Every so often, people will ask me something like, “What’s a good puppy schedule?” or “What should I expect in everyday life if I have a puppy?”
People are often surprised at A) how much puppies should sleep (a young puppy — 3 or 4 months — should be sleeping 18-20 hours a day. We keep them up longer, but it’s unnatural! They get worn out and manic, don’t learn as quickly and act up more! Think about babies and toddlers: they don’t want to sleep, but if we put them down they sleep anyway and they behave better. Puppies are the same) and B) how much time you spend playing with them.
This is my personal puppy schedule, when I either own or board a puppy. It might give you an idea of what life is like! This applies most to puppies 4 months and older; younger puppies need more frequent potty breaks, and less time out. Those “Tie her to you” moments should be “Back in the crate to nap” moments! Older puppies might get more freedom, if they’ve figured out not to chew and pee for the most part!
J
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cash, dogs that have been rehab'ed, lily, puppies, training, what dogs learn from each other
For the last month I’ve been boarding a puppy named Daisy. Now, Daisy has all sorts of issues arising from congenital aggression (i.e., a problem in her brain makes her aggressive). One of the many issues facing Daisy is the ability to deal with other dogs in a mannerly fashion.
Now, she really likes dogs. I mean, she really likes dogs! But if they start to play too rough, it can overwhelm her and trigger her aggression. When she started boarding with me, my dogs, Cash and Lily, would play with her. Over the first few days they would play too rough (Cash, a 107-pound king shepherd, Lily, a 65-pound pit bull, and Daisy, a 20-pound welsh terrier), and Daisy would panic and try to make them back off. When they backed off, she would continue to attack. (That’s when I would step in, usually with a squirt bottle!)
Cash and Lily worked with Daisy patiently, rarely losing their cool. Now, I noticed that she was getting much better with them. She’d learned that when she played too rough, they’d yelp and if she didn’t back off, the other would cut in and shoulder her away until she backed down. (Cash and Lily quite often work as a team this way. It fascinates me to watch!) Soon, she’d learned that if they yelped or tried to bully her away, she needed to back off. Getting pushier wouldn’t work; they wouldn’t stop until she settled down, but they’d remain calm and keep from triggering her aggression.
The next thing she learned was that if she got hurt or scared, she should yelp, and they’d back off. Once she’d learned this, her aggression lessened greatly. She’d never attacked my dogs with intent to hurt, but certainly with intent to scare: a small but significant difference in the dog world!
For three weeks, she got on quite well with my dogs. I was always there to step in (if I can’t see them, I’m listening for them) so that if someone yelped, I went out quickly to see what was going on. Nine times out of ten they’d already solved the problem, and were milling around sniffing each other carefully. The tenth time a sharp hist noise settled them down quickly.
Well, one of the things we’ve been working toward is getting Daisy into Doggieville, a fantastic doggie daycare (among other things) center in Mountain View. My thought is that if other dogs can help Daisy remember she’s a dog, and wear her out at the same time, her mother’s job will be MUCH easier! It’ll also give her mom a nice break from running home to check on Daisy, who can’t be left for more than 5 hours at a time (yet).
Today (or rather, as of this writing on Jan 27th!) was Daisy’s evaluation, and let me tell you, I was biting my nails! She’s been doing fantastic with my dogs, but my dogs are supremely well behaved and there are only two of them. I didn’t know how she’d do with A) a bunch of dogs and B) dogs that aren’t so well mannered. Anna and Chris (head trainer and owner, respectively) brought in one dog at a time to see how Daisy would do, slowly increasing the number and type of dogs in the room.
My biggest concern was that Daisy wouldn’t do well with a dog that was in her face or chasing her around, and we figured that out right away! One of the dogs they brought in was determined to let Daisy know who was boss, and barked and chased and barked and chased. Daisy handled it like a trooper, though, using everything Cash and Lily had taught her; she retreated, played elsewhere, retreated, played elsewhere, and finally hid behind Anna’s legs when it was too much.
I was also quite proud because at that point I leaned down, touched her lightly and said, “Just settle, sweetie.” She did, which I knew she would, and the other dog went trotting away. Daisy followed a moment later. Chris commented, “Wow, her off switch is really good!” I gave a big grin, because we’ve been working on that quite a lot! One of the things about a dog who doesn’t turn themselves off is that it’s more important for them to listen to us when we ask them to focus and calm down, so we can help them when they’re not sure what to do. Daisy did that excellently!
Daisy’s now been enrolled in Doggieville, having gotten along with all the dogs and handled all the stress with the grace and playfulness Cash and Lily have taught her. Thank you, Cash and Lily!
