©Working With Your Puppy
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This is a general overview of how you can start to effectively start work with your puppy. As a behaviourist I have chosen certain aspects that commonly come up during consultations which, had they been understood early on, could have reduced the likelihood of certain problems developing. Sadly, I would like to highlight the fact that rescue organisations are full of dogs that started out as lovely puppies in adoring families. Many of these dogs were simply not trained and were misunderstood. Spend the time now to ensure that your beloved puppy remains with you for the rest of its long life. Topics discussed will be: Communication; Body Language, Eye Contact, Voice Common Problems; Using a Crate/Pen, House Training, Biting, Possession, Anxiety Without proper communication it is easy for misunderstandings to occur between you and your puppy. It is very easy to fall into the habit of talking to your pup and interacting with him as if he is a human- but remember that no matter how clever he is and no matter how much a part of the family he is- the only language he speaks is CANINE! For this reason alone we need to make things clear and simple- and CONSISTENT so he has a chance to learn what we mean. Sit down with your family and decide together which words you are going to use for your commands. Choose words that are easy to say and easily distinguished by your pup. Remember that your puppy will be easily confused with any inconsistencies as he is trying to learn your language. Once you have chosen your commands, it is important that you help communicate their meaning to your pup by using additional methods. We can do this using the following:
1. Body
Language Body Language- Dogs do most of their communicating using various body postures so you can imagine that they are very sensitive to our own movements. It is important to be aware of your posture when working with your pup. Imagine how domineering it must be for a pup to be leaned over by a huge human! It could really put him off approaching you or could make him too nervous to focus on his training. While your pup is getting used to people, and especially for those more nervous puppies, it is much more relaxing to approach a person who is more on their own level. You can do this by: crouching with your hands held loosely open. You are then much easier to approach. Eye Contact- Dogs are naturally very careful about their eye contact- they avoid direct stares unless they are trying to threaten another dog. Eye contact is combined with suitable body posture to make the meaning clear. Puppies get used to familiar people’s eye contact but direct eye contact from new people can be a little worrying for shy dogs. Get over this by asking people to avoid direct eye contact when first approached my your pup. With more experience, this will be less of a problem but remember that the best thing you can do for your dog is to continue ensuring he meets as many people as possible throughout his life. Think of it this way, you are much better at things you are used to doing regularly- and the same goes for your dog. Voice- Dogs use subtle changes in vocalisation to help them to communicate with each other. You should use different tones of voice to signal your meaning. You should remember that your dog puts other forms of communication before vocal so you must be clear. Use soothing gentle tones to communicate your pleasure at him doing the correct thing and short, sharp deep reprimands for unwanted behaviours.
The Socialisation ProcessWhat is it? Good socialisation is perhaps the number one favour you can do for your puppy. It lays down the foundation for the way he will respond to the world for the rest of his life. Puppies have a critical period between 3 and 12 weeks where they are extra sensitive to learning about new experiences. This is the best time to introduce your pup to as many different people, places, animals, floors, sounds, handling etc. as possible. However, don’t despair if your pup is older than this now. Socialisation should never stop! Don’t expect your puppy to grow up great with children just because the breeder had children. Good manners are easy to forget. What can you do? It can be helpful to keep a record of your puppy’s experiences. This can be fun and can get the while family involved and aware of areas where he perhaps is not getting so much experiences. No matter how much your pup seems to be able to deal with, try not to overwhelm him with all socialisation events at once! Stop while he is still having fun and keen to be involved and leave the rest until tomorrow. Take care not to place your pup in a potentially traumatic situation but avoid over-protecting him. Allow your pup to approach people himself if he is at all nervous at first. Don’t completely avoid a situation you feel he is nervous of, but do approach it with care and make it a rewarding experience. In the case of learning to interact with dogs, it is important that you first find out whether the dog your puppy is meeting is good with others. You want to avoid his first experience of dogs being severely traumatic. So choose a dog that you know and prevent puppy from becoming over exuberant. This is a great way to start but you also need to take care not to baby your puppy. There will be times when an older dog needs to put him in his place or just to stop him biting so hard. This is all part of the learning experience and if your puppy never learns the boundaries you could end up with a dog that is completely O.T.T. with other dogs. However you do NOT want this to occur early on before your pup has had enough positive encounters. The best way is to have controlled meetings that you break off before trouble starts, calm your pup down, and then allow playing to resume.
