However, I endorse Sam Stone’s recommendation of obedience classes. In particular, the AKC Canine Good Citizen Program is great for pups. Even though you’ve had experience in training previous dogs, taking your pup to classes helps because he sees other dogs doing the very same stuff. He gets to meet other dogs, and both he and they are learning how to meet strange people and strange dogs. Everyone in the class is working toward passing the CGC test, which gives your pup an AKC certificate. With all the other dogs and owners doing the same stuff, you and your pup get (and give) lots of help in learning how he can fit in and be welcome wherever he goes.
i Second (third? fourth?) what tygerbryght says. My pup’s been in obedience class since 7 1/2 weeks old and she isn’t like, the world’s smartest dog but I can’t imagine what a wreck we’d BOTH be if we weren’t enrolled (it’s been over 2 years now).
Take your son, too. Some of our best owner-students have been kids. This way he’ll be able to help with the training when you don’t have time.
Oh, yes, definitely take the kid. Take the whole household, in fact. IME, obedience classes are as much about you learning to interact with the dog as they are about the dog learning anything, and those are lessons the whole family can use. And make sure you all work with him between classes, so he learns he has to listen to all of you. We still have this problem with Dolly to a certain extent–for a long time Dr.J wasn’t working with her at all and, well, let’s just say she didn’t exactly consider him to be the top dog in the pack. If she happened to feel inclined to do what he was wanting, fine. If she didn’t feel so inclined, screw you, buddy. You don’t want this situation, really you don’t.
Oh, and ZipperJJ, is your Dolly a black lab mix like mine?
No, you’re not. I don’t mean to be snippy about it, but if you’d stopped listening to bad advice from pet food makers and thought for a while, you’d realize that wolves, foxes and jackals don’t get cooked meals with lots of cereals in them, out in the wilderness.
Of course you can give your dog a bone. Give it many.
Spot on.
See Spot run.
After having trouble with my dog and something that seemed to be allergy, I switched to what is commonly known as BARF (Bones A Raw Food). I was just lazy giving him pellets, because it’s convenient for me. Now he gets six chicken wings for breakfast and dinner is a mix og raw meat and some veggies. An egg a day and occasionally some mushrooms or nuts. Basically Atkins for dogs.
The difference it’s made to his coat, skin and general well being is startling.
You are dead-on! Flip that pup over and show him who’s boss without yelling or hitting. My dogs responded to these non-verbal cues much better than verbal–mostly because they didn’t know any words yet! It’s like if I went to France and someone tried to teach me table manners without knowing the language. Oh well.
My trainer also advised to pretend that ALL food is yours. Pretend to eat the food while standing up and then make the dog very calm before you give him anything. Great way to teach sit, then lay, then stay.
You may also want to hold small treats in your fisted hand to work on being gentle. No nipping–if they try, pull away and try again until the pup licks lightly and takes the food nicely. This is a great thing to do after playtime when the babe is a little worn out…
Aside: My dogs are very food motivated, my Alpha loves to prevent the other from eating. I pour the food and Alpha starts eating out of the other’s dish. So there I am, the Boss (hah, I like to pretend) stating–Go eat out of your own dish. The Alpha (aka the real Boss) looks at me with the snottiest dog look, opens her mouth, dropping kibbles everywhere across the floor on her way to her own dish. So then the other (who’s got twice as big a head and about 30lbs on the Alpha) eats and Alpha will occasionally walk by causing the other one to spill her food out of sheer respect. Ever step on kibble with bare feet? it hurts. it’s life.
Thanks, Gulo gulo. I’d even had a long conversation with my dad about the raw food diet! You’d think I’d have remembered. I did think, though, that people ground the whole animal up, rather than just tossing entire bord to a dog.
My parents dog, a golden retriever called Alf, is now 9 years old and has been fed raw chicken nearly all of his life. He gets a bit less than half a chicken every day (along with a morning and evening biscuit) and has always been a very healthy dog. We’d never heard of this type of dog diet before, his breeder suggested it.
Some more follow-up: The dominance exercise is still working great. No nipping tonight at all. Ms. Plan B only regrets that we didn’t know about this when our youngest son was born.