One of the very common things I hear is something along the lines of, “I don’t know why my dog has poor hips. He has his AKC papers and everything!” Or any variation thereof, relating to anything from appearance to temperament.
Having AKC papers means only that your dog is purebred. Sounds good, right? And it is — within reason, and as long as you know the limits of what that means. It doesn’t mean, for instance, good quality. A dog born with a throwback coat is still a purebred. A dog born with extremely poor hips? Still purebred.
One of my clients has the tallest golden retriever I’ve ever seen. He had hip surgery when he was less than a year, and the other hip was already so bad they couldn’t do surgery. His coat is thin, his head is long, he’s leggy. People regularly ask what he’s mixed with.
He wasn’t mixed with anything: he’s a purebred golden with AKC papers. What happens is that someone buys a pet quality show lab. (In a whole litter of show puppies, only 2-3 of them will be show quality.) That dog is super sweet, and they breed it with the neighbor’s super sweet lab, who hasn’t had its hips checked. Because that lab is young, no one knows that her hips are bad.
Puppies are born. A few of them have bad hips that won’t show up until they’re six years old, and one has extra long legs. That long-legged, bad hipped puppy is sold to a well-meaning family. When that dog is two years old, they decide that because he’s so sweet, they’re going to breed him to someone else with a lab.
Those people’s lab has minor anxiety issues, but nothing they think is problematic. More puppies are born, now slightly too leggy with poor hips and anxiety problems.
One of those puppies is bred to a dog who has minor aggression, which has never been addressed because the kids don’t play with the dog, and the people assume that guarding food and growling at anyone who takes it is normal behavior. Now we have all of the above AND aggression in the mix. In four generations, we’ve gone from a show dog to a poor quality dog with emotional issues.
I would estimate that 80% of AKC puppies are poor quality dogs. Dogs that were bred because their owners, not even necessarily aware of the breed standards in attitude and appearance, breed them because they’re sweet, because someone asks, because they need some extra money, or because they want their children to witness the miracle.
That doesn’t make them all poor quality dogs, of course — far from it! But it does mean that when you buy a puppy, hearing that it’s an AKC puppy only means there’s no other breeds in the mix — NOT that it’s a good quality dog. It’s up to you, then, to check out the parents and the puppies, and decide for yourself if this is a sweet pet dog, or a dog who might have some issues later in life. Don’t trust the papers — trust yourself!
J
Ohhh, puppies. I’m boarding a puppy at the moment, a 9-month old welsh terrier who has some issues her owner needs help with. One of those issues is housebreaking.
I’ve forgotten what it’s like to get up EARLY because the puppy can’t hold it like my adult dogs can — 10 hours regularly overnight, and 12-16 if it’s my day off and I’m feeling really lazy! At 9 months, it’s possible for a puppy to hold it that long if you’ve worked on it. But a dog that isn’t housebroken and isn’t used to holding it — even an adult dog — can’t do that!
The best way to potty train any dog, regardless of age, is crate training. I know, I know — it’s MUCH easier to get puppy pads, if your dog will use them, and do it that way. And if you have a job where you work 8 hours and can’t get away, and no neighbor to let your puppy out after 4 hours, then that might be your only solution. However, puppy pads teach your dog something else: to pee in the house. It’s very common for a dog to look for the next thing closest to a puppy pad when you take the pads away: carpet. Small dogs are especially prone to peeing in the house when they don’t like it outside because it’s too cold or too wet. (Another option is to litter train them, so you never have to worry about it. Yes, they make litter boxes for small dogs!)
If you want your dog to potty outside, the best best best way is crate training. Let’s talk about crate training.
There are some common concerns I hear:
1. It seems cruel.
I know people have a hard time believing this, but a crate for a dog is like their den. Unless your dog has had some major trauma in a crate, and I mean major trauma, once they get used to it they’re not going to have any qualms about spending large amounts of time in one. Puppies especially should be sleeping 15-20 hours a day, depending on the age of the puppy. We keep our puppies awake MUCH longer than is healthy for them, assuming that’s normal. A crate gives your puppy a chance to calm down long enough to get the sleep they need in a quiet, dark, undisturbed place. This will make everyone’s life much easier, and your puppy happier, healthier, and easier to train!
2. My dog/puppy barks and whines and I CAN’T STAND IT!
Okay, I can’t blame you, there. I can’t stand it, either! There are two easy solutions, though, other than the usual “just ignore it and they’ll stop” solution you normally hear. (Trust me, I understand that frustration — I’m a dog trainer, and I can’t ignore it until it stops! I’m very noise sensitive, and it drives me bonkers!)
