<p>I remember the great kindness that was offered to me on these very pages when we had our very old dog “put down” last summer. I still miss my old, dear, CALM dog, but we have a new puppy!!! (I think I’m as excited as my kids!) It seemed the perfect time w/ kids coming home from college for the holiday season. I love this new puppy----cute as can be----but, I confess to feeling somewhat in awe of her abundant energy. She is just a 12 week old, Heinz 57 rescue puppy who needed a family. She needed love----we needed her. She will be quite large when fully grown.</p>
<p>I’d love your puppy training tips. I have the crate, the treats, an abundance of paper towels and Lysol spray (!), but I’d like your best suggestions for “what works”. Thanks, all!</p>
<p>Congratulations on your new puppy! A product called “Nature’s Miracle” is wonderful for those in the house accidents that are definitely going to happen at first. You can buy it in a squirt bottle or in a spray bottle depending on your preference. Our puppy is now 9 months old so we are through the house breaking and chewing stage but still in the rambunctious stage ~ she is a yellow lab.</p>
<p>Congrats! We got our furry bundle of energy also before Thanksgiving (3 years ago). What a great time of the year to have a little puppy at home :)</p>
<p>Use up her energy productively, find a nice safe place that you can walk her off leash, plan a morning walk and probably an afternoon walk. She will be less destructive and less into everything in your house if you give her lots of outlets for her energy.</p>
<p>We have a very high strung breed of dog. Many people get them as puppies and give them up because they cannot deal with the energy level the first couple of years. Even at 10 our dog NEEDS at 2-5 mile daily walk and is a better family member because of it. When he was young we HAD to do a morning and afternoon walk and using up that energy really helped him pay attention to any training.</p>
<p>Maybe too late, but NEVER let your puppy jump up on you. Not even once. Seems like a great way to reach them to pet them when they are wee, but once they have it in their heads that they can jump on you, it is sooo hard to get them to stop. And when they get big (or are muddy!), that is a big problem. :)</p>
<p>My bit of advice after raising two puppies in two years (oy vey). Do not punish them for pottying in the house. The ONLY time you can correct them is when they are in the act of pottying, take them outside and praise them outside. A trainer gave me advice once: “When you see that a puppy has pottied, take a rolled up newspaper and hit yourself on the nose. It was your job to watch that young puppy and puppies should not be left out of sight because they will chew everything and potty, a lot.” </p>
<p>Also, teach buy a nail filer or nail trimmer of some sort and get them used to it and baths while they are very young. Make washing and nail time a weekly routine so that it’s not a struggle every time they need some doggy maintenance. </p>
<p>Also, get them used to a leash (and being led without pulling) ASAP. It makes training much easier later on. </p>
<p>Hmm… think that’s all for now. </p>
<p>Enjoy your puppy :D. And yay for rescues! They’re the best dogs.</p>
<p>I confess I have been lurking for some time; it took this topic for me to return to posting. This September, we also lost our family dog. I decided the best medicine was to replace her quickly, and I now have an energetic puppy, who has been with us for three weeks. I had totally forgotten the dedication of training, and wonder how I managed to do this twelve years ago, when I had a job and three kids at home! I’m open to all suggestions as well.</p>
<p>Congratulations! My advice? Sign her up for reasonably priced puppy training classes.
It’s a great way to meet other owners and their pups…a good time…plus you learn some really valuable things. For example, the command “OFF” was taught to the pups and I have to say, it has come in SOOO handy over the years. You could put a steak in front of our dog…say OFF…and he wouldn’t touch it (until you say “take it” of course). This stuck over many years as did other training tips. Plus it’s FUN.
