Hello all, My name is Stu, and my girlfriend and I are the very proud owners of Brody, a yellow lab. He is 11 weeks old, and as we both live and work in Germany was from a local breeder to us. He is a male and quite boisterous, and was one of the biggest from the litter, so will be a big boy My profile pic was him yesterday, and will add one below. I have had dogs in the past when i was a child, and have grown up with Labradors but Brody is our first dog, so is a bit over-whelming at the moment! He is about 2 years coming as we researched, and had waited until the time was right. We have 3 months off between myself, girlfriend, and family so he will spend the first 5 months of his time with someone training and socialising him 24hrs a day. The plan after will be to leave him for short periods in the morning and afternoon, as we both work 5 miles from our home. As for our first 2 weeks with him? Well....we had the howling, protesting at night over the first weekend but he is settled now and we are both experiencing a full nights sleep Mothers blanket wrapped in a hot water bottle worked a treat, and the obligatory ignorance of his howling worked. Not an easy weekend though! House training is going well, and easier as we have tiled floors throughout the house, and baring a few accidents, he is very good and will sit by the door. Even as i type this he has just walked and "pawed" the door asking to go out. Still has the odd accident, but hopefully these accidents will become less. We are following the guidelines in Pippas books on training (2-3 times a day), and exercise (10-15mins a day with him) and enrolled in a puppy school every Saturday morning. Although, we are now looking for another one as last weekend he wanted us to "pinch and pull up" Brody in front of his rear legs on his belly and we refused. We don't want to reinforce commands with punishment, and as such are now looking for a new class and trainer Quite disappointing as was recommended to us, and also we were both looking forward to the class. As for training, he is a quite a smart puppy. Need to generally read more about the training, as he is good at sit, down, and can do a short stay but recall as expected is not great. Sometimes first time, other times he looks at me like i have 3 heads Still not sure on the high value treats as this i guess is a trial and error thing. At the moment i have little chunks of chicken, but need to experiment. I know he is young so we have low expectations but as he will be a big dog, we want to do training now early with him. We are now going to start getting him used to us not being in the room for 15mins or so, and going to use Kongs. Aim is to prevent the separation anxiety in 3 months time, and build him up to being left for a few hours with something to keep him occupied and tired out. He is currently in the living room, and as soon as he is left alone (to shower, cook food, etc) he starts the howling. Difficult is trying to not reinforce that behaviour and even harder is ignoring it! So for the last few days we have introduced Kongs with mixed success. First time was when we got him, and i had pre-filled with kibble and yoghurt and froze it and he was bored after 5mins and left it. Presuming as he so young his attention span is not long. Last few days, i didn't bother freezing and just pre-filled part of his morning kibble meal and natural yoghurt and he loves it... just now trying to find different alternatives, and will build up to the frozen Kongs. Might need to do a search in the forums on it as he struggles to get the contents out and gives up. Anyway, i am blethering on Just wanted to say a hello and introduce myself, and give a where we are at with Brody. No doubt you will hear more from me in the forums! Thanks for the advice on the forum, it really is a great site and pleased to be a part of it. Cheers. Stu
Welcome to the forum! Brody is gorgeous. It sounds like you are both so well prepared and are doing a great job with his development. What a shame that the class didn't work out - I hope you find one that uses kind methods. Hard to believe that anyone would teach the use of pinching or anything like that these days, isn't it. I'm sure you two and Brody have many wonderful adventures ahead of you
Welcome to the Forum,you sound like you are giving Brody a brilliant start,he sounds like a really lovely ,clever puppy and I'm glad you are enjoying him so much.It can be difficult finding the right puppy classes ,I hope you find one in which you are more comfortable, I can sympathise totally.Where I live in Dubai there isn't a great choice of classes and for some of them I've wanted to attend I've had to be the person refusing to do certain things to my dog...whilst I have no problem with this...it's not the most comfortable situation....Play Around with your kongs,you are dead right about him giving up due to his attention span,,,as he gets bigger and possibly a more determined chewer the frozen ones will come into their own....If you can stand a bit of mess ( course you can ,you own a Labrador ) try putting a few tasty treats ..or even kibble in cardboard toilet rolls / kitchen roll...Dexter my dog used to play with those happily when he was little. My dog is nearly 3 now,he's a yellow working line lab,our first dog too x
Thanks. Yeah we were a bit shocked to be honest and not what we were expecting from the class. I also thought that this method of teaching was gone. We are socialising him now with a list of experiences he has to do so main reason for the class was the interaction with dogs but we will find a different school, just puts the timing back. Saying that, he was far too over-exciting during the first lesson... a bit too much for him i think!
