*These things are true for Pointers & RRs, too! Experience is the best teacher in the world. I would like to share with you some of the
knowledge I have gained mostly the hard way over the years.
Never give a puppy a shoe to chew on-he will always think shoes are
to chew on and will not
know the difference between the cheap shoes and the expensive shoes.
(Actually, if the shoe is
expensive leather, your beagles may like it better than the vinyl cheap
ones.)All puppies will chew,
just like human babies-teething means chewing. Your puppy will chew
until about 1 year of age-so
have chew toys available to help prevent destrictive chewing.
If you find your puppy chewing on something he shouldn't, say "give"
and take it way from him
gently. Always, give your puppy the proper chew toy in trade, telling
him " take" and then"good
boy" after he has the "right" toy in his mouth. If he resists giving
you the "bad" toy, slowly put
pressure at the back of the jaw where the upper and lower teeth meet.
Make sure you press with
the skin of the cheek between your fingers and his teeth. That way
if he bites down he is actually
hurting himself. Remember to give the command "give" and praise him
after he has taken the trade
toy.
Puppies love to play chase and often the human animal is the one doing
the chasing. Start with
young puppies and teach them that when they run away, you do not chase.
Instead, turn and walk
a few paces away, squat or sit down and IGNORE the puppy. The puppy
will usually come to
you to play. Let the puppy touch you and then you scratch, pat and
cuddle the puppy. Giving a
treat at this time will also help teach the puppy not to run away.
Gradually, as the puppy grows,
start using "come" to begin teaching this command.
It is natural for puppies to bite and chew on one another;therefore
they will playfully do this to their
human playmates. It is ok for a puppy to mouth your hand, but biting
is not accepted. Think like a
puppy playmate. When a puppy bites another too hard, the biten puppy
quits playing. If your
puppy bites too hard scream "OWWWW" and turn away. Ignore the puppy.
When the puppy
plays nicely always praise him. ( This method will only work if the
puppy has been left with its'
litter mates long enough to learn this lesson- that is what you should
not buy a puppy before
8 weeks of age.)Teach your children this and never allow or encourage
children to hit the puppy.
The puppy will naturally want to "catch" the moving hand and a future
biter may be in the beginning
stages. The same goes for a puppy that chases and bites. Do not run
from the puppy, stop-tell him
no and ignore him. Running from the puppy is fun to the puppy. You
can teach the puppy to follow by walking calmly, calling his name, and
giving a treat. When giving a puppy a treat always say "easy" and never
jerk the food away. Encourage your puppy to take food from your hand from
the beginning.Hopefully, the breeder has already started hand feeding treats
at weaning.
Most diggers do so for specific reasons. Again, try thinking like a
dog. Is your dog digging to
make a cool bed, chasing a bug, burying a toy, or because of boredom?
You can not put a puppy
or dog into the backyard and not spend quality time with them. They
will find ways to entertain
themselves and your freshly planted flower garden (your smell will
be strongest there) will be just
to tempting!! Mole crickets seem to be my undoing. Regardless on how
much mole cricket poison
I use, I can not get rid of them!! My dogs are the best mole cricket
chasers-resluting in small
round ankle-getting holes each spring. Also, some dogs will dig to
get out. Again, dogs will get
bored and they are by instinct pack animals. If there are other dogs
to go play with and your dogs
does not get enough attention from YOU then he will seek out other
pack members.
Certain breeds like terriers have a strong instinct to dig. When selecting
a puppy you need to
consider what the instincts are strong in that breed.
The personality of the dog determines the amount of barking, potentially.
If you take a dog with
the genetic potential to bark and put him in an stimulating environment
with other barkers-well
guess what he will bark. Other puppies in that same litter may not
be so proned to bark. In each of
my litters there seems to be a loud-mouth. Often enough that loud-mouth
is the dominant dog. Is
this nature's way of the dog protecting his pack?? No matter what,
barkers can be annoying.
First,consider that the dog may be bored or want more attention. Do
you spend time with your
dog? The next time your dog starts barking, see if there is definitie
stimulus and if not, try spending
time with the dog. My barkers tend to bark when there are other strange
dogs near "their" fence or
when I am working with another one of my dogs. Most dogs will bark
when the owner comes
homes, but this is a happy bark and should stop as soon as you give
the dogs a hello cuddle. I do
have one dog that regardless of what I tried he barked the most irritating
bark. I have solved his
problem with an electronic bark collar. With repetitive barking he
gets a warning beep and then if
he barks again, he gets a mild shock. It has worked wonders, and when
he does not have it on he
barks, freely.
A dog will pick up on the tone of your voice quickly. A good stern no
and a quick squirt of water
will get many a stubborned dog's attention. Praise and common sense
is the key to owning a dog,
but understanding what "no" means is very important. Example of this
is when one of my gang
decided to take a stroll on my dining room table and chew on my favorite
sunglasses. The good
stern "no" quickly made her change her mind. I use a water squirt bottle
to enforce my distant
commands like "no". It works wonders and is painless to you and your
dog.
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