Your new puppy is constantly absorbing information about the world around it. This means that he is learning how to behave as an adult even at this early stage. This is why you must allocate time to your puppy’s training now. It simply does not work to say, “I’ll get the puppy now and then when I have some holiday time in a few months, I’ll train him.” You could try this, but remember that each and every day that you do not guide your puppy he is happily teaching himself! And I promise you, the behaviours your pup chooses were never on your To Do List! So, if you have not already done so, start TODAY! What are you going to teach your pup? Sit down with your family and sensibly discuss what your expectations of your puppy are. Think about his breed when you do this as it might just change your mind about how physical you want him to be. Will you want your wet and muddy retriever running in and jumping on your sofa (Or jumping anywhere except in the bath?!). Will you still be happy to pick up a worried Fluffy when he is 30 Kg? (Or should you work on his fears now?).
On a serious note, no matter how small your dog is going to be- never underestimate how difficult it can be when he has been used, throughout his puppy months, to getting on laps as he pleases, or jumping up, or playing rough. Even small dogs can pull very hard on the lead and make walking them a misery. Think about what it will be like in the winter when the paths are icy- even a small tug could send you flying with awful consequences. Make your rules and write them down and make sure that you all stick to it. Be Consistent. It will be difficult at times but I assure you that by doing it this way you can save yourself from having to re-train later when your pup is out of control and trying to be independent. How do you start Training? It is best to have an understanding about how puppies learn first so you can use methods that work.
Dogs learn by experience. They try out activities and then tend towards those behaviours that were most rewarding. Don’t be fooled by the thought that just because you didn’t give your pup a treat, he hasn’t been rewarded in another way. If you remember back to the different types of communication dogs use, we can identify other features that may be just as rewarding. Individual dogs, as people, have different motivations but most will gain something from:
1.Being spoken to Now you can see how easily it is to accidentally re-enforce your puppy’s unwanted behaviour, it may be clearer why IGNORING unwanted behaviour works best for most things. This can be difficult, but in the long term this is the best option for reducing most attention seeking behaviours. Obviously, there is more to training your pup than just ignoring him! So lets talk about how to go about finding a training scheme that suits you both. Training varies from person to person, depending upon your lifestyle. It does not necessarily mean that you want a champion dog- you could just be aiming for a well-mannered dog. Each person has different abilities just as each dog has varying skills. It is important to build your own confidence and your dog’s by mixing the things that you are good at with those aspects that need practice. Don’t just ignore them and hope they will improve- it won’t work. Remember, your dog learns from experience and without it, is likely to be hopeless! You will need practice too. Keep training sessions short so that you don’t lose your pup’s concentration. Different training classes will vary in their methods. With modern knowledge, it is totally unnecessary for a trainer to still be using harsh methods. Especially with your puppy, it is vital that his experience of training be rewarding and comfortable. For details of kind, effective classes contact Puppy School on www.puppyschool.co.uk for your nearest class, or for those of you based near Purley in Surrey, contact Claire Arrowsmith directly.
Avoiding Common Problems Puppy Crate/Pen. Personally, I do not know how anyone manages a puppy without one of these or at least a very secure place where the pup can be left without being able to access anything it shouldn't. This is the only way that you can allow yourself to become distracted without failing to keep your pup out of trouble. Lets face it, everyone needs some quiet time where they can relax knowing their pup is safe. It is also a great place to put your puppy to avoid over-exuberant play, for example with your children or with another dog. However, be careful not to forget about your puppy and leave him in there too long. Your puppy will soon become bored and may chew or bark or become overexcited when he does manage to get out. Be a responsible owner and be sensible about the amount of time your puppy is in the crate. This useful tool is easily abused. The pen/crate can be invaluable for teaching your puppy how to settle, how to cope with being left, and vitally it prevents him from discovering all the things you have been working hard to avoid (stealing, chewing).
Set
the crate up as a nice, comfy sleeping area. He will need a couple of things to
play with by himself. Suitable items include, something to chew- perhaps a ragger and an interactive toy like a stuffed Kong or
Stuffaball. The pen should
therefore be a place where pup can relax and enjoy being. This may not occur
immediately. Placing nice things in the pen will affect the way pup perceives
this area and it can be left open for him to explore at first. If his bed is in
there and he is encouraged to rest there, he will start to go there when he
needs to.
