We brought home pippi a black lab from a local rescue, last Friday. She's 10 weeks old and has been great! She got sit and shake and come (some of the time) on her first day! She's been doing well potty training. It's hard not to love her. Today though she's been a holy terror. Shes doesn't want to do sit, stay, nothing. No matter the treat or praise. Shes jumping like mad, is all over the house and whines when she's in her pen. She's napped once. She bit through skin on my five yr old. She's been so nippy, we can't play with her to burn off some obvious energy, it's been her mission to go for blood. Be a tree method I read in here seems to bore her to lose interest. Redirection doesn't work for long. On top of it off it rained so she's been much too interested in finding then playing in mud than to potty and had accident inside. She mastered the stairs last night and any chance she gets she's upstairs she wants to run from us and is avoiding us when we come towards her (she's smart and knows the chewing on everything in sight party is over). My question is what do I do? I love her, but whoa I realized today I have no clue how to handle naughty behavior, and wasn't ready for all of it to hit in the same day!
Hello there, and a warm welcome to the forum! It isn't naughty behaviour, it's just normal puppy behaviour. It takes ages to train them, so you've got a good few months of it to go - but, as we always say, it does gets easier. You just have to stay very calm, and consistent, manage her appropriately by using baby gates and crates at strategic times (not all the time, obviously) and get her into a good routine while she learns the ropes. Lots of treats and praise when she does what you want, just ignore unwanted behaviour. And it all turns out ok in the end. You might want to stop her using the stairs while she is so young, by the way, up and down stairs too many times when they are young isn't good for growing joints.
Thank you! I've been reading for weeks in preparation and theory is much different than actuality I didn't know that about the stairs and her joints. I've had her on schedule, this morning I slept in a little longer so we've been off a bit today and I'm wondering if that's why she's been more excitable. I've been reading through other posts, glad to know she's normal puppy. Now it's time to buckle down and ride out the puppy crazies. She's only had her first shots, how much do I need to limit her outside? She wants to frolick and go nuts outside, which would help her energy but I had read she shouldn't be out for long, so I've been stopping her snatching up and chewing grass and sticks and limited her to just potty breaks
Hi and welcome...from a re-learning owner; we've had dogs before, but its been quite a few years since we had a pup. Don't know if it will work for you, but Izzy was having periods of overexcitement and used to then charge round the room and come flying back and bark, indicating (to us at least) that she wanted to continue the behaviour. We have used the word 'No' followed by completely ignoring her for a Min of 30 mins. To be fair she is still learning, but over a week has really calmed down a lot during these periods when we use the word 'No' as she has come to associate it with a lack of attention. It might not be right for you, or what others do, but find its working for us. Good luck
Hi and welcome. Puppies are exhausting, but they're also funny and endearing and they grow up in no time so try to enjoy it. If you have a secure garden then yes, let her have plenty of time outside, it's good for her. (There is a study that showed that puppies up to the age of 12 weeks allowed to run freely on gently undulating ground had better joint health.) I would go out with her while she's small just to make sure she doesn't eat anything that will hurt her.
All three of mine were total crocodiles from 10 weeks to 5 months. This advice is brilliant and works! http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-biting/ I also recommend skinny jeans and tight sleeves for the crocapup phase. Enjoy your new bundle of fun!!
I'm with Joy, if the weather is nice, get out in the garden with her so she can explore, but not hurt herself/eat something she shouldn't. You can also have fun with some puppy recall and practice with her walking close to you. One other benefit is not having to watch like a hawk to take her out for a wee, but lots if praise for any wee that she does out in the garden.
