Six Weeks! And already in training ;)

Now unrecognizable from the Costco socks they started as, our bundles of puppy muscle are throwing themselves around with abandon. We have quite a few areas to explore on the property and pups are venturing bravely throughout, including making themselves comfortable in the strawberry patch (not one strawberry was damaged during this production).

Even though puppies are super young, we start training as early as possible knowing an undisciplined puppy will have a rough life ahead. Just as we capture the potty training instincts of puppies by giving them freedom to potty away from their sleeping areas, I also jump on the mom training train: pups learn very fast what is acceptable and what is not by mom telling them in no uncertain terms what she does and does not tolerate. Biting ankles, feet, hands or other not-fun behavior is also not tolerable, and I let puppies know immediately with a very fast squeeze of my hand and fingers. The trick is to do it immediately the behavior is present, and stop immediately there is a reaction. I then pretend nothing happened: what a lovely puppy!! Its a super easy and effective technique that mimics moms training so they pick it up fast and helps them assimilate into family life as soon as possible.

Another undesirable trait is making noise for attention. This starts from having a problem they want someone else to solve. If a puppy is quite safe and simply frustrated I give him or her no attention at all BUT I do not ignore it. I note the circumstances that are making the puppy frustrated and consider how I can help bypass this frustration next time because I do not want making noise to become a habit. Sometimes it's simply he can't find the open gate, but I don't reward his yelping by picking him up and showing him or placing him where he needs to be, I simply wait and let him figure it out (I might walk through the gate a few times to hurry the process but I do not let him think that I've come to his aid). If I notice a puppy is slower and gets upset at being left behind I'll make sure to get his attention and get him moving with us so he doesn't get triggered.

This week, puppies are learning about separation. This is a bug bear of mine: I can't always take my dogs with me everywhere and sometimes I need to know they're contained and safe while I'm away. BUT I also need to know they're not howling they're lungs out while I'm gone. So separation training is very important. For me this starts now. Puppies are put to bed at night and are expected to be a little upset about not having access to mom 24/7 (mom can come and go but pups can't jump that wall). So we develop a routine that aims to be predictable and also stave off separation frustration. It goes like this:

In the morning I have breakfast ready as early as possible, and I get it ready without them seeing me. Essentially I appear with breakfast before anyone has a chance to start saying "I'm sooooo hungry" and give them full bellies. There's plenty for everyone and I have my hands on their heads for a while so they never get the idea to be territorial and then I leave them completely alone once they have started to eat. I'll come back after breakfast, and we'll go on a "hike" around the property and find a spot to hang and explore and give attention (perfect time to reinforce manners with my mom-bite simulation). When they're tuckered out and starting to lie down I'll take them back to their run and their containment coincides with their full bellies and exhaustion. They have pull toys and chew toys and various landscaping that give them things to do when they wake up and again I leave them to it. If a pup wakes up early or doesn't want to go to bed and starts calling for me I completely ignore him. I don't let him see me at all as any attention from me is a reward for him calling out. Keep in mind this is a huge run they have, but contained so they are safe and excludes gardens and other fun areas that would suffer from constant puppy attention, which means they are excluded from areas they want to explore AND they're learning that people are awesome. So, provided he's tired and got a full belly he's quickly going to get down to sleeping even if he does FEEL like he wants to protest...

Then we start the cycle again... they'll slowly wake up and start prodding around with each other and chew some toys for a while. When everyone starts getting energetic I'll bring out lunch, again before anyone gets a chance to feel hungry or call out to me, I want to appear while everyone's calm and quiet so it's impossible to relate my appearance with yelping. Then we get exercise and again we head back to the run for resting. This is easy while they're puppies but as they get more endurance I'll add treats they only get inside their run: individual chew treats and other toys that don't leave the run, and they only have as I'm leaving. This is the start of crate training and helps them associate their 'quiet time' with an opportunity to self entertain.

A final note for this blog about my toy choices: I never ever ever choose fluffy toys. Of any kind. What families give to their pups in their home is completely up to them but no pup is given the opportunity to think something with fur is a chew toy :). We have thick bully stick chews and bones and balls and rubber rings and rope pulls... all easily identifiable as dog toys and nothing that resembles anything I don't want them to chew :).

Ok, this was a super long blog and I've been waiting a while to write it as I did want to share the importance of small things in puppy training in my experience. I caveat everything with I have only trained my own dogs and have learned through that experience (I have spoiled a puppy or two to understand how that turns out) and always enjoy listening to what works for other's as well. A bored hungry puppy is a nightmare and will learn bad habits much quicker than you can teach him good ones, so I try to keep my puppies fed, tired, and able to self entertain or troubleshoot as much as possible in order that families can have a head start to well adjusted and adjustable dogs :).