Hi there, this is my first post so apologies if this post is in the wrong place and a little long! We picked up our gorgeous Poppy (10 wk black lab) on Saturday morning. We have 4 kids (aged 4 up to 18) and 3 cats but have had a good start with our little lady. She is toileting (mostly) outside, sleeping well (mostly) in her crate and is very receptive to food (we use around 25% of her daily food as treats during the day...) We've taken her out for sensitisation to shops etc and she's not fazed by people at all and she's quite relaxed in the car (as you can imagine with 4 kids we are in and out a lot!)... Having read Pippa's book cover to cover and spoken to lots of people but at this stage I'm not entirely sure how long we should spend 'training' with her and whether at we just need to get her comfortable with us all. We use a tether (long) lead out in the garden when she goes to toilet as its pitch black and very dark - is that okay or are we potentially causing problems later on? The rest of the time should she just be restricted to kitchen/dining room/hallway (hard floors) but free to wander - rather than trying to get her to 'come' should we just look at the basics? Any absolute newbie tips would be very much appreciated!
Welcome to you. You are doing great! I would train 5 minutes or so 3 or 4 times a day - they enjoy it and so will you Teach 'come' and her name asap - but only when she's already galloping towards you to keep up the success. I always restrict my pups to the room I am in until they are completely reliable for puddles and chewing things - in other words a long time lol!
Welcome to you and Poppy from me and one year old Choccie lab Mabel. Sounds to be as if you've made a fantastic start. I always kept Mabel in the same room until she was completely reliable. These early days can be so tiring, they pass so quickly though. Enjoy your little puppy, I did the KC puppy foundation course which I thoroughly enjoyed, It's not for everyone, but you may want to give it a go. If you haven't already got it I'd definitely read Total Recall by Pippa. I know it's so much more info to take in, it's such a good book which accompanies her other books perfectly. One last thing, do you have any puppy photos?
Hello and welcome from me and Lilly! Mags is a guide dog puppy walker and can tell you more about toileting in specific areas, but this is one thing I wish I had taught from the start - essentially having an area of the garden to use as a designated toilet area. I think being close to your pup and on a shorter lead and rewarding (enthusiastically with treats!!) when the pee or poop occurs in the "right place" rather than allowing a semicontrolled wander around on the long lead. Just my thoughts on it. Sounds like you are doing very well. Jac and Lilly x
Welcome to the forum! Sounds like you are doing a fantastic job I agree about consistently going to a specific place in your yard to pee/poop. Anything that will make things clearer and faster for those nights when it's raining and freezing cold! Short training sessions are good - a few minutes long. I agree with Mags that a few short sessions a day like that is great (but don't stress if you only manage one!). In reality you are training constantly though. Your pup is working out what gets her the good stuff (food, pats, attention, fun, comfort) and what helps her to avoid the bad stuff (no treats produced, being ignored, game stopping, tummy scratch stopping etc). Whatever gets her the good stuff - she will repeat this. Just gotta make sure the good stuff happens after behaviour you like (coming to you, peeing in right spot) and does not happen after behaviour you do not like (jumping up, biting). It's pretty much that simple. You sound well prepared so don't stress too much! Ask all you want here - there are heaps of current or ex puppy owners who are very friendly and happy to help.
Hello from Molly and me. I was you two years ago. Standing in a cold dark garden waiting for a dog to wee. Several short training sessions a day is best for both human and dog. They cannot retain too much at such a young age. And you will both get bored. We restricted Molly to the rooms with hard floors when she was a small pup, but effectively she just wanted to be with us.
Hello there and a very warm welcome! First day pup came home I briefed everyone on "the rules". Pup stays in the kitchen on a washable floor - and everyone is to observe the toilet training schedule - or else. Everyone to read "The Right Start" by Pippa.....NO dogs on the sofas, perhaps never in the front room at all, NEVER EVER upstairs, training schedule drawn up, NO-ONE IS TO ALLOW THIS DOG TO JUMP UP OR PULL ON HIS LEAD FROM DAY ONE - GOT IT?.....blah, blah, etc. etc. WE START AS WE MEAN TO GO ON! My old dad, who was staying with us at the time - and has owned many dogs - listened to my lecture in silence, then gave Charlie a pat on the head and said "don't worry, lad, you'll be on your back on the sofa within the week". And he was.....
