Puppy Archives - Page 9 of 21 - Smart Dog University

Caysun: Under the Knife

November 16, 2011

As I write this, our little Caysun is undergoing JPS surgery and getting spayed at the same time. What is JPS? Here's how a vet explains it:

Juvenile pubic symphysiodesis (JPS) surgery is a prophylactic procedure performed in puppies 10 to 20 weeks of age that have been diagnosed with hip dysplasia.

That's a fancy way of saying it's an operation that should help Caysun avoid hip dysplasia later in life. When she had her hips evaluated a few weeks ago, her "score" was not great. Not terrible, though, which makes her a great candidate for this JPS surgery. As I was researching JPS surgery, I found a great website that explains PennHIP and JPS clearly for us regular folks (meaning: those of us without a DVM behind our name).

Because hip dysplasia can be passed onto future generations, spaying (or neutering) is strongly encouraged at the same time as the JPS surgery. So while Caysun's under anasthesia for the JPS surgery, they'll go ahead and spay her as well. No need for more dogs with dysplasia! Especially service dogs who need to be as healthy for as long as possible.

Service Dogs of Virginia is having the surgery done in Roanoke, VA. I dropped Caysun off with SDV last Saturday — I won't know any details about how she's doing until I get a call from SDV. Keep your fingers crossed for an easy and uncomplicated day for little Caysun. I'm hoping to pick her up and bring her back home from SDV on Sunday.

Teaching Caysun “Mat” and “Kennel” (Video)

October 20, 2011

I've been videotaping a lot of Caysun's training, but haven't put very much of it up. Alas, travel and business make it hard to get something edited and posted…But I've finally gotten some video of some early training.

You'll see Caysun learning to listen to what I'm saying (to my cues). Teaching a dog to listen to what you need them to do (1) saves you some time, (2) saves the dog from guessing, and (3) makes it really easy for the dog to figure out how exactly to earn the reinforcement. In plain language: it makes it easier on your dog to figure out what you want him to do!

Apologies for the sound quality; it's hard to train, click, treat, AND video at the same time. Ah, the life of an entrepreneur!

Housetraining: There’s Light at the End of the Tunnel

September 23, 2011

Caysun is 11 weeks old and has been with us for two weeks now. I've been keeping a housetraining journal here on the Smart Dog Blog. You've seen how the crate helps with housetraining a pup, you've seen a typical housetraining schedule.

Finally, after two weeks, I'm seeing progress!

Late yesterday evening, Caysun was gated in my office with me. She walked over to the gate and started to paw at it and whine a little bit. It was a delayed reaction, but I finally got with the program: Caysun had to go to the bathroom and she was trying to get to the back door! Yahoo!

I jumped out of my desk chair, ran to the gate, and then ran outside with her. The instant her little paws hit the grass, she was peeing. I slathered on the praise and told her what a good girl she was. She seemed proud, I think. Or maybe that was just relief, who knows.

Later that evening, when we were in the family room where she had direct access to the "bathroom door" (the door she always goes out to get to the outside), she went to the door and scratched. If I hadn't been in the room with her, I wouldn't have known she was scratching at the door – she has the tiniest paws – but that rule of "don't ever let the pup out of your sight" served me well here. Again, I jumped up and ran outside with her, another party was had after she did her business.

Whew. It's quite a chore, housetraining a pup. But, MAN!, is it worth it. And it's comforting to know that all this scheduling, crating, and watching is beginning to pay off! We're not done, not by a long shot. We've got at least a month of watching-her-like-a-hawk and 100% management ahead of us. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And that's comforting for this bleary-eyed puppy raiser.

Crate Love: Loving the Crate ALL the Time

September 21, 2011

Caysun's Crate Love is coming along nicely. She's running to the crate at meal time. She definitely knows where the goodies are delivered. We're making good progress. After she finishes her meal, she lays quietly, waiting to taken outside to do her bathroom business. She's doing so well, it's time to up the criteria a little bit.

Our latest lesson includes her being crated at other times (other than mealtime or bedtime). This is a little harder – the other dogs are moving about, I'm in the room and then back out of the room, and all she can do is watch. It's definitely a tougher job than just going in the crate when nothing else is going on.

To make the task a little easier, I pair it with a known Crate Love activity: meals. So today, I fed her lunch in the crate, closed the door and went about my business. When I move from room to room, every dog in the house follows me. (If you don't have a Labrador, you might not know this about them – they LOVE to be wherever you are. Even the bathroom. I'm not kidding. I wish I was, actually.) I digress (again). So, this time, after Caysun's done her meal, I didn't let her out right away.

There was whining. There was a bark or two. I ignored her, kept doing my chores, and the dogs, of course, dutifully followed me around. She made noise for about five minutes, nothing more than a whine here, a bark there, but finally realized she was there to stay. Bored with barking, she fell right to sleep.

Quick note: Usually, I advise you to get your pup out right after eating. The reason I raised the bar for Caysun's crate love today was that (1) she was ready for it and more importantly, (2) she had just peed and pooped outside before her meal. I have an hour or two on my side. The instant she wakes up, though, I'm going to carry her outside to let her do her business.

As Caysun gets accustomed to staying in her crate after a meal while the other dogs are out and about, I will start crating her at times other than mealtime and bedtime. I want her to be used to crating whenver and wherever. We've got a long way to go, but we're moving along at a nice pace — keeping things fun for Caysun.

