My wife, my daughter and I love our new puppy (14 week Lab-mix) and we are all spending time with him. We all agree that he should be well trained, but we each seem to have our own agenda and I don't think that is a good thing. As a result, we are running into some conflicts. For example: 1)Right now, the focus is on crate training and house breaking and we are making pretty good progress. The puppy likes his crate. He often goes in the crate on his own. When he goes to the bathroom outside the house, we give him a treat. When he has an accident inside, he does not get a treat. This seems to be progressing well, but we are also training him to sit in the house. I'm concerned that if we give him treats in the house, he will get confused and not understand that he needs to hold his bathroom activities until he goes outside. Is this a legitimate concern? If so, how do you get around potential conflicts like this that can confuse the puppy? 2)The puppy is jumping up on the garbage can. We are telling the puppy "no," and the puppy complies. At that point, do we give a puppy a treat? I felt that treating him like this might actually encourage him to jump up on the garbage. 3)My wife takes the puppy out for a walk. She tells him to sit at the curb and he complies. She gives him a treat for sitting. Before she started doing this, the puppy only got a treat outside for going to the bathroom outside. Now he is getting a treat from some other outside behavior that doesn't involve going to the bathroom. I'm concerned that this will make house breaking more difficult. Is this a legitimate concern? If so, how do you get around potential conflicts like this? Thanks so much for any advice.
Regarding the possible toileting confusion, I wouldn't worry as your puppy will only associate the treat with what happened immediately before. They dont think "an hour ago I got a treat for weeing, and now I got a treat, maybe I should wee." Regarding the rubbish, i would try to secure it out of the dog's reach. I know I wouldn't trust our dog alone with the bin and it is just easier if he can't get to it most of the time. We have trained "off" which means front paws come off whatever they are on and he gets a treat when all four paws on the floor. I dont think this has resulted in more counter surfing. If anything, he has improved quite a bit. Others will probably have much more informed advice than me! Good luck with your puppy.
I suggest that if he tends to jump on the garbage or something else every time he's near that thing, reward him for not jumping on it even before he does. Maybe put him in a sit/stay first, too. And if you're spending for example 3 minutes fiddling with the trash, drop a treat every 30 seconds or so that he doesn't jump. That's worked well for me when I'm searching through the fridge and all my pup wanted to do was lick the top of syrup bottles on the bottom shelf. She's now learning not to stick her head in very time I open the fridge - the only good things that come from the fridge is when she keeps a distance (I also moved the syrup just in case).
How would the dog possibly learn that? Treats and reinforcers are not just about toileting, they are for any time there is a desirable behaviour. They reinforce the behaviour which preceded them. Whatever that behaviour is. Reinforcing one behaviour (sitting) does not de-reinforce another behaviour (toileting outside!!). Otherwise how would we ever train anything? Is reinforcing a dog for walking at heel, de-training your Down because if a dog is walking at heel, he is not lying down??? There's no logic to this concern at all. Reinforce what you like, wherever it is happening. This is one for prevention. 'No' doesn't mean anything. It does not give the puppy any information about what you would like him to do instead. And this is only going to work for as long as you are standing there, supervising every time the puppy is in the presence of the garbage can. What happens when he gets bigger and stronger and is able to knock over the garbage can? What about when you start to go out and leave the pup, perhaps when he is older and no longer crated?? That garbage can will end up all over the floor, and the contents of it inside your puppy. Any situation where you find you want to say 'NO' is usually a situation you need to be using prevention, in. Prevention is the hidden 50% of force-free dog training. If you prevent unwanted behaviours long-term and 100%, the dog will no longer attempt them even when the opportunity presents itself and you are no longer preventing them... So: The garbage can needs to be barricaded off, or placed in a different area, or a chair placed in front of it etc etc. Any interest in it should be pre-empted and redirected to a toy.... And under no circumstances should dog be left free in the room unsupervised, with the garbage can... See 1) above. This concern is really illogical. Reinforcing one behaviour does not de-reinforce(!) another behaviour.
With training a dog it’s kind of there opposite to what most people think. You teach them what TO do, not what you don’t want them to do. For example and as mentioned above, if a dog jumps you teach it to keep paws on the ground. If it’s stealing socks, you teach it to steal a toy it can have. Sounds simple doesn’t it. Lol.
