dogon

Yes, this is when I used it. I held the back of his neck as you described and growled NO. It's good to know that they can be emotional blackmailers. I'll remember that next time I'm tempted to ring doggy DOCs :wink: for help - he sure made me feel bad

Nekhbet, I was wondering if the scruffing can lead to hand shyness in a dog. My father encouraged me to scruff my pup when he was doing this and I refused because I was worried that it would make him shy of my hand. Anyway, one night I gave in when he was being particularly persistent. Whilst it did work eventually because he went to sleep, he did yelp and growl at me as soon as I scruffed him and then appeared quite shy of my hand for the next couple of days. Needless to say I haven't done it again and he's fine with my hands now. Perhaps you mean that a scruffing should be used sparingly?

Hi becks, he's almost 12 weeks. I have just had a couple of days now where I have offered him nothing but kibble for training. This kibble is left over from what he doesnt eat in the morning. By night time he's been happy with his food - which is a relief. I've also been giving him 10 minutes to finish, if not it's gone and this is working well. As others have pointed out I've obviously been spoiling him with other foods. These will be my high value rewards from now on.

I mentioned in another thread the comments I get when I say I have a cocker spaniel. The usual words are 'stubborn', 'hard to train' 'food obsessed', 'stupid' and 'can be aggressive- so watch out'. Mind you, I don't think they've ever owned one! It really %$#@**@ me off, to say the least ...so far my 11 1/2 week old pup is 'friendly', 'affectionate' ,'quick to learn' and mostly 'compliant' (he's a puppy). IMO he has a high prey drive and works beautifully to the 'off' command - a built in understanding given the work they were originally bred for.

This thread is gold. I'm so looking forward to my cocker boy becoming as mischievous as Barkly - NOT!!

Oh dear - yes, will stop this immediately! My son does this too so I'll have to put a stop to it. I must say the walk away and ignore mantra overe and over again. This is an interesting idea. One question though. The fluffy duck is what he likes to sleep with and it's the one toy I leave consistently on the ground for him. (consequently it's covered in slime ) Is it ok to continue with it being always available? When I put it somewhere he actively looks for or begs for it. Is it ok to use this toy for the tug/fetch learning to give game? should I get another identical fluffy duck? It seems to me that this toy has the highest reward value.

Excellent idea! I got the bag from the breeder so poor fool me

Ok. Will do. The aim is to get through this bag though since it cost me soooo much. I'd really rather avoid abandoning it all together.

Thanks BMP Great advice. Rodney is a cocker spaniel. I can't tell you how many people go 'ahh' in a knowing way when I say that I'm starting to wonder if I have invited the bride of Frankenstein to share my home. I digress. So anyway, I watched the video posted by luvsdogs in this thread and I'm using 'thank you' as a give signal and 'take it' as a play tug signal. It's similar to what you do and it's working a treat I use 'off' to make him wait before i give him the toy. It's so funny to watch him squirm but he manages to follow the 'off' command well. I think I'll work on this aspect before I move on to fetch. That makes sense to me and TBO he only likes the tug part it seems. His favourite toy in all the world is a fluffy duck so I'm currently figuring out creative ways to use it to my advantage. Normally I kick it to him whenecer he's biting my leg but maybe I should control the use of it a bit more. Just a thought.

My puppy is so not into his food. He now only eats it in the morning and barely touches it at night. I use Eukenuba and stupidly bought a 20kg bag from the breeder who told me that pup will LOVE it!!! Talk about money down the drain I've followed advice and removed the food after 15 minutes. I only feed morning and night now and I do wet it to 'release the flavour'. What should I do? I do use treats during the day (boiled chicken, cheese and sometimes sausage but in small pieces) I did begin by using the Eukenuba treats and also the kibble from his meals but he very quickly lost interest and so I needed to use something else for training. Do people out there find this to be a common problem? Should I give up and switch to something else? I feel like i have just thrown money away!

Oh, and did I mention that I'm in awe of Dunbar - what a guy and those dogs, so cool My Rodney is definitely a tug freak - he's lying at my feet fast asleep whilst gripping his fluffy duckie with jaws of steal. bless him :rolleyes:

Very very helpful, thanks :rolleyes: I'll start tomorrow!

Great phrase:rofl: being a pork chop It's what puppies do!!! Ok, I'll take your advice and go look at training in drive threads - better to be informed than to bury my head in the sand. Cheers guys

ok, wow, lots to think about here. Initially when I look at TOT it appears to me to be a fairly fancy way of describing positive reinforcement as training method. Am I wrong? I really would like to have a dog as a companion - not as a working dog or an agility/obedience competition dog. However I can see what Kavik and roo are saying about using a strength in my dog to my advantage. The problem is this; I don't really like the aggression that tug seems to elicit in Rodney. He growls whenever he is given a toy, shakes it and trots away to 'devour' it. He's like a lion in this sense. If Rodney is a 'high drive' dog then I guess I should play to it as a strength but I worry that I might be encouraging aggression. He's a little cocker spaniel and my puppy school teacher horrified me by saying that this would be a worry in this breed and that I shouldn't encourage it. I guess there are a variety of opinions out there but, being a novice, I don't want to stuff up. Should I suppress it or play it? that is the question! bearing in mind that I'm a novice.

