Set up a schedule and carefully supervise our puppy.
The little puppy is very curious and will get into trouble every chance he gets.
To save ourselves a lot of pain and to save our puppy from stress, we want set up a fixed schedule which includes crate time, play time, walk time, as well as handling and grooming time.
When our puppy is out and about in a non-dog-proof area, we need to supervise him closely. Close supervision will give us the opportunity to teach puppy right from wrong, without too much damage to our furniture and belongings.
If I do not have the time,
- I usually crate puppy, when he is home alone, or
- I put puppy on a tie-down, when I am home but unable to fully supervise.
If you are concerned about crating your puppy, here is what the Humane Society of the United States and the American Dog Trainer’s Network have to say about dogs and crates.
When I am away for a long period of time (> 3 hours), I put puppy in a long-term enclosure. This can be a secure puppy pen or a safe room (e.g. kitchen). I make sure there is nothing in the enclosure that my puppy can destroy. I also put in some bedding, a water bowl, puppy pads, and safe chew toys.
As a general rule, the longest time to crate a puppy is (age of dog in months + 1) hours.
An 8 week old puppy can be kept a maximum of (2 month old + 1) = 3 hours in a crate. Note that this is just a general guideline for the maximum crate time.
Most puppies need to go outside more frequently than that, for exercise and potty training. I take my puppy outside as soon as he wakes up, and right after any kind of vigorous play. In the beginning, Husky puppy Shania needed to potty after about 10-15 minutes of play.
At night, I crate my dogs in the bedroom. Sleeping together helps with the bonding process, and shows them that they are part of the pack.
Puppy Obedience Training 2
Keep a drag-lead on our puppy.
I put a drag-lead on puppy when he is roaming freely in the house.
This will help us control our ball of energy without resorting to chasing games. When puppy tries to run away, all we need to do is step on the drag-lead.
It is important to use a regular, thick (1 inch wide), flat collar and not a training collar (choke chain, prong collar). I make sure to cut off the loop on the leash, so that it does not catch on anything around the house. I start with a longer (6 feet), light leash, and then shorten it depending on my puppy’s behavior.
Once puppy matures and is better behaved, I switch to a leash tab or remove the drag-lead altogether.
It is best to use a 6 foot leash during puppy leash training and not the flexi-leash. The 6 foot leash gives us better control of our puppy, and is necessary to keep him safe when he decides to go chasing after dogs, cats, or squirrels.
Puppy Obedience Training 3
Start with reward obedience training.
It is most effective and least risky to start our puppy with reward obedience training. I started out with aversive techniques, and it made my Shiba puppy develop additional behavioral issues, including aggression. Even aversive based dog trainers will not use pain based techniques, such as leash jerks and alpha rolls, on dogs that are younger than 6 months old.
Today, I prefer to use reward training because it is more effective at motivating my dogs, stopping undesirable behaviors, and building a strong bond.
With reward training, we establish ourselves as the pack leader by controlling our dog’s resources through the Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF) program. This simply means that puppy has to do something for us, for example a Sit, before he gets any resource (e.g. food, toys, affection, freedom) in return. Any bullying will be ignored, or will result in the removal of that resource.
Many people make the mistake of equating pack leadership with the use of aversive training. Aversive dog trainers say that difficult, strong-willed, dominant dogs require stronger, punishment based methods in order to show him who is boss.
This is not true.
One of my dogs (a Shiba Inu) is extremely strong willed, and can be quite difficult, but he responds much better to reward training.
Be careful of advertisements for 10 minute puppy obedience training programs and the like. There are no miracle cures in puppy training.
Puppy Obedience Training 4
Bite inhibition training.
Puppy biting is common because puppies are naturally curious, and want to examine everything with their mouths.
The good news is puppies do not have the jaw strength of an adult dog, and will not do much damage to us when biting. Because of this, puppy-hood is a good time for bite inhibition, or soft mouth training.
One of the best ways to train a dog to have a soft mouth is through hand-feeding.
I hand-feed my puppy at least some of his kibble every day. If he bites too hard when getting his food, I do a sharp ouch or yelp and ignore him for a few seconds. Then, I retry the exercise. If he takes food from me gently, I praise him and continue feeding without any breaks.
We can also combine hand-feeding with obedience commands, and dog grooming sessions. Hand-feeding also helps with food aggression issues, so I continue with it even through adulthood.
Ian Dunbar’s book After You Get Your Puppy, gives a good overview of bite inhibition, and how to best train our puppy to have a soft mouth.
A puppy, and ultimately an adult dog who has a soft mouth is a great asset. Because my Shiba Inu has good bite inhibition, we were able to solve many of his behavior problems, which would have been difficult to deal with if he were biting at full strength.
Puppy Obedience Training 5
Practice calm and assertive energy.
This is something that is always emphasized by Cesar Millan (the Dog Whisperer) and it is extremely important; especially for a hyperactive puppy.
If we interact with a dog using nervous, submissive, fearful, or otherwise weak (non-assertive) energy, the dog will sense that and start acting out even more.
Anger, impatience, frustration, and all other non-calm energies will only excite our puppy, and cause him to exhibit even more extreme behaviors.
In order to achieve calm, assertive energy, we must first overcome whatever fears we may feel toward our dog, and become his pack leader. This is much easier to do if we have achieved good bite inhibition.
Puppy Obedience Training 6
A busy puppy is a good puppy.
Puppies have a lot of energy, and will get into trouble if we do not keep them busy.
I make my puppy work for ALL of his food. Instead of presenting everything to him in a silver bowl, I use his daily kibble and treats for obedience sessions, bite inhibition training, handling, and grooming. If there is food left over, I put it in interactive food toys.
