<p>We adopted our recently departed lab from a rescue group and learned from the foster that dogs learn hand signals more easily than verbal commands. I’m not sure it matters too much what they are–he taught us to use a hand moving up for sit, index finger held up for stay, index finger pointed at the floor for lie down, hand held flat and open for release (actually–I think I made that one up). We got a puppy in May and use the hand signal with the verbal (cuz humans are so used to talking), but I know the hand signals work alone.</p>
<p>It had been so long since we’d had to housetrain a dog, and you really do forget in between. We put him in a bathroom with an easily cleaned floor for overnights–newspapers down. A friend said she’d heard to first spread the newspaper over the whole area, then shrink the covered area over time. We also had the puppy sleeping two floors down from us–at my age the last thing I wanted was someone waking me up at night. That <em>really</em> helped. I don’t know if the puppy thought to bark at night (we couldn’t hear him–hooray!) but he certainly didn’t keep it up because nobody responded.</p>
<p>He had spent an <em>awful</em> lot of time in the kitchen–really most of his waking hours because that’s the room you enter in our house. Someone accidentally left him in there one night and lo and behold it was “clean” the next morning. Decided to try it a second night and he’s been sleeping in the kitchen without an accident for months now. It was the first room we trusted him in the house–I’ve also heard to kind of claim your house a room at a time. E.g., he started hanging with me in my bedroom, which is where I work from home some days, so I started trusting him there, . . . I think once a room becomes “a place we hang out”, they’ll tend not to potty in there.</p>
<p>Mostly just wanted to tell you to hang in there. The housetraining isn’t as easy as we’d like, and accidents will continue for embarrassingly/annoyingly long, but it does <eventually> happen.</eventually></p>
<p>Our 6 month old puppy is still not reliable in the potty department. He goes right away when we take him outside; but like a toddler, if he is busy playing and has a full bladder, he has been known to pee inside. If the humans are good about taking him out every couple of hours, we don’t have the accidents. I think we are down to about one a week, so we are getting there; carpets get cleaned tomorrow, a Thanksgiving tradition, so my fingers are crossed for no more accidents!</p>
<p>My older dog rings bells to let us know she needs to potty; the puppy just will not ring them. Most dogs do great with the bell ringing and I like it so much better than scratching at the door or barking. I can hear the bells all over the house, so we don’t have to watch for the silent signals like we do with the puppy. Of course, so dogs ring the bells just to go outside to play and some ring all day long. We had that for a while at the beginning, but we were able to redirect the behavior.</p>
<p>Ask around to find a dog park, it’s a great way for them to socialize and burn off energy. Most parks have a minimum age, usually 3 - 5 months, but it’s great for both the puppy and the owner!</p>
<p>I think I am doing pretty well in the three weeks puppy has been with us. However, I want to get the corrections “I” need before I make any big boo-boos. I have a “private lesson” scheduled for Friday at my house with a trainer. Will keep you posted.</p>
<p>I am so grateful for all your suggestions and please, keep them coming! This puppy training is hard work! Pottying is going as well as can be expected. At this moment, I am trained…the puppy is not. Suggestions on teaching her not to bite when we pet her would be appreciated. Also would be grateful on how to get the family cat to accept this new puppy. As of now, King Kat is royally ticked off.</p>
<p>Isn’t there just something about puppies that is endearing? I so loved my fourteen year old lab and losing her was awfully hard. But puppies…well, they just make you smile!</p>
<p>Someone recommended Cesar Millan’s book. While I think some of his suggestions are great–I’m all in favor of lots of exercise, because a tired dog is a well-behaved dog–I think his emphasis on dominance and pack theory is outdated. Newer research shows that neither domestic dogs nor wolves maintain packs nor do they have hierarchical social structures. An excellent article on the subject of dominance can be found here: [Forget</a> About Being Alpha in Your Pack: Kathy Sdao - Bright Spot Dog Training](<a href=“http://www.kathysdao.com/articles/Forget_About_Being_Alpha_in_Your_Pack.html]Forget”>http://www.kathysdao.com/articles/Forget_About_Being_Alpha_in_Your_Pack.html)</p>
<p>Dogs are scavengers that are descended from 100,000 years of evolution (according to some scientists; 15,000 according to others) to live with humans. They respond to our gestures because their lives depended on being able to read humans. Dogs and the great apes are the only non-human species that look where you point, for example; other species will look at your finger.</p>
