Hi guys, In a almost a month I will get my pup and I want to know the duration and frequency of the trainning sessions, that you usually have with your puppys. I know all puppys are different but it's just to have an ideia.
When my puppy was brand new, I would do two or three "training sessions" of about a minute to two minutes every day. But, in all honesty, most of the useful things that I trained early on weren't through formal sessions. The biggest, most important thing you can do is develop your relationship, making it so the puppy gets a huge amount of reinforcement for being with you through play, food, cuddles, whatever she likes. The more you can work on this relationship (and I do mean work on it, rather than just taking it for granted that your puppy wants to stay with you, because that won't last!), the better and earlier your outcome will be with regards to walking nicely on leash, recall and general attention around distractions. Turn meal times into interactive sessions rather than plonking the food in a bowl on the floor. Flick the food across the floor for her to chase, and then wait for her to jump back into your lap before you flick another piece. Hide it around the room and help her find it. Use a snuffle mat for her to rummage in to get the food (you can buy or make these). Drop a few pieces on the floor for her to eat, take a couple of steps and, once she's eaten the food, call her to you - when she gets to you, clap your hands and make a fuss of her, then drop another couple of treats, take another couple of steps. Anything like this will tire her brain out, fulfil her emotional needs and make you just amazing to her.
A lot of thanks, i'm very nervous about the new puppy. And the worst part at that the 2 weeks after the puppy arrives I have to work for two weeks out of home and i'm not going home so the puppy stays with my parents they take very good care of the boy but it's not the same
Just to wish you lots of luck with your new puppy , I`m sure all will be well when he is with your parents and you can then carry on building that bond when you return !
Thanks, my parentes take good care of him I know and my mom will spoil the puppy with a lot of play and cuddles and everithing
Make sure you socialise, socialise, socialise. The period is short from 3 to 16 weeks of age. It's crucial and can be overlooked. Your parents will need to carry it out while they are looking after him. Basically means lots of new scenarios, people and animals, where your puppy has a good time. If he shows any discomfort, then create distance and in steps work back to the object that he was fearful of. Treating when he shows calming signals. Good luck.
The proviso being it's also really easy to over-face your dog and sensitise him during this period if he is a sensitive sort. Throwing a puppy into a huge variety of new situations isn't the best approach for every puppy. If your puppy is showing any signs of fear/nervousness/discomfort, I would not try and work him back to it - I'd get him out of Dodge. The majority of pet owners simply don't have the skills to move slowly enough to effectively counter-condition their puppies and are at risk of doing more harm than good by pushing it too quickly. Removing him from a situation is far easier and will build trust in the handler. Look at your puppy and decide what is the best socialisation and habituation plan for the individual. Some are party animals, some are more cautious, just like us.
Further to above why not try the Queensland (Australian) RSPCA SOCIALISATION CHECKLIST PDFhttps://www.rspcaqld.org.au › media › files Regards Michael
I can't comment more than my experience with Harley but I can speak to how a secure attachment works for humans. So I want to suggest a good connection and bond with the handler will allow future new experiences to be handled with more confidence. I am not saying don't socialise your pup but I think what @snowbunny is saying is incredibly valuable. I know that when Harley was younger she is kind of in the middle of the line between super confident and very timid and shy. But that also meant that she had the potential to move in either direction. I can say this in hindsight now. We followed the recommended checklist but we also had a very experienced trainer who gave great support in the beginning. She didn't work directly with Harley, because as a young pup there was no need but there was a HUGE need for us to be calmed down and directed. Good luck.
I am in agreement and disagreement. There can be an issue of moving too fast. And I'm not a fan of flooding. But I've seen too many severe problems when dogs have not been socialised. If one is not sure of how to do it properly, consult a dog trainer. The benefits far outweigh the cost of several consultations with a dog trainer, who knows about socialisation
If you look back through my historical posts (I'm not expecting you to, life's too short, so just trust me on this one ) you'll see I've done pretty much a 180 on this. I used to preach what so many other do "socialisation is everything!!!". I think that can be dangerous; I'll go as far as saying I believe the dangers of over-facing a sensitive puppy far outweigh the dangers of under-socialising a confident one. And I think most new puppy owners, through no fault of their own, just don't understand their puppy's body language well enough to make that judgement. Habituation and socialisation must be done at the puppy's pace. That means it's the puppy's choice whether they approach a person, a new surface, something wobbly, a sign swinging in the wind, a sheep etc etc, and so often that's not how it's done. We carry our puppies in our arms (which we should do until they're vaccinated, of course) and we walk straight up to these things. People walk straight over to us and stick their hands in the puppy's space. Enough, I say. Bring the puppy to the environment and then, without coercion or "encouragement", let the puppy choose whether or not they want to interact with it. Let's stop forcing our puppies into these situations in the name of "socialisation". But that's just me. All other opinions are also welcome
I'll expand on that slightly, where I've said "its the puppy's choice" to say that, for those confident puppies who are the life and soul of the party, they also should be learning at this stage that sometimes they don't have that choice. They can be denied the chance to say "yes", and that's a hugely important lesson for a bold dog, but you should never deny your puppy the opportunity to say "no".
