a punishment, it will extinguish (disappear) over time.

 

At this stage of training, I had taught a "default sit". This means that, if the puppy wants something from me, they offer a sit, without me giving a cue. If they want to come out of their crate, I wait until they're sitting before opening the door - and close the door if they break the sit before I tell them they can come out. The same with their dinner, with treats, with going through doorways; they have to sit without me asking them to before they get what they want. This is a really easy thing to train, and you can view it as your dog's way of saying "please". It's great for their impulse control, too.

So, all I'd do is sit in front of the puppy on the mat, and they'd sit automatically, trying to work out how to get their treat. From there, I could start the training for the down position.

You don't have to train down from a sit, though. You can train it from a stand, too. In fact, the more variations you do, the better, otherwise you can find that your dog is standing and you ask for a down, but he doesn't understand because he's always done it from a sit.

 

Great info Fiona! I liked the default sit idea.

Thank you very much!

 

Second Vet go (first since Wuki came from the breeder).

The Vet says he's really great, not fat not skinny! That's great to know since he's only on Kibble, and some small treats.
He took the second Vaccine (primo multi) and internal de-worming. He was really courageous, didn't cry, and was really nice to the Vet and nurse!

The vet also cleared him for Baths, and external de-worming so... To the Tub this weekend!!!!
BTW, she advised a physiologic shampoo, do you guys recommend any for puppy Labs?

Interesting, i had to go to the car get the vaccination bulletin i forgot, and he stayed 5 minutes with the Vet. When i arrived, Wuki seemed so happy to see me, despite having someone with him. He greeted me with lots of kisses (and then a nasty bite to my thumb)... I guess this means we're bonding, right?

Vet says we need to be patient about the biting. Nothing i didn't know...

Oh well...

 

Not a spaceship but plenty of buttons! MC Wuki in the house!

 

So Wuki has to stay a couple of days in a dog hotel, because we are going to a family meeting and have nobody to stay with him (and the hotel does not allow dogs... ). We were advised by the Vet to give him the Canine Cough vaccine, and for security put him the chip sooner.

He took the Vaccine 2 weeks ago, and the chip today with the second primo doze. Wuki is a champ, didn't cry, kept really calm. The vet was astonished such a little lab was so brave! I'm really proud of him...

Anyway, he is almost turning 3 months, so he is twice as big as when he arrived. Here's the last pic i have, took it just yesterday! You can see how the paws are longer and the face thinner. He is now weighting 15 pounds, he's maybe a little on the thin side, but the vet says he is quite fine, and as labs are concerned it's better that they are thinner than fatty...

 

Wuki is beautiful

 

Oh Wuki, I love your ears!
I felt rotten the first time we had to put Pongo in kennels overnight, but he was absolutely fine and didn't mind it AT ALL.

 

Thanks!
Yeah, i'm a bit nervous how he will get along those days.

But lets see what happens.

 

Hi there,
I'm just stopping by to say Hi,I was away from the Forum when you joined us...Wuki sounds wonderful and is a little cutie ....how did he get on with his little stay in the doggie hotel x

 

Hey hey


..

 

Hi folks!

Thank's for the concern. The Hotel stay went really fine, he came a tad havier, but it was ok because wuki is a little on the thin size! Got reall

Meanwhile, we noticed he has a little crest on the skull like a mohawk! I really don't care if it stands out from the Pedigree, and it even makes us distinguish him from other dogs, but my question is if it might be more than cosmetic? I'll try to take a photo for you to see.

 

Hey guys. If you read the other thread about house training, we are having a bit of a stress with Wuki on this side... Anyway, we're getting a bit of a rough time, and I'm even considering getting some help from a trainer and a sitter...

But anyway... If you remember some posts ago i said we were thinking about him going to the garden. We're getting a home Kennel, and a wooden dog house, really well done stuff, and nicely built. I was having second thougts about this, but we talked to the vet, and she said he would be happier in the garden than secluded in a room of the house in a small crate or pen. And we have the space, it would be idiot not to use it.
We want him to be happy, the place is clean, we live in Lisbon and the are has really nice temperatures! Minimum temp at winter are around 12 Cº, and maximum temp in the summer is 35 cº but the kennel will be under the outer staircase, like a big secluded porch. The option of the kennel is so that he doesn't get to the rest of the garden wich has a bunch of plants that can make him bad. The vet said the kennel is better than having him always with a line, wich can make him a bit aggressive.

The Kennel is modular, so at this point i'm making it 2X1 meters while he is still small, and then we'll expand to 2x2m and then later making an even bigger space.

Anyway... Good stuff now...

As you know he's a bit on the thin side, but he's growing. The vet said again that it would be worse if he was heavy. And it would be a source of worry if he didn't grow, but he grew a lot, and gained weight from 6 to 10 kg in about 1,5 months. So steady growth and weight gain is more important than tables and such, she said.

