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Training Tips

House Training

HOUSE TRAINING
Right from the beginning don’t let the puppy make mistakes, just one mistake is the beginning of a habit forming and it also scent marks the area and no matter what cleaning methods you use, the dog will always be drawn the that area again (Ian Dunbar)
House soiling is an example of a natural behaviour just happening in the wrong place.
Once again here we want to reward the good behaviour and ignore the bad behaviour. So when pup is out in the garden and relieves himself in his designated area we want to be there with yummy treats to reward him for doing such a good job. He will start to learn that when I go to the toilet at this spot I get treats, I must come back here why would I waste going to the toilet inside then I don’t get treats. Plus puppy has also marked his scent on this spot so it will naturally draw him to this spot. Offer graduated rewards for closeness to his designated area. If puppy just runs outside and relieves himself give him a small treat, as he relieves closer to the ideal spot up the amount of treats so in essence we are marking the spot where we would ideally like him to relieve himself and as he realises that the closer to the spot he is the more treats he gets it only makes sense for him to get as close to the spot as possible. Never understate rewards for eliminating in the right place.
Timing is the most effective tool when house training, it relies a lot on your ability to recognise when your pup needs to relieve himself. Then you can direct your puppy to the correct spot and the rewards can begin. Short term confinement allows us to to be more accurate in our prediction. When our puppy is confined to a small area he is temporarily (+- 90 mins) inhibited from relieving himself as he wouldn’t want to mess in his sleeping area this will generally make the puppy want to go and relieve himself immediately once he has been released from his confined area. When home keep puppy on leash or in his confinement area. EVERY hour release your puppy and guide him outside to go and relieve himself to his designated area, in the beginning you can keep him on leash while you guide him to his spot while giving the command “outside” just get there quickly as the poor little guy will probably be bursting to go and also the quicker we move the less likely he will stop and have a sniff at the wrong spot. Once you reach the spot give your dog a command “Go pee” give your pup +- 3minutes to relieve himself. Once puppy has relieved himself in the right spot HUGE rewards are due, Good boy, cuddle and treats and play, our pup needs to feel like he just won the gold medal at the Olympics that’s how good his performance just was.
If puppy does not relieve himself, don’t worry just take him back inside to his confined area for another hour and try again 1 hour later eventually puppy will relive himself and he will get his HUGE reward and puppy will quickly learn the pattern “outside” “go pee” HUGE reward and a good habit will form. Now your puppy will want relive himself when and where you want. We must remember that puppies are not 100% reliable until they are 6 months old but as long as we set them up for success and reward the appropriate behaviour a simple “outside” verbal command is all that is needed if we catch our little one about to eliminate in the wrong place, the tone of our voice lets our pup know he is about to make a mistake and the word “outside” gives him the instruction of where he must go. We must NEVER use physical punishment the last thing we need is for our pup to be scared to relieve himself when we are around this will just make him be more discreet on where he eliminates himself, and make house training a nightmare. Also if by chance puppy does relieve himself in the home, just clean it up, there is no way the pup will connect you shouting at him to the little puddle he made sometime during the day, he will just learn that when you get home he better go and get out of your way because you are not great person to be around. Remember we don’t want to imply to our pup that going to the toilet is a bad thing, we just need to teach him that we humans like to have designated area to go to the toilet.
REWARD good behaviour IGNORE bad behaviour.
Happy training

Jumping Up

JUMPING UP
The best way to stop puppy jumping is to simply ignore him when he does. Turn your back to him fold your arms and stand still until he has fours paws on the ground. Then quickly get down to his level and give him lots of praise and rewards if he jumps up again, stand up and turn away until he stops jumping, and repeat. We are rewarding the desired behaviour and ignoring the bad behaviour. We also need to make sure that all people who come into contact with pup know this is what is to be done when pup jumps otherwise some unsuspecting visitor could unknowingly be undoing all your hard work by patting the dog or telling him to get off, both of these are rewarding the dog as he is getting the attention he seeks

The following exercises are also very effective for the jumping dog:
Put your puppy on a lead and tie the end securely to a doorknob.
Make sure you have yummy treats with you and from a short distance move towards the puppy with excitement. As soon as he jumps up, stop moving towards him and take a step backwards away from the pup. As soon as he stops jumping move towards him again. Continue this approach until you can get all the way to the pup and give him a cuddle without jumping lots of praise and rewards from that position, moving back again if he jumps up in excitement.
You could also do this exercise but you are the door know and you have another person approach the dog, as above once the person gets all the way to your dog without him jumping give him lots of praise and rewards.
This method will also teach him how to greet people, and to pay attention to you rather than them.
If you can catch your dog before he is about to launch himself off the ground give him something else to do like sit. But only if it’s before his paws have left the floor.
Happy Training.

