All the things I wish I knew before I got my first ever puppy!
If I could go back in time to when Cooper was delivered to us, the number of things I’d do differently is pretty much infinite… the first thing being I wouldn’t have put him down on the kitchen floor- he peed instantly!
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From the very beginning I was intent that I would have a well behaved obedient dog and that if I was strict with him I’d have him on Britains Got Talent dancing through hoops chatting in English to me in no time. A week later, still trying to nail ‘sit’, I quickly realised I may have been a bit ambitious and extremely naive!
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This is a more generic blog post for training, check out my other posts on more specific training matters.
1. DON'T LISTEN TO ALL THE OTHER 'PROUD PUPPY PARENTS'
Everyone is guilty of bragging about their puppy to some extent, but like people do with their children… a lot of people exaggerate- big time!
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I have 2 examples which come to the top of my head straight away, one from a family friend who got their Cockapoo about a month after we got Cooper, and one from another dog owner at the puppy training class.
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Both of them, although completely innocent in doing so, couldn’t wait to rejoice me with the stories of how well behaved their puppy is…
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He slept through the whole night straight away…He’s NEVER peed in the house…Puppy biting? Oh no, my little baby would never do that!…Digging in the garden, oh no, my puppy prefers hand crafting novelty Christmas cards in his spare time… (Okay so maybe not the last part!)
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But anyway, the point is, if your puppy isn’t doing those things, especially if it’s older, it starts to make you question if you’re doing things wrong or whether you just have a very naughty pup. I mean, maybe you are doing things wrong and/or you have a naughty puppy, but I guarantee you their pup is not all sweetness and light!
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Things I also heard from the 2 dog owners…
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He’s chewed ALL my furniture…He won’t stop eating chicken poo…He throws up every time we go in the car…He’s escaped from his crate so many times he sleeps with us now…
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So yeah, basically no dog is perfect, your dog may take longer to potty train, but won’t chew your furniture, or maybe your pup will eat all your furniture but will never have an accident inside, it’s swings and roundabouts but remember every breed is different and more importantly every dog is different!
2. DO BE CONSISTENT AND DON’T GIVE IN TO THE PUPPY DOG EYES!
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your pup won’t be trained over night. There’s no shame in saying that at times (a lot of the time), it’s so damn demoralising when you’re watching your pup look you in the eye and pee on the floor, despite the fact that for the last 3 days they’ve had no accidents. Or saying ‘sit’ so many times that the word just loses all meaning. It’s all part of the process and if anything, makes it so much more rewarding when your pup finally does get it!
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Consistency isn’t just for their learning benefit, but for establishing that YOU are the boss, not them. When your puppy arrives, they’re constantly learning and as pack animals, the main thing they’re establishing is where they are in the pack. The more you let them get away with, the further up the pack they go and further down you go!
3. DO WORK WITH A TRAINER FROM DAY 1. THEN GET TO A PUPPY CLASS ASAP
This is one thing I wish that we could go back and do so much! We waited till 12 weeks when Cooper was fully vaccinated to get a trainer in, and even then we couldn’t get a trainer ‘in’ per say because of lock down rules.
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We ended up having a phone consultation with a local trainer 3 weeks into our puppy journey and quickly discovered that we’d been doing 99% of things ‘wrong.’
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Training should start from day one, which we did in some sense, we had sit, paw and a very hit and miss toilet training in by 12 weeks, but if we had the tools that the trainer gave to us from day 1, I have no doubt that we would have been much further forward.
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So you’ve done your sessions with the trainer and your pup is perfectly behaved. All done right? NOT EVEN CLOSE!
When we first started walking Cooper, all the other dog owners that we bumped in to recommended The Essex Dog Training Centre, which, fortunately for us is a top notch training facility and only a 15 minute drive away. They run group sessions for socialising and training your puppy.
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At first when we looked at the actual curriculum for the under 6 months puppy classes we thought, oh, well Cooper can do all of that already… Nevertheless, we booked him in to see what all the fuss was about, and to let him meet some other dogs, because one thing we learnt early on- He LOVES other dogs.
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I’m not quite sure at what point in entering the training centre that he changed, but a switch flipped in his brain, and putting him around 4 other dogs in a new place- all training went out the window. And he wasn’t the only one.
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There were owners in the class who had previously won Cruft’s with their dogs for agility courses, they did not need to be taught how to train their dogs, but their dogs however needed to be taught how to behave around other dogs, and these classes are the best way to do it.
4. DO NOT GIVE IN TO THE PUPPY DOG EYES.
This goes back to the pack mentality. You and your family are your puppy’s new pack, and your pup is going to be constantly trying to establish where in the pack he stands. Ideally, it should be the bottom of the pack, but all too often it seems that dogs are taking their pet humans out instead of the other way round.
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We quickly discovered our standing in the pack. As I am home with Cooper all day every day, my patience naturally wears a little more thin with him, it’s all well and good putting up with a negative trait for a couple of hours in the evening, but I wasn’t going to put up with it all day, as such, he knows, I’m above him in the pack.
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My Mum however… ironically a woman who has a no nonsense discipline approach with kids and who was very strict with me, well, I don’t know what happens to her when she’s around Cooper, he can get away with murder, and she constantly says I’m mean for putting him out if he’s naughty or I tell him off. BUT, as a result, will Cooper listen to a thing she says? NOPE.
5. DO NOT GET TUNNEL VISIONED WITH ONE TRAINING METHOD
Like I said earlier, every dog is different, every breed is different and everyone’s situations are different. One size definitely does not fit all with dog training!
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The first trainer we spoke to trained guide dogs, so dealt with a lot of labradors and Golden Retrievers on a daily basis so we figured that he was the best fit for Cooper. Yes some of his training methods worked, but other’s didn’t help in the slightest…Not saying that he is a bad trainer, but just that for Cooper, he didn’t respond to some of his methods. The hardest thing we were told by him was never to say ‘no’ because they won’t under stand it. Trust me. Cooper understands what ‘No’ means, yes he chooses to ignore it sometimes, but he knows!
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When we started the group classes, we asked some of the trainers there and like any walk of life, they had a different method, and for them, saying ‘No’ and letting a dog know it’s in the wrong is a key part of their training. It’s not a case of been mean to your pup, and they’re very strict with you as owners on putting those boundaries in of what is an acceptable level of ‘no’ and strictness with them. Because at the end of the day, they’re babies, which is something that is particularly hard to remember with the larger breed dogs who grow quicker, yes your dog is massive now, but brain wise, you have the equivalent of a 2 year old toddler!
We’ve found with training it’s not the case of there been good and bad trainers, it’s a case of looking around online, speaking to different trainers and different owners and seeing different methods and seeing what works.
One example that we have with Cooper is that he digs in the garden…and then eats the stones out of the holes he digs. It’s a nightmare and sending my Step Dad crazy as he sees his perfectly turfed lawn getting torn up. The first trainer told us he shouldn’t be on the lawn without constant supervision. Okay fine, we blocked off a large portion of the lawn and left a small space of grass for him to toilet on as per his advice. But for us, it only really delaying the behaviour, and when we’re out he still tried to get every stone going.
The second trainer (who caught him in the act at the training centre), said there’s a couple of options, and firstly went and got a tin of stone to rattle behind his head…Cooper didn’t even flinch. Something they were quite impressed with to be fair! But still, didn’t help with the problem, instead they said to get a water pistol and spray his bum whenever he did it, VOILA. He HATES it.
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Basically it’s about treading the line between persevering with the training, but also admitting defeat and looking for another solution if something really isn’t working!
