mowgliandme

I am interested in doing formal obedience with her and want to take her along on lots of outdoorsy adventures, camping trips, holidays, regular walks, the beach etc. (and have her listen to me in these settings) but I’m not really into going to dog parks. I want her to be a dog that is comfortable in any environment and wants to move with me when I want to. At the moment she is super interested in sniffing everything so I am letting her and then saying lets go and giving her a treat for coming with me…

Do you socialise to satisfy your dog’s curiosity about everything and make sure they aren’t scared of things in the future? Or to create a neutral value for things other than yourself like in the pinned socialisation post? Puppy is now 12 weeks and has been on many socialisation outings, the first three weeks she was mostly carried in my arms for short trips - she went to lots of cafes, (busy streets and a few shops) and settled calmly in my lap/chair next to me either watching the world go by or chewing a pigs ear/chew/toy. She didn’t ever have her ears back or get a rigid body posture and when I saw something that I thought could be new and scary, like bus pulling up next to our café id give her another treat for looking at it (giving her the treat when she was looking away from it) but overall she didn’t seem bothered by it. Yesterday my housemate was vacuuming the room next door and she was asleep in her crate and she got up and wagged her tail happily so I took her out of the crate and she just wanted to watch my housemate vacuuming (I did give her treats for looking at it the first time) have I created too positive an association with vacuuming? Will she be that happy to see a bus next time? Overall she has been happy with everything and everyone to far, loves to meet people and get pats, not scared of loud noises, wheelchairs, skateboards, bikes, prams, kids, walking sticks, sirens, buses, motorbikes, cars etc. I am hoping one day to be able to walk around with her on a loose leash with her looking back/checking in with me every so often and release her to “go sniff” so I’m not constantly stopping at every post/plant (like it is for my housemates dog). This week she has been on the ground a lot more as she is vaccinated, do you let puppies sniff as much as they want as it is good for them to learn about their environment or "run them through new places trying to keep their focus on you" like in the post? which i suppose would be good for obedience?

I really tried the 'go sniff' and 'go play' command for letting her loose in the backyard but i never managed to remember it and "off you go" got stuck instead! I am using 'go sniff' when she is on lead and i'll follow her around for a little bit before saying 'lets go' Definitely need a go say hello type command for her as at the moment she doesn't have much impulse control in wanting to say hi to all the strangers and to get the pats... sheena is your left and right command for when youre walking on lead and turning directions or something else? how do you use it in agility? feel they could be used in so many situations like look left/right, run, give paw, side step, heel, turn left/right) that i dont know what to use it for unless you can use it for most of them?

I am terrible at left and rights too Its interesting what the words end up being! I spent 2 days trying different words/combos for a "release type" off leash word (just for our backyard) in the end "off you go!" was the only thing that stuck :)

Proud Mum moment :) Training goals! :)

Ah I love the word suggestions :) Going to have to make a revision list for myself as i will be terrible at remembering them - was hoping for half the words That sounds cool sheena -will add it to the list

Ooops too late already with that one, and already sort of regretting it... housemates dog has drop = lie down and down = get off the couch, mine has drop = drop the chew/shoe, down = for lie down, though thats the words i wanted and doubt we'll be housemates forever

What is marching? :)

I want to teach my puppy a few “double sided” tricks like: crossing paws, shake hands, weaving between feet (forward and backwards) do I need separate words for each side/direction? In kikopups tutorial she uses the words “spin” and “twirl” for different directions of doing a small circle but I can’t hear what she says for the crossing paws and weaving. In her cross your paws tutorial it looks like its just one word and she crosses her foot as the gesture? What would be easiest to teach?

Loves her sandpit :)

Same breed ?? Different breeds, this one is a cobberdog and the older dog was a mixed small white fluffy (very gentle personality) dog but who liked sleeping/cuddling a lot What's a cobberdog? I know it's some sort of a cross breed but can't think what for the life of me. It's mostly a multi-generation labrador x poodle, but also has some spaniels in there - its a breed in development at the moment. I think the MDBA are trying to register it as a Cobberdog and there another group called the Australian Labradoodle Association which is registering it as an "Australian Labradoodle"

Thank you TSD - i'll going to look into those games for her as well :) Thank you everyone for the suggestions - sorry for the whingey post but yesterday and for part of Sunday it just seemed like nothing was working on her! Today she is being soo good, i think I didnt exercise her enough on those days

She does settle in my presence too, we have been following kikopups videos and also reward calm behaviour We haven't yelled at her (except once by accident when I wasnt thinking - just a loud no I think that I have just over thought it - she might have just a bout of crazy cause she didnt play for very long with the other dog yesterday and had too much energy? Because today she has been very responsive and attentive.. When she is left outside (well with supervision) she runs around and chews toys and leaves and sticks and sniffs things, occasionally grabs a plant and tries to chew on that too, chases the other dog if he wants to play, I practise recalls with her when im sure she will come, follows me around sometimes, plays a bit of tug, has done some basic sit and down training, then eventually settles down with something to chew (she prefers sticks over toys) outside