Come when called

COME WHEN CALLED
Have someone hold your puppy, show pup your YUMMY treat and then move away from your puppy.
Start in an enclosed area with no distractions. Bend down and wriggle the food in front of you towards the puppy and call your pup with a happy and excited voice “pups name, COME” Praise your puppy the whole time he moves towards you, what a good boy you’re such a clever puppy. When he reaches you give him a huge hug and your yummy treats, make sure you can gently handle his collar while he is with you in case you would need to quickly put him on leash, then release the puppy with the command “GO PLAY”
We are establishing a pattern here. When I say come and you move towards me really good things happen. Remember to ALWAYS say the word “COME” in a happy excited voice that your dog will want to come to you, never say “COME” in anger. We don’t want our pups to be fearful of coming to us.

The faster the puppy comes to you the bigger the reward should be. He will quickly learn that the quicker he gets to you the better the reward.
Start to use everyday opportunities in the home to practice like when it’s feeding time, while you are cooking dinner.
Repeat this exercise until you see he is coming 10/10 of the times.
Once we have the “COME” understood by the dog we up the criteria, this means when he is coming to you 10/10 times in your enclosed area.

We increase the criteria by:
1. Increasing the distance,
2. Adding distractions
3. Changing the environment.

REMEMBER ONLY CHANGE ONE CRITERIA AT A TIME
Ie: If you are increasing distance don’t have distractions at first and don’t start this new criteria in the park.

Once you have managed to increase the distance in a safe enclosed area, start adding distractions but decrease the distance. Slowly build up the distance again.
Then it’s time to take the show on the road. We are now changing the environment, so distance and distractions must go back to their 1st steps. We will now start to increase our distance 1st in our new environment. Once we have our “COME” at a distance in the park we will begin to add distractions, once again as we will now take our distance back to the beginning stage and slowly build up the distance with distractions.
ALWAYS make it an incredibly enjoyable exercise for your dog. NEVER shout or reprimand your pup if he doesn’t come just lower your criteria to last point he was successful and build up again slowly. ALWAYS put SAFETY FIRST, when you move to different environments, work with your dog on a long lead at first, so there is no chance your dog could run away.
This is one of the most important exercises your dog can learn, and it can be life saving.
Happy safe training.

chewing

CHEWING
Chewing is a normal and natural thing for young puppies to do and it’s needed to maintain the health of your dog’s teeth. To dogs all objects are possible chew toys. Dogs also chew to relieve anxiety and boredom. After all there are only so many things pup can do to keep him or herself entertained, while you are not around.

When a pup lives with a human, it is the human’s job to teach him what’s OK to chew and what’s not OK to chew.
Chew training a puppy usually takes 1-3 months, and there may be times you can’t actively supervise his activities.

Always set up pup for success, when you are not around and mistakes can happen,
Confine your pup to a comfortable safe area; such as a single room this must contain a comfortable bed, a bowl of water, a doggy toilet (if not yet housetrained), and 6-7 freshly stuffed chew toys. These chew toys must be the only things available to chew.
In this environment your pup is training himself to chew toys and these chew toys will become much more desirable for your dog to chew as opposed to carpets, shoes etc.
We confine pup to prevent your dog from chewing inappropriate items around the house and to maximize the chance of a chew toy habit developing.
Praise, praise, praise each time your pup chews something right. REWARD good behaviour IGNORE bad behaviour.

Your dog will learn to settle down and entertain himself with his chew toys as soon as you leave in the morning, and he will probably search for chew toys when he wakes.

Chew toys should be indestructible and no consumable.
Examples of chew toys: Kongs, sterilized long bones, hooves that can be stuffed with treats.
Squeeze a piece of liver in the small hole of the Kong, fill the rest of the hole with part of his daily meal (if kibble moisten it first) and then put the Kongs in the freezer.
As the food thaws, it starts to fall out and this reinforces your pup to play with the chew toy, which in return will release more food. What fun.
Until your pup is fully chew toy-trained, feed all his meals from chew toys, or hand feed meals as rewards when you notice your dog is chewing a chew toy.

If a mistake ever happens, it’s your fault. Don’t shout at the dog especially if he is no longer chewing your new Jimmy Choo he will not relate your ranting to the new chew toy he found on the floor.
All he’ll learn is “when you come home, I get punished.” Making him more anxious and more likely to chew even more worrying about your arrival home.
If you catch pup in the act of chewing your new shoes, offer him a yummy chew toy in exchange for the shoe. This will also teach pup to release stuff you ask him for. If you just snatch the shoe off pup he will learn that when he sees you approaching while he is chewing down on his new found toy, you are going to take away his toy and fun and he will learn to run away or even worse develop a chewing habit in private.
Happy Training.

ttouch

TTOUCH
I adopted my little girl Stella from the spca a month ago. She has not been exposed to much and has been quite weary of all new things. This is primarily due to her not experiencing a wide variety of things during her early learning period.
Today she came with me to my tellington touch course and we have both had the honour of working with Linda Tellington Jones herself today aswell as all the wonderful t touch practioners in training. All I can say is that today my little girl experienced so much and for the first time I feel she is happy in her own body :) This is wonderful work and I encourage you all to experience it with your dog. Contact the t touch office and see when they are holding their next workshops or call one of the many caring and loving t touch practioners we are blessed to have here in our country. You can get a list of the T touch practioners in your area through the t touch office. Please visit their website and explore this wonderful work :)

www.ttouch.co.za
Tellington TTouch is a gentle method of bodywork and movement exercises that positively influences behavior, performance and well-being. It increases communication skills and deepens the relationship between animals and their people. It is used in over 30 countries around the world to influence both behavioral and health problems.

