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Puppy Tips
Key Tips for Your New Puppy!
Crate Training!
Crate train! It is important to for rules enforcement and for safety for your puppy. We use playpens for babies. Why? So they cannot get injured when we inevitably take our eyes off for a moment. Puppies are the same. Feeding in the crate helps to establish this routine. And please remember that dogs are den animals. A nice, closed crate is a safe space for them, too. (I prefer plastic crates because they do provide limits on visual stimulation and are most “den like” but use whatever works for you. Remember that if you have to leave your puppy at a vet, grooming, or boarding, they will need to be familiar and comfortable with this confinement. Set them up for success!
There is a really simple rule for crate training. Don’t let the puppy out while it is pitching a fit. Don’t yell either (yelling to a puppy is just joining in their barking from their perspective – why do you think the expression “don’t bark at me” for people exists?). If the puppy is hollering, don’t give it attention. The instant it is quiet, tell it “good puppy!!” and walk towards the crate. If it starts up again, stop and just turn away. Puppies are smart! It doesn’t take long (especially if your timing is good) for the puppy to realize that it must be quiet to get your attention. On the other side, you cannot ignore the puppy because it is quiet.
Training a "come" using a puppy's hard wiring!
Training a “come” using a puppy’s hard wiring. Puppies join in the pack. You can see it when they are with their littermates. This works best between 5 weeks and 8 or so. Place the puppy on the ground and rapidly back away (keep eye contact and be sure you don’t trip backing up!). The puppy will innately follow you. Say “come!” as soon as it heads towards you. This makes future “come” training so much easier! They’ve already got an association between the command and an action – now they just need to refine it.
Avoiding bad behaviors
Don’t allow behaviours that may seem “cute” now but are dangerous later on. This means mouthing, jumping up to get attention, or food guarding. When a puppy wants to be petted, let it sit first. If you don’t give attention, it will give in and sit wondering how you are ignoring it in its utter adorableness! This is when you can reach down, say “good puppy!” and pet liberally.
On the furniture? Well, obviously this is a personal call, but note that it is extremely difficult to train a dog that the couch is ok, but not the bed or chair. What about when you visit someone else’s house?
Feeding time tips
Feeding times. It is accepted practice that dogs like a schedule. That is true. But the downside of a schedule is deviation from the schedule means the dog is now distressed. Feeding dinner at 7 p.m.? Don’t be surprised when whining or pacing starts at 7:05. I personally recommend a target of times (breakfast 8-10, lunch 12-2 and dinner 7-9, as an example) so that deviation is less of an issue to the puppy. You must take the puppy out immediately after meals or drinking water to get house breaking trained, regardless of when you feed.
Socialisation
Socialisation! More is better. Do not over-stress a puppy. If the neighbour is scary, find a place where the puppy can see people at a distance first. It is sights, sounds, smells, people, animals, events. Consider a class. You cannot get this time back, so make the most out of that malleable puppy brain!
Secrets to reinforcement
Intermittent positive reinforcement. We think that you must tell a puppy “good dog” every time they do something we want, right? Would it surprise you to find that saying “good dog” on the 1st, 3rd,4th, 7th and 10thtime (i.e. at random intervals) is actually better at reinforcing a behaviour? Yup! Study after study shows this. One study suggests that dog’s work harder for the reinforcement being unsure when they will get it. A corollary of this is that interspersing high value cookies with plain kibble is a great way to train. The opposite is that if you let a dog periodically get away with a bad behaviour, it is that much harder to eliminate. That’s the dark side of intermittent reinforcement – it is very easy to create a negative behaviour by just not catching it every now and then.
Letting puppies figure it out for themselves! Let’s consider training a puppy to sit. You’re holding a treat over its head and given SIT in a normal tone of voice and it has jumped, run in a circle, brought a toy, and barked at you. Everything BUT what you wanted! Well, hang in there. Do NOT start giving the SIT command over and over and in different voices. If it seems like it isn’t progressing, just say “no” gently and walk away. The puppy will figure it out if you keep trying (eventually it will get bored and wonder what is wrong with you and sit). And every skill a puppy works out for themselves is that much stronger in their memory!