Thanks for the reply, and yeah the good thing about the mess he just licks it up again! Mind you, only thanks to tiled floors, and not sure how we would cope with carpets! As class, we refused as well. Sure we will find another one
Hi and welcome! Brody looks and sounds like a lovely wee pup and you were obviously well prepared for his arrival. Well, at least as prepared as one can be when a lab pup comes crashing in one's life! We also subscribed to the "treat wrapped in cardboard and taped up" form of puppy entertainment. Worked better than any toy
Welcome from me too. Brody is a lovely looking dog. Watch out for the cardboard though. After a while any cardboard box is fair game!
Hi and welcome from us, Hattie 7 years and our rescue lad Charlie 4 years. Enjoy Brody and the forum. Unfortunately I can't view your picture of Brody x Helen x
Thanks for the tips on cardboard... he is currently gong crazy for the Kong and keeps it going for about 20mins. As you said Kirriegirl, as prepared as you can be! Not sure why the link or image doesn't work. I have this link Helen as well if that helps. http://s1198.photobucket.com/user/stu_innes/library/Brody
Hello and a warm welcome from me and my two dogs . What a grand puppy he is, sounds to me like you are doing all the right things for your boy, he is truly lovely . One piece of advice is , enjoy every moment of his puppyhood , they grow up far too quickly
Hello and welcome! Brody sounds like a lucky boy to be with such a conscientious owner. I wouldn't worry too much about him getting bored with the frozen Kongs at this stage. You could either just take them away from him once he's given up and try again later, or maybe give him one that's only half-frozen, so it defrosts more quickly - so get it out half an hour or so before you want to give it to him so it's started to soften. What size are you using? I'm sure he'll get the technique as he gets a bit older. There's a post here (http://thelabradorforum.com/forum/need-help-with-your-labrador/labrador-puppies/5323-stuffed-kongs) which gives lots of ideas of things to stuff with. Sardines are an established favourite here, but a new favourite is just plain mince of different varieties, which is great because I like to feed as much raw meat as I can. I'm sure you'll have plenty of questions as time goes on. Do you have Pippa's book Total Recall? It may help with your recall issues - until your recall is firmly proofed, you should only use the cue when you're absolutely sure he's going to return to you, otherwise you run the risk of ruining the cue. I had a bit of training with my two a few days ago, and the trainer gave me a great recall game to play. Her view was that you don't want to necessarily encourage your dog to run to and stop at your feet (not early on, anyway) - you want to encourage the activity of accelerating towards you. If you ask them to stop (and sit) by you, they'll always have the brakes on. So, the game is this. Take ten largish treats, five in each hand. Throw one a little distance from you in one direction. Once he's run to eat it, he'll eventually look to you to see if there's another coming. When he does, turn and throw one in the opposite direction. Repeat for nine treats. It won't take him long to realise, as soon as he's had one, to turn and run towards (and past) you for the next. On the last treat, feed him by you (opening your arms will help bring him to you). The next step is to do the same game, but with a "bowling" action. So, you step with your left foot and throw with your left hand. Then, as he returns towards you, turn, step with your right and throw with your right hand. Repeat until the last, which you again feed by you. You should notice him accelerate as you take that step away from him. This is what you're after. Repeat the game, this time with your whistle in your mouth. At the point you step, you also use your whistle cue. This will make him associate the acceleration towards you with the whistle. A final step is (once you've organised everything in your hands!) to whistle earlier and use your clicker at the point he accelerates. Just be careful not to do too much of this in one go. It's highly energetic and, done too much, could stress his joints, so one or two games at a time is sufficient. And take each stage slowly. This is supposed to be a fun game, not a boring drill, so don't be in a rush to progress. I've found that, since playing this for only a short while, my puppies (9 months of age) now run towards me with a huge amount more gusto than previously when I blow my recall whistle for real.
Hello from 20 month old (today) Molly and me. Congratulations on standing up to the trainer at your class.
