Happy Pets

I keep a store of worn tights on my dressing table and each time I go to make the bed my new puppy is asked to do something—a Sit or a Down, say—and I throw an old pair of tights and have a little game. An ideal opportunity to teach puppy all the do’s and don’ts is while you’re going around the house. Katy, my little black Labrador puppy, soon realised the things that she could carry about and the things that were absolutely taboo by this method. Upstairs I would find her ferreting under Kerensa’s bed for inviting-looking teddy bears or furry slippers. Being a Labrador, she would come and show me her prize with tail wagging and ears flicking. The first instinct of most pet owners would be to make a grab for the puppy’s prize, shout and reprimand them.

The puppy, of course, runs off in terror. You haven’t taught your puppy not to chew things that aren’t his own, all you’ve done is taught him not to bring them to you. Each time Katy brought me a prize, I took a pair of tights from the dressing table, approached her gently and took the article from her mouth with a very quiet but firm ‘No, Katy’, and threw her a pair of knotted tights. Consequently, she never chewed anything that wasn’t hers. For everything she found she brought to me, knowing I wouldn’t rant and rave but would replace her prize with something she could chew and play with to her heart’s content.

It is far easier to train your puppy if he is constantly with you around the house than making a set period of time each day for training lessons. This is boring for the dog and the owner. It’s much nicer to integrate training into the household duties. For instance, while I’m waiting for the kettle or the potatoes to boil, I’ve got a minute to teach my puppy the word Wait. I actually have three different commands for what I call the Steady-Sit. Many trainers use one, usually Stay, but as I require a steady sit for three different types of circumstance, I have split them into Wait, Stay and Stop there.

I use the command Wait when I expect a puppy to sit and wait for another command. I use the word Stay for a Sit from puppy and a Stay whatever happens until I return to his side. Stop there, I use when I need to leave my puppy outside a shop. Stop there to my puppy means there’s no need to sit perfectly still, you can lie down or stand up, but you must stay in that same place until I return. The three different commands mustn’t be taught at once, but as a gradual process. One must be quite clear to your puppy before you proceed to the next command. I prefer to teach Wait first, as I find this the most useful.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 6:20 pm and is filed under 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.