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Engineer Lenk posted:Be mindful when deciding on a dog walker. Many of the ones around here with 'packs' have little control over the dogs and it looks like a recipe for bad experiences and the development of poor habits. True! There's also a woman in town who rehabilitates problem dogs. I was thinking about hiring her for "personal training sessions"* and since I would assume that her dogs are well behaved it might be possible for her to help me out. I did read a lot about how horrible dog parks can be because of bully dogs and that really freaked me out. * I know that this is possibly super ridiculous is this a stupid thing to do or an actually good idea?
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Jan 4, 2014 23:07
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luscious posted:True! There's also a woman in town who rehabilitates problem dogs. I was thinking about hiring her for "personal training sessions"* and since I would assume that her dogs are well behaved it might be possible for her to help me out. If you're starting with a puppy, puppy kindergarten and appropriate socialization/playgroups will be way more important than one-on-one training with a problem dog specialist. I say this as someone who mainly deals with problem dogs and has never owned a puppy. The way you approach problems changes a bit with age and how 'baked-in' the behaviors have become.
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Jan 4, 2014 23:14
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Engineer Lenk posted:If you're starting with a puppy, puppy kindergarten and appropriate socialization/playgroups will be way more important than one-on-one training with a problem dog specialist. I say this as someone who mainly deals with problem dogs and has never owned a puppy. The way you approach problems changes a bit with age and how 'baked-in' the behaviors have become. Ok that's good. I'll look around to see if another puppy kindergarten / playgroup is starting soon after his vaccination. I'll be moving soon so there will be wayyy more options opening up in the near future but I want to make sure that he's not losing out for the next 1.5 months!
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Jan 4, 2014 23:29
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As far as dog parks go and as the resident dog park nut, if you have one nearby you're considering taking the pup to go scope it out without him first to see how it's set up and what kind of dogs frequent, preferably around the same time you expect you'd be taking him since it probably has its share of regulars. Any park worth its salt will have separate areas for large and small dogs as well. Honestly with a Boston your dog will probably be the bully -- most Bostons I know are all rough-and-tumble and are crazy about dog wrasslin (along with crazy in general). And of course no dog park until the parvo's done but you know that.
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Jan 5, 2014 03:37
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Eegah posted:Any park worth its salt will have separate areas for large and small dogs as well. Hah. Dog parks with separate sections for size are the exception around here, not the rule. And the ones I can think of that do have separate sections are tiny, muddy, miserable places whereas the other parks with no gates are large with plenty of places to wander and play. Just use your discretion when it comes to picking out play partners.
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Jan 5, 2014 05:24
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Weird. All the parks I know of here are sectioned, though of the five we've visited three were pretty crap with either too small an area, lovely dogs or no grass.
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Jan 5, 2014 05:39
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We have parks with separate sections but people ignore them. Also the small dog side is always small, lame as hell, and always empty.
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Jan 5, 2014 19:03
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Anyone have any experience with submissive peeing? It seems like she does it every time I try to pick her up. As far as training goes, Ellie's really smart, but a little temperamental. She'll come to my girlfriend when she calls, but won't come to me. I'm hoping puppy classes (starting Thursday!) will help with this.
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Jan 5, 2014 19:56
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In what scenarios are you picking her up? As for her not coming to you, but coming to your girlfriend...I assume you're male. I always think back to this Ian Dunbar quote when I see adult males trying to get puppies to come to them. You probably just need to get really, really silly, and don't hold back in praising her when she does come. quote:The average person cannot effectively praise a moribund lettuce. And specifically, many owners—especially men— seem incapable of convincingly praising their puppies. leverite where fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Jan 6, 2014 |
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Jan 6, 2014 02:21
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leverite where posted:In what scenarios are you picking her up? If I need to take her outside, if she wants to come up to the couch, those types of scenarios. She's been a lot better about it today after a few episodes this morning. I took her for a walk around my building and taught her to to climb these rocks nearby, took her to the lakeshore to chill on leash and play short range fetch, and took her to the vet for her third round of shots and microchipping. She did all that with no complaints.