Stay tuned, I'll keep you updated on everything puppy that we go through!

Housetraining 101: A Day in the Life of a Puppy

September 20, 2011

Housetraining a puppy is pretty simple. Simple, yes. But not necessarily easy. Here’s the simple part: get the puppy outside frequently, limit her house freedom to only the room you are in, watch her like a hawk, and make liberal use of the crate when you can’t watch her.

Here’s Caysun’s (almost 11 week old, Labrador pup) daily schedule:

5:30a Up and outside for a long pee.

5:35a Back in the crate for a snooze.

7:15a Back up and outside for a quick pee.

7:30a Breakfast time. (Fed in the crate while I shower).

7:45a Outside for pee and poop.

7:50a Play hard with Ike, running, jumping and wrestling. In the same room as me, where I can watch her.

8:10a After 20 minutes of play, time for another pee break.

8:15a Kitchen time with me and the other dogs while I drink tea and eat breakfast.

8:45a Another pee/poop break.

8:50a More play time with Ike in my office, where I can watch her.

9:30a Naptime!

11:00a Outside for a pee and poop break. If you’re keeping track, this is the 6th time outside this morning! Every pee/poop session has been productive. And better yet: no accidents inside! Yay!

12:00p Lunch fed to Caysun in her crate. Then naptime!

2:30p Awake and ready to go! Outside for pee/poop break.

2:35p Play time in my office with Ike.

3:00p Pee break!

3:15p Play, play, play!

4:00p Pee/poop break outside.

5:00p Dinner in her crate. Naptime in her crate while I prepare dinner.

6:30p Out of her crate and outside to pee/poop.

7:15p Pee/poop break outside. Then Play! Where we can watch her.

8:00p Pee/poop break outside. Then more play time.

9:30p Last trip outside to pee and poop, then down for the night, in her crate.

2:00a Sleepy trip outside to pee (she wakes me by whining in her crate).

That’s 14 trips outside for pee breaks. Some days I’m out of the office more, and then she’s crated while I’m gone. She’s been ok for 4-hour stretches, as long as she’s crated.

The moral of this story: get your puppy outside a lot! As much as possible for structured pee/poop sessions. What’s a structured session? You take your pup on leash to the bathroom area of your lawn. Stand there and wait for him to go. Don’t wander the yard with him. Don’t take him on a neighborhood walk. Stand there and simply give him about a six foot radius. When he goes, praise him and have a little puppy potty party! Then play with him outside. Celebrate your success!

New Puppy = Everyone’s On the Same Page…Or Else

September 14, 2011

Ever want to peek behind the curtain of life with a dog trainer? Here's your chance. Complements of my (really wonderful) husband (despite the story I'm about to tell, in which he's the villain.)

So. I'm working really hard to get Caysun's Crate Love going. I'm crating her at different times of the day. For varying amounts of time. With me in the room sometimes, and sometimes not.

She's doing a great job. On the left you can see Caysun with her "big brother" Ike. She looks perfectly happy, doesn't she?

All day today, I'm working with Caysun, fiddling with different criteria of Crate Love. In between, I still have a real job to do — dog training and all the administrative tasks that go along with the job. The admin work is a job all unto itself, but I digress…

For me, crating is the ultimate "safety net" for both me and for the dog. I can work without worry or wonder. House training stays on track. There are no chewed shoes. It's great.

So. After working all day in my office (and with Caysun), off I go, merrily on my way to actually train some dogs (go figure), and I leave the Crate Love task to that really wonderful husband I mentioned earlier. The dogs are in his care for about 5 hours.

I come home and say to him "It smells like poop in here." (Hey, you wanted to peek behind the curtain, I'm not covering anything up – this is the real deal here.)

He says, "Yeah, the puppy pooped."

"Yeah, no kidding," I'm thinking, but I'm smart enough to keep that in my head. I ask innocently: "Was she in her crate?"

"No, I was in the shower."

"In the shower?! IN THE SHOWER?! You can't leave a 9.5 week old puppy unattended to TAKE A SHOWER!" Again, these are my thoughts, not my words. (Ok, so now I'm editing a little bit. There was some cursing in my thoughts. Four letter words. That start with F.)

What I actually said: "You can crate her while you're in the shower. That's actually a really good time to crate her." (Doesn't that sound better than a lot of F words?)

I swallowed a lot more bad words and went about my business. It was difficult – I worked all day today (and yesterday, and the day before) on getting Caysun comfortable in her crate. Crating her while he was in the shower would have been perfect practice for her. (And clearly, for him, too!)

So while I'm going about my business, I find another pile of poop! This one's in the dog bed! In the dog bed! And I was wondering why none of the dogs wanted to sleep in the bed…I had just found my answer.

I couldn't resist a see-I-told-you-so smart aleck remark about the value of crating, but I did limit it to just one.

I come out to the living room to move the crate into the bedroom, where Caysun sleeps in her crate – happily, I might add! - each night, and what do I run into? A big puddle of puppy pee.

I'm at work for 5 hours and there are (at least) three puddles or piles when I return. Really?!

Clearly, I need to spend a little more time working with my husband than I do the puppy. Clearly, the pup's got the Crate Love thing down pat. Just wished the husband did, too.

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