I didn't limit my puppy's time in the garden apart from when I'd had enough of supervising him to stop him eating stuff! I did limit high impact games with humans, play time with older dogs, and walking time outside the garden but he could potter around outside as much as he liked. So he didn't get balls thrown for him repeatedly (I was pretty strict on that), if he spent 30 minutes playing with other dogs I didn't take him for a walk as well, and I roughly stuck to the 5 min rule for all exercise outside the garden (but I didn't have spaces outside the garden free from other dogs, if I had, then I might not have worried so much). I did not stick to the 30 min rule religiously though, and I didn't stick to it until he was a year old, I definitely relaxed as my puppy got to 5 or 6 months.
Thank you!! Great advice!! I'm glad I can let her play a little longer in the garden. She will be a happy puppy! One more! She seems nervous, as in yawns and pants, in the car (I take her with us to drop my daughter off at school, which is about 20 mins away) do I just keep taking her and she will get used to it, or should I scale it back to shorter drives? Thanks all!
Lots of puppies don't seem to like cars at first - we hear this a lot on the forum. I suppose 20 mins there and back, so 40 minutes, is quite long for a first experience. You could just try feeding her in the car, perhaps a kong or something. Then switching the engine on, then driving just a little way and building it up. If it's not a problem to leave her while you take your daughter to school it might be wise to take it more slowly (it is also good to get puppies used to being on their own without getting into a state although time alone needs to be built up slowly too), as when people do have a problem with a dog hating the car it seems to be a real pain for them.
Just in general, relevant to your car question - my trainer always says "if you are making things better keep going, if things get worse stop immediately and rethink". It's a good rule, because all dogs are different the best thing you can do is watch your puppy. If the puppy is getting better, less nervous, over time well fine. If not, rethink.
Hello and welcome!! Yup, it definitely sounds like you have a perfectly normal puppy there I just wanted to respond to a couple of things to add to the great advice you've already had. Don't think your puppy understands the cues you've taught after one day. Honestly, she doesn't. It's very easy for us to think that our puppy/dog knows what we want, and so they're being disobedient and headstrong when they don't comply. This article may help you to understand a bit about what we take to be disobedience: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/3-reasons-your-labrador-is-disobedient/ And some help on what we call "proofing" ... http://www.thelabradorsite.com/proofing-an-essential-part-of-labrador-training/ Finally, when you say she won't do the behaviours no matter the treat, it makes me think you might be bribing her to do the behaviours, rather than training for them. There's a subtle difference, and many of us get a bit confused about this at the beginning. This article might help, if this is the case with you (you might also be doing everything right and I've just picked up on something that isn't happening) http://www.thelabradorsite.com/my-dog-wont-obey-me-without-food/ I agree she shouldn't be allowed to run up and down stairs by herself at this age. Containment is your friend, so block the stairs off with a baby gate or something similar. When the time is right, you can train her to walk up and down the stairs slowly, on lead. For now, though, if she has to go upstairs, I'd carry her to protect those joints of hers. I don't know if this is a typo, but ignoring a puppy for 30 minutes is a bit of overkill. Ignore a puppy for 30 seconds and she'll get the idea. When I was training Willow bite inhibition, I'd allocate time to it, rather than being reactive to when it happened if I didn't have the time or attention to spend on it. So, I'd crouch down next to her and play with her which, at a young age, generally meant she used her teeth, as is normal with our little crocopups. As soon as she got too hard, I'd stand up (which is why crouching is a good position, because I could stand immediately - if you find that hard, sitting on a low stool would make it a bit easier), and turn away from her for a few seconds. As soon as she was calm, I'd initiate play again. Rinse and repeat. She very quickly learned that biting too hard (which, over time, became at all) stopped the game, but calmness made it continue. A few structured sessions of this was far, far more effective than responding when she did it from general puppy craziness. Most importantly of all, we need to see some more pictures of little Pippi, please