Hi and welcome to the forum from me and Juno, my 18 month old chocolate girl. Lots of great advice already given. Juno joined us at 10.5 weeks old as 10 weeks is the norm in France where we were living at the time. I kept her restricted to the kitchen and entrance during the day as they were ceramic floors but allowed her into the lounge in the evening which was ceramic floor with a large rug, I found that after dinner, a play and a wee she was good for the evening and would settle on her nice comfy cushion but I had the time to watch her and whisk her outside if she looked as if se needed a wee. My intention was that she would wee and poop in one area of the garden, Juno however had different ideas. Have to admit that at 3:00 am her preferred spot was the better option . I used to take her out for her wee and poop on a lead and gave lots of praise for performing except in the middle of the night when I interacted with her as little as possible. Main advice is to relax and workout what works best for you and your family, They are puppies for such a short time , oh and we love puppy photos
Thanks for all the lovely messages and apologies for the slow reply - it's been a really hectic few days with work, kids and of course the lovely and adorable new arrival... I will try and get some more pictures up over Christmas but I cant seem to upload any - it says i dont have permission? T hank you again and Merry Christmas everyone!
HamburgerHill You can't upload photos direct from laptop/phone etc, they have to be hosted on a site like Flickr, Imgur, Photobucket etc. There's some information on the Technical & Help section of the Forum.
Sounds to me like you are doing a great job. I echo all above, short fun training sessions. The only thing I'd add is your puppy is at a good age for teaching a recall that is on this site but for the life of me I can't find it and I can't remember what Pippa calls it. I called it the The Fear of Being Too Far method but she has a nicer name. Basically you wait till puppy gets further than her comfort zone, realizes, runs back to you. While she's running to you call out your recall word. This is called Contiguity Training on Natural Behaviours. You'll do the same thing when potty training; wait for the action, give it a name. Shake on command is another one you can do this with, so your wet dog will not shake till you are safely out of the way. I did this with my first Lab puppy in 1993 and it lasted her all of her 14.5 years. Oban needed some refreshing when he got to be 18 months old but its fabulous for puppies and I had two who KNEW Come in two weeks of this, making them 9 and 10 weeks old. Somebody, help, what's it called on this board and where is it?
Hi All, Sorry for the lack of updates/photos it's been a hectic few weeks over Christmas and New Year. Hopefully now the kids are back at school and I am back at work things will get a little bit easier! I was having a look through the forum this morning to see if anyone had any specific ideas to help get Poppy acclimatised to being on her own occasionally...she won't be left often or for very long but as she's used to a busy house of 6 people I think we may have some issues if we need to leave her on her own... I work from home but the office isn't really puppy proof so I was hoping to be able to leave her in the kitchen (where her crate is) for a increasing length periods (starting with a few minutes and maybe going from there?) Does anyone have any suggestions on this?
I did this with my two. I work from home and so they're used to me being around all the time. It's great that you are working on this before you're forced into a situation where you have to leave her. I work in the living room, where the dogs spend most of their day. But, I started moving to another room for a couple of minutes and gradually increased that time, until I could be in there for 30 minutes to an hour without any bother. I would also pop outside the front door for a few seconds, and gradually built that up, too. That was more stressful for them, because they knew I wasn't just in the next room. When I started this, we only had one puppy, Willow. When we brought Shadow home (litter mates, but we brought him home at 14 weeks, and Willow had already been with us for 6 weeks), I had to go back to square one. You'd have thought that it would have been better for them having each other, but Shadow was even clingier than Willow was, and hated being left, so it really did mean starting over. It's certainly something that it's good to start on earlier rather than later, but I also found maturity has helped my two. We've worked on independence from each other with them from early on, and Shadow found it really difficult to be left completely alone (for example, with me taking Willow out, when DH wasn't home) at first. Persistence has paid off, though, and at around a year of age, he suddenly seemed to accept that it wasn't the end of the world to be left alone for an hour while I was out with Willow. Which is great, because I do a lot of training with them separately and it was a pain to have to arrange it around my husband being home to stop Shadow stressing! Of course, I'm not suggesting doing nothing and waiting for Poppy to grow out of it, because that may never happen. I believe it's maturity alongside the early training that makes them laid back now.
I found something in Pippa's book (the excellent Labrador Handbook) about the click for quiet method...will let you know how we get on!
