Starting training with my 8 week old Australian Shepherd, and a few other questions (x-post r/dogtraining)

[heisthetruth]

We've had Stitch for almost a week now, and he's been doing very well with crate training and going outside to eliminate, and I've been doing some marker training with him and have been getting him to sit, come, and look to me in response to his name. (Only when boiled chicken is involved but it is a learning process lol.)

Is there detriment to trying to teach him different commands at the same time? Like for example, if I'm training sit with him, (How I'm doing it now is giving him the cue, when he does it click the same time it happens and then treat, and praise.) will training come in the same session confuse him as to what the verbal cue means? Is there a generally agreed upon "order of learning things" for the building block behaviors? Sit before Recall before Leave it before Drop it, etc.

Regarding bite inhibition: Are there any other methods people would recommend? He doesn't have much interest in toys when they've become more than a few hours old, so he won't drop the pant legs/shoes/sweater sleeves for them. Standing still and "negative timeout" don't seem to work because he is content laying down and biting on things for 5-10 minutes. The only things that somewhat consistently work is picking him up and moving him, he will let go when that happens, or with treats.

Lastly, would you guys recommend one of the group puppy classes? Most here seem to allow the dogs/owners to participate as soon as they have their 2nd vaccine. (the 18th for stitch.) I was thinking this would start helping socialize him.

 

[allaloneuk]

@heisthetruth At this very young age, I would recommend that you only work on one obedience cue per session (like Sit or Down or Leave It), and keep each session to only a minute or two, multiple times a day. An exception is recall training, which can be part of any session since it is so different, involving lots of movement by the puppy. It's fine to teach more than one command per day though, as long as you are paying close attention to make sure the puppy is not frustrated or overwhelmed (looking away, suddenly scratching or biting himself, yawning, lip licking, etc). I would also recommend teaching Down from the standing position, rather than the Sit position, and do either Sit or Down in a given day (not both) until those are solid. Those two commands easily get mixed up in puppy minds.

Remember that the puppy should be 90% reliable on giving a behavior based on the hand signal (say, for Sit) before you start teaching the verbal cue. Dogs attend much better to clear hand signals than to words.

If he doesn't care about being ignored when biting you, either continue to move him behind a baby gate, or you walk away and step over the gate. But remember that he is still very young and hasn't really bonded to you yet, so withdrawal of attention might not be very meaningful to him. This is especially true if he is an independent type that is fine chewing on a toy alone for awhile. In that case, putting him behind a gate into a boring place might be the better of the two options. Make sure he is getting plenty of enforced naptime during the day - 45 minutes awake followed by 2-2.5 hr naps. This will help keep him from getting overtired and turning into a land shark.

And redirection to a toy is always a great option for active times, but you may need to work harder to get him to think toys are fun. Do you play tug-of-war with him?

And yes, get into puppy class as soon as you can. Be sure to go observe a puppy class at each place you are considering. You will likely see a huge difference in the quality of trainers and class content.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@heisthetruth I mostly redirected when mine was that young and let him explor like others are saying.

Now I use uh-uh for his “you’re getting it wrong” cue. I picked it because a straight “no” can be said with a harsh tone. It’s harder for me to say uh-uh in a mean way. Keeps it lighthearted.

For training in an order, I stuck to what kikopup and Zak George say, calm behaviors. Then started to branch out from there. Just train little by little and if you notice something becoming a little harder work more on that for a day or two.

Toys are best when cycled. Parker has a favorite but they all seem more interesting when they’re only out for a week before a different toy comes out.

I loved my puppy class. Gave me someone to bounce ideas off of. Some trainers are better than other though so don’t be afraid to ask for someone different if they aren’t a good fit. Good luck.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@heisthetruth He’s a baby yet, and you have him for just few days, don’t force it. I’d say let him explore, and know your house. Keep the training sessions very short (a couple of minutes) for now. Puppies attention span is very short when they’re still babies.

 

[heisthetruth]

@imagebeastmarkbeast He usually keeps interest in training for about 5 minutes or so which we do a few times a day. Im just wondering if i'm doing everything i should be so that he is a happy and well behaved dog. Struggling a lot more with other family members who don't understand that he is a dog, and a puppy at that and isn't capable of being stubborn or spiteful.