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Jan 6, 2014 05:38
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House training is going BACKWARDS with my 11-week old mutt (Rottweiler/beagle). After she eats we immediately let her out, then crate her so that we can take her out again about 20-30 minutes later when she usually pees again. What is happening is she will pee outside and then later pee inside with no warning (as in, we don't see her sniffing. She will play, stop and pee, then keep going). I'm not sure if she gets too busy playing or what. Tonight for example, when winding down for the evening, she peed on the blanket I had over me while on the couch, 30 minutes after having successfully been out. Now with the really cold temps and extra snow, she does not want to go out at all. I don't want to keep her out too long because the wind chills been in the negatives. If she doesn't go, or tries to fake it, then it is right back to the crate. Except now she will pee in her crate. We took all the comfy things out, like the blanket and puppy pillow, but now she pees on the plastic and tries to lick it up. During the night she is fine. I wake her up at 1am and 4am to go out and she will go and then go back to sleep. It's just during the day when she is out of the crate. I'd hate to keep her crated all day and take her out only at intervals. She's pretty energetic and needs the exercise. Is this the only way?  Also... We will be starting puppy kindergarten soon! She has been very nippy lately and nibbling on me, so I am so excited for her to get some socialization with other puppies. Especially since we got her at 6 weeks.
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Jan 6, 2014 05:41
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Might she have come in contact with road salt or other ice melters? I ask because we had an anomaly with Reggie's house training on Friday where he was whizzing on the linoleum with little notice less than ten minutes after coming inside from a bathroom break. The little dude drank about a quart of water over the course of the evening, and all I can think is that he managed to swallow a chunk of rock salt while he was snuffling around in the snow. We are generally good about making sure he stays away from it and gets a foot bath whenever he comes back inside. It makes me feel like Dog Jesus. Anyway, he went back to normal after a couple of tense hours, so salt is the best we can figure for the weirdness.
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Jan 6, 2014 06:42
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Weltlich posted:Might she have come in contact with road salt or other ice melters? We haven't used any salts on our property, and that's as far as we let her go. She likes to play with scattering ice chunks, or lick ice puddles, but I usually tug on her leash and try to keep her focused.
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Jan 6, 2014 17:32
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I need some advice on my newly adopted shelter dog. He is about one year old, lab/shepherd mix. Had him a couple of days and he has been a doll, but he is afraid or growling at my 4 year old daughter, especially when she wears her new blue boots. The only thing I have found online is to give the dog positive reinforcement when he is acting scared, in order to reinforce that being around my daughter is a good thing. Any other advice?
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Jan 8, 2014 07:32
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Pupdate! Odin has been growing very quickly. Up to 17 lbs now and just over 12 weeks old. The toilet training guide in the OP was really great and we maybe have 1 accident every 2 or 3 days. He has had his third and final round of shots and loves going for walks and swimming. Outgrowing his bed  First trip to the beach  Making new friends His behaviour has improved greatly in the last 2 weeks. He is a lot less nippy than when we first got him and he is settling into his routine well. He sleeps all night by himself in the lounge. He loves playing with my in-laws dog Narla who is about 4 years old. The two of them play fight all the time and generally pal around, she is very gentle with him but has been teaching him the rules of being a good dog.  Narla and Odin playing tug We've been clicker training nearly everyday and he has learned his name, sit, lie down, here, and go to bed. We are working on fetch, roll over and a few more commands at the moment. I want to say thanks for all the great advice in this and the dog training thread. This is my first dog and it really helped me get through the most difficult parts of owning a puppy.