She's doing much better! As far commands she's doing much better and obedience is a work in progress as it will be for awhile . Standing like a tree or saying "ouch" and redirecting is working for her nipping. We got pen so she's not racing up the stairs any chance she gets. She's a biiig puppy at 11 weeks, so we are thinking there might be more than lab. She's grown like crazy since brining her home almost 2 weeks ago. She's so stinkin smart it blows our mind. I think that was the first day she felt really comfortable since coming to our home and was behaving normal puppy and I was being too worry wort to notice. She's been great! She Gets the puppy zoomies and is a bundle of energy which I look forward to the hiking companion I know she will be. Today she's a little tired from lots of activity yesterday (she's eating, drinking, going to the bathroom normally she's still very playful still just sleeping a little more, but if it goes longer than today I'm taking her to the vet) But we've settled into a schedule, she's so happy and affectionate. I'm a complete worry wort, being a new puppy mommy has me almost as if not the same as when we brought home our 2 human babies. So stay tuned for many more post I made an Instagram for her because I'm taking way too many pictures pippisadventures
There is no such thing as too many puppy pictures! It sounds like you're being a fabulous puppy mummy
@Aimgib Hi, It sounds like you are going through all the same stuff we are. I am a new puppy owner too, I thought Luna and I would learn together! There's a long way to go. I have to take each day as it comes. She seems to need lots of stimulation. We have had lots of zoomies this week and jumping up episodes after doing really well last week. I felt so demoralised on Monday night, she would not let me sit down without nipping me. Last week she wouldn't nip at me just the kids. I suspect my jumper yesterday was too long and flappy. I did the "leave it" training with her and that works a treat if I get to her just before the nip. I am worried that she is bored or under stimulated so I took her out for 3 short walks yesterday and made sure she had a Kong as well and last night was a hit better. But we seem to have entered into a new phase. Not sure how to deal with it. Like you say, she is so clever, when I am doing focused work with her she picks stuff up really well, she has learnt the leave it, and sit, and comes back to me when I click. But the jumping up ahhhhhhh. I guess I have to keep going.
How old is Luna? I need to get a clicker. Pippi seems to have an independent spirit, I'm thinking the clicker will help her grasp what's being asked of her. The puppy kindergarten we are going to has clicker training. Which I'm going to need as I have no clue how to use clicker. we have days when's she's extra nippy, like today. She loves plaid I guess? Leave it command is a work in process, sometimes it's just too much temptation to not mouth it. Pippi loves to chew bones (no worries I did my research on the good kinds and the not good kinds and Im only giving them when I can supervise and be near). I was able to practice yoga, with her beside me. She sat next to me, sometimes on the mat with me, the entire time. Which is pretty remarkable for a puppy. Especially with me being so close to her space. I thought for sure I'd get tackled. chewing those and her Kong seem to burn some puppy energy. I think at the end of the day though, I'm much more tired than she is. I wish I could siphon that puppy energy. Jumping hasn't been terrible, but I'm sure we have time. For now her greeting is to just throw her body at our legs/feet and lean. Although today when I sat near her, she climbed me like a billy goat to lay over my shoulders to greet me, which was different.. And not something I'd want her to do in a few months. Hopefully she doesn't try that again. When she does jump, she jumps up on my son (he's 5). What do you do for jumping?
Luna is 13 weeks. That is amazing about the yoga, which bones did you end up choosing? I though about ordering a clicker too actually. This week I have spent a lot of time standing like a tree. This morning I think we have made progress. I have been wearing my gardening skinny jeans and old jumpers and just standing while she jumps at me then gets bored becasue I am not playing. Then at puppy class the teacher was telling me to hold my hand low in front of her face with a treat while walking on her lead, praise her and say her name. Then give her the treat. I say "yes" when I give her the treat. If she jumps up I say "uh oh" and move the treat away from her. This is all to keep her from pulling on the lead but I think inadvertNtly it helps with the jumping to as she gets a treat when all 4 paws are on the ground. Work still required with visitors but I need to train all visitors to stand like a tree I think. I did up the kongs this week and I git a puzzle off amazon which she has to open sections to get treats out! I think I will use that late afternoon which seems to be witching hour for everyone!!!
