Just wondering what people with young pups have taught them so far? I love training with Luna, she is now 11 weeks old but not sure what to teach her next so far we've done: Name Sit Paw (only get the right one) Stay is getting much better No mugging thanks to somebody's suggestion in another post. She will leave a treat that is in front of her now too. She will sit and stay when her dinner is in front of her. Potty training not too bad. She might have 1 pee in the house a day! No poos though! Except when we introduced her to a new room the other day! I'm also working on her with her lead. Which she is getting better at! Things we need to work on are come here, get down and leave it for other objects that she's not allowed and no! All the hard stuff! At this age would you keep working on the above or keep introducing new things? Love to see what other people for their pups to do at this age. Xxx
At that age I can remember Bailey responding to his name, sit, wait (which we use with treats and meals), housetraining going well, a nose touch but we also concentrated on socialisation - carrying him everywhere, just sitting with him watching the world go by in various places, some busy some not so busy (living in a town we wanted him used to all the noises that comes with), meeting a variety of people and mixing with dogs (inside) that I knew were vaccinated - namely my best friends two dogs and my sisters dog. We got him used to his lead and did "find the toy", I also used to put some treats or some of his dry food into an old muffin tin and cover them with tennis balls so he had to remove the balls to get to the food - was quite comical watching the dilemma of play with the ball or eat the food! Each pup is different, we introduced new things slowly and kind of picked what we wanted high on the proofed list (some of which is still a work in progress). Bailey at 16 months is being a teenager and likes to test the boundaries somewhat! He is a very independent and nosy boy that seems to have no fear at all (apart from one small JR that has bitten Bailey in that past when he was really young - not badly but enough that B now moves rapidly out of this dogs path now - and it is only this one dog, B is fine with other JR's). The world and everybody and everything in it is his friend! So long as you make it fun for both of you that I think is important, not so much what the dog can do but that he/she enjoys doing it. Have fun sounds like you are making a brilliant start
At this age I would work on recall as a number 1. The Total Recall book is excellent. All the pups I have taught using this method have 100% recall and it's a slow process which is best started as young as possible. I would always use a whistle for recall training as our voice can change when it really matters - in an emergency, and pups taught to one tone of voice won't respond to a totally different one (i.e., when we are in a panic!) After that it's really worth training them to wee on command. To do that you give the cue as they wee for about three weeks. Then just before they wee for another three. Then when you are sure they are 'full' for another five weeks or so. After that they will squeeze one out for you any time - very useful in all sorts of circumstances .
A few observations from a first-time dog owner (Harvey is coming up to 4 years old) : 1. Don't forget to have fun with your dog. A certain amount of training is, of course, essential but make it fun and have play sessions too. 2. Recall is, probably, the most important thing to teach. Better a really solid recall than 10 other cues combined that you might choose to teach. 3. Work on walking to heal or loose-lead walking. This is often dismissed as just 'going for a walk'. It is so much more than that and will take a huge amount of time to correct later if you don't address it in the beginning. Have fun
Thanks I will start both of these today. Especially the wee one. I'm always just a little embarrassed because our neighbours are always in their garden and I feel silly! Xx
How do you suggest keeping training fun? I keep sessions short. Usually till about 10 treats cut in halves are gone and give her lots of praise. Xx
You know that embarrassed and silly feeling that you referred to? Embrace it! Train like you don't care what anybody else thinks (because why should you care?). Be your dog's biggest supporter - when they do something right don't hold back on letting them know just how fantastic you think they are.
This! It does depend on your dog somewhat, but my Luna responds really well to me going a bit bonkers when she's done something really well. I basically throw her a little party and she jumps around, all proud and silly To be honest, I didn't bother training the normal stuff with her from the outset. Sits and stays are really quite hard for a puppy to do, and far, far easier to teach when they have a little more maturity and self control, so I decided it was a bit of a waste of time for us to start that immediately. Instead, we did lots and lots of real-world stuff. No mugging. Bite inhibition. Toilet training (on cue). Playing with her paws and slowly introducing the clippers and Dremel. Desensitisation to her harness. Early stage recall. Early stages of off-lead heel. Hand targeting. Fetch games. Give. Tug. Clicker training eye drops. Teeth brushing. Etc etc etc. I also started on "stacking", for the show ring, but most people wouldn't need to think about that. Look at the early entries on my blog (link below) to see some little videos of things we worked on in the first few weeks and months.
New puppy mom/grandma here (Kalia is technically my 15 yo daughter's, but she's a busy teen). We need to continue working on recall. Also, a loose leash/heel is something we are training. Other things we are working on are, "look at me", "sit", "leave it", "down", and "up". We are also training her to sit before eating, going out, and coming in. Socialization is something else we are working on and oh boy, it's quite a process. Anyone have any great tips? Kalia seems used to the car rides. But once we get where we are going, she goes absolutely bonkers... We are definitely going to incorporate some of the things you all have mentioned. The tennis balls in a muffin tin sounds so fun. We have done treats under cups and Kalia is getting good at that.
