Roodi
I will be picking up my Labrador pup in three weeks and am looking for any advice regarding bringing it up in it's first year. Are the wooden floors downstairs going to be a problem, crate training tips etc....
Answer
The most important thing to remember is, controlling a dog's environment is the most effective training tool any owner has for properly raising a puppy. When a dog who hasn't learned your rules yet has too much un-supervised time in your house and they start making their own decisions about how to occupy their time, THIS is where most dog owners get themselves into trouble. For whatever reason people feel bad restricting a dog's movements and somehow view it as unnatural. A better way to look at it is it is the most fair, even-handed, humane way to raise your puppy because you're setting them up for success and not failure. By using confinement and supervision to control the environment you are preventing them from getting into trouble and learning bad habits while they learn about the world and come to understand the rules of the house. We watch our human childen closely and try to keep them out of trouble when they are still crawling around in the toddler stage. And when we cannot watch, we put them in a crib or play pen and close the door to their room. We don't feel guilty about that, so why should we feel guilty about preventing a dog from running around the house by itself?
1) Keep a bowl of a really high value food reward by the crate. Not cheapo Walmart stuff. Dried chicken or beef, something a dog will LOVE. Teach the dog a crate command and give them one every time they go in.
2) At the initial stages, crate training should always take place while you are there. The dog will be more likely to stay calm about the situation if you are in the room, meaning her first experiences with the crate will be calm ones. Let the dog spend time in there while the family is in the room going about their normal routine. Praise him from time to time when he's being calm so you can let him know that makes you happy.
3) NEVER let the dog out of the crate while it is in an excited state, and never try to stuff the dog in the crate immediately after they did something wrong, or while you are in a negative frame of mind.
4) The crate should be in use every single time you cannot watch the dog. Alot of people will only crate a dog when they are out of the house or in bed, but let it run free and un supervised the rest of the time, and wonder why the dog still misbehaves. This is because they are not using human supervision. The dog does not need to spend the first year of its life behind bars and you do not need to have your dog next to you while you take a dump. The idea is through a combination of supervision and confinement they will not have the opportunity to learn bad habits during the most formative stage of their life. If it is practical for you to keep the dog with you, keep them with you and on leash. When it is not practical, crate the dog. I don't care if you have to take your eyes off them for 5 seconds. This is 5 seconds when they should be crated. Otherwise, if in the course of that 5 seconds they decide to chew your carpet, and they find out that chewing carpets are fun, you now have to deal with a dog who wants to do this every time they are left alone.
The most important thing to remember is, controlling a dog's environment is the most effective training tool any owner has for properly raising a puppy. When a dog who hasn't learned your rules yet has too much un-supervised time in your house and they start making their own decisions about how to occupy their time, THIS is where most dog owners get themselves into trouble. For whatever reason people feel bad restricting a dog's movements and somehow view it as unnatural. A better way to look at it is it is the most fair, even-handed, humane way to raise your puppy because you're setting them up for success and not failure. By using confinement and supervision to control the environment you are preventing them from getting into trouble and learning bad habits while they learn about the world and come to understand the rules of the house. We watch our human childen closely and try to keep them out of trouble when they are still crawling around in the toddler stage. And when we cannot watch, we put them in a crib or play pen and close the door to their room. We don't feel guilty about that, so why should we feel guilty about preventing a dog from running around the house by itself?
1) Keep a bowl of a really high value food reward by the crate. Not cheapo Walmart stuff. Dried chicken or beef, something a dog will LOVE. Teach the dog a crate command and give them one every time they go in.
2) At the initial stages, crate training should always take place while you are there. The dog will be more likely to stay calm about the situation if you are in the room, meaning her first experiences with the crate will be calm ones. Let the dog spend time in there while the family is in the room going about their normal routine. Praise him from time to time when he's being calm so you can let him know that makes you happy.
3) NEVER let the dog out of the crate while it is in an excited state, and never try to stuff the dog in the crate immediately after they did something wrong, or while you are in a negative frame of mind.
