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New Puppy, help me train it!
TKid
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My boyfriend's little sister has acquired a black lab puppy. While adorable, it has all the idiosyncrasies of a typical puppy. IE: It likes to shit. Everywhere. And then walk in it.
We're trying to have her do most of the work in maintaining the puppy, but she's 10 and has never done this kind of thing before. We'll be helping her while she's in school and after she goes to bed. We want to give her a bit of guidance. I've had some experiences with puppies in the past, but it's been a few years and my boyfriend's family has never owned a dog before. What's the most efficient and humane way to train the pup in proper restroom behavior?
If you have any other advice on training puppies out of potentially frowned upon behavior (I know shoes and socks are going to be popular targets in a house full of kids, so we tips on nipping this in the bud will be awesome) that would be awesome.
We're trying to have her do most of the work in maintaining the puppy, but she's 10 and has never done this kind of thing before. We'll be helping her while she's in school and after she goes to bed. We want to give her a bit of guidance. I've had some experiences with puppies in the past, but it's been a few years and my boyfriend's family has never owned a dog before. What's the most efficient and humane way to train the pup in proper restroom behavior?
If you have any other advice on training puppies out of potentially frowned upon behavior (I know shoes and socks are going to be popular targets in a house full of kids, so we tips on nipping this in the bud will be awesome) that would be awesome.
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But to get back to your question . . . First of all, don't expect to much from a puppy. It's a baby dog. Just like a baby human, it's not born knowing the appropriate place to poop, how to behave around furniture, or what it shouldn't put in its mouth. Make sure no one is doing things like shoving the pup's nose into its poop or hitting it with newspapers because that's just as douchy as shoving a toddler's nose into its dirty diaper.
You'll have two challenges in housetraining. First, that the puppy doesn't yet understand where you want it to potty. Second, that the puppy doesn't have a big bladder or a lot of bladder control yet. To deal with the second issue, the puppy will need to be let outside A LOT. (This is one reason the ten year old can't do it all herself, presumably she's at school all day. A puppy can't hold it long.) Puppies are mostly likely to poop right after waking up and right after eating, so make sure to take it out at those times--and lots of times in between.
Make sure to go outside WITH the puppy, don't just toss it out the door. When it pees or poops outside, praise like CRAZY, I mean to the point where the neighbors are peering over the fence wondering WTF is wrong with you, and give it yummy treats--something it doesn't get at any other time, like chopped up hot dogs or something else irresistible to a dog.
Now, what if the puppy poops inside? If you don't catch it in the act, there's nothing to be done; if you scold the dog after the fact it won't know why you're scolding it, it won't associate the scolding with the pooping. If you do catch it in the act, scold with a quick "Ah ah!" or "No!" and then scoot that puppy outside as fast as possible. Then praise like crazy--even if the puppy doesn't finish up it's pooping outside. Also, clean up any messes with an enzyme based cleaner like Nature's Miracle. Dogs like to poop/pee in the same places over and over, so if a spot smells like pee/poop to the dog--even if you don't smell anything--the puppy is more likely to have an accident on the same spot. Don't use an ammonia based cleaner because ammonia is also present in pee, therefore the dog may decide it still has a "pee smell."
The best way to minimize pooping indoors is to keep track of the puppy so you can rush it outside when you see "the signs" (sniffing around for a pooping spot, getting ready to squat, etc.) and to put the puppy in a situation where it's not inclined to poop to begin with. Dogs don't like to poop where they sleep or eat. So if you keep the puppy confined in a small spot with its blanket and food bowl, it will be more likely to "hold it" until someone lets it out. You can either get a crate or just shut off a safe, smallish area for the puppy with a puppy playpen or baby gates. (Bathrooms and kitchens are good choices because they're easy to clean up if there is an accident.)
Even a dead-serious, dedicated, totally responsible kid should not be in principal charge of a puppy. Puppies require a fuckton of work in the form of patience, consistency, and a lot of other things it's not fair to expect of a 10-year-old. By all means, she should help bathe, feed, and play with it, but don't leave most of it up to her, or everyone is going to be horribly frustrated and disappointed.
