i saw this post and wanted to hear from more owners! puppies are a handful and we sometimes expect too much of ourselves while discounting the little things.
did your pup decide to not go for your slipper for the first time? win.
did they bite just a little less hard today? even just one time? amazing.
did they take the treat without nipping your cuticles? pat yourself on the back.
etc etc
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BREAKING:
Today, Lucca- maker of supreme stinks- waited a whole 2 seconds for her owner to give the OK before diving into her food dish. She actually allowed the bowl to touch the ground before going nuts. Cheering was had. Tears were shed.
@darel001 Could never wrap my head around the bells.. I take my dogs out frequently enough that they shouldn't have to "ask", and their body language tells me if they need an extra trip outside.
One of my dogs is trained with the talking buttons. She is up to 15 words. We took away her "outside" button, since she realized she could smack it to go outside whenever she wanted. She also learned quickly that it makes us get up off the couch, and she can steal our seat.
@mkb When my puppy went after my bathrobe this morning, I said “leave it” and he left it. I thought this day would never come. He still went outside and barked at the cats but I hope they’ll be friends soon.
@mkb Today my pup saw a bird real close by while on a walk and DIDN'T sprint after it! He watched it very intensely but when it flew off there was no chase, just quietly watched it fly away, and then walked on calmly. Still chased a leaf almost into the street when the wind blew but I'll take the wins when I can get them!
@edee Okay that’s really impressive! My pup (border collie x whippet, so he has a lot of chase drive lol) sprints after every bird in our path, but even when he’s off leash I can call him off. So mid sprint he’ll come back to me immediately. I’m so proud of his recall but it would be nice if he could walk past some birds without going crazy
@mkb We've been crate training our puppy for a bunch of reasons. This week she has started to run to the back door when she needs to go out. I've been taking her outside every time I let her out from her crate and she's on a leash (a long one) so I have a bit of control out there as she likes to eat everything. So she has really made the connection to peeing and pooping outside. That's with 3 1/2 weeks of crate training.
She has also made a lot of progress on learning to settle. We've been really working on this to cut down on the amount of jumping and nipping and biting she does. I'd say that we can get her to settle about 60% of the time.
On the fun side this puppy LOVES to fetch. And she mastered drop it really quickly.
@rtfguy What tips or insight do you have for getting them to settle? Usually I just have to airjail or hold them against me and ask them to settle in a calm manner.
@extremeboy We have a house leash on her. I cut the handle off so it doesn’t get caught on things. When she jumps and nips at us I pick up the leash and just put a bit of tension on the line and tell her to settle. As soon as she stops and calms down I drop the tension to zero and reward her with a treat. I would say that after doing this for a couple weeks her jumping and biting is a lot less. And now sometimes I don’t have to pick up her leash. I tell her to settle and she does.
@rtfguy Thank you, we've had a house line on him from day 1. Currently I'm picking him up to settle, but I'm hoping in time using the words will achieve the same. It's already taking him less time in my arms to feel him relax and slow his heart rate.
@southerner05 My pup has used it ever since he got here. After a couple of hours, they forget about the line because it's only 6 feet 5 feet. 4 feet long is it just becomes part of their body. Cause you keep it on all the time. Unless you're in the crate where I got mine. I went to dollarama. Got a long leash, cut the handle off. Major's bit shorter works great
@extremeboy Literally me. First puppy I’ve raised that needs me to rock them to sleep. He’s gotten way better with a set nap schedule but sometimes it still happens
@mkb Puppy got spayed this week, so can’t go on her long off leash walks. We’ve been doing on leash, slow walking and she’s improving by leaps and bounds! (With a minimum of leaps and bounds)