Welcome to the forum. Brody looks gorgeous. I would second Kate's advice to enjoy every day with your puppy. All too soon puppy days are gone
Thought i had replied so if it this appears as a repeat apologies.... Thanks all for the kind replies. I love forums for these reasons, and the advice you get from it. Great to know you have like-minded people there with such helpful tips! I was just saying that to my girlfriend how he is growing fast, and before we know it will be gone. Sound advice on trying to enjoy every day! To be honest, we are both loving the training and be out with him. Already starting to look at what to do next with him.... man trailing, nose work, etc. Snowbunny - We have 2 puppy kongs (light blue ones). I think i will take your advice and freeze them and let them thaw out for a bit, and if he gets bored so be it, take it away and re-introduce it. At the moment we are using kibble/yoghurt, and yesterday i introduced a small amount of raw carrot chunks to see how he gets on. I don't want to give him too much as see how his stomach reacts to it. Already had the sticky link you sent as its brilliant! Definitely food for thought. High value treats is something we are experimenting with, and reading today it says i need something soft and smelly.... maybe cheese or frankfurter chunks maybe? I will try sardines for the kong but i hate fish but if it works then willing to give it ago... As for the recall, Pippas book just arrived to today so will start on that. Also will give your game a go as they sound great fun. Might have to wait until tomorrow as we had a short lake trip ( we live opposite one) and that i think was more than enough exercise for one day! I think i may have blown already my recall word "come". It started well but now he sometimes does it, sometimes doesn't and just sits and looks. Maybe a whistle is a better tool? Same goes for the clicker. I guess a lot of people are using them and we had also discussed it but were a bit weary about it as worried we would be out and about and forget them. Maybe sounds silly and maybe we need to start with clicker training as it sounds effective. Interested on your thoughts on clicker and whistles!
Hi there and welcome from me an Lilly! Stu looks lovely - a big boy maybe The clicker is great for training, and although I don't use either the clicker or the whistle often enough, I think both are great tools, and wish I had done more with them when Lilly was younger. Never too old to start though - or to teach older dogs new tricks. Good luck finding a new class that you like. jac
I started from scratch with both the whistle and the clicker. The great thing about the whistle is that it carries much further than your voice and is a consistent pitch, with no human emotion in it. It's very easy, when you're frustrated or worried for your dog's safety, for example, that those emotions can come into your "come" cue, which basically alters the cue and also the dog's likelihood to react to it. Would you go towards someone that sounded grumpy? Also, it's very easy to use a word like "come" in other situations where you don't expect a recall - such as, if your dog is sniffing at something, you could say, "come on!" to hurry them along. This can end up very confusing to the dog. Us humans do tend to chatter a lot, and it's very easy to mess up your verbal cues simply by overusing them in the wrong context. "Down" is a very common one - does it mean lay down, does it mean "get off the sofa", does it mean "stop jumping up at me"... The "language" of the whistle is only ever used when you are sure of the behaviour you're after, so it's far easier to keep it clean. I am in love with the clicker. Yes, you can use a word as an event marker ("yes" or "good"), but there is again the issue with the tone of your voice having to be consistent however you're feeling. I also think the clicker is a lot more accurate for timing purposes and, again, is a "language" of its own, so can't be confused with you saying "good" in other scenarios. Also, with certain scenarios, it's good to be able to use the whistle and clicker concurrently, such as in the recall game above, where you whistle for the recall and then click on the acceleration. These two things happen so quickly, I wouldn't be able to whistle and use a vocal even marker, or use two verbal cues. As far as forgetting these bits of equipment, it's very easy to get into a routine where you wouldn't. I keep all my general doggy walking stuff in a drawer, so when I am going out, I open the drawer and grab the harnesses, leads, whistle and treat bag (which has poo bags and clickers in it). However, I also do say "good boy" and "good girl" to my two, generally every time I click (I was worried that I was doing something wrong here, but it was a massively engrained habit, so I asked my trainer about it and she said it wasn't a problem in the slightest). It's not useful for accurate shaping, but for things such as walking to heel, recall, a sit yada yada yada, where I've already taught the behaviour, it's good enough for letting them know they've done what I wanted (backed up by a treat, of course). There are, however, a lot of people on here that use neither whistle nor clicker and do very well with their training, so they are not absolutely necessary. Edit: I thought of another issue with vocal cues. What if you have lost your voice (I completely lost mine for two weeks over the winter - my husband was avery happy man), or have a blocked nose? "Max, come" could change to "Magz, cub" and your dog doesn't have a clue what that means
A very warm welcome from Fred and me. Brody is so cute. You are doing a grand job with his development. He is a very lucky boy.
