Dog / Puppy Training. How to break bad habits and how to prevent them.
Puppies are a lot of work. Jumping, digging, chewing, and biting are things all puppies like to do. Because puppies like these things, training must start day one when the puppy comes home. Puppies have lots of energy so they need activities to do. Otherwise a puppy left on its own will use all that energy against you and get into trouble.
Let’s talk about how to walk your dog or puppy.
Good activates like walks and going to the park are great activates to get some of that energy out. For younger puppies going on walks or going to the park might be a little strenuous on the puppies small body. Just going out in the yard and playing with you is great for younger puppies. Also practice having your little puppy walking on the leash in your yard. This will help you and your puppy have more enjoyable walks when he/she is bigger.
Whenever you take your dog/puppy on a walk don’t let the dog walk you! When you go for a walk this is your time to train your dog. First practice walking your dog/puppy in your yard. If your puppy has way too much energy you might want to play some fetch or some other game for a while. After the dog/puppy has been playing with you start slowing things down. Begin petting your dog calmly a little bit between throwing the ball (make sure the ball is not in your hand when petting or the dog/puppy will get excited). Also start taking in deep breaths and exhaling. This will communicate to your dog you are relaxing and its time to start settling down. Now depending on your dog/puppy and how much energy he/she has will determine your next move. If the dog is relaxing and calming down go ahead and put the leash on and begin training. If the dog is too excited still just let the dog alone and sit down ignoring any toys he/she might bring to you. Just calmly pet the dog when he/she comes near to you.
Now leash training can begin. If your dog pulls a lot on the leash you may want to consider getting a gentle leader. A gentle leader works very much like a horse halter. If you have seen someone leading a horse around you will notice they don’t put a collar or rope around the horses neck. Do you know why? Obviously horses are a lot stronger than a person so by putting something around the horses neck the horse is able to pull anyone around. But if a horse has a halter on and the horse goes to pull all you have to do is pull back and the head moves to you and then the horses body follows. So you see you have much more control with the head than the neck. The gentle leader goes around the dogs muzzle and then behind the ears. If you have a puller this just might be the answer for you. Train the dog to stay at your side by pulling on the leash and giving the command “back” then release pressure. It may take days for your dog to learn this but be persistent and repeat it over and over again.
Let’s talk about jumping.
No one likes a jumping dog. But how do you get them to stop? The more energy a dog has the harder it is to teach them not to jump on you. When your dog/puppy goes to jump on you the last thing you want to do is pet the dog. When the dog/puppy jumps tell them “No” or “Off”. You do NOT want to use the word “Down”. Because when you tell a dog to lie down you use the command word down in “Lay Down”. Do not mix up command words or your dog/puppy may not take you seriously when given a command or he/she will become confused not knowing what you want. So choose your words carefully and keep your command words simple. Ok so back to when your dog/puppy jumps up on you. Giving the command word “No” or “Off” is probably not going to work by itself, at least not until your dog learns the command word and what it means. So you are going to have to gently but very firmly push the dog off after you give the command word. Also don’t give up your ground by taking a step backwards when your dog jumps on you.
A great way to practice teaching your dog not to jump is food. Take treats in one hand leaving the other free. If your dog jumps for the food tell him/her “Off” then push the dog off and reward the dog with the treat as soon as all four paws are on the ground. If the dog is way too excited and jumps as soon as you are about to give the treat, make him/her sit. Then reach out your hand with the treat. If the dog stands up pull your hand back and say “sit”. Then try again until the dog gets it.
Let’s talk about digging.
A puppy left alone in a yard with nothing to do will get bored. So the puppy will find something to do and it just might be digging. The best way to stop a puppy from digging is to prevent it. If you have to leave a puppy for a few hours you need to have stuff for the puppy to do such as new toys or bones. Also a large kennel with a cement bottom is a good idea as long as it is not in direct sun light because it will heat up fast. You need to have some kind of puppy safe area to leave the dog in where he/she can not get into trouble.
If you see your dog digging tell the dog “No” and you may need to take the dog to the hole he/she dug and point the head at the hole and say “no”. You can also tie the dog up by the hole as you fill it and then release the dog as soon as it is filled. This will make the dog think about what he/she did. Also this will reinforce that there should be no hole there because you want it kept filled.