The first solution is to say, “Quiet,” and then tap the crate on the side. If it doesn’t work, tap a little harder. You can tap hard enough to jiggle the crate just a bit. (I’ve been known to hook the lip with my fingers and pluck the near edge off the ground by a finger’s width.) You’re creating a mini-earthquake, so the dog learns that barking or whining will make the world shake a tiny bit. It’s not comfortable!
Concerns: I have heard other trainers say, “This will make a dog feel unsafe or scared of his crate.” In ten years, I’ve never seen that happen.
The second solution is to get a squirt bottle. I don’t mean a little mister, I mean a bottle from Lowe’s that’s meant to have cleaner or something in it! Something with a powerful stream on it. This stream needs to get through the air, the bars of the crate, and hit your dog with enough force for your dog to feel it! A mist won’t do. You need a squirt! Don’t aim for your dogs face if you can avoid it; we don’t want to hit the eyes. And DON’T put anything but water in it!
Concerns: From trainers, I occasionally hear the same concern as above, and the answer is also the same! From owners, I hear: “But my dog LIKES water.” My dogs both LOVE water! They hate, however, the squirt bottle. There’s a big difference between getting into water willingly and getting squirted with something cold and wet surprisingly. It startles them out of their bad behavior, and that’s all we really want. Even dogs who aren’t particularly bothered by a squirt bottle will usually stop barking; it annoys them into good behavior!
Now that we’ve stopped the barking issue, let’s talk about making the crate an okay place to be. When I start crating dogs, I make sure they have at least two toys in their crate that they like. Every time they go in their crate, they get a treat. I feed them in their crates as well. I also put their bed in their crate (or piles of old towels, if you’re afraid they’ll chew up their bed out of boredom) so it’s comfy. Think of it as a kid’s bedroom: it needs all the stuff in it they might want so they can hang out and ignore their parents!
Once you have all that good stuff in their crate, start tossing treats in there. Leave the door open until they’re comfortable to go in, get the treats, sniff around for more, and come back out. You can give them more treats while they’re in there, too. Once they can do that, start closing the door for a few seconds at a time, giving them more treats while they’re in there. Once they can do that, start leaving them in there for a few minutes at a time. If they’re comfortable eating in there, give them dinner with the door closed and leave them in for ten minutes after they finish.
Build up the time slowly; when they get comfortable, add more time. It generally takes a day or two if you’re home all day and can devote time to it. If you aren’t, or if your dog has some trauma associated with crate training that needs to be overcome, it could take up to a week. I hate to say it, but usually if it takes longer than that, someone is letting them out when they cry — though the person may not even be aware of it!
All right, all that said… I’m going back to bed! All this getting up early to let the puppy out has worn me down!
(Not quite what you were looking for? Wondering how to potty train once Fido’s crate trained? Have no fear, just click here!)
Jenna
I can already tell I’m going to have a lot of titles with words like “Redux” in them. Oh boy. 
One of my clients has a 8 month old puppy that doesn’t want to go potty outside. This is a moment when we have to out-stubborn our dogs. To tell you the truth, out-stubborning a dog is half of successful dog training. (The other half is knowing when to praise and when to correct.)
When you have a dog that is refusing to be housebroken, and the dog is crate trained, then this is what I recommend:
1. Take your dog out in the morning and ask it to go potty.
1a. It goes potty. Praise him or her and bring them inside for breakfast.
1b. It doesn’t go potty.
2. Take your dog back inside and put them back in the crate. Try again in half an hour. Eventually, your dog will decide it’s tired of crossing its legs, and it’s time to go potty outside — at which point, refer back to 1!
Most people go wrong because they feel bad about putting their puppy back in the crate. They feel like it “should” eat breakfast (it can eat in the crate), or it “should” come out to play. While I understand that we want our dogs to be able to stretch their legs and have fun before we leave for work, tell me which is better: a dog who, within a month, is allowed to romp around the house when people are home, playing and enjoying themselves with no one worried about accidents, or a dog who, a year into its life, is still restricted to one room, being on-leash, tied to a piece of furniture or left outside because it STILL isn’t housebroken?
Sometimes, being a good owner means a little bit of tough love. A few days of tough love can positively impact a dog for the rest of its life. And let’s be honest, here: the puppy isn’t going to be more than upset in passing at being put back in the crate. Then it’s going to chew on a toy or take a nap, and it isn’t going to feel bad. We might; we’re human. But for a moment, put aside your human tendencies and put the puppy in the crate. It’ll thank you when it’s older.
…No it won’t. But your family, friends, and everyone else who interacts with your dog will!
Jenna