Same breed ?? Different breeds, this one is a cobberdog and the older dog was a mixed small white fluffy (very gentle personality) dog but who liked sleeping/cuddling a lot

Shes just had a fun play in the clam shell filled with water - definitely a water loving pup - she even tries to splash in her water bowl. And as timing would have it she just figured out the doggy door today too (I've been holding it progressively less open for a week now), soo now the house is pretty wet too after her first ever "non encouraged" dash inside :)

Guess so! My previous puppy (14 years ago now) would never chew or play with anything unless someone was playing with her, otherwise she'd just sit next to you - this puppy is definitely not like her at all!

'm definitely not a routine type of person and am quite spontaneous but have really been trying to be consistent (in terms of responses to nipping and chewing, commands and toilet training) with the puppy so she learns better? Her day isnt particularly routined either and I always take a variety of toys wherever i take her I will look into more types of toys for her, maybe more puzzle solving type ones as she already has chews, balls, soft toys, squeaky ones, rope ones, kongs, variety of textures etc. She does play with them and chew pigs ears and kongs in her pen though - must not be exciting enough outside of it though!

Do you have a schedule/list of things you do with your puppies The Spotted Devil? I am home and do have a lot of time to invest in setting her up to be a balanced happy dog. (I don’t think I’ll be home full time for the whole of next year but at least a few more months) What kind of games do you play with your puppies to make yourself more fun than the environment? If i have roast chicken/mince she wont even explore the environment at all.... She does like tug but only for maybe 30 seconds then she prefers to just sit and chew toys or just pounce and play with them with her paws..? she doesn’t know fetch and I don’t think I want to teach her as my housemates dog is completely ball OCD and it would lead to conflict between them. I'm going to get her a clam shell today :) And what is the progression between initially fencing off your furniture and eventually letting them go unsupervised without dogs chewing it? Is it that you’ve told them to leave it/redirected them so many times in your presence that they just no longer go for it?

Thanks I'll try the vicks on wooden things The spotted devil this is for the supervised free play sessions as i dont want to keep her in the pen for long (so i take her in the yard and family room where she doesnt respond very well to the startle, redirect and reward)... she is in the play pen when unsupervised (not very long - max 2 hours) and goes on socialisation outings and does a fair bit of training too :)

Puppy is left in a play pen when unsupervised where she cant get up to too much mischief! She is very well behaved in there. This is for when she is out of the playpen with me, around the house. She is 11weeks old and toilet trained but not very chew trained :/ My response has been SRR (Startle, Redirect and Reward) method so if she tries to pull out a plant while in the yard, I’ll say OI or clap, give her something else to chew on and then praise her for chewing the right thing…but lately it just hasn’t been working, she doesn’t want what I’m offering her most of the time she even rejects a chicken filled kong in favour of chewing my drawer handle! Or rejects a pigs ear/nylabone in favour of chewing the chair leg at a café… In these cases I have been removing her from the situation by picking her up, moving her away and trying to redirect her away from the thing that she is after … but a lot of the times she will try to dash straight back. She is a very confident puppy and loves to play with absolutely everything, - looks like she would much rather play with something new than something she’s already seen? And she has a lot of toys, at least 30+ which i rotate so she has a few each day I have tried keeping her on leash in the house so she just cant get to things but I feel its ruining my leash work training? and it doesn’t really teach her she can’t have those things when off leash? She is not very persistent with chewing either…even when she has a stuffed kong or a raw meaty bone she only chews it for a little while, couple of minutes? and then leaves it mostly uneaten to play with something else/have a nap - although i usually give her these when she is tired and i am leaving her in the play pen Any suggestions?

Well done joining the group. If you want to follow the protocols with your puppy, most of them can be done successfully, but you really should buy the film video to step you through it. The group is mostly discussing the film. You won't learn enough just reading posts and comments in the group nor getting a full understanding of the protocols. Yep, we are at Positive K9 in Kew. I get there most Sundays and swap puppies. will probably train Legend this week. Might get to meet you there :) Yep I am doing the buying for 24hours option on the website :) they are great videos!

Love the videos of the Legend and Dance! He is doing so well - wouldnt believe it was his first class at all! Or first swim!

Thank you Starkehre- I have joined the group :) and watching the puppy culture videos now - they look great! Are you at Positive K9 in Kew? She will be joining when she is old enough (in a couple of weeks)

They are such lovely dogs and you do the best job I’ve ever seen of raising them – I was wondering if you have any resource recommendations for people wanting to set up their pups to be successful like yours? I have been following this thread and have been doing the things in the videos and comments so far but am running out of ideas!

Thanks for all the advice and kind words – I’m very grateful for this forum :) She’s such a lovely pup!