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Jan 8, 2014 09:35
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Daemonqueller posted:I need some advice on my newly adopted shelter dog. He is about one year old, lab/shepherd mix. Had him a couple of days and he has been a doll, but he is afraid or growling at my 4 year old daughter, especially when she wears her new blue boots. When you say "when she wears her new blue boots", do you mean "any time when she has them on" or "when she's running around/stomping/kicking her feet/all the things that small children love to do with their new shoes"? Positive reinforcement is the way to go either way, but one is a little more complicated. If he's growling or acting anxious and it is definitely the boots and not how she's acting while wearing in the boots, then you might try something like, telling him it's ok and walking up and patting the boots and talking about how good the boots are then giving him a treat. Unless he's got a good vocabulary, it doesn't really matter what you say, as long as you say it in a happy way. Basically just making him see that you aren't concerned about the boots, you like the boots, they aren't scary, etc. Do that a bit, follow it up with more verbal praise and/or treats when he goes near the boots, and unless there's something Really Really wrong, he'll probably figure out they're no big deal pretty quick. If it seems like it's her, then that's more of a concern. I'd suggest basically trying the same thing, except you'll have to be extra careful about managing both of their behavior. He needs to know she's not going to hurt you or him, and she needs to know the same thing, and that she has to be sweet to him. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm accusing your kid of being terrible or anything like that- I've met so many well-behaved kids that age that know they can't pet my service dog, will even proudly say they know it... then go stand close to him and hop up and down to get his attention, or yawn and stretch so that their hand JUST HAPPENS to be in his face, stuff like that. They are too young to really get that that can be scary for a dog and that's neither kid nor dog's fault. Handling that is mostly a matter of teaching both of them to be chill together until they feel safe together then making sure that that continues so neither of them get bit.
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Jan 8, 2014 09:48
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Can anyone recommend any good training foods? Our Shikoku puppy had her first puppy class tonight and while she did pretty well, she was hyper focused on the other dogs to the point I could be putting pieces of Swedish meatball in her mouth and she wouldn't take them. Toys aren't of the remotest interest when other dogs are around, although she does have some toy drive at home. She will work for dry treats in the house, and about 50% of the time outside we can get her attention with one of the following; cheese (both cheddar and goats), fresh chicken, Swedish meatballs, spicy meatballs, various moist/semi moist dog treats, peanut butter, liver paste, salmon paste, lamb, hot dog, ham and bacon. Puppy class is just too exciting to keep her attention long with any of her usual favourites though. Is there a mythical tasty dog food I've missed?
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Jan 8, 2014 22:37
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Ponyfields posted:Can anyone recommend any good training foods? Our Shikoku puppy had her first puppy class tonight and while she did pretty well, she was hyper focused on the other dogs to the point I could be putting pieces of Swedish meatball in her mouth and she wouldn't take them. Toys aren't of the remotest interest when other dogs are around, although she does have some toy drive at home. Not really. Dogs can have varying tastes so it's usually trial and error. Cut up hotdogs have been a popular choice for most people from what I've found.
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Jan 8, 2014 22:52
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Ponyfields posted:Is there a mythical tasty dog food I've missed? My dog would jump off a cliff for salami, so maybe give that a try? Also some people just use leftovers. One girl showed up to agility practice with a slice of pizza.
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Jan 8, 2014 22:52
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cryingscarf posted:My dog would jump off a cliff for salami, so maybe give that a try? Also some people just use leftovers. One girl showed up to agility practice with a slice of pizza. I don't know why but I find that hilarious.
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Jan 8, 2014 23:01
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If the pup won't eat even if you cram it in his mouth he's just too overwhelmed to eat and you might need some distance or barriers while you work on focus around other dogs. It's not necessarily that the treats aren't good enough, his mind is just totally bonkers about all the other puppies and he can't do what you're asking him to do in that state. You might ask the trainer if there is a place you can work a bit further away or if you can put a chair or something to block his view until he is capable of thinking in that environment.
