Posted by: David Harris
Video by: Cindy Jacobs
This is just a short clip of the puppies we have been following from birth til now. The pups are six weeks older now and we are planning a repeat of this video to show both their physical development and their mental development to this point.
All the puppies in this video have been working on tracking as well as doing individual obedience lessons using positive reinforcement shaping techniques. I am very pleased with the entire litter so far. Some are mentally and physically harder than others, but all show good prey drive. All the pups have excellent social skills, travel well, meet strangers and strange dogs without incident and have a pleasing, tractable attitude.
Look for an update to this article early next week to see the puppies at four months of age. I suspect you will see some big changes.
David Harris
3 responses so far ↓
1 sarah // May 18, 2008 at 7:33 pm
hi i have my first puppy for 2 weeks now. he’s a german shephard, im haveing trouble potty traing it and to get him to stop biteing my 15 month old son. he is trained of sit, stay, down, shake, and were working on turn. but the potty training and the biteing we cant get out of our system. can you give me a tip or how to?? thanks alot.
2 David // May 19, 2008 at 9:20 am
Sarah,
What type of puppy do you have? The training will proceed the same regardless of the breed, but what type of pup he is will tell me how to adjust the training and how long it should take to solve each issue you mentioned.
3 David // May 23, 2008 at 6:33 am
Sarah,
It sounds like you have a very smart and a very tough puppy! He will be wonderfull with the right training. Without proper training he will continue to make your like rough.
The first thing I suggest is to get control. Don’t let him around your young son without being on leash. Keep him crated when you don’t have the time or energy to deal with his attitude.
Continue to use the food to reward good behavior, but keep him on leash and use mild snaps on the leash to calm him down when he barks or tries to bite & jump. Calm praise when he stops after you correct him and then use your treat to reward. Stop using treats to try to make him behave. Just use them to reward him IF he behaves. Don’t be afraid to correct him. Just do it with love and consistency and he will soon learn to respect your voice. Then you will no longer need to keep him on leash in the house. But, until he learns to repect you and your voice you should be keeping him on leash. This is only a very first start. Much more is needed to turn such a spirited into a fun companion. Look for a trainer in your area that uses a balanced approach to training. Anyone that makes you wait until your puppy is a certain age isn’t the trainer you want anyway. Training doesn’t start at a certain age. It starts when it needs to start and you need help now.
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