Excitable Goldent Puppy

ericrlarson

Hello folks,

Everything that I have read suggests that I start training my puppy from the moment I got her home, and that is great. I think that we are making progress in several areas (name recognition, general coming when called to (not "come" obviously), crate training and house trianing)

She is 7 1/2 weeks old now, and my question of the moment is about preliminary "sit" training. I have been trying over the last day or so to use a kibble (which she is always up for and always enjoys), raise it over her head and say sit as she sits down. The trouble is that she does not stay still at all well and so I am never able to perform the maneover. I feel like I am just doing too much at a time, but some sites/books/posts seem to think that a puppy should be able to start this low level preliminary training as soon as they arrive home.

OK, well I actually had 2 questions

The second involves tethering. We often tether her in the room where we are as an alternative to being in her crate (she is wearing her collar and only mildly protests when she feels pressure from reaching the end of the lead (scratching at the collar mostly). Anyway, the question is this. She will often bite on the leash (I have never seen her outright chew on the leash). I know that this can be a training problem later on, so I am wondering how much I should be preventing this behavior.

The discipline that I am using is to gently squeeze her snout just until it is uncomfortable, say a low, short, clipped "no" and then give her a toy she is allowed to play with and praise her when she chews it.

The trouble is that since the leash is a constant annoyance to her she is constantly biting it, and so it is a lot of work (my reference point here is comparison to other puppy trainign jobs) to keep it from her.

Just curious what you all think

Thanks,
Eric

Curbside Prophet

First off, I would not squeeze her snout. I'm one to believe that being physical with a dog in this manner will impede the trust building process. I would instead continue to offer an alternative chew and spray the lead with bitter apple as a deterrent. If this does not work, you may want to consider a crate for short term confinement, and give her a stuffed Kong. She's a very young pup, and being mouthy comes with the territory. I recommend reading this article: The Bite Stops Here

And this one too for future reference: Nothing in Life is Free

For the sit technique, do you use a marker? You'll want to give your dog a marker, like the word "yes" immediately at the time it has done something correctly, and a second before the treat is given. As your dog gets older she will come to recognize that she is not suppose to end her working for you until she hears a "yes". It's a bit early in this dogs life to expect her to catch on right away, but it's good practice to start this now. You'll want to keep your expectations low, and reward the smallest movements in the right direction...building up as you go. So for now, you should reward the slightest movement of her rear to the floor. And then maybe the next day, you'll reward for a quick butt on the floor. And then a week later, reward for a perfect sit for a second or two. So on and so forth. It's all about baby steps with pups, and for us humans, keeping frustrations away.

skunkstripe

Hi ericlarson
The first thing you have to know is that you do not just have a puppy, you have a Golden. Their motto is "life is a party thrown especially for me". This continues until they are several years old. So congrats, they are lovable, wonderful dogs, but they are also nutso.

I am not sure what to tell you about biting the leash, except that
1) puppies will try to chew in ANYTHING
2) I have seen people walking their Golden on a leash, and the dog has its end of the leash in its snout, as if to say "I'll hold on to it, thank you, in addition to it being attached to my collar".

Goldens are often very sweet dogs who wear their hearts on their sleeve, so avoid the harsher training methods unless you are convinced that your Golden is dense. Usually a sharply spoken word is enough to make them cringe (many other breeds are a little thicker skinned).

Healthy Goldens are hyper as all get-out so the only prayer you have for training is to make sure that she is tired (well, at least has had some exercise) before you work on training. If she is in the mood to play it will be like trying to train a Mexican jumping bean. Also she should be hungry but not starving.

Good luck and have fun! Golden puppies are a riot!!

thomasina

I totally agree with not using any physical corrections what so ever. All of my training is based on positive reinforcement - which is praising good behavior and ignoring the bad. Obviously sometimes you do have to correct your dog, if it's chewing up your expensive carpets or something, but then a firm verbal correction should suffice and then you could redirect her attention to something more appropriate like a chewie or a dog toy. I think crate training any dog is a great thing, it can really help out, especially if you can't watch the pup or if you have to run errands or anything really. Dogs also seem to enjoy having crates, it's their den, their space, a quite place to retreat to. Crates are great, as long as they are never used as punishment. Every time your pup enters the crate, you give her a treat, soon she'll love her crate.

As far as the sitting goes, it sounds like you're doing a great job, however it does take a while for puppies to catch on to the stay thing. All I can recommend is keeping your training sessions short and fun and with lots of treats and verbal praise from you. As hard as it can be sometimes never loose your patience with your pup, if you become stressed at any time just stop the training and play a game instead or take a breather for a while. Remember your pup will always pick up on your emotions, so the best time to train with your pup is when you feel happy and relaxed.



Have fun and good luck, Goldens are wonderful dogs.

ericrlarson

Thanks for the links I will look at them soon. I read up on a couple of things after posting that were helpful. Let me ask this as a follow up clarification. Would you agree that chewing the leash is something to be discouraged even now, or should I not worry about it until later?

As of right now I cannot get her to stop running about and work with me. I guess I probably need to be working on that part...she is doing well with following and sticking with me, anything that she can do to comply with what I want while being active seems to be going well. But anything that requires her to stop and look at me she is not really doing yet. For example, she responds well to her name in a "come here" scenario, but when just lying on the floor if I call out her name she is not responding to that yet. Maybe I am rushing things too much.

Thanks for the input!

ericrlarson

I completely agree..Greta (our furry energy ball) is a ton of fun. Doing the training when she is tired or well excercised is a great point, thanks a lot!

ericrlarson

She is actually doing great with the crate. Still whines a ton some times, but not at all other times. and steady improvement is being made. Tonight in fact for the first time ever I opened the crate after we (and she) had finished dinner, and she dit not come bounding out but was content to stay in there for a minute before mosying out.

Yeah I have been keeping them fery short right now. 3-5 attemtps to get her to "sit" and then we move on to other things.

Thanks again for the input!

Curbside Prophet

I would definately discourage unwanted chewing by redirecting the dog to an appropriate chew now. And praise the heck out of her when she does chew on an appropriate chew. Because she is chewing on the leash now does not necessarily mean she will always chew on her leash. To a degree she will grow out of chewing things that don't interest her. But to a new pup most things are interesting and worthy of being chewed. And you'll want to discourage her more so to be her leader and to protect her health than to prevent a possible leash chewing problem later down the road.

I wouldn't say rushing, but maybe your expecting a lot? Which is something I can understand and would expect from most puppy owners. I know I certainly was that way. And yes there will be a period where you'll have to learn when you're training too much. For me it was usually when I noticed my commands would get louder as I became frustrated. And sometimes you just know your dog isn't interested in whatever you're working on. However, some things you can do to encourage attention... Keep a hand full of her kibble in your pocket and any time she gives you a glance, say "yes" and toss her a kibble. If you do this regularly to begin with and slowly randomize it as she matures, you'll reinforce attention at all times. You can do this just for glances to begin with, as I'm sure she'll learn her name soon enough.