Diahrreas come and go. We changed food, got better for some time, but then he got it again. We started a threatment with special food for diahrrea, we'll see how it goes. The Vet isn't very concerned because it was never too liquid, but i believe it doesn't help with house training.

We started walking Wuki in the street, he pees outside but prefers to poo in our garden (or in the pen... ).
We took him to the village, in a party day, lots of people there that wanted to touch him and pat him. He was really calm about it, quite cuddly with children, always well behaved. Even in the middle of the mess of people and other dogs and music noise, he obeid to my commands.
BTW... If you're not at easy with the girls, get a Lab! Girls get simply mad with a cute small lab. And they like the big ones too, so... Not that i need it...

I didn't teach him much more things, i'm still working and proofing Come, Sit, Up, Down, Stay, and the ones he learned by himself - Home and Bed. But it's going great, proofing to the point where he answers to commands in the street even with distractions (dogs barking, cars comming and going, kids in bikes, cats... everything is an opportunity to try him). Sometimes i need to repeat it a couple of times, but not always...

Finally... Bitting still goes on, but he's really WAY more carefull with us, and the children. Kids get to play with him with no problems now, and nastier bites didn't happen in a long time!

Anywway... Thank's for your time, from me and Wuki!

 

What a lovely post. I'm glad things are generally going well for you. You vet is right, it's better for dogs to be on the slim side than heavy. My boy Shadow was always on the skinny side. At two years of age, I think I've now got him a good weight, but it's taken a lot of time, and careful management.

As for where he'll be happier, garden or in a separate room isn't much of a choice. As I've said before, dogs are social animals and need to be with their humans. So, as much as a pen or a kennel is fine for every now and then, the majority of their time still needs to be spent with you. Temperature isn't the issue, it's social interaction.

I'd love to see more pictures of Wuki if you have some

 

He will spend the same amount of time with us. Unfortunatelly the limit is really the time we can be with him rather the place itself. But all in all, he seems very happy with us, kids are interacting a lot more with him and even my wife is getting along with him more and more. He also responds well to commands from her and the kids. He is knowing his place in the family in a very natural way, we're not even bossing him too much. As most teachings in this forum and the site, and expect for biting, we've used as much positive reinforcement as possible for the training.

 

Hi Lab friends!

I was able to take some photos of Wuki wile seeing the game! We're Benfica fans and Wuki was our Lucky charm today!





Sorry for the bad quality, the phone camera is crap... :/

 

Cute photos!
Glad to hear things are going well.
Not the first bloke to work out Labrador puppies are "chick magnets"
He looks really comfy in that bed

 

Hey guys (human and labs)...

Wuki is getting bigger, stronger, but at the same time kind to all members of the family and other people.

Remember we had some diarrhea problems, these are now mostly gone since we did the threatment, and then changed to Royal Canin Maxi Junior. Thats expensive as heck, but if we buy big sacks online it is worth it.

He just got the Rabies vaccine anf behaved like a champ. The vet is quite happy with him generally and she prefers him to be skinny than fat... But man he is getting bigger...

C ya!

 

Hi Friends!!!

Wuki is getting bigger and bigger.
Here's a new photo, eating a bone in the kitchen:


We went to the beach a couple of days ago, but i didn't take the photos from the camera yet. He really liked the sea, and took a little bath but it was too cold to stay, so he got out and didn't even try to swim.

Meanwhile, he's loosing a lot of teeth, and bleeds a lot from the mouth. The vet says it's normal, due to biting with the teeth that are falling, but i was wondering if that happened with your labs? He also eats the teeth when they fall, some i can grab before he eats them, others he is too fast...

Anyway, we started to put him small amounts of time in the garden kennel. He seems to like it. He now has all his meals there, and stays a while there after eating. The longest stay he had there was 3 hours in a row, one day i had to go out for awhile but when i arrived he was really calm chewing is cloth ball.

I still don't have him sleeping out because we still don't have the dog house. I bought him a wooden dog house and it arrived completely broken, so it went back. I'm also thinking about keeping Wuki inside for another month and wait for him to be a little older, like 6 or 7 months, and keep him accointed with the dog house and kennel. The Vet said the longer the transition took the better!

Meanwhile, he behaves a lot better around us than before. He's calmer with the kids, rarely bites (he is now more interested in nipping my clothes than my hands) and he doesn't bite heels or legs anymore. Kids can play with him, as long as plays don't get too messy. That pic was of the family having a meal, all eating happilly at the table, and Wuki was taking care of his bone. When the bone is over, he sits and waits for scraps (i give him kibble, apples, raw carrots, small banana scraps, all stuff that i read are ok for dogs, always in small amounts). We cook a lot with onions and garlik so we never give him our food.

Wuki is stronger, beatiful, still a bit crazy sometimes, but it's really fun to have him around! I really think our family was not complete without him!