4) The crate should be in use every single time you cannot watch the dog. Alot of people will only crate a dog when they are out of the house or in bed, but let it run free and un supervised the rest of the time, and wonder why the dog still misbehaves. This is because they are not using human supervision. The dog does not need to spend the first year of its life behind bars and you do not need to have your dog next to you while you take a dump. The idea is through a combination of supervision and confinement they will not have the opportunity to learn bad habits during the most formative stage of their life. If it is practical for you to keep the dog with you, keep them with you and on leash. When it is not practical, crate the dog. I don't care if you have to take your eyes off them for 5 seconds. This is 5 seconds when they should be crated. Otherwise, if in the course of that 5 seconds they decide to chew your carpet, and they find out that chewing carpets are fun, you now have to deal with a dog who wants to do this every time they are left alone.
Problems with my dog?
Jolly Gree
He tends to cause some trouble from time to time. Just today he ate 47 cookies out of 48(they were little cookies). They were sitting on the table to cool and I wasn't home and my mom went to take a quick shower. He does the same thing with the counters, he'll jump up and try to eat things. We push them back as far as they can go or put them on top of things. But today we couldn't do that because we had other cookies already cooling on the counter as far away as they could go. Another problem he has is getting on the couch. If you leave the room, sometimes he gets on the couch but when you come back he quickly gets down and walks away or lies on the floor. He also has a problem whenever people come over to our house. He gets really excited and runs around and won't leave them alone. He's never hurt anyone or anything, he just gets in the way. I've tried taking him on walks before people come over to get rid of some of his energy but that doesn't do anything. And if you leave the door open for 1 second he takes off out the door and I have to go get him. My mom doesn't go after him. If I'm not home and he gets out, he'll usually end up coming home, twice we've had people bring him home. He doesn't get out often but when he does I'm worried that he'll get hit by a car or something. I really don't know what to do. My mom is getting fed up. Most of the time he is good and doesn't cause too much trouble. It's mainly the couch thing. But I'm sick of him eating things from the counter or table. One day he's gonna get ahold of something he really shouldn't have and he's going to get sick or die or something like that. I know he knows that the things he does is bad, when you catch him doing it or come out right after he's done, he'll walk away with his head and tail down and usually go lay by the door, he kinda sulks. I really need some help.
He is neutered.
He's a Golden Retriever and we don't have room for a crate big enough for him. We used to have one but we were borrowing it from someone and they needed it back.
Eating things off the counter/table is the biggest issue. He'll eat any food he can get to.
We don't neglect him, leaving him alone in the living room/kitchen for 15-20 minutes isn't neglect. I was at school and my mom went to take a shower. (This was actually the first time he took food from the table) He gets plenty of attention. I play with him and go on walks every day, when I'm home he's always around me and I do spend time with him. And it's not like we leave the door open and unattended. When someone comes over and we let them in, sometimes he slips through. And we don't normally leave food on the counter, we had to today because we had no where else to put them. Like I said before, the majority of the time he is well behaved. He didn't not get on the couch this much before but he started to a lot more recently. If me or my parents are around and he's on the couch we tell him to get down and he does, my brother doesn't. He doesn't care if he's on the couch or not.
Oh, and we can't gate off our kitchen since it's open and connected to the living room and dining room. If we had baby gates he'd either be stuck in the hall or the basement (we have a split level).
We have a baby gate. When he was younger we put him in the basement.
Answer
Baby gates work well, if you don't have a crate. Walmart sells them pretty cheap. Get one and put it up in the doorway to keep him out of the rooms you don't want him in.
Also, make a shake can. Rinse out an empty pop can and put 12 pennies in it and tape it shut. When you see him doing something wrong, shake the can loudly and firmly say no.
A couple of times of that and as soon as he even sees the can, he will stop his wrong behavior.
Golden Retrievers can take awhile to grow up!
Here is a website that you might be interested in looking at.
http://www.all-about-goldens.com
Hope this helps!
Baby gates work well, if you don't have a crate. Walmart sells them pretty cheap. Get one and put it up in the doorway to keep him out of the rooms you don't want him in.
Also, make a shake can. Rinse out an empty pop can and put 12 pennies in it and tape it shut. When you see him doing something wrong, shake the can loudly and firmly say no.
A couple of times of that and as soon as he even sees the can, he will stop his wrong behavior.
Golden Retrievers can take awhile to grow up!
Here is a website that you might be interested in looking at.
http://www.all-about-goldens.com
Hope this helps!
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