Our Problem with Playful Barking...

Jase and I have been so proud of Coopers progress and we were thinking that everything was going smoothly, until about a week and a half ago when we got a knock on our door at about eight o’clock in the evening…

It was our next-door neighbour who had come over to tell us that Cooper had been barking every morning at 6am and waking up their baby. Jase and I apologized and promised that we would do our best to try and make sure this stopped.

Cooper sleeps in the laundry but has a doggy door to get out and had been toilet trained by using the doggy door. He’d obviously been getting up early and going outside to play on his own. Sometimes we’ve noticed that when Coop gets overexcited playing in his sandpit he playfully barks, and this was clearly waking up our neighbour’s son. The sandpit in our garden is used to try and redirect his digging from the garden to the sandpit by burring treats in there for him (it actually work pretty well – you should try it if you have a digging dog!) so we definitely didn’t want to get rid of it but we needed to stop the barking.

Anyways, barking has always been an issue that I have struggled to deal with, as it is hard to teach them to stop unless you can actually catch them in the act. I have a spray bottle with water that we now spray him with when we hear him barking and he doesn’t like that at all but as I said – it’s not often that we actually hear him. You can also use a plastic bottle with stones or coins in it and shake it and say ‘ah ah’ when you catch them – they hate the sound of that!

I posted my big problem on a couple of dog groups on facebook and had lots of responses. Majority of people told us to try locking the doggy door so he couldn’t get out during the night. I was scared that this was going to be a step backwards in the toilet training department but I was very wrong!

The first night we took him out to the toilet just before bed, we then put him in his bed and locked the doggy door. I was so petrified he would cry, bark or crap everywhere that night – but he did none of the above! We went down at 6am in the morning and opened the door to find a dry and clean laundry. We let Cooper out to the toilet and he didn’t the biggest wee we had ever seen.

A week and a half later and we have been doing this every night and Cooper is loving it!! Dog’s actually really like the security of a small, secure place when they sleep and they love routine. I am still not ready to have a big sleep in as he is still a puppy so we need to be careful of his bladder.

Jase and I are very proud parents and love our new routine with Cooper.

So thank you to everyone who gave us the great advice.

Cooper and his cousin diesel relaxing after a big play session - check out my facebook video for amazing footage of them playing - http://www.facebook.com/pages/mydogjourney/71624270773?ref=hl

The importance of Socialisation for your pup and Puppy school

Puppyhood is the most important and critical time in your dog's development. Socialisation and puppy training from the very beginning is so crucial – specifically within the first three months. You don’t want your pup to become frightened later in his life due to not being socialised properly as this can cause an anxious shy dog, or an anxious aggressive dog.

You want to make sure your pup gets to experience everything. Our breeders actually gave us a checklist as a guide for things we should try and socialise Cooper with – great idea! The list included things like; different sounds- bikes, garbage trucks, trams, vacuum cleaner, lawn mowers, storms, different feels – grass, concrete, pebbles, different people – children, elderly, babies, and the list goes on.

The main concern people have regarding early socialisation is that the pup is not fully vaccinated until about 12 weeks, making it hard to socialise with all of these things. I personally think that yes you do need to be extra careful as pups are prone to disease and viruses – however, as socialisation is so important we took Cooper to visit friends and family’s dogs that we knew were fully vaccinated. We also walked him very early in the morning when no one was around and we took him to puppy school.

Jase and I have a lot of knowledge on puppy training but we were always going to take Coop to puppy school – it’s the cutest thing! It is also such a great way to socialise your pup with other puppies and you and your pup can learn so much!! I 100% recommend taking your pup to puppy classes. We found our puppy school through our local vet and they were great. Tilly was the trainer – check out there website. http://www.secretdogsbusiness.com/make-a-booking/

Finally – please remember that if you want a well-balanced adult dog it is key that you socialise your pup with everything at a young age.

Plus, Cooper passed puppy classes with flying colours and made some great friends!

Mouthing/Biting/Teething

Dogs explore the world with their mouths. They want to feel and touch and taste it all! Puppies are curious little creatures and just want to explore everything – so you need to be prepared for this.

