We got the new puppy on Saturday and have started the slow work of getting her trained to listen and obey us. It's going to take some work, but she's making some good progress. I'm adhering to the Dog Wisperer tactics of using calm-assertiveness like a dog's pack leader to get her to listen. I like it because it emphasizes that we need to understand how dogs actually think and behave instead of anthropomorphizing their behavior. He talks about lots of stuff concerning being consistent and understanding that bad behavior often results because the owner being unbalance (ie frustrated, angry, pitying, ie) which dogs don't respond to well.
She learned how to fetch this weekend and she's getting good at waiting until we tell her to come into the house instead and barging right in. She also knows that certain rooms are off limits (like Noah's room and the bathrooms) and that there are certain things in the house that are Scout's (like her bed). We're having to work a little harder on other things however, like the mornings. She's been waking up earlier and earlier each day (this morning was at 4am before the sun had even risen). We're working on getting her to wait an hour til Josh gets up and then trying to play quietly with a chew toy until I can get up and take both of them for a walk. The walk has been good but there are still rough spots. They're not pulling me (good), but Zoey gets all defensive when she sees other dogs (bad), and they both have a habit of trying to change positions '(mostly when they notice another dog/animal) while we're running together (bad, because it makes me trip and/or inadvertantly kick them). She's quite silly when she eats. It's almost as if she can't get it down her gullet fast enough. On the other hand, it's gotten Scout to be WAY less picky about her food and Scout will eat right away now instead of waiting until 10pm in hopes of something else.
But we still need to look into obedience schools to help us learn how to get her to listen a bit better. She's a puppy in that stage where she is going to try to test her boundaries as much as she can, but she's a cutie and super smart so we'll see how the next few weeks go.
Not letting her in the bathroom? I've seen cats toilet trained. Maybe a goal for Zoey?
Posted by: Dad/Richard | June 01, 2009 at 09:10 AM
The thing is she follows people around everywhere and wants to see what they're doing, which is cute. But if a guest comes over and needs to use the facilities, my guess is they won't be too thrilled to have a little pup break down the door on them.
Posted by: Sabrina | June 02, 2009 at 10:56 AM