We have an 11 week old pup he's been with us for 3wks now. He loves his crate and sleeps well with one toilet stop overnight which I have pushed on to 04:45, he will sleep then till 07:30ish so I shouldn't be grumbling! Recall is good, but he is sooo excited by treats that everything descends into chaos. I've been working on sit (taught our previous dog easily) I'm at risk of losing my fingers every time, he does end in a sit sometimes, but there's no real control & he's kind if frantic. He's a biter & I'm hoping this will improve, I always have a chew toy to hand but I'm a mass of scratches & ripped clothes just now. We're booked into puppy classes, but they don't start till he's 20wks. Any advice? Thank you.
I’ve been there. I started by using fairly low-value treats and giving him a few to take a little bit of the edge off. Then we worked on “watch me” and “wait” first before sit or anything else. At first he got the treat for just barely glancing away from the treat and towards me (with watch me) or moving his nose even a fraction of an inch away from the treat (with wait). We built up until he was able to sustain eye contact with me with a treat held out beside him. We did this A LOT. Developing impulse control and ingraining the knowledge that good things come from putting his attention on me has been vital to accomplish anything else.
When a pup is so massively motivated by food, why on earth would you remove that from your tool kit??
