sidoney

OK then, if you go to him and then he stops, you are rewarding him for barking. In a way that makes stopping the barking easier, as the barking is linked to a reward - you going to him. You have a strong barking behaviour there as he is being rewarded for LOTS of duration, that is, barking for a long time. Once you stop going to him when barking, you need to be 100% consistent in not going to him. If you ignore him for 5 mornings and in frustration go to him on the 6th, you make that behaviour much stronger again, as he will know that sometimes he gets rewarded and sometimes not, so it's worth trying again even if he didn't get rewarded the last few times. Let me repeat that, as it's so important: Once you decide to stop rewarding his barking by stopping going to him, you have to stop FOREVER. At first his barking will increase - the extinction burst. Trainers use that "burst" to get more, better, faster behaviour out of their dog - they will reward the higher level. You DON'T want to do that. You can practice "staying quiet in the laundry" through the day. Can he get into the laundry during the day? When he's in there and quiet, go to him and give him pats, play, treats. If you put him in there in, say, the afternoon, and he barks, he's likely to be quiet faster than in the morning, the rehearsed time. You could wait till he quiets, then tell him good boy while you go to him, and reward him. All these things will help him to know what you DO want. Regarding why he's barking, yes he's doing it for the company. Dogs are social creatures, but to fit in with human lives, they do need to learn to be alone at times. Regarding the walking, don't overdo the walking as their bones and joints are soft and you could do damage. As well as some walking, play with your puppy and run around with him off leash. Also do some training with him - clicker or any positive reinforcement training is ideal for puppies - the mental work will tire him out and help him sleep as well as increase the strength of your relationship with him.

Ah, sorry, I missed that it was open and he could pee outside. In that case, you need to ignore the barking. Put a pillow over your head if you need to. It might take some time to resolve but unless you stop going to him in the early morning he won't get over it. Does he stop eventually if ignored or does he keep going? One problem might be that he is being self rewarded for barking. I would hesitate to suggest any aversive training at this stage as he is really such a baby.

Is the puppy still barking when you go to him? It's unclear from your post whether he's still barking or whether he's stopped. If he's still barking, you are reinforcing him for barking - for lots of barking! You would need to immediately stop going to him when he's barking and only go to him when he's quiet. I would suggest that you set your alarm for 4.30am, before he starts, and go to him and wake him up (hence going to him when quiet and rewarding that) and taking him out for a toilet break. Don't play with him or do any more than just take him out and back in, or else he'll keep looking for his early morning play sessions. Then if he starts barking at 5am you can just let him do it knowing that he's been attended to already (are the neighbours being disturbed) and not go to him until he is quiet, at a more reasonable time of day. Gradually as he matures you can start to take him out later, say 4.40, 4.50, and so on. And don't get him "up for the morning" until a little later, you could also start working that later until you get him "up for the morning" at your morning time. As he's been in the habit of early morning barking, you will need to be very consistent with NOT rewarding him for barking. You might find the barking goes up at first (extinction burst - goes up before it goes down), and it might take some time to resolve as he's already in the habit of this behaviour. However if you are consistent it will resolve. Let us know how you go.

As Pete pointed out, there is a confusion of terminology here. Anything you give the dog, that it likes, in order to increase the likelihood of a behaviour happening again, is positive reinforcement. Praise and petting are two forms of positive reinforcement. Others are food, play, car rides (if the dog likes them), sex (yes it's been done), and so on. If you have a dog trained with positive reinforcement, you can switch what you use. Use higher value rewards at first, while training. My adult dogs like food best, so I usually use food in order to train a behaviour, or to get a high performance out of them in distracting circumstances. They also like praise, and they like petting, and they like games, and they like car rides, and so on - so I use all of these at different times. As far as reinforcing goes, I never would call a dog and then ignore it; I always positively reinforce it, and often that reinforcement is praise or petting. Training my puppy to come, I always use a high value reward, for her at the moment while we build our relationship it's food or play, sometimes petting and/or praise in a low distraction environment. As she becomes reliable in a behaviour I don't have to use a high value reinforcement every time. My older dogs may get only praise - but if they come from a high level distraction, they get a high value reward. As was stated, you can go onto a variable schedule, and this is useful for training, in order to improve performance, however with my dogs, which are very soft natured and easily "squashed", I find it's good to praise pretty well any effort but give the high value reward for the most desired effort - so variable desirability of positive reinforcers keeps confidence and motivation high while at the same time distinguishing between the more desired and less desired behaviours. Keeping up confidence and desire to keep trying is good if you want the high performance.