Hi snowbunny, the dog owner has a small window to easily encourage the fearful or timid puppy to see the world through a different window. I would be saddened if a new owner kept their timid puppy away from new circumstances on the grounds that some owners who did not know what they were doing, poorly nurtured their puppy. As I said, hire a good dog trainer to advise you if you don't know how to it properly. You say the cost of over-socialisation outweighs the cost of under-socialisation. Your emphasis is on the point that owners don't know in general how to do it. My point is different. The benefits of socialising your puppy properly far outway the cost of not socialising your puppy. My emphasis is on the point that if it is done properly one will avoid a lot of heartache. Get a dog trainer to help you. Suss out a good puppy school. Dealing with a fearful dog that was not socialised as a puppy can be a nightmare.
As can dealing with a puppy who is fearful because they have been over-faced and sensitised to stimuli. Desensitisation is far more difficult than habituation. Dogs can be habituated at any age, although people would like us to believe it's not possible after 16 weeks of age which is, quite frankly, absurd. However, fear responses learned in early life cannot be reversed without the use of medication once the brain has lost its plasticity. You can create contradictory responses, but without life-long ongoing reinforcement, the original conditioned fear responses will spontaneously re-emerge. (https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2014179) People don't know they can't do it properly because they think it's easy; put the puppy into all sorts of new experiences, as many as possible. That's the advice. "Socialise, socialise, socialise". I'm just saying it's not that straightforward and making it sound as if it is to new puppy owners is potentially dangerous. I've said it myself before now. I get why people say it. I just don't think it's good advice anymore. And this is reductio ad absurdum. I'm not suggesting people shouldn't take their puppies into new circumstances. I'm saying they need to not force them on their puppies, which is far too easy to do because we're carrying them at first, and then people always want to come over to pet a cute little puppy. Owners need to be their puppies' advocates and not put them in these situations if they are not comfortable with them. Putting them into situations where their puppy is demonstrating fear to get them over it is potentially very damaging. Coercing them into facing that fear with treats, which is often done in the name of "desensitisation" is far too often counter-productive and has the opposite effect, when simply removing them from that environment would mean that the sensitisation never happened. We should also be very clear about the difference between socialisation and habituation. Socialisation is by definition a social thing; it's about intra- or inter-species communication. So getting your puppy out meeting other animals, including humans, but still with the emphasis being "at your puppy's pace", letting them go to "it", whether that "it" is another dog, a human, or any other animal and protecting them from fear rather than having them face it. You wouldn't cure a child's fear of clowns by making him sit on a clown's knee, so why do we think that would work for our puppies?
My trainer for puppy class would look at the puppies as a whole and move one if she thought it couldn't cope in the group. She explained that a sensitive puppy would not benefit socially from feeling stressed and frightened. All pups aren't the same and need different things, unfortunately one size does not fit all. I tend to agree with the idea of letting the pup take things at their own pace, its kinder and has better results in the long run.
This always makesmelaugh although I have to say that my peer group are hugely supportive which can be most unusual in the dog training world but then our mentor encourages a clinate of supportive cooperation and lifelong learning. I get so frustrated when people start declaring around a 'socialization window'. Some 'experts' state 4 - 14 weeks, some 4 -16 weeks even 4 - 18 weeks so not a lot of agreement on the 'window'. Yes, socialisation at this young, impressionable age is important but learning and habituating to new sights, sounds etc., as you say @snowbunny doesn't suddenly stop at some ill-defined tender age. A range of experiences, which deliver positive experiences helps our pups build the resilience to meet new experiences, sights and sounds as they go through life hopefully without negativity but that can't be guaranteed regardless of the care in 'socialising' , we all know of pups that start barking at people in sunglasses in the summer as it's something they haven't seen or barking at people wearing bobble hats in the winter but it doesn't usually take much for the dog to accept the 'new look' regardless of age.
We got Hattie at 13 weeks so by the time she had her course of vaccinations she wasn't out and about for a few weeks being "socialised" so this business of upto 16 weeks seems to something banded around to me. Hattie is the most placid, beautiful natured dog that I have ever met (I'm not just saying this because she is mine she actually is) she is not frightened of anything, gunshot, fireworks, people, dogs, animals, tractors, loud noises etc.etc. the only thing that spooks her a little is a banging door and that's it. She is a PAT dog, meets and greets all people very sick ones, in the final stages of life, old, young, children and babies without a single problem so if that's a lack of "socialisation" upto 16 weeks I'll take it She's our first dog and I must add that we were completely ignorant of the do's and don'ts of dog ownership but we have learned a lot or we might just have been extremely lucky and chose well x
