Katarinasmum

Ours is female, not sure whether that makes much of a difference or not? But we walked her as normal (twice per day). We just stuck to walk routes that were on paths rather than going through parks or the beach etc to keep her as clean as possible until the stitches were out. We also kept it at a leisurely pace. I suppose it might depend on different dogs too as their healing time may be different and bodies may react differently. Hope all goes well with your boy.

Good on you for taking the time to do your research. I know too many people who didn't! Sounds like you know what you're doing but just a couple things I noticed.... I've only ever had one puppy from 8 week (rest have been adults when we got them) but what we have done worked so well for us. If I took our girl out any less than every hour in the first few weeks, she would be peeing and pooing everywhere. We found a strict schedule with toileting really helped. Every hour during the day. Every 2 hours during the night (super annoying I know). It wasn't long until we could extend the night time visits to 3-4 hours but kept the hourly visits during the day for quite a while (maybe around a month). Oh and no matter how recently she had gone, always toilet time after she'd been particularly excited (playing, visitor etc etc). The times we didn't follow these rules we created were the times we had accidents. Another thing, i wouldn't be soothing with pats for whining. That's rewarding the whining, therefore it will probably not stop, at least not as quickly as it could. Reward silence and calmness. In the beginning we would reward even 20 seconds of silence (with pats and attention). It didn't take long until we were able to extend this time, and within a few days she had stopped whining. The first 2-3 nights were a nightmare. But well worth it now we have a dog who VERY rarely whines for any reason (I like this because it means that if she is whining, we can bet that it's actually for a good reason). May feel terrible (it did for me), but ignoring behaviour like whining, or jumping up on people is really what worked for us. Side note: same deal with barking, barking unnecessarily should never get her what she wants this will also result in a dog that only barks for good reasons, not just that she wants a toy or piece of food that she's not allowed. When you get in your PJs for the night, you can pop your shirt you were wearing that day in her bed, we found this really comforted our girl. Also, start training straight away. Whatever behaviour you hold important, teach it straight away and be consistent with it. If you want her to sit for her food, start that from the beginning. If you don't want her to beg at the dinner table, never feed her from the dinner table from the very beginning. Our girl is only 6 months and her good behaviour for the most part far exceeds most adult dogs we come across. Although the "teenager" phase is due to hit so I may be taking that back soon Most of all, don't be too hard on yourself, just keep consistent, stand your ground with any behaviours you want to teach and do training sessions daily and in ALL situations! I hope your new puppy brings you just as much joy as our girl has brought to us! Honestly getting this puppy has been the most rewarding and fun thing I've ever done. GOOD LUCK!

Hi guys, Thanks for all the advice and comments! It's great to actually hear from people who know what they're talking about. There's some great tips in these comments and the best thing for me is that a lot of it is just confirming that what we're doing is heading in the right direction. It seems to be clear we can pretty much continue on our current plan of attack which is so great because we are both loving it and she's doing so well. I am such a crazy, proud mummy! The focus under distractions are still a work in progress but she literally improves so much every week that goes by. So we will continue to work (or as she'd see it, play) hard! Maybe I'll do an update post in a few months with our progress if you guys are interested?

That's great, we've been working on all of the above! Awesome to know we're on the right track. Thanks! Good to know that you think we are doing okay

Yes we agree, focus under distraction is super important and we work on this constantly. We do training with her in as many situations as we can. But obviously the club environment might be even different again than a busy dog park or beach in that more is going on than just owners and their dogs walking past or running around, so this is the one reason why we've considered getting her in classes.

Yes, we do training sessions in as many situations as we can along with never just letting her "be free" randomly. She always needs to be released by us first at places like the dog park or anywhere offleash. We have worked very hard to put her in as many situations as we can and work on her focus while she's young. What would you recommend in the physical training sense? We have found that she is quite agile compared to other dogs already but probably not the strongest dog her size. Would love to ensure she doesn't sustain injuries

Yes this is the one reason we have and still are considering the classes. Although we have done all obedience training in many many situations (training session before dog park freedom, in quiet and busy parks, at beach, randomly at any point in her walks so basically everywhere, constantly and randomly since we've had her). Her recall and focus while being surrounded by people and dogs is good but we realise the classes would be sort of closer to that exact environment that agility would be in. We're on the Sunshine Coast. I did notice that a lot of the websites we've found have obviously just been made by whoever owns the club (usually very simply, not updated etc) so we did think that maybe there's some that we're not finding....and had figured that possibly older, more experienced people probably run these things therefore may not even have a website. Would be great to know if there's anymore around our area!

