Puppy Training
It is important your puppy learns from an early age some good manners, this includes not jumping up at people and not dragging you down the road to your local park.
Jumping Up
This is a very difficult one to overcome for a puppy as I’m sure lots of family and friends from day one have allowed her to run up to them and stand up at their legs, you know what I mean, the “Awww she’s just a puppy” bit…
Well you and I are fully aware the it’s not “Aww she’s just a puppy” when said puppy has been rolling around in Fox poo or is sopping wet. So as hard as it is, you have to discourage this from happening in the first place, be straight with people and explain to them why they must not praise, cuddle or stroke the pups advances of jumping up at them. People wont understand first time, and you’ll get the few who’ll never learn, but in those instance you can have a big wide smile on your face when you fully grown dog continues to bound up to them, all nice and muddy, also an “I told you so…” never goes a miss.
If your pup has already learnt that jumping up at you gets your attention then there are a few things you can do. Firstly I would start with the ignore tactic, when your pup jumps up, take a step back so she misses you, if she is already at your side or can reach your fragile arms, then cross your arms, turn your back and stare at the sky [begin leg scratching and ripped clothes process] You must grin and bear this stage, a slight ‘give’ from you has given your pup the reaction she needs. A little bit of attention. Once calm and either sitting or walked off, you have to praise her, give her a nice treat or start a game. If she does not give up after 5 minutes then I would place her in the ‘chill out room’ You should by now have a designated place you can put her (say in the kitchen). Place her in there and shut the gate/door. Leave her to calm down for a few minutes. When she is behaving nicely then you can continue to play a game with her or give her something fun to play with on her own.
This will be a slow process, and expect re-lapses. Just when you think she has mastered it, expect to watch her whiz off and dirty some poor old ladies new skirt. Unfortunately that’s life… and you may even laugh about, well, maybe a few years down the line…
If you find the ignore tactic isn’t having much effect (or you own a Springer spaniel, in which I sympathise with you!) You may have to start teaching your pup the ‘NO’ command straight away. When your pup jumps up at you use a firm, and not to loud “NO” (and manually place her in a sit if you wish) If she reacts to this, praise her immediately, you only have a 3 second time frame in which to do so, because after he pause they usually start jumping again. Again if she ignores the “NO” she must be placed in the chill out room. Do not be tempted to stand there shouting “NO, NO, get off, NO!!” or she will not know what on earth you are going on about. Just use the command once, followed by placing her manually in a sit position and praising her. Again this process may be slightly quicker but you must get your timing right. And don’t get too frustrated, they thrive off that!
Jumping up on a worktop
I have the miracle answer to stop your dog standing up on worktops – ready for it? DON’T PUT ANYTHING OUT ON WORKTOPS!
Taa daa, sound easy yes? But millions of people wonder why their dogs jump up at work surfaces. 1 reason only, they left something tasty on it! As a pup, if you’ll remember, their sense of smell is stronger than anything else, if you leave nice sizzling roast up on the side, then your not going to see much of it when you come back! Just until your pup is old enough to realise what is right and what is wrong, please do not leave anything out on the sides the moment she jumps up and get rewarded with a nice piece of meat, or bread, the more she’ll so it, and unless you are in the kitchen with her 24/7 you will not be able to stop her doing it.
And on that point, if this has already happened (lets face it we all make mistakes!) the only way to prevent it happening again is to not let her have access to the kitchen, she should only be allowed in the kitchen if you are also in there, that way, if she jumps up you can correct her. If she does try to jump up whilst you are busy cooking etc (or pretending not to be looking) say a firm “NO” she should get down just by the sound of being caught out, remember to praise her for getting down, perhaps even a tasty reward for not being near the sides of the kitchen, something better than whatever she can get up there. Of course remember at all time don’t leave anything out, you may find eventually after a while of her doing it she will become bored of it and just stop doing it.
Pulling on a lead
Hmm this is a good one, one which I think 80% of the population wish there was a miracle cure for… There’s not.
To prevent in the first place, do not buy a flexi lead unless you know how to use them responsibly!! There are some cases in which you should need to have a flexi lead, perhaps your dog is person or dog aggressive and you would like it to have some freedom but without risking letting her off-lead, or perhaps (not so extreme) there really is, honestly, you sure your not lying? no-where you are allowed to take you dog off lead. Or perhaps live in the city where it would be quite dangerous to let your dog off lead.
Bar these cases, there should be no reason to have a Flexi lead! Any easy way to coax your pup to be at your side is to have some tasty treats in your hand. Place a bit of chicken between your fingers and put this flat by your side, as the pup touches your hand with her nose release the treat, Say the command “heel” as you are doing this. Repeat this command on every walk, do not attempt to do this whilst any other distractions are around. When you believe she is ready, then try introducing another dog, preferably a friends dog who already walks nicely, once she starts to walk nicely with another dog around, then build the distractions up. Again another long process but well worth it! Eventually you can take the treats out of the picture and your hand signal will just be a flat hand to the side, this will represent heel and your pup should start to understand this.
However you may not want your pup to be right by your knees at all times. In this case you can teach ‘loose lead’ where you pup may be slightly in front of you but not pulling. To teach this start in the lounge with your pup on lead. Walk around for a bit and then try and get her to stand next to you or near you. Hold a treat out in your hand and let her see and smell it. Then throw the treat just out of her reach on lead, her first instinct will be to run for it, the lead should stop her, now it’s a waiting game for her to return to you.
Most pups may be a little while returning, some may lay down and try to wriggle towards the treat, others may bark at the treat, but ignore all this and wait for them to come back to you, when she finally does this, reward her and let her go a little closer towards the treat on the floor. If she runs for it again, stop, wait for her to come back, reward her, then step a little closer, if she walks slowly with you then walk right up to it and let her have it. This will take a few attempts before she will walk nicely just in front of you to get to the treat but it is a great learning technique. Also remember to do this out on walks just randomly throw out a treat and stop and start with her until she is walking nicely up to the rewards.
Nipping
Aww the joys of puppy hood, the bleeding arms and holes in your t-shirt, great isn’t it? No? starting to cry? Well, don’t worry we’ve all been there…
Puppies nip, fact of life, they learn a lot from their mouths, they are not doing just to wind you up, honestly! There are a few various ways to let your pup know that its behaviour is unwanted. Firstly you can try the ‘yelping’ technique. This you have probably already heard a lot about, and doesn’t work for every pup, but always worth a shot! Basically when your puppy nips you, either by accident or on purpose let out a high pitched “Ouch!” this is what pups in a litter do to let the other pup it is fighting with know that that bite really hurt and to stop it!
Now that’s fine, however if your pup is anything like my little terror was, it may find it highly amusing and then bite you on your nose twice as hard!
So swiftly moving back onto the No command. This is similar to the jumping up technique, if your puppy nips a firm “NO” and then proceed to ignore her, it may also be worth standing up and walking away. She needs to learn that any form of nipping will immediately cease play and be ignored. She will hate this and quickly learn that nipping is not a fun thing to do. Try not to shout at your pup, again she wont know what your going on about. Also try refraining from holding your pups mouth shut, as tempting as it is!
Another method is to replace your delicate little fingers with a toy or a chew. Make sure you have corrected her first though, So give her a “NO” let her calm down and then give her a toy. We don’t want her thinking that by nipping up get her a tasty bone now do we!
Written by Nats