Now for free tips and fun, tune into the Dog Whisperer. Love that guy.</p>
<p>To train yourself to not overuse all the negative words, simply make a grunt sound like “icky” or “ahah” for all bad actions, but every single time the pup does something good, sits when asked or pointed at, chews on her toy (as vs chair leg), doesn’t bark, etc, use lots of calm, warm praise. “Sooo goood” is better than lots of chirpy “good boy” words. This is if you are hoping to end up with a calmer(ish) adult dog! Also, the more you can consistently use a hand signal with or without a corresponding word (index finger points down for sit, flat palm out for stay, and so on), the better later on - hand signals make the dog pay attention to you, not to other distractions. Keep the dog on a short leash for walking to help them learn to heel, let the leash out when you stand so they can go potty. Every time they eat or drink, take them out and praise while they are going potty. When you come home and take them out of the crate, don’t talk to them until you get them outside first - often they are so excited that you came back that they pee all over themselves in excitement which is made worse if you’re oooing and aahing over them.</p>
<p>I also recommend training lessons if possible, but at the very least after they’ve had all their shots, take them to public places like your kid’s soccer games and stuff. The socialization (everyone loves puppies!!!) is very good for the pup and helps them to not be afraid of visitors as they get older.</p>
<p>I’ll second the puppy training classes advice. </p>
<p>A few other ideas - </p>
<p>if the dog is going to be large, are you going to want it on the sofa, beds etc.? If not, this is the time to say “down” every time a paw goes up. </p>
<p>We taught our golden retriever that he had to sit before the supper dish went down - and stay sitting until we say “go”. </p>
<p>Teach them sit, stay, and lie down early. Lots of praise and treats when they do it right.</p>
<p>Do you want them to come when you call their name? And do you want to have another way to call them? We taught our dog to come for both their name as well as a whistled tune (Theme from the Great Escape - I have no idea why that particular song). </p>
<p>Crate train them to go to their crate during meals. We taught him to go there whenever we say dinner. Of course he gets a treat for going there - but he literally runs over there whenever he hears that word.</p>
<p>Proud owner of a still with us 14.5 year old dog here. Agree with all. Training lessons, take the dog out on a leash a LOT…around kids, around people, in the car, everywhere you can. Use hand signals consistently. Make one person in the house the primary trainer but have everyone use the same hand signals. My dog sits when pointed at…regardless of whether anything is said. Same with lying down.
If the dog is a barker or yippy at all I used a water bottle…use the word quiet and a hand signal of a mouth shutting…if the dog does not quiet a quick squirt. I know it sounds mean but for yippy dogs it works.
Use crate consistently for potty training and use positive praise when dog potties outside. No yelling as pointed out above when potties inside. I also use the word outside when opening the back door. The dog then knows when I say outside I mean go to the door and I will open it.</p>
<p>If you have some lifestyle things you want you dog to fit with, begin doing it now- taking them in the car, on a boat, on a plane, to grandparent’s home, etc. Whatever you might want to do outside of ordinary, do it now so it is normal for the dog.</p>
<p>For example, our dog goes every where with my DH and always has and has spent so many hours driving. We take frequent long car trips and the dog is so content in the car he actually often does not want to get out when we get home. He is much more content in the car when we go some where than he is being left home alone, because we trained him that way. We did not think about it at the time, but we did train him that way. So think about what you want as the dog ages and train him that those activities are normal</p>
<p>Congratulations! How exciting and wonderful. If you are like us, you will have completely forgotten just how much hard work puppies are! It’s all worth it in the end but we truly forgot between dog one and puppy two…</p>
<p>I just want to echo what a few others said about vocals. True for kids and for dogs. I developed this terrible habit of having my ‘serious’ voice be loud with our dogs. In hindsight, I could have created the same effect (that “this is it, I really mean business now” so you better listen to me), with something so much quieter and easier on all of us. And just like kids, they know they don’t really have the listen until mom gets to the serious point. In fact, maybe vocals aren’t even necessary since visuals are so meaningful to dogs. Sigh…my one regret. That, and buying a leather sofa just before puppy two moved in and of course found it oh so delicious.</p>
<p>We were puppy trainers for GEB (guiding eyes for the blind) and will say their advice is easier said than done with some puppies, but for what it’s worth they recommended that we ignore or redirect all negative behaviors. In other words, if chewing a shoe replace the shoe with an appropriate toy but no need to say “no” or otherwise reprimand. Just don’t permit the unwanted behavior or replace with a wanted command. The puppy was to be viewed like a young toddler and NEVER left out of sight unless in the crate. Positive behaviors were to be followed by a simple but emphatic “yes” which may or may not be accompanied by a treat. The puppy was never to be allowed to pull on a leash. If the puppy created tension, the walker stopped. When the puppy notices you have stopped and looks at you, then you praise ('yes") and start up again. This makes for VERY slow, short walks at first. Interspersing the walk with starting, stopping, turning, sitting, lying down, getting up, helps keeps the puppy focused on the training. Training sessions should be very short and perceived as a fun game by the puppy. </p>
<p>I just finished Cesar Millan’s new book on bringing up a puppy, and I highly recommend it. I wish I had read his books and seen his TV series before getting any dogs! I have had five dogs of my own over the past 34 years, and I think I’m just about getting the hang of what to do now.</p>
<p>Crate training, lots of work with the leash, lots of walks on leash. Cesar is very big on getting your dog lots of exercise. Make the puppy wait while you go through the door first. The higher up dogs in the pack go first. You can learn all about pack behavior from his books.</p>
She is just a 12 week old, Heinz 57 rescue puppy who needed a family. She needed love----we needed her. She will be quite large when fully grown.</p>