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Jan 8, 2014 23:13
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Instant Jellyfish posted:If the pup won't eat even if you cram it in his mouth he's just too overwhelmed to eat and you might need some distance or barriers while you work on focus around other dogs. It's not necessarily that the treats aren't good enough, his mind is just totally bonkers about all the other puppies and he can't do what you're asking him to do in that state. You might ask the trainer if there is a place you can work a bit further away or if you can put a chair or something to block his view until he is capable of thinking in that environment. Yeah, to be honest I wasn't 100% convinced by the trainer's suggestion that Yuuna just needs to find a food she really likes (will definitely try salami though anyway.) Unfortunately the puppy class is just a small hall and we sit around the edges with only a little bit of room either side. So there's dogs all around. Yuuna isn't the worst behaved dog there, and if I can hold her attention she will run through tricks for treats pretty reliably. I'm happy enough doing the basic obedience at home, and I have one on one classes with the trainer too so it's not like we can't work on the basics for stuff like heel, recall etc. I'm not hugely enamoured with the puppy class, it's noisy, it's cramped, some of the other dogs are a bit reactive and there's no play time or mixing on or offlead 'cept while we're waiting for the hall to open. Yuuna definitely needs to learn how to meet other dogs on lead and focus better but... eh. She seemed pretty frustrated for parts of it. Oh well, will see how it goes for a couple more weeks and as long as Yuuna isn't stressed out by it it at least lets her meet other dogs a bit.
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Jan 9, 2014 00:28
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One of my dogs all-time favorites is cheese. I just tear up some cheap slices of American or go buy the cheap string cheese and he loves it. Turkey in any form is his other favorite. There is also "puppy crack" - the Natural Balance food rolls you can find in most pet stores. The lamb one is the easiest to cut up, some of the other flavors are too crumbly. But I agree with Instant Jellyfish - chances are you could be presenting your dog with a raw steak and she wouldn't take it. The other puppies are WAY more interesting at the moment. I personally worry about it turning into leash reactivity if it's not dealt with in a better way soon. But I'm paranoid 'cause I really really hate working with reactivity.
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Jan 9, 2014 05:00
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Unrelated but thanks for the tip off for the natural balance logs! We just started selling them at my work and since they're huge and 10 dollars(and I get a 20% discount) I figured it might be worth it. Ponyfields, I know my puppy loves string cheese, hot dog bits, and recently lost her mind when I gave her some cooked ground beef (cooked with no oil, just used 85/15 so it cooked in its own fat). Also, aren't puppy socialization classes specifically supposed to be off leash? I'm new to the game myself but I do read a lot and I've always heard puppies should be off leash for at least some of the time to romp around. Isnt that kind of the point, along with educating owners? That seems like a disaster, especially in a cramped space.
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Jan 9, 2014 06:28
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Natural Balance is only mid-level with my dogs, on par with string cheese. Tripe is the super-high-value treat that comes out once in a blue moon.
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Jan 9, 2014 08:35
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Ponyfields posted:Yeah, to be honest I wasn't 100% convinced by the trainer's suggestion that Yuuna just needs to find a food she really likes (will definitely try salami though anyway.) Unfortunately the puppy class is just a small hall and we sit around the edges with only a little bit of room either side. So there's dogs all around. Yuuna isn't the worst behaved dog there, and if I can hold her attention she will run through tricks for treats pretty reliably. I'm happy enough doing the basic obedience at home, and I have one on one classes with the trainer too so it's not like we can't work on the basics for stuff like heel, recall etc. I'm not hugely enamoured with the puppy class, it's noisy, it's cramped, some of the other dogs are a bit reactive and there's no play time or mixing on or offlead 'cept while we're waiting for the hall to open. Yuuna definitely needs to learn how to meet other dogs on lead and focus better but... eh. She seemed pretty frustrated for parts of it. One thing to keep in mind is puppy training will always be hectic. Take the opportunity to train yourself on the methods you are learning. I finished puppy training back in September with Nyx and she was pretty good in class but would often try to run up to people to say hello. I took the information we learned in the class and went home to reinforce it. Fast forward 4 months later and now that she is slowly starting to calm down all the stuff we practiced seems to be working. We still have some work to do but consistency is key. Also, be patient with the pup. I know I became frustrated on numerous occasions because the puppy wouldn't sit on command even though the day before she would sit immediately. Sometimes they just gotta be moving at that age and there really isn't anything you can do about it except join in on the fun.
