New Puppy

[Posted on PGD list October 15, 2009, at 3:14 PM]

On Oct 15, 2009, at 1:56 PM, jarred bonica wrote:

Not sure what "wearing the Dog" is?

Hi, Jarred. "Wearing the dog" is a term I learned from Jody Baker. It means attaching the dog to you as you go about your life. I use a short leash with a flat collar, and I put the leash's loop handle on my belt. I think people typically use a 6' leash, I'm not sure. Our leads are shorter.

At first, of course, the dog doesn't know what to do, and gets pulled a little as you gently move around (don't give any warning, just move about as naturally as possible). Soon, the dog is paying attention, can instantly wake from a nap, and so forth. The result is a dog who gets in the habit of paying attention to you and staying close. Since you make the experience pleasant for her, with kind words, petting, and the occasional treat, she develops a positive association with that habit.

Of course, the other benefit is that the dog can't get into trouble because you're keeping her close to you. That doesn't JUST mean that she's not getting into trouble. More importantly, it also means that she's not learning how to get into trouble and not learning how much fun such trouble can be. So there's long-term learning go on in that way, also.

Later, when the dog doesn't need to be on lead all the time, you may find that she welcomes the opportunity for you to wear her again from time to time. My dogs seem to consider it a gift I can give them.

I might mention one other thing you might want to start on immediately, something you'll want the dog to learn and use for the rest of her life: Sit to say please. Wait for her to sit before giving her food, before giving a treat, before running thru the door on the way out or in, etc.

That is, rather than the you cueing the dog to do something, the dog learns that she can cue you to do something she wants: "Please give me that food, please open the door for me and give me permission to go thru, etc." To me, this idea that the dog is cueing you rather than you always the one giving the "commands" is desirable on the ethical/philosophical level, but it also has practical benefits.

For example, a dog who reflexively sits to say please can quickly understand that that's the appropriate greeting for a stranger, not jumping up or barking. If the dog doesn't leap out of the van as soon as you open the door, but sits to say please, she's less likely to jump out when you're not ready and less likely to get hit by a passing truck. I'm sure other examples come to mind.

And for the field dog, there's yet another benefit: If and when you get around to train handling, she'll need a remote sit. A dog who thinks of sitting as a way of getting something she wants has a more natural path to learning the whistle sit, which she comes to understand is a way she can use to get you to cast her in the right direction to the bird.

Of course there's a million other things we could talk about with a new puppy, but if you're going to train the dog for retrieving, I'll just throw out a couple more thoughts, more in the way of DON'Ts than DOs.

First, don't train the young puppy to retrieve to hand. Yes, you can do it, she can learn it, it's not all that hard. But I have come to believe that it has a significant disadvantage that really hurts the 2Q trainer. Retrievers (at least some retrievers) do not by nature want to give up the bird (or whatever it is she's retrieved). They want to run to it (oh, yes, that's the fun part), and they learn to love picking it up and bringing it back TO SHOW YOU. All that is fun and natural. And eventually they'll lose interest and drop it and you can throw it again. But if you decide to train retrieve to hand and take it away from them, for some dogs (I've got two of them), you are tacking an aversive event onto the end of the retrieval chain. That aversive stimulus can be cumulative such that over a long period, you might find that the dog's desire to come back with the article actually diminishes from when she was a puppy. I don't think this is the only issue that can result in a deterioration of the pick-up and return, but I think it can contribute. So I would stay away from training retrieve-to-hand until the dog has been retrieving for four months or more. During those four months, let the dog decide for herself when she wants to drop the article. JMHO.

Second, keep the retrieve a highly valuable commodity by carefully limiting the number of retrieves your puppy gets to do. Maybe no more than three retrieves per session for a 3-month-old, maybe four per session the next month. You can do two or more sessions a day, but you want each session to end with the dog thinking, "Oh, that was great, I just know this is what I was born to do. I want to do MORE. What, we're quitting? No, no, throw another sock/toy/bumper/Dokken for me, PLEASE!" But no, you end the session. Now the dog has something to look forward to, something to dream about when she's napping, and she can hardly wait for the next session where she'll get to retrieve some more. So by limiting the work, you're building motivation.

Oh, sure, there's more. Conditioning to noise (eventually learning that shotgun blasts predict great fun), desensitization to the blow dryer, toothbrushing, nail grinding. Have the vets and their assistants give your pup treats when you go to the vet's office.

And handle your puppy in general, get her comfortable with the idea that her body is YOUR body. Hold her ears ("these are my ears", you explain to her), hold her muzzle ("my muzzle"), hold her paws ("my paws"), let her learn that the way to get you to put her down when you're holding her in your arms is to relax rather than to keep squirming.

If she tries barking to get you to give her something or because she sees something she thinks she's supposed to bark at, give her what I call a "time-in" (shorter and gentler than a "time-out"). Simply attach her lead, walk her to the most boring place nearby you can find, gently get her into a sit, and stand with her for 30 seconds (check your watch) doing absolutely nothing. If you want, you can kneel beside her and drape your hand over her back, or you can stand beside her, but she's needs to stay quiet, not playing. After 30 seconds, go back to whatever you were doing together. My dogs each learned to stop barking after just two time-ins each when they were young puppies, Lumi at Petsmart, Laddie at home. (This did not solve the problem of Laddie's severe case of barking in the van when I take Lumi out to train, but I don't believe there is any solution to that other than parking as far as possible from the training location. Nonetheless, neither of the dogs barks to get food and neither of the dogs barks at other dogs in the Petsmart.)

Got to stop. :0)

LL&L