I can only speak from experience with my dog but there might be something useful for you in here: 1) We've only had our girl do this once but we just said our usual "uh uh uh" which is her "no don't do that" cue and then let her in 30ish seconds after she stopped. She has been known to cry at the door, in this case we ignore until she stops and then let her in again a few seconds/a minute after she stops. We have used the "ignore bad behaviour until it stops then reward" since we got her so I'm not sure how easily a dog would pick up on this if they're not used to that treatment. 2) Definitely need to control his surroundings. I see two choices. Don't put things you don't want chewed in his reach OR if you need it to be in that place/don't want to have to hide it and you think it's something he might chew on (ie possibly most things for dogs haha), watch him from a distance and stop him if he goes to chew it. When stopping him, always give him a good alternative. Tell him no, and give him a bone or a toy to chew on instead. This is the general attitude we have - we have trained our dog to fit in with our house as we keep it ie we still keep shoes at the door and the odd coat on the back of the couch, are able to feel quite comfortable to leave our food on the table to go grab a drink etc, just taught her what's right from wrong. Also making sure there's always something fun available that is the right thing to do (carrot or bone to chew on, toys, kong etc). A bored dog is a likely to become a naughty dog! 3) Again with the ignore tactic. We have NEVER since we got our dog, fed her from our own plate. Made sure visitors were very clear of this rule too. Not even while we've been at other peoples house has this been a thing. Both of our family dogs as teenagers (me and my partner are early 20's) had dogs who got fed at the dinner table and were terrible whiners because they knew they'll eventually get thrown a bit of food - if we were sure on one thing, we were sure we weren't going to raise a whining dog! She used to try and beg when we first got her but we just ignored. Never even acknowledged that her getting food from the dinner table or our plates could be a possibility (not sure whether you do feed yours from plate/table or not). There have been times she's propped herself up on our lap to get her nose closer, we just push her off gently, without even looking at her and continue ignoring. She's never tried a second time. Begging us while eating has just been made out to be the most boring thing she could choose to do. Doing this has meant a happy, peaceful dinner every night where the dog is just either chilling in the other side of the room,playing with her toys or laying at our feet. PS If we decide we want to give her some of our food/left overs - we will mix it in with her next meal. She can enjoy little treats without thinking that begging will ever get her fed Again, I'm no professional dog trainer, this is just what we've done which has resulted in our dog not having any of these problems at all (even after showing signs of wanting to show these behaviours as a younger puppy). Hope you find what works for you and your little man, good luck!

Thanks so much.. Good to have it confirmed from someone who teaches Agility! Shame there isn't a foundations class here. The one agility related "class" I could find was more of a "club" that does not allow beginners, although they did give me a few tips on what she'd need to get to a point where she'd be accepted into their "club" by the time shes old enough for agility which is good. There are certainly no options for puppies, unless we want to join very basic obedience classes which we have considered and are still considering, but are hesitant to pay money to go "learn" things we are already having success and seeing regular progress with. Great to know that there's lots to work on to prepare her for agility at home. Yes, we use a clicker and have found it to be wonderful.

@Tassie Great, thanks. Interesting about the working on the right side. Hadn't thought of that. Lots of great tips, thanks! And yes, we do a lot of toy play and she is great with tugging, letting go and running out to get a toy and actually bringing it back unlike dogs I've had as a kid (Katarina is my first dog as an adult)! In response to your tracking comment - no we haven't been able to find any clubs in our area. I agree, I think she would enjoy it too!

Hey everyone! I have a Border Collie X Staffy puppy who's almost 6 month old. We have been pretty successful in her training so far and are ready to go beyond the basic obedience Currently her reliable (not 100% of course as she's still young but pretty damn reliable!) commands are come, sit, lay down, stand, stay, bang (play dead), roll over, speak, fetch, up (jump onto a chair, couch etc), hop off (get off chair, couch etc), take it (grab toy), let go (of toy), touch it (with paw), wait, over (only small over's don't worry!) We've most recently been working on heel, stick em up, smell it and find it (i was SHOCKED that she could literally find either my partner or I hiding at the beach 500m away when we split up...one with her, one hiding), gentle. We've worked on all training at home, outside in quiet areas and outside in busy areas. Heel is the one thing still in the "only really successful at home unless a lure is used" phase. I feel like we are ready to get started on possibly some more agility focused training. Most of what we've done is obedience related, with a few "fun" ones like rollover etc in there. SO - any agility trainers out there - where do we start? Or do you believe we're not ready to start agility focused training? Maybe there's something I've missed? I know that while she's young she can't do any of the big jumps etc. We haven't been able to find a great class or trainer unless we were to travel 1.5 hours.....so we want to see what we can do at home! I have done my own research but am interested to see what some "real" people say haha. My research has said to start teaching her left and right, back, around. Is this on the right track? Would like to compete one day if the opportunity arises and she is enjoying/doing well in agility - so any tips that are "need to know" for that please tell!

