puppy Archives - Page 6 of 6 - Smart Dog University

What Puppies Need

May 11, 2011

Puppies. Irresistible. Absolutely wonderful.

And oh so needy! Did you know that…

…puppies need to be pleasantly introduced to as many different:

people
locations
noises
surfaces
other dogs
vehicles
situations
the list goes on and on…

And the real shocker: this needs to be done between the age of 8 and 16 weeks! Which means if you get your pup at 8 weeks old, you have only 8 weeks to show your pup that the world is a friendly, welcoming place. Zoinks, that's a lot of pressure on you!

Ideally, your pup is experiencing new things and meeting new people every day. The same neighborhood and friends don't count — they need to see different stuff every single day. And in a friendly, relaxed manner.

Without this socialization, your pup runs the very real risk of becoming shy, fearful, growly, skittish, even downright unfriendly.

I will be writing a lot more about puppies, what they need, and how you can provide it to them in the next few months here on the Smart Dog Blog. If you have specific questions about puppies and puppyhood, please leave them in the Comments secction!

Baby Steps

July 14, 2010

There are lots of ways a pup can get his food. He can work for it. He can eat it out of a food stuffed toy. He can find it scattered about the patio. One thing this little guy won't be doing is eating food out of a bowl. That's way too easy.

Teddy needs to keep busy, he needs to problem solve, he needs to take more than 30 seconds to eat his meal.

Food stuffed toys, like the red Kong in the picture, are great food-delivery systems. You stuff your dog's dry food (kibble) into the Kong, drop the Kong on the floor (so some of the kibble drops out and grabs the dog's interest) and let the dog figure out the rest.

To make this task fun and interesting, we make it really easy at first. We put the food into a large Kong – the kibble will fall out easier this way. After a week of feeding Teddy this way, he'll get really good at getting the food out quickly and efficiently.

The next step is to add a little bit of difficulty – enough to challenge his problem solving skills, but not too much that he gives up. Peanut butter or nonfat yogurt is a great "stuffer." Simply line the inside of the toy with the peanut butter (or yogurt), fill with kibble leaving a little room for some more of the goopy stuff. The peanut butter or yogurt is really enticing for the dog, and also slows him down a bit.

The middle portion is relatively easy – it's just kibble, and the hardest part to get out is the part where the food is stuck to the peanut butter way deep into the Kong. If you spent enough time letting the dog learn how to get plain kibble out of the toy, I'll be he'll remain committed to getting the last little bit, especially if there's some gooey goodies in there, too!

After another week of gooping up the contents of the toy, you can make the game even more challenging by gooping the Kong with peanut butter and kibble, described above, and then freeze the whole thing!

The frozen Kong seems to be a favorite of Teddy's. He seems to really enjoy the challenge of getting the frozen peanut butter and kibble out. He's good at using his paws to help hold the Kong so it doesn't move around.

Why do we care about stuff like this? The whole idea of "working for dinner" is a nice one – why waste the opportunity to train by simply putting the bowl of food on the floor for the dog to eat? Use your dog's dinner as treats to reward good behavior! Or, teach your dog how to become a problem solver by letting him figure out how to get the kibble out of the food-stuffed toy. The longer it takes the dog to eat his dinner, the more time you'll have to get stuff done without your dog sticking his nose into whatever it is you're doing! You'll keep your dog mentally challenged. You'll tire your dog out. All these things are GOOD things and can help a manic, overactive dog become calmer.

Being Quiet is Hard (Video)

August 25, 2009

One of the things service dogs have to be good at is waiting quietly. They'll be asked do a lot of that in their life – they only need to work when their person needs them, so downtime is a big part of their day. At first glance it may seem like an easy task, but being quiet is sometimes difficult for a dog to learn.

Today I took Talos to the local public library. I'd planned to do some work on my laptop, while giving Talos some "office experience:" how to lay quietly for an hour or two in a public place. Two years ago, when I worked for the Federal government, the pups learned this relatively quickly – they were immersed in office life nine hours a day, five days a week. We had a few restless meetings, but in general, the pups learned that when nothing was required of them, it was nap time.

