What Age Do You Go From Changing The Situation, To Telling The Pup Off

[BittyMooPeeb]

My pup is 13 weeks old now, and so far I have not really told him off*. I figured that until he learned what was OK and what wasnt, it was not fair to give any sort of punishment, and so training has focussed on being positive (rewards for doing the right thing, and removing him from the situation (or the situation from him) if he is doing the wrong thing, and next time trying to set him up so he cant do the "wrong thing".

How old is old enough to start being a bit harder on him? I dont want to start this too early and cause problems, but I dont want to start it too late and have problems either LOL. He's not the cleverest pup either

*With one exception - he was grabbing Blossom by her ears and tail and dragging her around the house endlessly. I squirted a bit of mouthwash in his mouth when he did it, and after two times he lisnted to my "uh Uh" without me having to go for the spray.

Edited January 22, 2009 by BittyMooPeeb

[Nekhbet]

My pup is 13 weeks old now, and so far I have not really told him off*. I figured that until he learned what was OK and what wasnt, it was not fair to give any sort of punishment, and so training has focussed on being positive (rewards for doing the right thing, and removing him from the situation (or the situation from him) if he is doing the wrong thing, and next time trying to set him up so he cant do the "wrong thing".

You cannot expect a 13 week old puppy to 'know' what is right by human standards.

How is a pup going to know what is correct unless you provide a consequence? It doesnt have to be earth shattering, just an 'BAHHH' is enough for them to get the drift. Look what other puppies and their own mother does when they try something not tolerable! Remember dog learn through remembering patterns and what they get from a behavior, not like people who we can rationalise with before the behavior occurs.

It is never too early to correct the bad and reinforce the good, in fact the earlier you start the more cemented it becomes in the dog. Critical period is up until 16 weeks you should be actually slightly more regiment on him now then later. This is when all the good and bad habits are more maleable.

I wish I had gotten my rottie at 8 weeks it would have made life a WHOLE lot easier *sigh*

[corvus]

You just haveta keep in mind that puppies are babies and aren't capable of much self control. We started to enforce our most rigid and inflexible rules right from the start (such as no jumping all over excitedly whenever you want something etc) but we enforced them gently with more rewarding for good behaviour and ignoring bad. I don't think I really started to come down on him until he was about 5 or 6 months old, although we had a moment when he was about 4 months old when he knew a command but was acting stupid. I thought he just didn't know it well enough but it became apparent that he damn well knew exactly what it meant but had discovered a blank look got him out of all sorts of things.

I think you balance the importance of house rules and manners against the maturity of the pup. As long as you take into account that pups often forget or get distracted and can't help it, and they sometimes react to punishment more severely than you'd expect.

[Dogsfevr]

From day one here.

Voice tone easily identifies acceptable & not.

If all they here is good then they dont get the wrong.removing is fine but they need to understand why.

Even at 13 weeks most dogs grasp things very quickly & it becomes less confusing when there older

[Guest Willow]

. I squirted a bit of mouthwash in his mouth when he did it,

Please please don't use this method, I would be happy to have a chat about alternatives if you would like to PM me!!!

[BittyMooPeeb]

Bump for Willow

[Cosmolo]

I always start as we intend to continue so i do show pups that certain behaviours are unacceptable from day one. How to do that varies depending on the pup and situation. Hope to see you and your new puppy in May BMP