Sometimes dogs dig to get out of the yard. If you have a dog like this you need to ask yourself why does my dog want to dig out? Is there something outside the yard the dog wants; is it the dogs next door? When you figure out why the dog digs out you can then find a solution.
Example 1: your dog digs out to get to other dogs. This could mean your dog is lonely. Are you spending enough time with your dog? If not start spending more time with your dog. If that dose not work maybe your dog needs a friend around all the time and you should consider getting another dog.
Example 2: Dose your dog dig out to explore the neighborhood? If so you are probably not doing enough walks with your dog. Some dogs need to be walked out of the yard every day to fulfill this need of exploring.
Example 3: Dose your dog dig out because he/she is bored? You need to provide enough toys and bones for you puppy to play with. Do more activities with your dog.
If you can not make anything work to keep your dog in the yard than I would suggest a hot wire as your last effort to keep your dog in the yard. If you truly tried to keep your dog in your yard as hard as you could you should have achieved that goal. If you failed it was probably because you did not have enough time to spend with your dog, or you are not understanding the reason why your dog digs out, or your dog was not trained properly as a puppy. I recommend you find a good dog trainer and talk with that person if you are still having problems.
Let’s talk about chewing.
It is a fact that puppies love chewing. Their teeth are so sharp that it seems like they could chew up anything! You can not take the chewing behavior out of a puppy but you direct that chewing behavior towards toys. Supply lots of toys and bones for the puppy to chew on. Be carful what kind of toys you buy. For example you should never buy a toy that resembles shoes or other things that are found in a house. Say you were to buy a soft squeaky slipper toy and your puppy loved it. Then one day you see your puppy with your own slipper in its mouth. My point is your puppy dose not know the difference between a dog toy and something that looks very similar to an item you have in your house.
As a rule you should never leave temptation in a puppies reach. If your puppy dose get a hold of something he/she should not have take it away from the puppy and say “No”. Then immediately give the puppy one of its toys then verbally prays the puppy for playing with his/her toy.
Let’s talk about biting.
Some times people think it is cute to play with a puppy by teasing the puppy with their hand around the dogs mouth causing the dog to mouth their hand. This is a very, VERY bad thing to do! The message you are sending the puppy is “See my hand catch it if you can” the other message “It is ok to bite me”. What is going to happen when the puppy is an adult? Do you think that habit is just going to disappear? If you have a puppy that is going to become large when full grown, are you going to fell comfortable having kids around that dog? Small breed dogs, do you want to have a little snapping dog meet your visitors at the door? Of course you do Not want a biting dog. So why train the puppy to become a biter, because that is what you are doing by any teasing to the puppy.
To those of you that have a dog or puppy how do you feel about giving food to the dog with your bare hand? Are you afraid the dog will bite you so you heraldry trough the food in the dog s mouth? This makes the dog very greedy and grabby. It is like the dogs is saying “Oh her they come with food! It’s mine! I’m ready to grab it as soon as I can reach it!” The dog becomes so excited all they think about is the food and they forget about the hand that is feeding them; thus casing the dog to accidently bite you. Teaching the dog not to grab food is usually easy as long as the dog has not had this bad habit for years. Here is what you do and be prepared to have a slobbery hand. Take some food in your hand and close it so no food is visible. Then approach your dog and hold out you hand in the dogs reach and say “Gentle”. If the dog bites you pull your hand back and say “No”. Then try again. When the dog becomes more gentle he/she will start to lick you hand then start to open your hand. If the dog becomes rough again close your hand. Eventually the dog will learn he/she can not have the food until he/she become gentle. Repeat this method every time you give the dog food with your hand.
Things to Remember
Training a dog or puppy takes time, constancy, patients, and love. If you feel you are in over your head find a good dog trainer. You are always training your dog and you should never stop, not even after a training course. If you stop training all the bad habits could come back and that puts you at square one. Do not give up on your dog. Never get rid of a dog because of behavior problems unless the dog is putting your kids in danger. If you get rid of your dog that has problems what makes you think someone ells wants your problem dog? By adopting any pet you agree to take on the responsibility of that animal. You do not want you dog going around home to home because eventually the dog will end up at a shelter. Consider carefully before adopting a dog and find out as much as you can about the dogs history. This will help you know what kind of a dog you are getting so you know what you are getting into and how much training the dog will need. Also get to know the dog by visiting and observing the dog.
