[drharps]

I have a two parter here:

1) I have tried to get my puppy (12 weeks) to settle and she still doesn't have it in her. Strangely, when she's in her cordoned off area, she's mostly relaxed. The second she's allowed into the larger area, she freaks out and runs and jumps and bites and plays. She knows to lay at our feet and relax, but she doesn't. (We know she knows this because when we ignore her, that's what she does - though there is no actually settling. When we don't treat her, she barks at us.) Thoughts on how to get her to chill out?

2) Our puppy has figured out that jumping on furniture then jumping off gets a treat. We've tried a number of options. We've tried treating her every time she gets off the furniture, but she's figure that out so she jumps up, waits for "off", then jumps off, gets her treat, and immediately jumps back up. We've also tried ignoring her but when we do that she just starts chewing everything she can reach. Ideas on how to get her to stay off furniture?

 

[CptJack]

1-) If ignoring her makes her lay down by your feet, ignore her. If putting her in a smaller area helps her relax, do that when she needs to take a nap. Frankly she's a BC/Aussie. This is as good as it's likely to get for a 12 week old, and possibly for a 12 year old. When we say chilled out this is what most of us mean. My perfectly chill BC at 3 years old will pop up like a jack in the box if she thinks there's a chance of me doing something fun. Not being an active pest and laying down when nothing else is going on is fine. Manners will come with age.

2-) Teach a go to mat behavior with a bed. Or mat. Or something on the floor. Remove her consistently. Expect it to take months and only apply when you're home.

 

[Kathyy]

To add to CptJack's advice, treat pup regularly when he stays on his mat. Otherwise he'll continue the jumping jack thing he is currently doing on the furniture. Going to the mat, laying down on the mat and staying on the mat are completely different behaviors according to dog.

Bucky was supposed to be 2 years old when I got him. Ha! He was a whirling dervish out of his pen or crate but teaching him down was magic. Apparently he hadn't a clue that it was possible to lay down out of the pen or crate and once he learned now he was laying down napping without having to commit a doggy crime first. If he can do it your pup can as well.

 

[drharps]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I guess to be more clear, when we ignore her, she lays down in a "I know I get a treat doing this" way. When she gets it - or doesn't - she immediately goes back to jumping, barking, etc.

Cpt, for your BC, when did you notice she developed the ability to just relax? Was there a rough age when she wasn't constantly jumping and barking? We want to leave her with us when we are watching tv or eating, but she makes it impossible and we have to resort to her cordoned off area. I don't care if she pops up the second we stand, so long as she stays relatively still and allows us to pet her when we're relaxing.

If jumping, barking, hyperactivity is what we can expect from a 12 week old, when does that become less an issue?

We ordered a rug to be 'her' rug so when we get that we're going to go the route of teaching her to sit on it.

 

[Canyx]

Again, normal for a puppy of that breed mix and that age. If you have an Xpen, you can move it around the house so that she can experience being in different areas but still learn to be calm. For example, you can move the pen up right next to the couch and shrink the size so she is essentially right there when you watch a movie, but being calm.

Might have said this already, but my herding dog who is almost 8 months old STILL doesn't chill if he is out of his pen. He might for some points. But the totally catatonic, relaxed adult dog I want to coexist with in shared space... I don't expect that for another year at least. My breeder consistently tells people, 'they don't learn to settle until 1-2 years of age'... and then some don't at all!

I remember being in your shoes and wanting to teach my puppy to be calm and free when he was much younger. It was so much management and hypervigilance that I opted to just put him in a crate/pen setup in a central location. Life has been SOOO easy. I don't need to mark and reward every few seconds. I don't need to tiptoe around him. He is very much a part of the household and no farther than 15 ft away from me at all times when I am home. But he self entertains or just chills. I see him make better and better choices IN his pen all the time. But I am giving him time to mature before I expect him to just relax with no management tools in place.

 

[Lillith]

I agree, if he relaxes in his pen, move his pen around the house. I have an Aussie/Collie who is probably in the medium energy range, and he wasn't great at settling until he was well over a year old. We ignored him a lot. He wasn't interested in destroying stuff if we were home, so we could let him be free, but he would pester us and bark at us and lots of other irritating behaviors that he had to learn just didn't work to get our attention.

 

[Life With Atlas]

While Atlas has always been very good at settling in the house, even as a young puppy, I wish I had spent more time with him in his crate when he was younger. What everyone is saying is great advice! Of course he was always crated at night, and now when we leave the house, but if I was to put him into it and go watch tv he would NOT be a happy camper. (This is something I intend to work on, as if we continue on to a show career, he will need to just chill out there no matter what's happening or where I am.) So use this opportunity to help you shape this behaviour and really make her crate/pen a place that good and just an everyday part of her life.

My parent's got Soka as about a 12 week old puppy, and the people that had her previously had allowed her on their furniture, so she thought nothing of bouncing up onto the couch beside you. Consistent (and I mean, consistent) repetition of gently taking her collar, telling her "Soka, off" and directing her off the couch, had her figuring it out pretty quick that furniture was a no-go. She would get attention when her feet were on the floor, but every time she got up she was immediately helped off. Now, she was probably a lot less energetic than your girl (even though she is an Aussie) so it wasn't that hard to teach. But if you use the crate/pen, then she doesn't have the opportunity to jump on the couch, and can't reinforce it as a game, so that's probably a win-win. (I see you are going to teach her place/mat, which should also help with keeping her off the couch too!)