Puppies are wonderful and awful all at the same time. They are so full of love and eager to please and you fall totally in love with them. But then...everything in the house becomes fair game. You cannot leave them un-attended for a minute. The "tomes on puppy training" are so diverse, one will say their way is the only way and the next will say no that is all wrong! The puppy book I finally chose to follow advocates treats for every good action. Sunday I listened to a dog training show on TV that claimed never use treats, it creates fat dogs and encourages biting of young children. Yikes!
Meanwhile Gunner rules the household, his favorite object is the broom which he drags through the house at full speed, whips past the chairs and smacks everything in its path.
I am his favorite chew toy! My hand, feet, clothes and shoes are in constant danger! We are working hard to curtail this habit. The Dog Whisperer advocates putting him on a leash tied to a stationary object, playing with him and as soon as he mouths turn and walk away. Then come back when he as settled to try all over. This may take a while!
He does walk on leash quite well to begin with. This has been my worry since day one that he will grow into a huge horse/dog and drag me around the block instead of a nice walk. He does well until about 2 blocks from home. He recognizes the surroundings and feels he should pull me the rest of the way home. To train him not to pull, I stop every time he pulls and wait for him to relax. Then we start walking, he pulls, I stop, we start, he pulls, I stop. It has taken as long as 20 minutes to go that last block!
He appears to be a rather stubborn puppy.
I signed up for email puppy care information from Drs Foster and Smith and have found these newsletters to be very encouraging and good reminders that Gunner is a puppy! Even though you expect increasing good behavior because he is growing so fast, he still has a puppy brain and needs constant vigilance, care, and gobs and gobs of patience!
He is a very handsome dog. You are right it's tough to find the "correct" way to train a dog. Most information is highly contradictory. My 5 year old bichon still has some issues that I can't seem to work out. I love him just the same though.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you had considered using some headings to increase the readability of your article? Just a thought.
You should read into Operant conditioning:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning
Here's a simple chart to break it down:
http://www.schutzhund-training.com/images/quadrant_oc.jpg
It's psych 101 stuff, but very useful for training dogs. It was very useful when I trained my dogs. I personally used and is generally considered most effective by psychologists is to give positive reinforcement to encourage behaviour, but not give that reinforcement each time the pet engages in that preferred behavior, so as not to make the preferred behavior contingent upon a reward.
Positive punishment can be effective, but can also be considered abusive and in many cases reduces necessary trust and relationship required for training between the master and their pet.
I would definitely read through that whole Wikipedia article and any linked articles within it, it covers the subject really well and is very useful information for training a dog.
Also, The Dog Whisperer is really a good show because Cesar has a strong understanding of dog psychology and applies that to dog training, realizing that it is generally more often human behavior that is the cause of the problems. This generally results in the dogs training the their masters, rather than the other way around.
ReplyDeleteCesar doesn't get caught up in a very species or human centric view of how dogs should act and really tries to find the source of the problem, rather than treating the symptom of the underlying problem by trying to alter the dog's behavior.