Training a New Puppy

My fiance and I will be bringing home a new puppy, a toy poodle, on Feb 10th. I want to get him started on training as soon as possible. My current dog, Jypsy, is a 40lb mix girl who will be 2 in August. The new puppy will be kept separate from her unless we are in the room - he'll be kenneled in a separate room during the day.

Jypsy is very well trained on most aspects. She knows the basics - sit, stay, lay down, crawl, bow, wave, shake. She is a smart dog and a sweet girl. Her main problem comes when we're out walking. If there's a dog or a person nearby, she'll bark and pull on the lead like crazy. We've been working on it for a long time. She's getting better, but it's still not great. It's really not much of a problem since we live on a street that's pretty deserted most of the time. Once the dog or person comes to say hello, she's fine and she'll obey from then on. It's simply her getting excited and wanting to go see the person/animal.

For the new puppy, I would like to avoid him getting into bad habits from teaching him right from the start. I have never done clicker training before, but I have heard great things about it. Is this the best way to go? I trained Jypsy with treats and it she's stubborn enough that *sometimes* she will refuse to do a trick without a treat. She'll sit, stay and give her paw regardless but for the other stuff, she'll just look at you with the "okay, but I want to see that treat first, please" face.

If anyone has tips on training or some articles to read, I would really appreciate it!

 

I think the carrot must be balanced with the stick, so to say. I found a simple tool to discipline my puppies, a wet towel. When they grow up, just the sight of a small piece of cloth in my hand is enough to tell them that "enough is enough".

 

You may want to read the other threads. This is from Dog Agility: Starting a New Dog

 

A simple pat on the head is not reward enough for many, if not most, dogs when they are being trained. Different dogs respond differently to rewards. Some dogs are prey/toy driven, some are praise driven, and some are food driven. I like clicker training because it is primarily positive and I rarely gave a dog that dies not respond to it.

 

Well, try the praise motivation first. I believe it’s the best one. See, dogs will follow you not for incentives but because they simply want to please you and because they enjoy doing it. Then, if that doesn’t work, you may give treats or rewards. But still they should not solely rely on that. Dogs should not be driven by treats or rewards alone. Much better if praise and treats would work for the little guy.

 

Oh I have to try praising my puppy first. If this is not going to work then I have no choice but to use treats on training. My first dog was trained with treats and praising him is not working well to him. Now that I have my new puppy, I should do the right thing first this time.

 

Praising is a good reinforcer, but it does not do anything for dogs that are food driven or prey (toy) driven. Dogs need to learn that praise is a good thing, since they don't speak our languages. Food is the most basic reinforcer, since every animal needs to eat--training a hungry dog using treats is the most natural of behavioral reinforcements. The object is to wean the dog off the treat or off the toy by transferring the reinforcement to the praise. That's done by occasionally withholding the treat and using praise to mark the good behavior instead and eventually increasing the times that praise is used over the times that treats are used to reinforce the good behavior. Training using treats is not the "wrong" thing to do; however, it is the incomplete thing to do if that's all you ever use. Beau is a great dog and I have been training him for years, but he still occasionally gets food treats for new or for expanded behaviors or even just a sit to keep the behavior fast and accurate.

 

I have a new Chihuahua puppy that I got through an animal rescue. She is four months old and seems to be very smart, she sits, fetches, answers when called, but we can’t seem to get a grip on potty training. We have a doggie door and reinforce her good behavior, but nothing seems to work. Are there any suggestions that could help her understand that she needs to take care of business outside? She is so cute and loving, I only wish she would get it!

 

Have you tried using a leash to potty train your Chihuahua puppy? Just put it on a leash and take it outside to do its thing. I think after a meal and after a nap would be a good time for potty training.

 

Victor Leigh's suggestion is right. I also potty trained my puppy after meals and during the night before sleeping. Now he knows how to his thing and he only poop in a very specific area where I trained him to do it.

 

Hey, if our houses were closer, we can start a doggie training school. I am sure we can make a lot of money out of it.

 

That was pretty nice! Guess I am just lucky to have smart dogs by my side. They said that training pets is also an inborn talent. Why don't you start a training school in your area Victor Leigh?

 

Consistency is key. You can't expect a puppy/dog to be consistent about his training if you aren't consistent about it. It is important to use lots of positive reinforcement. Sternly saying, "NO!" is fine too- but only immediately after he/she does something inappropriate. Otherwise, they forget why they are getting into trouble and don't learn anything from it anyway.

 

I would love to. Except that there are many other things which I want to get done. And time is running out for me. In another year, I will be 60.

 

60 years old is young enough Victor. Productive people never stops on exploring new things and I think you are one best example. Staying active can make you younger as well.

 

Young lady, you make this old man's heart beat faster again. You are right. In Thailand, we say age is just a number. So maybe while I consider starting a school to train new puppies, maybe I should also think about training new ladies, too. What do you think?

 

I agree that consistency is the key and it was really necessary so patience will play a big role in training a puppy. I had seen some dogs that can follow instructions even without treats and maybe doing it many times can do a trick. Just maybe. Lol

 

That's right. Consistency is the key. Not just for training dogs. Even when training human beings, especially children, erratically changing training objectives will make a total sham of the training process and produce very confused trainees who would be worse off than before they were trained, or mistrained, as the case might be.

 

I agree with this.. I usually find that food/treat training works best with my golden retrievers

 

I should think that treats should be given only as a bonus. Otherwise we will end up training our dogs to obey our instructions just for the sake of the treats. We should train our dogs to be obedient just to get our approval.