This can be a difficult one as, like children, puppies can take varied times to become completely dry. It is not uncommon for occasional accidents to occur up to 8 months in some dogs. However, your puppy does have strong instincts not to toilet where he sleeps so you can take advantage of this. I cannot highlight enough that housetraining does take a lot of participation by you- time and patience is a vital and without your input NOW, you will continue to have problems long term. Let him out at regular intervals- and be prepared to wait. You cannot rush this process. Keep a warm coat close to hand to you can easily go out with your puppy until he goes. Otherwise, as soon as the door closes, or you rush back in, puppy will want to follow and will spend his energy trying to get back to you. Since pups tend to toilet after they calm down, this is why they then go when you bring him back indoors. Never participate in play with your puppy until he as toileted and use a word to tell him to go now and then treat him. Get it right for a couple of days and you are close to cracking it! It can be tempting to relax a bit and leave your puppy to toilet on newspaper. This can actually prolong your training however, and can result in a dog that is liable to pee on paper if he can’t get out. I see lots of young dogs that simply haven’t made the transition to toileting on a different substrate and wait until they come home to toilet. If you are already using paper, you can still follow the advice to take him out and crate him at other times. Wean him off the papers by moving slightly soiled ones outside and reducing them until he is going on the grass etc. Punishment does not work with toilet training- fact. If you punish your puppy for toileting indoors, he will start to feel anxious about going around you and this will hinder your progress. He will begin to sneak away to toilet quietly in private. This will just make the whole process more difficult for you. If you use a puppy crate and take him out on regular intervals, then you can avoid the majority of accidents. If you are supervising your pup and he starts to toilet, give a short sharp, loud shout. Just enough to make him stop what he is doing for a second. You then need to get him out as quickly as you can. Call him to you in a jolly voice and go out with him. Take him to the chosen toileting spot and give your verbal command. Then praise him!! Clean up! Put your pup in the crate while you clean up any accidents. These areas need to be cleaned very well so that your pup cannot smell any traces of urine. Otherwise, he will continue to think of this place as a toilet. Avoid normal household disinfectants or bleach based products as they will only add to the uric acid odour. You can buy special odour eliminator cleaner or use biological washing powder solution but make sure that you rinse the area down thoroughly.
Every puppy will mouth at some point through normal puppy behaviour. It is the way they investigate their environment. However, some puppies can be much more focused on mouthing than others- depending on breed, the response, games that have been played etc. It is a mistake to assume that this will naturally disappear as your pup grows up. Take teeth contacting skin every seriously. Every single time this happens, stop the game with an “Ouch” and move away. Unless your pup calms immediately, ignore him. If he has your hand in his mouth, you want to avoid pulling your hand away- a moving object will exacerbate the behaviour and will encourage hard bites and could also result in more damage. Make a closed fist and go very still- make a loud, sharp “ouch!” As your puppy spits out your hand tell him he is good and offer him another object to play with. Then reward for him doing the correct behaviour. Make sure that you continue your work even when your puppy is mouthing gently- if you overreact then he will have to be more and more gentle, even when excited.
Possession. This can happen without any recognition of the problem developing. If you allow your puppy to constantly win games and take toys from you, or if you chase him when he has an item in his possession, you could be faced with a potential possession problem. Teach him from an early age to swap one item for another. As he gives the item up say, “Leave it, Good Boy”. Then offer him a treat or another toy and say, “Take it”. This way, giving an item up is a fun game rather than a challenge. If your pup tends to rush off, a house line can allow you to keep control of him without having to grab him or go after him. In this case, start with lower value items first and move on to the items that he desires more. If he gives up a chew, reward him with another chew, or treat him and then offer the same chew back. We are aiming for him to choose to give items up- not to be forced.
Anxiety. Some pups find certain events worrying. Of course, they need to experience things, sometimes nice, sometimes less nice and it can be a difficult job to determine the line between making the experience rewarding and actually re-enforcing the problem. It is a natural human response to want to console and reassure- but remember what language your pup understands. Canines do not understand the meaning when you try to console them- in fact they take your response as an encouragement to continue to behave this way. This can result in a continuously anxious dog, a more reactive dog, a more attention-seeking dog, and potentially a nervous aggressive dog. The best thing to do when you see your pup being a little worried by something is to stay calm, reduce the intensity of the situation by making it quieter if possible, or moving away. Keep in mind what it was that frightened him in the first place and take measures to slowly introduce him to this situation in a more controlled way. If your puppy is very anxious about novel items or people you may want to try a DAP diffuser. This synthetic version of a pheromone produced by the mother dog, makes the pup feel a sense of familiarity and security. Correct ways of using this equipment will be explained when you buy the DAP or by your vet. f you have any of the problems discussed above, contact Claire Arrowsmith to arrange a Puppy Session focusing on how to deal with and eliminate the problem.
Thank you for taking an interest in doing the correct work with your young dog. You have lots of work ahead but remember you can have lots of fun together!
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