Hello everybody, l am Raj Soni from Mumbai,India.Father of a 6m28d lab,Emmy.She is super excited at times.I dont know if I missed something in the introduction,please let me know. Ohk so Ill get straight to my problem, Emmy came in my life when she was 2m. I was all happy and overwhelmed ,everybody here can relate as they know what its like to welcome a puppy. I welcomed her with drips of sweat all over me. Thats the amount of nervousness I was carrying on me,the time she first got home. As I was First timer I didnt knew much about pet parenting I read many things from this forum itself and some videos to And thought to myself about how I would raise a perfect pet. But due to some unforeseen events in my life everything turned upside down. Few weeks after I got her, I met with a road accident.I had some severe cracks and other injuries so i was advised a 2months period of bed rest. Everything about my plan to raise Emmy into an amazing pet fell off ,for me. When I was in the bed-resting period, I did had someone to play with her and feed her but training and teaching and developing good habits were totally overlooked. Everything was in front of my eyes,I could see her developing bad habits but i was helpless and couldnt do anything about it because of my physical condition. Bed resting period of 2 months passed and then it took me sometime to completely recover. And here I am. But I dont want to take it any further. I will mention those habits that she developed over the time and request you to please suggest me some methods. 1.Potty training- As she developed a habit of letting herself out on my floor,since there where times when No one at my place. 2. Climbing on the bed- When she was younger ,a fluffball of cuteness. Also the time when on my bed resting. I often used to play with her on my bed,over the time she grew up and it took some time to realise that this could be something that would later trouble. There are some others but I am working on it and I can see some progress but the 3 mentioned above are coming up very difficult for me. Since the habits are strongly developed. Its very challenging for me. Can you please help me in my plan to raise her into a dog I planned for. I totally consider myself responsible for it as well as blame myself for everything but i want to make things right with me as she was never in a wrong place. Thank you for reading if you still are.
Hi @Raj Soni Welcome to the site. Sorry to hear about your accident. 1. Get a house line. Attach to the dog. She wears it while in the house. 2. Get a crate made from metal. 1. About 10 minutes after every meal take her out to the same spot in the garden. Use the houseline to take her to the spot. When she urinates and/or defecates, say Yes (I dont know whether yes is a short sounding word in Hindi). And give a treat. The food treat should be no bigger than the fingernail of your smallest finger. Everytime she does potty in the garden say yes and treat. You will have to take your dog often during the day to the same spot in the garden because she has developed the bad habit of toiletting inside. 2. Find the folder on this site on crate training. There is an artcle by Jo Laurens, that specifies all the steps of crate training. https://thehappypuppysite.com/crate-training-a-puppy/ It will take some time to do,since your dog had had too much freedom. The crate training help to deal with the toilet training, and the issue of the dog getting up on your bed. But it will not suffice. Use a food treat as a lure for getting off the bed. Only give the treat when all 4 paws are off the bed. Attach a cue to the action, when you are certain the hand action to get off the bed is understood by the dog. Good luck.
Be sure you clean your floor really thoroughly and use something which has enzymes in it, to break down the smell of the pee. Dogs have powerful noses and if a place smells like a toilet (to them, not us!) they will continue to go there. You can use biological laundry detergent diluted in a bucket of water but be sure to really clean and scrub everywhere she has ever toileted. Then, like Michael says, put a house line on her when she is around the house always and take her out frequently (every hour at first) to the same place in the yard. Give her a treat outside, immediately after she has toileted. If you want to do this without crating her, you will need to anticipate any toileting she might need and really take her out to the toilet place before she needs to go. More frequently is better than less: Once she learns that she gets a treat for going out there, she should start to save up her pees to get them outside... where she earns treats... If she has a strong history of getting on the bed for your attention and play and nice things, it is going to be really difficult to prevent this if she has access to the bed. I would suggest putting a stair gate on your bedroom door and considering the bedroom the 'dog free' zone. She can have her own nice bed just on the other side of the stair gate....
Thank you Micheal and Jo for your valuable inputs. I religiously followed your instruction and after all these days I am finally able to achieve some kind of success while potty training her. Though there are few accidents but I guess that wont last longer. And the thing regarding the climbing on my bed. I am working on that too. Though I am yet reach a point where she is completely trained to not to climb on the bed. I had a question, So how can I put a bandana on my dog. She gets super excited when something like bandana is around and the only thing she want to do is tear it apart. How can I make her a not do that and be calm around something like a bandana etc???