<p>dmd, have you seen the documentary about domestic dogs abandoned due to the economy? The researchers who studied these dogs trapped some animals, equipped them with GPS-tackable collars, and were able to follow them through the images captured by the video cameras attached to the dogs’ collars. The dogs seemed to form packs with pretty well-established hierarchy. </p>
<p>A very important thing to teach a new puppy: no nedless, non-stop barking! Your neighbors will thank you.</p>
<p>BunsenBurner: I expect the documentary–which I haven’t seen–was not made by scientists who have studied dog behavior. You might want to read the articles I provided links to.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree that allowing a dog to bark non-stop is incredibly rude.</p>
<p>We inherited (literally) a dog that was three years old that was “mouthy”. She is very oral, likes to sort of chew on anyone who pets her. I was able to break her of the habit with me by firmly grabbing her muzzle and holding it shut, while looking her in the eye with a firm, “No!” every time she did it. Cured her with me… but she still tries it with new people. And she worships the vet and kennel folks, who will let her knaw on their arms with abandon. But you might be able to cure a puppy if you and your family are consistent with this approach every time. And even step in with other people if you see her do this. This might not be the “advised” way to handle it, though, so someone else might have a better suggestion.</p>
<p>Binaca. The minty mouth deodorizer that comes in a little spray bottle–I don’t remember who suggested it, but squirting a tiny bit on the nose of a nippy, chewy puppy stopped her in her tracks. To this day, 9 years later, the poor thing runs the other direction if someone points Binaca in her direction.</p>
<p>Training sessions: if the trainer says the puppy has to be a certain age, listen to her. We insisted our puppy was “mature” enough to start a couple of weeks shy of the recommended age, but it was a mistake. Thank goodness there was a Beagle in the class, or she would have been the worst student of all.</p>
<p>Jumping dogs: I was a failure here. Both of my dogs jump all over us. And all other poor innocents who walk in the door.</p>
<p>My sister, a veterinarian and a former GSD breeder/trainer, suggested the following trick that worked like a charm for our dog: every time the dog tries to jump on you, put your knee forward and state that you do not approve of the jumping. After a few attempts (or quite a few for dogs who are not so smart), the dog realizes that jumping leads to a pretty unpleasant sensation and stops. Reward “no jumping” behavior.</p>
<p>dmd, I’m not disputing anything, but what you’ve linked is not exactly a scientific fool-proof evidence, but a book and an opinion of one organization. The documentary (it was filmed by one of the Discovery channel affiliates) was very well done (not a Michael Moore type of documentary at all), it was not trying to prove that dogs were pack animals or otherwise, it was following the group of researchers who were trying to figure out how feral dogs cope with living a wild life and what turns them against humans. While there was no exact alpha to omega order, there were certain individual dominant dogs who ruled the pack, with the leadership shifting from one dog to another in this dominant group. I’ve also had a personal experience with a marauding pack of feral dogs when I was a child (a pack of them that roamed our little town). I’d say whatever was in the movie was pretty close to what I experienced in reality.</p>
<p>One of the training books recommended by GEB was Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor. It is not recent (1984) and is as much about training kids as dogs, using positive reinforcement. It’s been awhile since I read it, but I remember being taken by some of the stories of wild animal trainers. Imagine the effectiveness of telling a dolphin “no” or punishing a killer whale when it doesn’t do the desired behavior. It’s an interesting read.</p>
<p>For a barking dog, one of the suggestions was to train an incompatible behavior, such as to lie down. Dogs seldom bark in that position. Another suggestion was to train the dog to bark on command and reward with food. The dog then thinks of barking as something to do when requested. There were other ideas as well. We had trouble with barking, so happened to be an area that I focused on.</p>
<p>My wife and I had never owned a dog before last December when we got a 12 week old Golden. </p>
<p>First mistake - getting a puppy in December when you live in a northern climate. I spent a lot of time standing outside at 3 a.m in my pajamas, winter coat and Sorrels saying, “go potty Sunny, please go potty, I’m begging you GO POTTY!”</p>
<p>One thing I did learn about potty training was to take her to a certain spot in the back forty that I wanted her to go, and to stick with that spot. I now don’t have to search all over kingdom come to find her presents.</p>
