Dog Owner Chat V. 5

[Barnes&Rogers]

i took my pup on a hike over the weekend, and her re-call was really good. she was off-leash for the majority of the walk, but when she was on leash, and another dog passed, i could barely hold onto her. we've started a form of training regime, and hopefully it'll start showing soon. <3

[paigewolf]

Hello! I am glad to meet all of you. I have a 1 year old Mural Great Dane, her name is Sadie.

[Skysong]

So Lady got cocky and snapped at Thor's face after escaping the bedroom while Thor was inside.

Thor proceeded to fight back because he's docile until provoked (provoked being snapping at his face/nose.) and Lady broke a tooth defending herself somehow.

Lady also tried to start a fight with Lilly earlier by biting her nose while Lilly was just trying to lay down.

No injuries on any end other than Lady breaking a tooth/biting her tongue which has stopped bleeding.

Thor isn't in trouble as it wasn't something he started this time. Lady, however, is in trouble and in the kennel right now.

Edit: We know Lady is big dog aggressive, Thor is kind of food aggressive.
Thor's bowl was down as we needed to get into the freezer. Lady nuck out of the bedroom as my friend went in to get something from my moms bathroom. These dogs 99% of the time are separated to prevent scuffles like this from happening.

[shadow~wolf]

Lucky has never had a problem with his crate. He goes in when he's told, and never makes a sound while in his crate but we're at my grandma's house and he starts barking every time i leave the room and he's in his kennel! he's perfectly chill being in his kennel as long as i'm in the room.

i have to go to the store tomorrow and leave him in his kennel for a bit but i'm going to train and excersize him alot before hand

[juicebox!]

bear had his first outing today! ended up being close to ten hours, whoops. hes a service dog in training, by the way. he was so good! he rested and didn’t really get up all that much. he tasked perfectly (only missing one due to some kids distracting him) and ignored people so well. people were literally stepping over him and standing above him and he didnt touch them or anything. the only thing he did is sniff this one lady’s leg, oops. it was such a successful day though for him! for a rescue dog, he aint too shabby. he wasnt scared of any of the loud noises besides crash cymbals. it was marching band practice. he slept like the sweetest ball of fur ever. just curled so tightly in a ball, ugh. i love him. sorry for how large this image is !! heres him all cute and in a ball.

[liv :)]

Hey there!

When we first brought Blue home, she was having trouble adjusting to a new environment— thus peeing in the house. I understand that our situation isn’t the same as yours (Blue was new to us and our home, whereas I assume Timber has been with you guys for a while now. And Blue only had an accident 4 or 5 times), but I hope my advice helps a little.

Is Timber crate-trained? If not, I highly recommend it.

Whenever we weren’t able to supervise Blue, we would crate her. IMMEDIATELY after we came back to release her from the crate, we’d take her outside to pee. We would wait outside for her to pee (which, time-wise, would take anywhere from the moment she got to grass to half an hour) before we let her back in. Once we knew she had done her business, we’d let her back into the house.

Around half an hour later, another pee-check (which she wouldn’t necessarily always do). If she didn’t go to the bathroom, we’d take her out 10 mins later. Once we found a consistent time in which she’d need to pee again, it was easy to predict when she needed to go out. Accidents eventually just stopped happening.

The key to housebreaking is to avoid as many accidents as possible. Try to teach Timber that he isn’t supposed to pee inside by giving him plenty of opportunities to do his business outside and little to no opportunities to do so inside.

If an accident DOES occur, immediately interrupt using a sharp (but not loud, intimidating, excessive or mean) verbal correction (“Timber, no”). Only say it once, you don’t want to overwhelm him which may make him more inclined to urinate. As quickly as possible, take him outside and allow him to finish. Heavily praise, letting him know that where he finished was the right place to go. Give him a food and/or toy reward if you have one on you.

If you aren’t able to interrupt him, don’t fret. Just clean up the pee and make sure you’re not rewarding him in any way whatsoever. Take note of the time that he went at and the last time he peed, so you know when he may need to go again.

I know you’re already well aware of this, but perhaps try to let your parents know... using a physical correction in response to an accident could actually delay the housebreaking process. For some dogs, it could teach them that “peeing in front of human = correction”, not “peeing in house = correction” which is the desired effect.