I don't have an office environment, so today was Talos' first real "office experience." I was prepared: I took his portable bed, a stuffed food toy, and a regular dog toy to help occupy his body and mind. We found a nice, quiet cubby out of the way of the library traffic and away from other patrons. I gave him a quick tour of the library, so he could have a few moments to see where he was and what was (and wasn't) going on, then headed back to my cubby to get some work done.

I put Talos' bed under the desk, gave him his chew bone, and got to work. For about two minutes. He wasn't interested in the chew bone. He could hear children across the library, and apparently they'd peaked his interest. I threw a few pieces of dog food under the table to get his attention back to where I needed him to be. He was happy to eat the food, then was ready to explore again.

I took him on another quick circle of the library, letting him sniff and explore, but not letting him meet any people. (No one asked to meet him – I would have let him greet if anyone asked.) He flopped down on his side, began running his big lips along the carpet in one of the aisles and proceeded to sing. Oh good lord – not now, not here!

I managed to get him up and back to our out-of-the-way cubby, only to find a woman had chosen to sit right next to us. Out of the 50 free cubbys, she picked ours to sit next to. Another distraction for Talos. I tried again to get him to sit or lay quietly under the table, but he was having nothing of it. He flopped down again, and began rolling on the floor and singing. Imagine this at your local library, except he's not on a couch, but on the library floor. We've got a lot of work ahead of us:

House Training Your Dog Made Easy

March 23, 2009

House training may seem daunting. But it’s really fairly simple and it requires a schedule.

These are the things you need to schedule if you’re house training your dog:

feeding time
outside time
crate time

Feeding Time

Feed your dog on a regular schedule, two or three times a day. Put the food bowl down. After 20 minutes pick up the bowl (yes, even if there’s food still in it). Keep the food bowl off the floor until the next feeding. No in-between meals.

Outside Time

Take your dog out on a regular schedule. In general, during waking hours, you should take your dog out every hour. Go outside for about five minutes. If your dog doesn’t go to the bathroom, put him in his crate or tether him to you for 20 minutes. Then take him back outside for another 5 minutes. If he goes, praise enthusiastically when he finishes. You can then play with him outside or go for a nice walk. When you get back inside, keep a close watch on him — he’s never allowed out of your sight! If he didn’t go to the bathroom, crate or tether him for another 20 minutes. Then take him back outside for a chance to go to the bathroom.

Also, take your dog outside:

As soon as he wakes up from a nap. Go straight out – get yourself ready before you let him out of the crate so you’re ready to step outside immediately after letting him out of his crate.
When he’s just finished a vigorous play session.
20 – 30 minutes after he’s eaten a meal.
Whenever he goes toward the door you regularly take him out to do his business.

Crate Time

The crate is very helpful to teach your dog to eliminate outdoors. The proper size crate is essential: your dog should have enough room to stand up, turn around, and lay down comfortably. If the crate is too large, your dog will be able to go to the bathroom in one end and sleep in the other — no help for house training.

If you can’t give your dog 100% of your attention, put him in his crate with some chew toys (that you’ve already taught him how to enjoy). Alternatively, you can tether your dog to you using his 6-foot leash. This means you simply clip your dog to his leash, then affix that leash to you. The dog will never be more than 6 feet away from you — you’ll be able to ensure he can’t make a mistake.

In short, it’s your job to teach your dog where to eliminate. There is no place for punishment in house training (or in any training for that matter). Here are a few quick NEVER’s:

Never rub your dog’s nose in his mess.
Never take your dog over to his mess, point, and say “NO!,” or “Bad dog!”
Never leave your dog unsupervised in the house (until he’s completely housetrained).

When in doubt, create a schedule and stick to it. Almost every house training problem can be solved with a schedule. It makes your life easier, as well as your dog’s. And that’s a win-win!

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