Mouthing/biting is definitely an issue that Jase & I have had with Cooper from day one of bringing him home. And let me tell you – they have razor sharp teeth!! The first week, both Jase & I had scratches the whole way up our arms.

So what do you need to do to stop this behaviour?

You need to teach your dog the difference between biting a chew toy and biting human skin. We want them to chew their toys and not us – but they don’t know the difference – so it is our job to teach them.

To a puppy, any attention is good attention so if your puppy tries to bite you – the solution is not to push him or wave your hands around or to run away – he will think this is a game and chase you and come back for more. Rather you need to stop playing with him immediately, stand up and walk away calmly. Or if that doesn’t work – say ‘no’ or ‘ah ah’ in a strong stern voice and take him into a room for 5 minutes of down time.

Another good trick, which I have only been using if Cooper tries to bite the couch or jump on the couch, is shaking an empty water bottle with some stones in it. The second he tries to jump or bite the couch – I shake it close to him and he hates it. Honestly, after doing this twice, he has not tried it again!!

In saying all of this - I am a very big believer in puppy’s responding and learning better from praise and positive reinforcement than punishment. So what Jase and I have also been doing to reduce the mouthing/biting is putting a toy straight into his mouth the second he is about to try and bite us. This is not praising his behaviour – it is rather redirecting it and teaching him the correct thing to chew on.

 

You also need to be aware that when your puppy hits 3-4months of age, the mouthing generally get’s worse because they are teething, so please make sure you have really good chew toys for your pup – kongs and ropes are good for this. Don’t freak out if you see blood on a toy, it means your pup has probably just lost a baby tooth and swallowed it – this is natural and nothing to worry about!

Finally, you need to realize that puppies aren’t trying to bite you on purpose - they don’t mean to hurt you. They just want to play with you, get your attention, sooth their sore gums and explore the world. You just need to be a good leader and make sure they know from day one that you are the boss.  

The Joys of Toilet Training...

Cooper Hendrix has been home with us now for 5 nights. He is a bundle of joy and so beautiful.

Although, let me tell you - raising a puppy is hard work!!

He is like an energizer bunny and then falls asleep, energizer bunny and then back to sleep and so on.

I have so many things that I could talk about now but I will take it one step at a time. So lets begin with toilet training…

Toilet training needs to begin the very second you bring your pup home. Take the puppy straight outside to the spot you would like them to go.

Avoid avoid avoid is my motto!!

Take your pup outside straight after he wakes up, after he plays and after he eats. Just make sure to take your pup out every hour. The key is to not let your puppy make a mistake – and make sure to really praise him when he releases himself outside.

We are using ‘good toilet’ to try and get Cooper used to the word ‘toilet’. Give him a good pat and even a treat instantly if you have one handy. Puppy’s and dogs have a pretty short memory so timing is crucial – don’t give him a treat two minutes later – only give a treat that very second he finishes. And that also goes for telling him off when he releases himself in the house – there is no point telling him off when you find it half an hour later – he wont remember what he did wrong. It really is all about being positive – you don’t want to scare your puppy while he is in the act, as you don’t want them to think that releasing themselves is bad – so yes – I totally disagree with rubbing your dogs nose in their business!! But you can tell him off when you catch him in the act.

We have been pretty lucky with Coop – he has peed inside twice and that is it. One of the times, I knew he needed to go, I waited outside with him for about 45minutes and then my patience grew thin and I brought him back inside – literally 20 seconds later he peed on the carpet. The trick is to make sure you have the right products to get rid of the smell otherwise your puppy will keep going back to the same spot. And be patient!

We are also lucky enough to have a doggy door that is in the laundry where he sleeps. After 2 days of being with us he could use it all by himself and after 3 nights – he was using it during the night rather than going on the newspaper in the laundry. Jase and I trained him by holding the flap up and having one on either side with a treat, encouraging him – he is a very quick learner!!

How have you gone toilet training your pup??

Cooper visiting my work at The Big Group

Cooper with his cousin Diesel