I also schedule play time with my puppy. Some games that my dogs like include flirt pole, the water hose game, and sometimes soccer.
When I start with a new game, I make it fun by handing out lots of treats for effort. Once my puppy understands the game, I switch to only treating his more stellar performances.
Make sure to always have control of a puppy’s play-time. This means that we own all the toys, and we decide when to start and stop the games. Play-time can be very useful in training our puppy to calm down, and to pay attention to us even when he is excited.
I also schedule two or three short obedience training sessions (10-15 minutes) with my puppy every day. This helps to establish me as the leader, gives my puppy some mental exercise, and provides a good bonding experience.
Other good ways to exercise our puppy include neighborhood walks, walks in the park, dog playgroups, and dog sports.
Puppy Obedience Training 7
We are not alone.
The most important thing to remember while bringing up a difficult puppy is that we are not alone!
Our puppy journey will be filled with a lot of joy, but there will also be challenges and pit-falls. Sometimes, we may feel discouraged by our puppy’s behavior, or with his performance in dog obedience class.
We are not alone!
There are many support groups out there where we may post our questions. I also find it helpful to visit these groups when I feel discouraged, or when I feel like my puppy is some mutant strain of devil dog.
Do not think that you are a bad dog owner or trainer when your puppy behaves badly. Many other dog owners are facing the exact same problems. Also remember that with proper rules and training, our puppy’s behavior will improve with time.
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What is your schedule that you use for your dogs. Like puppy training or walks. It would be a great start for my schedule
The puppy schedule will be very dependent on the individual dog. Lara’s schedule works for Lara but may not work well for a different dog, who will have a different energy level, be motivated by different things, live in a different environment, and enjoy different activities.
With Lara, she would sleep for about 1.5-2 hours, then we would do stuff for about 2 hours, then sleep again, and so on.
- I take her outside to do potty as soon as she wakes up, and then I reward her really well with games and other fun training exercises when we are outside.
- After that we come in, and she plays with my other dogs if they want to. In the beginning, when Lara was small, I only let her play on-leash so that I can keep her close, supervise her *very closely*, and make sure nobody gets hurt.
http://shibashake.com/dog/a-new-puppy-first-10-days-of-hell
- After 10-15 minutes of play, I take her out again to do potty if she needs to.
- Next, we come in and do some training exercises.
- Finally, we end the session with a couple of frozen Kongs. That helps to calm Lara down and she goes to sleep after that.
At night, she would sleep for longer, but I may take her out once or twice for potty. She lets me know when she needs to go.
I *did not* walk Lara in the neighborhood until after she was fully vaccinated. For dog socialization we did supervised puppy play groups at a nearby daycare center. The sessions were supervised by at least one trainer, and they checked all the puppies for vaccination records. Shania and Sephy went to puppy class where they also checked for vaccination records.
Hey Shibashake!! My boyfriend and I just got an 11 week old shiba pup last Saturday. So we found your site when trying to do as much research as possible on our pup and training him to be the best dog he can be! You have tons of great information! I have a concern. In our efforts to stop his biting we have tried to do some of the things you suggested, such as limit his resources – only give him one toy to play with at a time, and only give him access to food at 3 set times a day. We are avoiding playing tug of war with him and are trying to walk away when he starts to bite. We have penned off a small part of the living room of our condo that is connected to a narrow kitchen so he has a small area to roam and play. We’ve made these changes today, after doing a lot of reading last night. However compared to before we made these changes, like setting up the pen, saying no and walking away when he starts to bite, etc. he was very boisterous and full of energy, whereas now he seems sort of depressed and low energy. Do you think this is normal? Should we be worried that we are being too harsh on him? halp please
Congratulations on your new puppy!
In terms of dog training techniques, it is very dependent on the temperament of the dog, the surrounding environment, our own temperament and more. I always make sure to listen to my dogs and tweak whatever methods as necessary to suit our situation.
For example, Sephy the Shiba is a lot more stubborn and more likely to test his boundaries. I set up more rules for Sephy, and I am very consistent with making sure he follows the rules. My Huskies are more relaxed and easy-going, so they get rewarded with more flexibility and freedom.
What I learned from Sephy is that it is important to-
1. Listen to my dogs.
2. Be open-minded, and gather as much information as I can about how dogs learn and how I can improve quality of life. There is a lot of misinformation out there about dog training, so I get my information from many different sources, especially from trusted sources such as scientific studies, highly regarded vet schools (UPenn, UCDavis), and well established dog advocates (e.g. SPCA, RSPCA).
3. Set Sephy up for success. The more good behaviors he performs, the more likely he will repeat them in the future. The same is true of bad behaviors.
Also, I take any new puppy into the vet for a check-up when I first get them. In this way, I can be sure of his health and can also set up a vaccination schedule.
Big hugs to puppy!
Hi ShibaShake!
I just got a Shiba a few weeks ago when he was 8 weeks old. He is almost 10 weeks now and I have a few questions for you.
I live in an apartment in the city and when I go to sleep at night, I just let him roam around in my room. So I see that you use a crate at night, should I try to get him to do this or just let him free in my room? So far he has learned to wake us up if he needs to go potty and there have been very few accidents while we are sleeping.
Another question I have is about leash training. In your guide, you say you have problems with your dog pulling, I have the opposite problem. My dog doesn’t want to go. I put the leash on his harness and he just sits down and won’t go. How can I make him walk with me?
Thank you for helping me out! I love your helpful website =D It has given me so much info!
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