Tellington TTouch was created by International Animal Expert Linda Tellington-Jonescircles, slides and lifts used to reduce stress and relax tension. It also incorporates body wraps and many leading & groundwork exercises for confidence building. You'll find more detailed info on our What is TTouch page. and includes TTouch bodywork which is a combination of

Eugénie Chopin, an American who has lived in South Africa since 1975, studied Tellington TTouch in the USA and brought it to South Africa several years ago. Hundreds of people here have experienced and found Tellington TTouch to be useful for both problems and the general well-being of their pets.

BITE INHIBITION

BITE INHIBITION
Puppies bite. Puppy biting and mouthing is natural. Since they do not have hands and opposing thumbs they use their mouths to play and investigate.

When you observe a litter of puppies there is a lot of mouthing going on. When pup bites too hard, his littermates yelp and stop playing with him. The pup quickly learns that when he bites too hard, his buddies wont play with him, so he chooses to use a softer mouth on them. This is called Bite Inhibition and is an important lesson for the pup.

Forbidding a young puppy from biting altogether may offer immediate and temporary relief, but it is potentially dangerous because your puppy will not learn that his jaws can inflict pain. Puppy must be taught to inhibit the force of his bites (Ian Dunbar)

That cute little nibble will not be cute anymore once the puppy has grown into an adult. They need to learn this before they are four months old.

Teach your puppy to trust you this is necessary to tech your puppy about bite inhibition.
NEVER hit, slap or shout at the puppy, physical punishment will lose that trust. It will not stop the puppy from biting it will only scare and confuse him.

Make sure you are not reinforcing his biting behaviour. Grabbing the mouth and shouting at him is actually reinforcing him by giving him attention being that negative attention.

We need to teach puppy that while mouthing is ok he must stop when asked to , mouthing should only be initiated by you. We must teach puppy that he must not hurt you and he must know that he must not exert pressure at all when biting.
If your puppy is biting/ mouthing with pressure you must simply say “ouch” and turn away from him for 5 seconds and pretend to be licking your wounds, then return to the pup and say gently. This will teach the pup what his mother and littermates would have done and he will realise that when he bites his fun to goes away. The severity of the “ouch” must match the severity of the bite

If your pup acknowledges your "ouch" and stops biting, praise him and lure him to offer a different behaviour and offer him a yummy treat. If your pup ignores the "ouch" and continues biting, yelp "Owwwww!" and leave the room. Your puppy has lost his playmate. Return after a minute timeout and make up by lure-rewarding your puppy to come, sit, lie down, and calm down, before resuming play.
If puppy gets aroused by the ouch sound and has not decreased his biting after 3 attempts in a row, END your play session and try again later on in the day.
Even once your pup's biting no longer hurts, pretend that it does. Greet harder nips with a yelp of pseudo-pain. Your puppy will soon get the idea that humans are super sensitive.

The pressure of your puppy's bites will progressively decrease. Once your pup exerts NO pressure when mouthing, only then, teach him to reduce the frequency of his mouthing. Teach your pup that mouthing is ok until you request him to stop. Give him the command ”leave”
Each time your pup stops mouthing reward him and begin playing again. Remember to give clear indication to your pup when your play/training session has ended. “All done”
Be persistent and consistent.
Reference: Dr Ian Dunbars Good little dog book (page 96-100)
And www.siriuspup.com

STEALING

STEALING
When your dog steals something do you chase after him trying to get it back?
Don’t play this game of chase anymore. You are reinforcing an unwanted behaviour. The more attention you give him for stealing something, the more he’ll steal.
As long as it’s not dangerous ignore him when he steals something, he’ll stop pretty soon if there is no reinforcement involved. Write the incident off to your mistake, as you are the one who left it lying around in the first place. Remember prevention is better than cure.
Make sure he can’t get to items, which are off-limits. Keep tables and counters completely free of food and other fun chewables; keep the laundry out of your dogs reach for several months until he no longer looks there for fun. He is stealing this stuff to entertain himself so rather have plenty of yummy chew treats to keep him busy and make sure he is getting exercise and his mind is being stimulated with fun games. If your dog has stolen something you need to take back. Don’t just take the article from him this will only teach him that when he has his fun toy and you come towards him, his fun is going to stop and he will begin to hide with his stolen items. Instead offer him something much better a great big yummy chew toy, not only will he drop the stolen item for you to get back but he will be occupied with this new yummy treat and he will completely forget his stolen item. This will also make him happy when he sees you approaching because good things come from you.

Reference: (page (110)
The new dog owner’s guide to Positive reinforcement puppy training – Suzanne L. Harris