More on this book
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Why would I ever want to hurt my friend?
There are really only ever going to be two reasons why your puppy won’t do what you’ve asked: 1.They don’t understand what you’ve asked them to do. 2.They’re not motivated enough to do it.
Our responsibility is to teach them what we do want, not to spiral into the murky realm of punishing what we don’t want.
This book is all about delivering positive reinforcement (aka giving something puppy loves) in exchange for the puppy behaviours we want more of.
Even if punishment works some of the time, is it worth it? If you end up with a dog that doesn’t trust you or a dog that doesn’t want to come near you? How can that ever be a good thing?
and if puppy chews your shoelaces, then merely put your shoes away properly out of puppy’s reach.
Courtney cant leave her shoes downstairs
Control the environment properly so these unwanted behaviours don’t occur and make sure you offer plenty of more acceptable outlets for puppy to partake in.
A place where only positive associations are made.
A den/crate
At the very least, as soon as puppy comes home with you, help them to discover the wonderful items to be found in their den.
Make the den a place where wonderful things are to be found, complete with awesome chews, a luxury bed, amazing toys, a wonderful comfort blanket and, obviously, a bowl of water.
At bedtime, or constantly in the den, have a warm (but not too hot) water bottle wrapped in their comfort blanket, available for puppy to snuggle up to in times of need.
The trick isn’t to try and stop them chewing; the trick is to appreciate they have to chew – it’s natural and necessary, so therefore your challenge is to divert that chewing onto the right target:
Puppies generally get fed three to four times a day initially, so try and use a good percentage of that daily food constructively, either to give a good association with the den, to reinforce correct toilet habits (see ‘Toilet Training’ on page 51) or to stuff in an interactive feeder to allow for relaxing and legal (!) chewing.
Of course, we don’t want to be using too much of anything that may be unhealthy but a little bit of Oh my days, that was DELICIOUS! is really going to help puppy remember (and therefore repeat) the great behaviours they did to get that little bit of ‘awesome’!
Specifically regarding treats, try to avoid any that have a high level of sugars, salts or tons of complicated-sounding additives and preservatives.
Fence off a pond or any accessible water.
Water feature?
If possible, collect puppy in the morning so they have all day to spend with you and become familiar with their new environment and new home before night time.
With this in mind, where do you leave the ‘seasoned’ blanket wrapped around the hot water bottle? In the den. Where does puppy find all their tasty treats throughout the day? In the den. Where will puppy ‘discover’ the most comfortable bedding in the house? In the den. And where does puppy get to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner? You guessed it, in the den! Throughout the first day, do everything you possibly can to illustrate to puppy that their den is THE place to be.
I suggest for the first few nights you have puppy in the bedroom with you, on the floor in their den. Remember, our plan here is to build a confident, optimistic puppy, and to build trust like that takes patience and time.
After a few days or even weeks, as pup gets more and more comfortable in their den and being around their new family, if desired you can start to place the den further from you and closer to the final location that you will eventually want your family dog to be sleeping in each night. Don’t rush it. Remember, trust takes time.
at 8 weeks I’ll need 18–22 hours sleep a day; at 12 weeks, I’ll still need around 16 hours of ‘shut-eye’ a day.
When puppy has gone to the toilet – AND ONLY WHEN THEY HAVE GONE – it’s carnival time! Treats, fuss, praise, play – the lot! Whatever your puppy loves the most, make sure that they receive it immediately after toileting outside, in order to not only reinforce the behaviour, but to reinforce the behaviour in the right place.
The lesson here from pup’s perspective is: –Toileting inside = nothing –Toileting outside = THE BEST STUFF IN THE WORLD!
A key tip at this point: as tempting as it may seem, toileting is one particular behaviour where we want to start the reinforcement process as soon as the behaviour is complete, NOT as soon as it starts.
One final crucial point here – NEVER punish your dog if they toilet inside.
Only when you know what your puppy’s body language looks like in a neutral state, can you then truly take ‘measurements’ to read when puppy may be getting frightened, over-aroused or fruity!
Simple lesson: a ‘waggy’ tail does not necessarily mean the dog is being friendly. A ‘waggy’ arm from us doesn’t necessarily mean we’re waving a cheery ‘Goodbye’. Our ‘waggy’ arm may be shaking an angry fist!
The head tilt occurs so puppy can figure out exactly where the sound is coming from. Their ears are working as little satellites to figure out distance and orientation,
A great, reliable sit is by far one of the most precious exercises you can teach your puppy.
‘Marking a behaviour’ is when you say ‘Good’ as the behaviour occurs, before reinforcing the behaviour (with a treat).
If they know what behaviour paid the dividend, then it’s easier for them to recognise what behaviour to repeat in future.
the Three Ds – distance, distraction and duration
Duration: we may want to ask puppy to sit for 60 seconds, rather than one. Distraction: we may want to ask puppy to sit at the dog groomers, rather than at home. Distance: we may want to ask puppy to sit when they’re 20 metres from us, rather than on the lead.
If at any stage puppy moves out of the sit before you’ve said, ‘Good’, that’s fine. That’s training. Just lower your criteria to an achievable standard on the next repetition and progress from there. Remember: we’re training, not testing.
When training any exercise, if puppy is struggling, drop at least one of your Three Ds. To advance an exercise, increase one of your Three Ds. Only slightly though, don’t be greedy!
Don’t just practise in one area. To generalise your training and make it as reliable – and therefore as valuable – as possible, you need to practise in as many different locations as you can.
always ask the dog for what you do want them to do, not what you don’t want them to do.
As puppy heads towards 12 weeks of age and the jaw becomes stronger, then those baby teeth begin to be pushed out by the set of 42 adult teeth
(18 weeks is the time to start wearing your thickest socks around the house because when you tread on one of those discarded puppy teeth, it makes Lego feel like marshmallows!)
If you have a puppy that loves to play bite, Rule #1 is don’t try to handle puppy when they are over-aroused.
If you pick a up puppy when they don’t want to be handled, they may decide to bite you and you may decide to put them down. So, what has puppy just learned? Biting WORKS! Ooops.
If/when puppy forgets that rule and they put a tooth on any human skin whatsoever, immediately say, ‘Too bad’ and walk away.
As a consequence to biting, we never want to give puppy anything bad (EVER) such as shouting, tapping them on the nose, etc, but we can deliver the not-so-cool consequence of stopping/removing ‘the good stuff’. In this scenario, you are the source of the good stuff.
For example, do not leave puppy alone in an area with anything that you do not want chewed:
If there is a time when you cannot watch puppy, then pop them in their den to see if the Den Wizard has been
From your perspective, a positive interrupter is a friendly noise that you will make whenever you want puppy to stop what they’re doing in order to be directed on to something more constructive and suitable instead.
Crucially, if you just say ‘No’ or ‘Stop it!’, puppy will learn that when you’re not there, the bad punishment won’t happen, so it’s fine to chew the furniture in your absence!
Have puppy next to you. 2.Say ‘Yippee!’ and within one second give puppy an amazing treat. 3.Repeat several times, in several locations over several days. 4.With enough correct repetition, puppy will not be able to resist dropping whatever they’re doing and running to you whenever they hear that cherished ‘P.I.’ 5.When conditioning the sound, make sure you say the sound first, then produce the treat. We don’t want the treat to be in the picture until the sound has been made. It’s the sound that predicts the treat, not the other way around.
We can decide our own word or sound
control access to the furniture and offer plenty of cool alternatives to chew.
ensure a plan was in place that when the puppy was at home, they were either being supervised by someone in the household or, if that wasn’t possible, they were in their den,