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Jan 9, 2014 15:22
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Engineer Lenk posted:Natural Balance is only mid-level with my dogs, on par with string cheese. Tripe is the super-high-value treat that comes out once in a blue moon. I know another person who swears by tripe. Her dog is not really food-motivated at all, but he will bend over backwards for tripe. So when all else fails, try tripe I guess.
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Jan 9, 2014 18:13
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How normal is it for my 6 month old black lab to just want to sleep by herself, downstairs, away from everyone? She'll chill out on the couch at night while everyone else is upstairs. I assume that just like all dogs that could be her personality, but I've just never known a puppy that didn't want to be around people 24/7.
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Jan 9, 2014 18:17
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Martytoof posted:How normal is it for my 6 month old black lab to just want to sleep by herself, downstairs, away from everyone? She'll chill out on the couch at night while everyone else is upstairs. Well, my Black lab/retriever needs to be touching us at all times but every once and a while she'll go into the front room to nap.
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Jan 9, 2014 18:24
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Could just be that that couch is REALLY comfy. My dog likes people but he's not the touchy-feely kind who has to be around them constantly. He does like to at least stay in the same room as me, which is why there is a dog bed in the living room and one in the big dining/kitchen/office area. But ever since I added a comforter to the dog bed in the dining/kitchen/office area he prefers that bed and will stay on it even when I'm in the living room sometimes.
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Jan 9, 2014 18:31
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My black lab goes to bed by himself every night around 9, he's been doing it since he was a puppy.
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Jan 9, 2014 18:34
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m.hache posted:I don't know why but I find that hilarious. My dog is like that too. He hates all dog treats except one brand. He also never knocks over the garbage. Unless it contains pizza. Or buffalo wings. We're considering just buying a bag of pepperoni to use as training rewards. Speaking of, Thor has a lot of energy, but it's currently below 0 here and he can't handle the cold long enough to take good walks, even with a jacket and boots. This prompted us to start trying to train him to do a trick. We're trying to teach him to stand on just his hind legs when we say "Up!". It turns out that he has insanely good balance and he has done this for 2+ minutes while begging before. My question is, how long will it take for him to build the association between that stance and the word "Up!"? What we've been doing is every night, for 20 minutes or so, we hold treats in our hands in a position where he has to stand on two legs to get them, and say "Up!" over and over until he does it. Then we praise him and pet him and repeat. He's jumping up for the treats faster than he did when we first started, but he won't yet do it if we just say "Up!" without a treat in position for him to snatch.
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Jan 9, 2014 18:35
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My puppy knows when I have treats. His obedience is a sliding scale, directly related to the presence and tastiness of said treats 
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Jan 9, 2014 18:39
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LeftistMuslimObama posted:My question is, how long will it take for him to build the association between that stance and the word "Up!"? What we've been doing is every night, for 20 minutes or so, we hold treats in our hands in a position where he has to stand on two legs to get them, and say "Up!" over and over until he does it. Then we praise him and pet him and repeat. He's jumping up for the treats faster than he did when we first started, but he won't yet do it if we just say "Up!" without a treat in position for him to snatch. You need to fade the lure. Right now he's just following his nose and probably isn't really putting it together that the 2-legged behaviour is what you want. Here's a video on how to do it. Google about for more information on fading a lure effectively. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19SZTwQkpEw Repeating "up" over and over means that the word is pretty much meaningless. You say up and he... stares at the treats sometimes, looks to his right sometimes, jumps up sometimes, etc... It's just noise that happens when treats dance over his head. You need to be conscientious about when you apply the verbal cue. Use the lure to get the behaviour. Say the word when the behaviour happens and then mark and reward. Then fade the lure. Praise and petting often isn't clear communication for a lot of dogs, and not all dogs find it reinforcing (some find it punishing and would rather not be touched). 20 minutes of training at a time is LOTS. Like, not even veteran trainers train consecutively for that long. 5 minutes at a time should be the absolute most for one session, and even that can be pushing it with a young dog. E: Some people suggest using the verbal cue before you get the behaviour, but I personally wait until I get the behaviour before I name it.