Good to hear. You must still keep up the training. So that going outside to toilet truly becomes a habit. . Hmmm. I have never had this question before. Follow the training steps set out in the video but substitute a bandana for the collar. Fold the bandana for the training of this exercise so that there is nothing flapping around in her face. Some dogs hate things that touch their muzzle and area around their eyes. Please take it off when she is not supervised in your garden. I would not want your dog to be caught up on the branch of some bush. I'm intrigued. Do you mind telling why you want your dog to wear a bandana?
I would wait until she's not a puppy any longer, puppies just want to play crazily with everything and everything is a toy and amazing... If you wait until she is a bit older and calmed down, you will likely be able to put one on her no problem. Glad the toilet training is better!
Well, Micheal and Jo thank you so much again for your advice.I guess I'd put the whole bandana plan aside for now. And wait until she is a little bit mature to not tear stuff up. Correct me If I am wrong but that wont be until she like 15 months to 18months old,Right?? Also, I wanted to get help regarding an issue with her behaviour.So lately,when my mom comes to our living room (where usually me and emmy play),at first she greet her by going to her and as soon as my mom sits on the couch she climb on the couch and try to pull my mums hair. And it get out of control some times. So I was looking for a way to avoid such situation.Please help me. I am wondering ,whether i am the only one with so many issues with my dog. Kind of make me realise how bad parent I am!! Thanks in advance for your answers.
You are not a bad parent. You just have a student that needs a fair bit of training. And is young and immature. With a good deal she will wear a bandana. It sounds as if your dog is wanting to play with your mother. But has no idea how to do so appropriately. Use the house line to prevent your dog from getting on the couch. Give your dog an alternative cue that is incompatible with hair pulling and such. Specifically, your mother tells the dog to sit and stay. If the dog stays, she gets a treat from your mother.
I think you need to decide 1) where the dog is allowed to be and 2) what behaviour you will encourage in the dog. Dogs are not very good at being allowed to do something one day, and then not the next day. In other words: Sometimes allowed on the couch, and other times not. Or sometimes allowed to bite your mum's hair, and sometimes not. (You might think biting the hair is ok - unless it gets too much - but this is hard for the pup to understand. Easier that playing with hair is just not ok.) Instead, it is better to have one consistent rule: Being on the couch is always ok, but biting mum's hair is never ok - for example. Once you have decided what is ok and what's not, then you need to put things in place to prevent the stuff you don't want. For this type of thing, I suggest getting a 2.5m Clix puppy house-line and leaving it clipped to your pup's collar all the time you are supervising, so you can take hold of the end of it and gently disengage the pup and redirect the pup onto something else (ie a tuggy toy for example) which satisfies the same urges in the dog, but is acceptable. If the pup is very persistent and wants to go back to the thing they are not allowed to do, then keep hold of the line to prevent the pup reaching your mum or her hair, and keep preoccupying her with another toy on the floor. Foster the habits you like, and prevent the habits you don't like....
Hello everybody, Its been a while that I posted anything on this thread. The reason being everything was going smooth. I followed your suggestions and now there is no biting at the hair. My mum and Emmy play along together with making it a problem for anyone. But today I am back with another issue and its great since the input I get here always solves the problem for me. So this time the issue is Emmy, my dog picking up stuff from the ground whenever we are on the walk. Sometime when I try to intervene in this dirty act, she drop it but sometime she is so quick to chew it and swallow that It almost get impossible to know what it was or to get it out before she swallow it. How can I solve this problem, Micheal and Jo. Please guide me
You need to teach your dog to drop. You need to always have tasty treats on you to reinforce. The dog eating the thing before you can take it away, is a form of resource guarding or keep-away - she eats it because she views you as a threat, coming to take away her valued item. She wants to have it before you do. You need to teach her that you are not a threat and that she must co-operate with you to release the item. Here is a great video to follow from Chirag:
Does your dog retrieve? We teach all of ours to retrieve from a very early age so everything they pick up, they bring straight to us. It has resulted in a huge pile of random retrieved objects in the summerhouse- mainly plant pots, twigs etc! Out on a walk, if they find a piece of manky dead rabbit, they rush straight back to us with it. However precious, or discusting the item is, every retrieve is praised profusely and pups are given a treat. We have had some rather random things brought to us including a chicken burger, a kebab and some KFC bones! Not bad for greedy labradors