What I would probably be doing is comparing active ingredients with human wormers and the concentrations of them, then working out the equivalent dosage to human wormers. If I did it. Might not be a bad idea to investigate.

If they've got into something disgusting, it's the yard with the hose. If I am washing them with shampoo etc., then it's the bathtub with a hose attachment.

Good to hear he's coming home!! This is a thread I've been following. Hope all is well now!

Very nice! Did you know that if you scroll down at the right speed, it's like an animation? Gotta meet Jamie. Look at that speed and enthusiasm! I have to learn all this Kelpie stuff.

I'd also like to see a photo. To get him interested in obedience is just the same as getting him interested in anything - make it fun and rewarding for him. Since he looks like a dog that would enjoy running, it's going to take more focus on fun and reward from you in obedience than it does in agility. Too much standard obedience training is based on boring drills. That's a lot of what you get (or used to get, I do agility these days - don't have time for everything) in club based obedience classes. You can pep up the training by putting it into play, by giving high rates of reward, by keeping each session short. When you trial, each performance is broken up into exercises, and each exercise can be broken into many parts. Train them separately, so it's simple and it's not too long. When the dog knows each part thoroughly, you can start to put them together. I'm out of touch with obedience training clubs so don't know if any train in this way - most club training, being for an hour once a week, is really not conducive to sustained enthusiasm and drive - and that's for any dog sport. The handler has to put in some thought and effort as regards training approach, and keep it short, simple, motivating and fun for the dog (and for the handler too!).

Have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will achieve it.

That's the size I get mine ... it's easier for transport. I have larger dogs. You can get a bigger one if you want. I have friends with little dogs whose crates are more roomy for the dog - and still smaller than the crates I need.

I think a more laid back dog makes a good first agility dog. For beginners, a super fast dog can be more challenging and need much faster handling/actions/decisions on course. When I say "laid back" I don't mean lazy. I mean one that moves out but isn't lightning fast. A dog that doesn't move is a challenge too, and very hard to run. This is often motivation issues or may simply be a dog or breed that is not very active. I think a very fast dog makes a good second or subsequent dog, when the handler has a bit of experience and when much of the handling is a bit more second nature. Handlers can train a fast dog as their first dog, but they need good consistent instruction, they need to be willing to put in the foundation work, and they need to carefully plan and execute their training programme - more so than with the more middle of the road dog (which really should get all this too, but which handlers have a bit more leeway with timing and handling errors with). Handlers who don't do their groundwork are more likely, with a fast dog, to end up with a dog that spins etc. Many of these ultra fast dogs are quiet and calm around the home. Many handlers will always do better with, and prefer, the fast enough and more reliable/accurate/easier to handle dog, rather than the rocket dog.

That paw and splash thing is such a staffy thing! The only dogs I have known that do it are staffs or staff crosses.

She needs to cut down her caloric intake. A number of ways of doing that. One is to get the "diet" mix in the premade foods. Another is to do what my sister did with her overweight Ridgie, which was to cut down the amount of her normal food, and grate carrots in as a filler. Basically she needs to eat less kilojoules by whatever method. As far as exercise goes, I am not a vet so can't say, but you could ask your vet about swimming.

You have to remember breed dispositions too. While my ACD used to trail along at my heels, and never go off, fenced or not, my Vizslas prefer to range much further during our walks unless I have told them to stay close, and although they have excellent recalls, they are also much more likely to go off hunting if I'm not around and they have the opportunity (this was an issue when I lived near the bush, not so much now that I am in the 'burbs).