Besides LadyM's excellent advice, you should look into getting the little sucker into basic obedience classes (the puppy, that is, though Little Sis should attend if possible). Not only will knowing "sit," "stay" and "come" from an early age give it something to do, dogs need socialization with other dogs and people as early as possible to not turn into canine sociopaths. Labs are very difficult to fuck up when it comes to friendliness, so your biggest non-potty problem will probably be wearing the puppy out.
Did I mention you need to wear the puppy out? Don't put it on a treadmill for 3 hours every day or anything; just get the kid to play with the puppy as much as possible. A tired puppy is a puppy too tired to tear shit up. (Dog toys help with that phase, but you're not getting away without some shredded underwear/socks/etc. Fair warning.)
Randomly remembered: if it gnaws on you too hard, don't grab it by the scruff or yell in its face like some folks will tell you. Get up, turn around, and walk away, and keep ignoring it till it calms down a little. The message shouldn't be Biting = Pain so much as Biting = No More Play.
Also, needless to say, this thread cannot exist long without pictures. We demand D'AWWWWWWW!
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The biggest thing that bears repeating is that everyone should be consistent. If you don't want your dog to jump up to people everyone should stop giving attention to the dog once it jumps. That one uncle who says he totally doesn't mind the dog jumping "because it are old pants anyway" is going to fuck the whole thing up.
If the puppy is under 14 weeks it really doesn't have much bladder or sphincter control yet. Your bf's family needs to focus on potty management right now and wait until about 14 weeks to begin real training.
Somebody needs to start setting timers. The dog needs to be fed at exactly the same time each day and taken outside right after eating and again 30minutes later. Feed the dog for the last time for the night 3-4 hours before bedtime and take it out again at bedtime. Also puppies under 10 weeks of age frequently need a potty outing halfway through the night. Take up the water bowl about two hours before bedtime. Anytime the puppy is playing interrupt it every 30mins and take it outside (extend to 45 min at 10 weeks).
Soon you are likely to get into chewing issues. Have lots of "legal" chew toys around and practice trading with your puppy. Never chase her when she has something you don't want her to have, that is a really fun game for puppies. Call her to you and wave some treats in front of her nose to get her to drop whatever she has, praise her, give her the treats and then give her a legal toy and play with her for a few seconds. It seems like you are bribing the puppy, but you are setting the puppy to bring anything she finds to you which can save your dogs life later on. If the puppy ever brings you something she can have, take it, give her treats, and give her the same thing back.
Go to this link, download and print out/read Ian Dunbar's "Before you get your puppy" and "After you get your puppy". Both are pdfs (the second and third links on the page). These are wonderful (free!) books that explain stuff better than I can.
The other thing that your bf's family needs to be doing right now is socializing the puppy. That means the puppy needs to have good experiences with kids, adults, old people, people in wheelchairs, people on bikes, people wearing hats, people with beards, people in puffy winter coats, people of different ethnicities, ect. This will give the puppy a really good shot at having a bomb-proof temperment. And even if the puppy is genetically inclined towards being shy a good socialization can head off a lot of problems. The socialization window closes at 16 weeks, so this should be your primary focus right now.
In the meantime your bf's family does need to keep the puppy from practicing bad behaviors. I suggest a combination of umbilical cord and safe spot. Umbilical cord means get a leash and a carabiner and attach the puppy to their waist. Only do this when they can keep an eye on the puppy. The rest of the time the puppy needs to be in their safe space. A crate or an expen or a small room that is completely puppy proofed. If the safe space is too big the puppy will potty there.
Once they do get around to actual training, right now they should be focused on socailization and potty management, I highly recommend Sue Ailsby's training levels. They are a comprehensive, free, e-book that breaks down the steps of training a final behavior into much smaller steps.
The e-book: http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/%20Dog1/levels.html
The fun online tracker (helps keep kids motivated): http://levels.honkersoftware.com/
The email list where Sue answers anybody's questions: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/traininglevels/
There are several kids working dogs through the levels so I know the writing is on a very accessible level. The email list is mostly adults but is moderated and very dog focused. If your bf parents are worried about the email list one of them could join and post any questions for your bf's sister, it is extremely helpful.
EDIT: I am an idiot, after you get your puppy is available for free at the same link.