As a family, we got a new golden retriever puppy (male) on Saturday and he turns just 8 weeks old on Friday. This is our first time trying to train a puppy.
So far it's been a great experiance and our three young kids love him. Here are some of the positives....
1 - He was instantly potty trained and hasn't had any "mistakes" in the house yet. He's real good at going near the door and doing his business within the first 2-3 minutes once we take him outside.
2 - Crate training was hard dealing with the first few nights but he finally got used to it. We did our best to make it a fun\safe place for him as the crate door is open the entire day for him to go to relax in. We put his two favorite toys in there to encourage him to spend time there. We give him treats each time we put him in the crate and close the door on him. Last two nights he goes in the crate at 11pm and sleeps till 5:30am or so till he wakes us up. The older he gets, hopefully the longer he can sleep and in turn let us sleep in a bit more. lol
3 - Everything I've read a tired puppy\dog is a happy one and less destructive in the house. So we're real good at playing with him and so far for every 30-60 minutes we play with him, he takes a 1-2 hour nap.
4 - Training him has been a process but finally making progress. Finally in day 3, he started getting the concept of sit\stay and if he stays in position for 10 seconds without moving, I give him a treat. Took awhile and he's hasn't fully grasped it yet but he is starting too. I also was told as a puppy, I need to get him used to people playing with his feet, ears and teeth so when he's a full grown dog it's easier to deal with grooming him. He didn't like it at first but has gotten used to me giving him a treat\toy or belly rub for letting me play with his paws and ears.
5 - I've ready as a puppy, it's best to introduce him to as many people and different types of dogs as possible. So far, so good. We're making the rounds visiting family members and introducing him to all our friends. We have a large 2 mile walking path around a lake near our house, which is popular to walk dogs around. So we go there once daily and have introduced him to alot of medium to small sized dogs. Still want him wait till he's 6-8 months old and alot bigger before introducing him to larger dogs. So far really good and he's interacted nicely with most all the dogs and never reacts to their barking and is even tempered, which is good news. He even meet a 8 month old German Sheppard puppy last night whose 3-4 times his size and was very even tempered and surprisingly the larger German Sheppard was submissive to him. That shocked me.
Now........here's were we desprately can use help from experiance dog owners\trainers.
1 - Bitting and nibbling. Most items in the house he's shown interest in biting at, we've diverted his attention to a chew toy. We also got this bitter green apple spray that we spray on those locations and that scent on those object aren't as appealing and has fully stopped that behavior on the household furnature.
On the flipside, trying to train him to stop bitting\nibbling at us, especially the kids. I know it's natural behavior for dogs to do that in their packs with other dogs and their way of being playful. I've tried my best to redirect his biting at us to chew toys but to no avail. People said each time he tried to bite, grab his snout and close his mouth and firmly say NO. Been trying that for four days and seen no changes in behavior.
2 - Going for walks. Man is this dog extremely stubborn and not sure if it's just his "Alpha" trait coming through. Prior to us getting him 4 days ago, he never had a harness or leash before. He was born on a farm and had free reign the first 7 weeks of his life, so I'm fully understandable that this is a new experiance for him and one that he's not comfortable or used to yet. We gon't want to walk him with just a collar as afraid that would choke him on walks, so we got a harness for him.
We have 4 steps to get to the side walk and I have never seen him willing to attempt to go down them. We either have to bribe him with a treat, force him down the steps or pick him up and carry him down to the side walk. Then when outside, I let him go exploring a bit but he never wants to leave or walk more then 50 feet radius of our house. LOL.....he always puts his full body weight down and doesn't seem interested in walking or going exploring. I've tried positive re-enforcements, treats, gental tug but simply has no desire at all to go on walks from day one. Only way he will walk is if I shorten his retractable leash so we are side by side and almost force him to walk with me. The second I stop walking, he puts his full body weight down and I have to force him back up to walk which I hate doing and wish there was a better way to handle the situation.
3 - Jumping on the sofa's\couches. He's too small now to even get up on his own but has keep on trying. Especially when we are sitting on them. We want to train him to never sit on the couch as a puppy, so we won't have a fully grown dog doing it. Each time he tries, I try to re-direct him to one of his toys but after a short while, he keeps trying to do it again. Any tips on how to curb this behavior?
I know it was take alot of patience and time training him but would really appricate any step by step instruction or tips on how to correct those three issues I'm having a problem with now. It might be cute that he does that when he's just a 10-15 pound puppy but want to avoid those behaviors when he is a fully grown 60-70 pound dog.
