stonecutter

We'll be there

Katie is going with Temperance I believe

I agree about setting your pup up to succeed in regards to recall JS apparently also have short attention spans - we use TOT to develop attention towards us. Of course training this with distractions is difficult!!! Hope to see you on the Spitz thread

awwwww!

This comment really has me intrigued on the whole allowing v not allowing mouthing (I'm no dog expert and when I asked about puppy raising on here everyone pointed me to Dr Dunbar's book). We hand feed (following a NILIF philosophy - so pup works for every bit of food) and have never had pup attempt to nip hands. I'm off to do a search of the forum now to see if this has been discussed before...

Sounds like how we started with our pup. The only thing that fixed it was doing EVERYTHING on lead - feeding, toileting, obedience training. She even drags it around when roaming inside. 1 day and she was sorted

Another fan of the Crate Games DVD though with a 16wk spitz puppy we're still working on stage 1!

That is so strange - Ziva often has way more energy than the labs, BCs etc in our class! Good to see the DAP worked :D

You could always book a private consult with Luci since you're often free during the middle of the day

Ok - so a really stupid sounding question - but I'm trying to figure out if I've back tied correctly. We can't do the TOT outside in our back yard because we have an open fence and people walk past on the walking track all the time. So we're doing this in a big open indoor space. I'm tying pup's lead to an anchor point, when I release her, I'm simply unclipping the lead from her collar. Is this correct? I understand later when we get to adding distance I'll need a long line - but right now, it's a standard 1.2m lead. We started last night because pup is with me most days and doesn't seem to listen to OH - so he was doing the TOT. A marked improvement between dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Also - Ziva is used to hand feeding (to get her used to people, and NILIF so she works for every bit of food she gets - whether obedience or working on a treat toy) - so putting a bowl of food down means nothing to her - she just looked confused. Instead we put a handful of kibble on the ground and actually worked the exercise 4 times to finish her dinner. Is this ok?

her breeder trained them to go on paper inside at night. But theoretically - they'll go to the toilet as far from their sleeping area as possible.

Welcome Alouk! Stella is gorgeous We have the same dilemma as you - Ziva is in our laundry when we're at work and is happy to go on newspaper (at one end of the laundry, her food, toys, crate are at the other). And when we're home - she doesn't have any inside accidents and is happy to eliminate on grass. She doesn't get a treat for eliminating on newspaper, but she gets treats and lots of praise outside. So hopefully it is reinforcing that outside is better. Eventually her dog run fence will go in (another 2 wks, she'll be 18 wks old) and she'll have access to her toilet spot while we're out at work (and inside laundry via dog door)

I second training/puppy school. Our JS is great with new dogs - happy to sniff and play around. However, if you bark at her - she's on the offensive immediately. We're trying to work that out with socialisation with well behaved big dogs at obedience school (she trains with puppies, but then afterwards we go down to the main training area where she interacts with other dogs) From reading Steve's dog development calendar - it's the first fear period. Perhaps your pup had a bad experience early on and now that's really affecting her? How was her temperament at her breeders? Shy dog? Outgoing/boisterous? At 6 wks our JS was middle of the pack, but developed into the dominant dog by 12 wks within her litter (when she came home) - so we're working hard to put her back in her place. Now most importantly - pics please

Yay for all the new puppies! And good on all the show people. Ziva is a show quality pup - her sister went to a show home in nth Qld somewhere. But after giving Ziva 2 baths and trying to hold a wriggly, squirmy puppy - I think showing is not for us we are looking forward to flyball and agility - cheeky thing jumped a 60cm high garden bed from a standing start over the weekend!

We're having issues with pulling as well. Ziva is great on lead inside the house or in our backyard - we do loose leash training inside with kibble similar to the clicker video - but no clicker, just the marker word. But as soon as we leave our house - she gets so excited by all the different smells. We stop every few metres for training (sit or down). I'll try the methods from the Dr Dunbar link.

Great pics Nik!

I have no idea but I'm interested to see the responses. I was trying to get Ziva to howl at the moon on Monday night - no success and she looked at me like "are you nuts"?

I was bitten on the weekend (drew blood) - we were tugging with a rope toy and it was totally my fault as I wasn't paying attention! Nadine - is she ok with mouthing?

Cool - thanks! I'll soak some kibble and give it a go - perhaps put some peanut butter at the end to stop it falling out so easily as well. Yep - we have 2 x small puppy ones. I also find that bones are good for chewing - lamb and chicken necks. But she needs soft chew things when we're trying to settle her down but don't want to feed her with a bone (I use the bones when I leave for work!)

Crate training perhaps? Dr Dunbar recommends crating your pup and then hourly releasing to go eliminate. Ziva sooked and barked at first when we left the room - we just ignored her and only went back into her eye sight when she had been quiet for a little while. Doesn't do it anymore

Ziva was grazing all day at her breeder's, so we created food drive by feeding her 3 individual meals a day. Training is always at meal times - she hasn't eaten out of a bowl yet. If it's not meal time and we're training, then it's for cheese or ham & chicken roll (she hates cabana/cabanossi!) She also sits for scratches or cuddles now This week's task, starting to build recall - I am anticipating that with a spitz breed, it's going to take a while

Update - we're feeding ourselves and then feeding the dog to preserve our leadership so last night Ziva was really hungry and did swat the kong until all the food came out no chewing just yet but glad she's partially got it!!

Hey Nadine I found the same with Supercoat. Since Wed I've been slowly adding Black Hawk puppy to her kibble - we're at 50:50 at her poop has become a lot more solid and way less stinky.

I am getting a stronger feeling it's teething - though she's really liking chewing a stick she picked up from the garden, the steel bars of her pen, a rope toy, and a soft toy! We removed the emergency newspaper (since she goes out to eliminate every 2-3 hrs) and now she's just chilling in her crate. A friend is bringing a tug a jug, squirrel dude and a few other treat toys home from the USA in a few weeks - hopefully she likes one of them!

For those who have done the course - does a dog need to know it's own name before starting? I ask because we have a 13 wk old JS puppy and recall is non-existent! But she doesn't answer to her name - even though we're doing name training at meal times.