Puppy Training

Okay, so we're going into Day 7 of training Penny- just mostly focusing on house breaking and teaching her her name.. And keeping her occupied enough during playtime so that she isn't chewing on stuff she shouldn't be chewing on.

She's now starting to understand that if she needs to potty, she needs to go outside and is scratching on the glass to let us know. It doesn't happen -everytime-, but if she has an accident inside, it's at least on a potty pad for the most part (she's had a couple of accidents elsewhere, but nothing major). We do take her out as soon as she wakes up in the mornings, whenever she wakes up from a nap, and a little while after she eats/drinks water.

Responding when she's called is coming along, as well, but I kind of feel like she should be more responsive than she is.

Once we get those 2 things down better, we'll work on other things- sit, stay, come here, etc. olol We've been watching the Cesar Millan videos to see how he does it all.

Anywho.. If you've ever raised a puppy, how did -you- go about it? How long did it take for the puppy to learn the basics?

I would recommend taking her out once a hour whether she has to go or not. Make it a habit. Positive reinforcement is the best way to get a favorable response. Keep lots of treats in your pockets at all times so that the second she does something good, you can reward her for it. Whenever she goes to the bathroom outside, give her a treat.

Achilles is motivated by treats, so I've used treats to train him with almost everything. When teaching him his name, I would say it, and if he looked at me, he got a treat. He learned his name pretty quickly! He was potty trained maybe between 5-6 months with some accidents here and there. By the time he was 9-10 months I'd say there were probably none. He was a pretty bratty puppy, though, up until maybe age two. I wasn't as consistent as I should have been with training, but since he's passed the Terrible Twos, he's been much better behaved.

Time, patience, lots of treats (at appropriate times - don't fill her up between meals), positive response and reinforcement, repetition, and consistency should all yield favorable results. Another thing about boxers is that they are hyper and jumpy. Teach her when she is a puppy that jumping on people is not appropriate so you can avoid problems when she gets bigger!

This reminds me, it's his birthday today! :jess:

Shorty's dog LOVES potty time, so much so that he won't come back in after you let him out. He is a complete ass-butt D:<

More than that he enjoys ignoring strange Australian squatters so as to rattle their chains :jess:

Yeah don't forget to make over her when she does good, especially when she potties outside

I've only raised one puppy, but that wasn't a typical scenario. The dog (and apparently all her siblings) were exceptionally brilliant. Some of the owners were teaching them to sit and lay down at like 9 - 10 weeks old. As soon as I heard about their progress I started training mine and she took to it immediately. Some dogs are more in tune. Some have extreme ADD. If your puppy isn't responding its probably just because she's a puppy with ADD. Not a big deal. Ceasar is probably about the best you can do for the dog. Though it's hard to find parallels because he only comes into play with people who don't take the time. You are taking the time. So she's not in need of rehab, just initial training. And while he gleans over that stuff from time to time, not a lot of his episodes are really focused on that stuff

Just keep at it, sounds like you're doing all the right things. Sometimes it takes a month or so. Just be aware that once she's a year old or so, she might start to revert. It's considered an adolescent age for dogs and they tend to rebel for a little bit, depending on the breed. So you might have that to look forward to. But it's really not a big deal

I currently have two puppies and they are terrors. It's so much harder to train two at once. Like they can fetch! But then the other tries to steal it and bring it themselves and then they just fight to get it to us first. It's a mess.

lol Yeah, Penny is catching on with pottying outside and getting better everyday- no accidents today, though it's only 4:20 p.m... She has managed to go to the door each time she's had to potty so far.

The Cesar videos is that "Mastering Leadership" series he has. We downloaded them the other day, just to see what he has to say when it comes to training puppies and things. They're so boring though. I've fallen asleep during each one so far.

I couldn't handle 2 puppies at once, I don't think. lol

I've done all this before, it's just been so long. haha .. Especially with a boxer. The last one we had that I helped train was way back in '94-ish when my dad and I picked out our Sassy J for my mom while she was in the hospital.

I would recommend using literally anyone other than Cesar Milan as a reference for dog training.

Oh, neat. I wasn't aware he'd done another video series outside of The Dog Whisperer. I have a couple of his books though. And yeah, I had an aussie, they're a little calmer. Boxers are a bit higher energy. Very excellent dogs though. They tend to love just about everyone

Edit:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shorty

I would recommend using literally anyone other than Cesar Milan as a reference for dog training.

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Mind if I ask why? Having worked in an animal shelter for 9 years myself, I can attest to his training methods working better than any of the other standard trainers we had come in. I used mostly instinct when I whispered, but whenever I got trumped I always referred to Ceasar, and it worked 90% of the time. And generally any time it didn't work, I just had to tweak his methods a bit, but he still put me at a very good starting point more often than not. Could be a special situation though being shelter animals who generally needed actual rehab rather than just training

My dog was toilet trained mega quick. Every two hours, we went outside. And we would encourage him to do his business, and when he did we made a huge fuss of him, and he very quickly got the hang of it. After about a month and a half, he didn't have any accidents at all. To this day, he has only ever had an accident when he's been poorly and he is 8 years old now.

We broke him out of nibbling quick, too. Sure, when they're puppies a bite doesn't hurt, but you have to be consistent and if you let them chew/nibble/bite as a pup, it's harder to train it out of them when they're older. Every time he did; we would say an angry "OUCH" (even though it didn't hurt!) and he stopped doing it pretty quick.

But yeah, being consistent is the most important thing. All people in the house have to follow the same routine and train the dog in the same way to stop them getting confused.

And socialising. Get your puppy to meet people & other dogs, so she's good with all humans/kids/dogs in the future and not just her owners. :jess:

e: to stop jumping, when your dog jumps at you, step forward into their jump. It knocks them off balance and they don't like it and will soon stop doing it.

I love boxers. My first dog was a boxer and I loved him so much!