One person told me "Best way to break in a young male puppy and break his Alpha dog tendancy is anytime he acts up, forcefully hold him down and don't let him move for a few seconds. This will re-enforce that you're the Alpha in the household and he needs to be submissive." Is that true??? I really don't want to do that and seems more cruel and trying to go with the path of positive re-enforcement with him.
Also, having some success with training with Sit\Stay with rewarding with treats. Anyone have any useful, details tips tricks that you have used to teach them other tricks? I just have no idea how to best go about it and when or what time table to introduce new tricks for him. Do I spend only a week or two per tick till he's mastered them? Do I introduce a few tricks and consistently keep up with them till he learns them?
Thanks and appricate any feedback!
I personally agree with the advice given there, depending on the level of alpha dog tendency you are seeing. He needs to learn that your family is the pack and that he is the lowest in the pack, including your kids. I would have each of the kids hold him to submission, while you observe/supervise and make sure they are safe, etc. You DON'T want that relationship to be unclear to him and you DON'T want it tested when you are not around.
I've done that with each of the dogs we've had and it has been key, imo, to getting the pecking order in the house sorted out.
As to your concerns about cruelty - you don't need to hurt him - you need to make him go into the submissive state - which simply means he does not resist/struggle against your command, but gives himself up to you. In that state he will learn to accept his position and he will learn trust and love for the dominant within the pack.
What did work was Frank's Louisiana Hot Sauce. A friend told me about this.
After I put down on corner of end table she liked the chewing stopped.
Sounds rough but it worked!!
Good luck with jumping on furniture.
Dan, I'm willing to try it but what exactly is the submissive state? Do I hold down his body and hold down his head to the floor so he can move at all? Mind getting into more details on how to do this and how long do you keep him at that submissive state? Few seconds, few minutes?
Be persistent about guarding your couch but regardless of your efforts he will evidently win.
Will he follow a family member while you walk him on leash? You want to make the leash and the walk a fun happy thing.He is still very young I almost guarantee he will be tugging at the leash as he gets older, bigger and more energetic.
Good Luck be patient and persistent and enjoy your new family member
As soon as he nips cry out loudly "ouch". Puppies are often instinctively nipping when being social and/or playful and don't realize they are causing pain. This loud reaction will train them when they are biting too hard and it hurts. Then after doing that say in a loud forceful stern voice "No Bite" and tap them lightly on the nose. With time this should end the problem.
Don't want them on the couch? NEVER let them on the couch. You have to be consistent.
The dog is a baby and is teething. Everything goes to the mouth. Lot's of toys - to take the place of furniture. One thing I did with my puppy was this and it worked. When my guy decided that he could try to eat me I took him by the mouth and pressed my thunb on his tongue. He did not like that at all. He just needed a reminder once in a while and that stopped. The chewing should stop though with time. As far as walks on the leader. He needs to know what he can and cant do. There is a "gentle leader" which I suggest you get if you don't have. Use that and if you don't want him stopping then this is a more gental way of moving him along without unnecessary strain on his neck. You have to let them know your the boss. Furniture is a matter of repetition. Keep him off it and he will figure it out (maybe)
Good luck.
It is interesting how both the dogs treat my daughter differently than me and my son; they don't fear my daughter and display bad behavior they don't display around my son and I. The vet explained that this is common bc dogs react differently to deep male voices when being corrected than to high pitched female voice.
About going outside and exploring; both of our dogs stay very close to us when they were young, then slowing started going off on their own. Again, the puppy is probably afraid but once it gets more confidence you'll see a change.
A dog isn't officially house broken until it goes a year without an accident.
Fear of stairs is normal. My dog was freaked by stairs until one day she just did it.
Jumping on furniture? Good luck with that. We just gave up on it.
We chose a color of sock none of us wear and he really loved it. I guess it was the cool soft chewy sensation soothing his gums and teeth a bit. That is something we'll keep on doing since he really seems to like it.
For now get a 5 ft leash. Keep your right hand about three feet from his body holding the leash. This will allow you to control him. He will quickly learn that he is to walk at your pace, not his and keep him from getting distracted.
Golden are very smart. I've had two and they were the best dogs I've ever had. It won't take long for him to catch on.
Keep up the good work.!!
Schnitzie, he visited with our local vet right after we first got him. He's all updated on his shots and we have him scheduled monthly to get the remaining of his shots as scheduled.
As for as interacting with other dogs, he's too small to deal with big older dogs and have tried avoiding that. Only dogs I let him interact with is medium to small dogs that are currently near his size. No play dates or dog parks as he's to young for that. Just mostly introducing them to random dogs we see walking around the lake and letting them sniff each other.