That's a huge jump to go straight from recalling or following any commands for that matter at home to a dog park in one go especially if you go at peak times or even while another dog is close and paying attention to her. You can't expect that huge jump to be very successful. Start inside, the outside in your back yard, then outside in your front yard (especially if you live in a quiet street), THEN public spaces. Take her to a quiet park first, where maybe the odd person/dog/bike might go past every 5 minutes or so that DON'T come running up to her. Don't be scared to tell people they need to ignore her because you're in a training session *most* people understand especially other dog owners! When the person goes past, work hard for her attention, make yourself fun and exciting. Get her recall in a quiet public place first. Then a "medium" (maybe the beach or something where there might be a dog or two playing out in the distance and a couple people walking by but not too close) busy place. Then maybe the dog park at a super quiet time of day/week. And be smart about what you're asking. Don't set her up to fail. You know better than her whats happening so take advantage of that. We never call our girl if we don't think she'll hear us or if she's in the middle of playing in the beginning. Instead, go get her calmly and take her away from whatever caused her to stray. Boring. She wanted to play but didn't go the right way about it. So we make that BORING. Tell the person she ran up to, to ignore etc. We wait until we think she will listen and focus. Only now (almost 6 months old after training her recall successfully in different situations, moving slowly from 8 weeks old) has she started to "stop" something exciting to react to our recall. We don't expect it to be reliably "amazing" until she's a good year old, even though it is pretty good already. And yes, a 4.5 month old puppy will probably ignore you and continue doing what they want on purpose. It's a 4.5 month old puppy. Just make sure you go through with your commands EVERY time. There is no such thing as "oh she didn't do it" and walking away. If you call her to come. She needs to come. Whether that means you coming over and guiding her to where you want her to be, or just being silly for 2 minutes straight until she FINALLY comes. Yep, I've found myself rolling on the ground making fart noises with my mouth (puppy hack trust me haha) on many occasions. Not following a command should not be an option, but you are the one who needs to do what you need to do to make it happen. Just remember - there are SO many people with ADULT dogs who don't have a solid recall. Give your puppy a break, she's a baby. Keep consistent, don't show frustration and make yourself FUN to come to! GOOD LUCK!

@RuralPug Thank you!

He's still very very young. I remember feeling the same as you. I thought "is she ever going to learn". But consistency is key. Don't leave the "toilet" area or allow any toys, distractions etc to be near him until his done his business on command (we use the word toilet). I've been outside encouraging her to go to the toilet for 15 minutes at times. Praise heavily (which you say you're already doing so that's great) when he does go in the right place. Take him out every single hour on the hour (2-3 hours at night). We did this and at almost 6 months old, our girl is 90% toilet trained perfectly (they're never going to be 100% at this age). Will ask to go out when she needs etc. I do remember being frustrated but just with the toilet trips every single hour, she just slowly but surely had less and less accidents inside. Now any accidents she has we can usually pin point what has happened and it's usually our fault.

I feel like you've probably found what works by now (well I hope!) as it's been a month or so. But just in case....this is what we did with our girl: -Taught her from the beginning to be content with being alone. Meaning leaving her alone in her "bed time" area at other times of the day. Leaving her for 15 minutes to begin with a increasing the time slowly only when she felt comfortable. Both while we were home and when we went out. -Giving her one of our shirts that we wore that day in her bed (sounds gross I know but it's not to the dog trust me). She seemed to find it comforting and to this day (she's almost 6 months), if we go out for a long period of time or sleep in in the morning, we will find one of our dirty socks, or a hoodie we left in the loungeroom, or something just laying where she's been sleeping. Never chewed. Never anything bad. She's just brought it for comfort and cuddles lol. -Sounds terrible, but just ignoring. As much as it feels awful, we kept ignoring. Until there was that wonderful 20 seconds worth of silence, where we came out and gave her 10 minutes of attention and cuddles. ONLY ever after she had been silent. And yes, in the beginning, we'd reward those 20 seconds of silence. Slowly building them up to a minute, then a few minutes, and up slowly. We only had to endure maybe a weeks worth of nights of crying doing this. No sleep because we were getting up every 5, 10, however many minutes to praise the 20 seconds or 2 minutes of silence. But it seemed to work. Anyway, I hope you have found what works for you!