Happy Pets

At this stage in your puppy’s training he should be around the age of five to six months. Remember, the more you can teach him before he reaches the age of six months, the easier and pleasanter your life will be together. You should still be taking puppy out on a soft leather collar and I advise for your comfort, a long, soft leather lead. A chain lead will cut into your hands. Rope and nylon tend to burn. I see so many owners of young puppies with chain leads because their puppy has chewed the soft leather ones. Puppies usually turn to chew their leather lead for two reasons: either they are bored, or they wish to distract their owner. It is a very simple habit to stop. With a gentle tug, bring the lead downwards through your puppy’s mouth and give him the command to Leave. Most owners with chain leads just have not had the patience to repeat this exercise over and over again. Their usual excuse is, ‘Oh, I tried that, and it didn’t work.’ Most people believe that telling or showing a puppy once will train it for life. If I am given a new machine, whether it be a tape recorder, a typewriter or a computer, it will take me some time to understand the workings completely. How can we be naïve enough to believe that our puppies are far more intelligent than us and will pick something up in one lesson?

The bone test

Now is the time to discover who is Boss. Your puppy will benefit from having a raw marrow bone and you will learn a lot. Never give puppy cooked or chop bones or poultry bones—only the raw marrow or knuckle bone. He will keep himself amused for hours and if he is still teething, it will help him discard any loose teeth. Once your puppy is engrossed in his bone, does he growl at your approach? The well-trained, well-matched puppy should be quite happy to relinquish his bone to you. Any sign of aggression should be stopped instantly. If you fail to act now, you will have serious problems in the future. A dog who is aggressive over his bone is dominant and firmly believes that he is Boss. I actually know owners who are afraid of their dogs and dare not approach them when they have a bone or a toy, for fear of being bitten. This is an appalling situation and should never arise.

Act quickly

What do you do if your dog does growl while eating his bone? Act immediately and with great determination. Seize your dog by the scruff of his neck and take the bone from him, telling him that you will not stand for this disgusting behaviour. Still keeping a firm grip on your puppy, place the bone on the floor and give him the command to Leave. If puppy obeys your command, pick the bone up and give it him, stroking him all the time. Repeat these actions frequently while your dog is chewing the bone until there is no sign of aggression whatsoever on your approach.

If your puppy is dominant and continues to try to snatch his bone off the floor and growl, be more dominant with him. Insist that he sits and leaves his bone until you return it to him. You must not resort to physical violence, kicking out or hitting your puppy. If he does have the slightest tendency towards aggression, he will bite in self-defence and you can hardly blame him for that. You must take physical action by the scruff of the neck only. This never hurts a dog, just his pride, and asserts the fact that you are Boss.

Understanding your puppy’s temperament

I have never known a puppy yet who will not try to get his own way. Even the most submissive puppy will try it on and the technique you should use depends on the temperament of your puppy. It varies from outward aggression to plain stupidity, where the puppy sits and pretends he does not understand what you want, to the very submissive puppy showing fear when asked to do something he is set against. I admit, it is often very difficult to read the signs and you need to have a full understanding of your puppy to know what action to take. Katy is a very submissive puppy and would no more think of growling at me than fly. Nevertheless, at the age of nine months she began to feel the need to assert her authority and get her own way. She would often cringe and lower her body to the ground when asked to do something quite mundane. At first, I misread these signs and always reassured her, thinking that something I hadn’t seen or heard had worried her.

The cringing became more frequent and I was beginning to think I had a nervous dog on my hands and yet, as a puppy, she‘d been bold and friendly and game for anything. I gave this action very careful thought and realised that the more I sympathised with her and encouraged her not to be afraid, the more she cringed. Inside, she was probably laughing her paws off. She‘d got me just where she wanted. A cringe brought caresses and sympathy and lots of attention, so she did it all the more. Once I realised what was happening, the next cringe was met very sternly on my part with, ‘Katy, I will not stand for that. There is nothing to be afraid of, now don’t be silly!’ Within a split second she had changed to the friendly, bold, bouncing dog she‘d always been. She knew I’d found her out and she never did it again.

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• Puppy Kennel, Puppy’s Toy, Bowel, Brushes, Collar, arrange Puppy a home!
• Have you ever tried training the Older Dog?
• Teach little Pet Puppy first Lesson part 2
• Mongrels
• Your First Doggy Walk
• Dog Test: Are you Fit to Own a Dog? / Are you ready to Have a Puppy around?
• Where and when to exercise your dog
• A good reason for teaching Stay
• A good reason for teaching Stay continue...

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 8:53 pm and is filed under Collars, Dogs, Puppies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.