Not only does this make a dog nervous around the idea of peeing, it doesn’t help the puppy learn to pee outside. Instead, the dog may resort to just peeing in the house when people aren’t watching and/or refusing to go pee when taken outside if people are watching.

Have you tried making a “potty log”? Record the times that he goes to the bathroom at (whether it be an accident or not), and see if he has a consistent amount of time in which he normally pees. We didn’t do this with Blue, but looking back, if could have been very useful.

My final tip would be trying to teach him to pee on cue. I did this with Blue. Whenever she squatted just before peeing I’d say the command that I’d like her to respond to (in our case, “go potty”) and then give verbal praise. Once she finished, I’d give her a treat. When I saw her sniffing around (which is what she does before peeing), I would say “go potty”, and she would then pee. Lots of praise and a reward. She quickly caught on that when I say “go potty” it means “go the nearest patch of grass and pee”. Now, on walks, she waits for me to say “go potty” before she pees. It also helps in the middle of the night, I let her out in our yard and say “go potty”, she pees, and then I recall her.

I hope this helped, I’m sorry that it was so long!

[Imzadi83]

anyone know how to housebreak a puppy quickly?

recently, to 'housebreak' timber, my parents have removed all his puppy pads quite abruptly and just expects him to hold it until one of us takes him out. obviously, this leads to numerous accidents and every time one happens my parents yell at and very roughly 'bops' timber's nose. i tried to explain that punishments aren't a good way to housebreak a dog, but my parent's aren't having that. they wan't me to punish him every time he has an accident too, but i'm.. not gonna do that;;
today, timber had drank a bit of water and my mother told me to take him out. so, i went to my room to get some treats (for if timber peed outside) and timber had an accident on the floor. my mother yelled at me for 'not taking him out quick enough' and proceeded to tell my dad, who said that every time timber has an accident he'll not allow me to interact with him for 3 days and turn off the internet for 2. (i understand the internet thing but the interacting thing??? why????)
(quick note: though i did not pick this dog or agree to adopt this dog, i still pay for most of his stuff, and i still love him and i'm usually the one who trains him.)
i dont understand why my parents will punish me for the dog's accidents that they are causing him to make, but they're really pushing the 'housebreaking thing. so, to prevent further suffering on both me and timber's part, i need to find a quicker way to housebreak him.

i'm doing the scheduled feeding and stuff, taking him out every hour or so (unless he's napping). even with that he still has accidents sometimes, usually in the same spot. it's a bit of a slow process, and i'm wondering if there's any way to speed it up?
thanks xx

The quickest way is to be consistent and not punish the dog for accidents which are always the fault of humans and not the dog. I'll post a link to a tutorial for you. Also in the future, although your mother yelling was wrong, you don't need treats with you when you take him out. It's find to take him out praise him, then give him a treat when you're back inside. Using a reward marker (like a clicker or marker word) can be especially helpful if you don't have access to treats right away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvPiFcG7ROI&t=66s

And doggas and you are right, punishments will make house training more difficult. I'm sorry your parents are making this more difficult for you and your dog.

[Charlieluckytoby1]

]Does anyone know if there are any dark blue collars made by kong? I don’t think I saw any at petsmart yesterday. I looked up dark blue Kong collar and nothing came up showing a collar. I have light blue grey collars from them but I would like a dark blue collar by kong..or a collar of about the same quality.

This is the type of collar I’m talking about..

[Naeco]

We used the punishment method on our dogs, but either way, house training isn't something that will happen overnight. Lady took about 3 or 4 months, Sheaba took a year and a half, and Skai took 2 weeks. Some pups are faster and some pups are slower. It just all depends.

[Barnes&Rogers]

does anyone here have any brand suggestions for good quality, strong 5 metre re-call leads?

we have a 10 metre one that was recommended by our local pet shop, but it's way way to long for what we need, and is actually the worst thing i've used for re-call so far. we used to have a 5 metre one, but i was playing with my pup while she was on the lead (i was trying to teach her to bring a toy back to me once she'd retrieved it) and she bit through it. she managed to somehow break off the clip-thingy that attached to her collar, and we had to bin the whole thing.