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Jan 9, 2014 18:50
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a life less posted:20 minutes of training at a time is LOTS. Like, not even veteran trainers train consecutively for that long. 5 minutes at a time should be the absolute most for one session, and even that can be pushing it with a young dog. We've been using the dogs' dinner as treats for training and spending ~15-25 minutes doing it (depending on how quickly it happens to go). A lot of it is practice of the basics and reinforcement, though. Would you say that 5 minutes is the best case no matter what, or 5 minutes for new/novel things and more time (even if it's just another 5 minutes) for the basics/practice? I've been working mostly with Artemis and after about 20-25 minutes she still has plenty of attention for me. Would you say it's more of a "anything after a few minutes and they're less likely to retain the information" kind of thing rather than the attention span of the dog? e: And how frequently would you do the 5 minute sessions? I know you said you worked with Cohen 5 minutes a day on average I think, but can you do 5 minutes with a half hour break, or 5 in the morning and 5 in the evening?
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Jan 9, 2014 19:16
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a life less posted:You need to fade the lure. Right now he's just following his nose and probably isn't really putting it together that the 2-legged behaviour is what you want. Here's a video on how to do it. Google about for more information on fading a lure effectively. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19SZTwQkpEw Thor is 5+ years old (he was a hurricane Katrina rescue), but point taken. We'll do shorter sessions and wait to say the queue until he does the behavior.
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Jan 9, 2014 19:42
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mcswizzle posted:We've been using the dogs' dinner as treats for training and spending ~15-25 minutes doing it (depending on how quickly it happens to go). I'm a notorious over-trainer. When I say I spend 5 minutes a day working on new behaviour, I didn't include the 5x5 minutes a day that I spend working on older behaviours or just playing around (because it's all training/learning). This is sort of one of those situations where I say, "do as I say, not as I do". If you find your dog's attention is still good, you can push it longer. If at any point you find you're having trouble holding attention, dealing with frustration or retention, decrease that time way down. Actual, concerted training sessions should be planned out in advance to get the most bang for your buck, and should happen for 5 minutes 1-2 times a day. The rest of the time, casual, fun boosters sessions should be used. When we're working on the tougher stuff that requires some strength or brainwork, I'll take 5 minute breaks between sessions to let her rest a bit (despite her not wanting to). But again, I overtrain and Cohen has spent the last 4+ years learning to work with me (plus her natural aptitude) so I can't really recommend my routine to others.
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Jan 9, 2014 19:55
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Martytoof posted:How normal is it for my 6 month old black lab to just want to sleep by herself, downstairs, away from everyone? She'll chill out on the couch at night while everyone else is upstairs. Sometimes Linus will head downstairs and sleep/nap at the bottom of the stairs. I have two ideas why: 1) it's the only carpeted floor of our house or 2) the floor on our main floor (hardwood) is too cold (which it's not, it's just over a crawl space and he sleeps on it plenty of times so I don't know what the gently caress). Dogs are weird.
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Jan 9, 2014 20:06
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Got a chance to watch that video on fading a lure. I will try that out, but I don't know if Thor is actually smart enough/used to training enough to get it in 3 tries like that. I tried really hard to get him to follow my treatless hand after a couple with treats and he just stared at me like I was an rear end in a top hat. Also he is terrified of clickers. We tried a clicker for a while, doing the click-treat click-treat thing and everything, but if you're not actively shoveling food in his mouth the sound of the clicker makes him flinch and hide. Is just saying "Yes!" a good marker instead?
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Jan 9, 2014 20:48
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LeftistMuslimObama posted:Also he is terrified of clickers. We tried a clicker for a while, doing the click-treat click-treat thing and everything, but if you're not actively shoveling food in his mouth the sound of the clicker makes him flinch and hide. Is just saying "Yes!" a good marker instead? Im no expert but I have seen people using 'yes' as a marker as well. I think for obvious reasons its not as precise as a clicker. Your clicker sounds like it could be too loud. If you havent already, try dulling it a little with some blu-tack on the metal reed in the clicker like in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKHk-6nReTk
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Jan 9, 2014 21:33
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