<p>BTW, I love her to death. DS came home from college and said, “why didn’t you get a dog when I lived at home?” Uh, because you were challenge enough.</p>
<p>My daughter tells us that many of her friends in college have parents that got an “empty nester” dog! We have always had dogs, but after the last one died when the kids were in middle school, I decided I wanted to a break. With the kids in private school 30 minutes away and after school activities, it was nice not to have to run home to let a dog out, or to have to be home to feed them dinner.</p>
<p>When my youngest was a junior we decided it was time for a dog again. My daughter was driving herself everywhere, so I could be home. Now said daughter has graduated college and living at home for a while to save some money, but she got a puppy! We now have two dogs and I am the full time Nanny to the puppy!!</p>
<p>BunsenBurner: there is a huge difference between feral dogs and a domestic dog. There is no evidence that domestic dogs form packs, nor is there evidence that they consider humans to be a member of that pack.</p>
<p>Pack formation and dominance theory is not a particularly useful construct for training. If you want to train a dog quickly, easily, and effectively, reward-based training works really fast (as Karen Pryor indicates).</p>
<p>I compete in dog agility, where dogs are trained to work with a handler (that’s me), off-leash and collarless, with the handler directing them to take a series of obstacles and speed. Dogs that are trained with punishment (as in Milan’s methods) do not do well. Dogs that are trained with rewards are stars. You can watch a video of the AKC agility nationals here: [2009</a> AKC Nationals Finals Highlight Video | Where dog agility is on every channel!](<a href=“http://www.agilityvision.com/2009-akc-nationals-finals-highlight-video]2009”>http://www.agilityvision.com/2009-akc-nationals-finals-highlight-video)</p>
<p>dmd, you are not correct in stating that feral dogs are different from domestic dogs. They are one and the same; a feral dog is not necessarily a dog that was born in the wild, it can also be an abandoned domestic dog that has not had human contact for a prolonged period of time (I can tell you stories about the dog my dad tried to “re-domesticate”). So if feral dogs form packs, so do “domestic” dogs. The human owners prevent dogs from doing so by some mechanisms (some say the human family replaces the pack, you say the mechanism is different); the fact is, however, then the human is removed from the equation, dogs revert to pack behavior.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree that rewards are a the centerpiece of the training puzzle, but tactics such as putting the knee forward towards the jumping dog or grabbing his snout when it tries to bark or bite (e.g., human dominance) do work.</p>
<p>I guess I’m just a wimp. I never spanked my children, nor have I ever hit my dog or kneed her in the chest. And grabbing a dog’s snout? There are a lot of teeth in that mouth.</p>
<p>Here’s what I’ve taught my dog, all using reward-based training. My dogs get most of their food hand-fed to them during training. When they were puppies, ALL of their kibble got measured out in the morning, put into a baggie, and kept in my pocket. I rewarded them for keeping all four feet on the floor, for letting me touch their feet, for listening to a Dremel (which I use for nails) calmly, for running a clipper near their faces (poodles get clipped a lot), for sits, for downs, for walking with them, for following me, for peeing outside, for pooping outside (and shame on me if they had the chance to pee or poop inside!), for going into their crates, for waiting calmly while I opened the door…</p>
<p>As they got older, training got more precise. I expect my dogs to jump up on me on command. I pat my chest AND say “mug me” and if either part is missing, they’re asked to sit and wait while I count to five with my back turned toward them… which is a puppy time out. Haven’t had to use that in years. My younger dog is trained to pee when I say “Hurry Up!” (I missed the window to teach that to the older one.) They both go to puppy jail (their crates) when I tell them to. They know numerous agility commands. They have two different commands for walking next to me (heel position), depending on the side I want them on. I use six different methods to call them to me, including two words (COME and HERE), two whistles (one for “right now” and the other for “when you finish what you’re doing, I’m going this way”), and two gestures (a flat palm or a big sweep of both arms toward my chest, depending on how far away they are). </p>
<p>Right now I’m working on teaching THIS WAY (turn toward me) and THAT WAY (turn away from me). I’m also beginning a formal retrieve.</p>
Suggestions on teaching her not to bite when we pet her would be appreciated. Also would be grateful on how to get the family cat to accept this new puppy. As of now, King Kat is royally ticked off.</p>