My 11 weeker is totally in to fetching a toy but the tussle over it when he brings it back seems to be his favourite part of the game. The thing that I'm not sure about is the growling. He shows a lot of determination to hang on to it which makes me think that the game is not in the fetch but in the tug of war that results. At first I didn't worry so much because I was just interested in getting him to understated the concept of fetch and retrieve but now I'm worried that I'm encouraging a bad habit. When he plays with his favourite fluffy toy he growls too. I've assumed that this is entirely normal and healthy behaviour for a pup. However sometimes he can lunge and bite at a toy (any toy when it involves a fetch game). I always terminate the game when he does this though. What I do is offer him a treat in exchange for the toy and this does work. But only if there is a treat in the bargain. Otherwise he growls and tugs. I usually don't let him win - only sometimes. Am I encouraging a bad habit? Should I be offering a treat? How long do I have to be offering a treat in exchange for the toy before he gives it back readily?

Hi Jaycee, Just wanted to say thanks sooooo much for this link. I've been trying to find a copy and was thinking of ordering it online. Cheers

Hi bozthepup. My pup has weaned himself off his 3rd meal (lunch) and I've been giving him a chicken neck to replace it. Not only are they cheap ($1.99 a kilo) but he loves them I don't know about chicken wings but the necks are very safe and even though I hovered a lot at first now I just leave him to chow down. Try chicken necks first if you're a bit worried about the sharpness of the wing bones.

dogstar daily has it :p ETA: squeaks got it

Try this: http://www.k9events.com/pups1.htm I found it quite useful. Also goto http://www.dogstardaily.com/training for some excellent downloads.

I thought it was the 12 week shots that you needed to make sure that pup had -provided you wait at least 7 days - so 13 weeks.

Boz is such a cutie. Oh boy, I know that naughty look!! Noticing the 'up' times has definitely been my best management tool so far. For Roddy that would be anywhere from 5-8pm so I employ the crate or his pen quite a bit during this time. It does help to send that 'calm' message. So glad that ur getting on top of things.

Perhaps Boz should not be near the couch. Is this possible? Can you put him in the pen while you're in the room with the couch? If he hasn't got a couch to jump on then that's a problem solved. Once he's grown a bit and less naughty then you could let him back near the couch with strict orders not to get on it.

Well said I didn't think of it that way; off is a correction, sit is a direction. All corrections should be blunt, to the point with no fuss - delay reward or catch being good. Directions, when executed properly should be rewarded right away. Just thinking out loud

Hi bozthepup. I hear your pain. I really think your best option is to stop trying to reward/train etc when he is on the couch or biting your hands. This will only give him the attention he wants. Any attention is good attention-right? Does he have a noticible up or down time. My Roddy does and during his up time I will NOT play rough games with him. I encourage him to savage his stuffed toy during this time. When he has down time he likes to lazily mouth me so I invite him to, always saying gentle, gentle. That way I control his mouthing and can let him know when it's too hard. Keep it simple and simply do not accept what you don't want. So, ignore him when he bites! dont speak, walk away, end the game. I know it's hard. Last night I ignored but it got worse before he gave up and humpfed onto his mat in disgust (with me, for not giving him attention) So push through the worse bit, be calm, dont talk a lot and he WILL eventually get it. Good luck ETA: with the 'off' command I'm wondering if it would be better to teach 'off' in an isolated situation and then introduce 'off' in context when you're confident that he understands what it means. IMO 'off' may not be the command for being on the couch or biting. These are unacceptable to you so you should say nothing/remove or ignore etc. Just a thought. Others here may be better help.

Hi bozthepup, I'm teaching 'off' by holding a treat in my closed fist. When he touches his nose to my fist to investigate I say 'off' . I was confused initially about what 'off' would actually mean to the pup and I've discovered that it's useful for getting him to leave things alone. But I have to catch him literally thinking about it. If he's in the middle of mauling the table leg then 'off' doesnt work -yet ;) BUT, he does look as if he's thinking about it so I guess I'm getting somehwere. I think the best way to teach off couch/jumping is to ignore (for jumping) or say nothing and remove him from the couch. I've discovered that ranting and raving doesn't work and gives him more attention so, for example, when my pup jumps on me I ignore him, wait for all four paws to hit the ground and then praise him (or treat if I have one) I'm starting to see hesitations now, as if he's thinking twice about jumping. If I see this little brain blip happening I praise him for NOT jumping. Moral is: catch them being good. Bloody exhausting :D Hope this helps as I'm learning too.