The Nuge - Advice Needed

dnonac

dnonac

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Introducing a new 4-legged junior forum member that I just adopted....Nuge. He's a pure bred Cocker Spaniel-Border Collie-Poodle-Yorkie. What a pedigree!

I've had him one week and he's 7 weeks old and named after Ted Nugent because of the grey beard on his chin. Oh...and he thinks he's fierce!
It's been a long time (30 years) since I've had a puppy around and I think I'm making headway on some basic training stuff.
P1120054.jpg

Anybody have any rock solid ideas on house training for a pup. We do outside walks frequently and go outside as soon as he wakes up. So far (fingers crossed) he hasn't done the dirty on the carpet. I know if I let my guard down though, it's just a matter of time. I've been doing some crate training (he sleeps in a small crate by my bed) and for the past 2 nights he's slept through the night without whining to go outside. Outstanding!

So...puppy training tips. Who's got em.
Thanks in advance...
Craig
 
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Here's a couple of tips that I learned when my wife and I took our pup for training.

Keep a leash on the pup for the first week. every time it messes the house or appears to have to go, take it out on the leash. After about a week, the pup will let you know when it's time.

When a pup does something like jumping up on you, most people will say "down". To the dog "down" will mean that he should jump up. When he jumps up simply say "up" and give him some positive reinforcement. When he sits, say "sit" and when lies down, say "down", and always give the positive reinforcement. Very soon, your pup will understand your commands.
 
Thiokol said:
Here's a couple of tips that I learned when my wife and I took our pup for training.

Keep a leash on the pup for the first week. every time it messes the house or appears to have to go, take it out on the leash. After about a week, the pup will let you know when it's time.

When a pup does something like jumping up on you, most people will say "down". To the dog "down" will mean that he should jump up. When he jumps up simply say "up" and give him some positive reinforcement. When he sits, say "sit" and when lies down, say "down", and always give the positive reinforcement. Very soon, your pup will understand your commands.
Click to expand...

Thanks...I'll try the leash idea. And your recommendation on the commands sounds really good.
 
Congratulations on your new friend! May you have many happy years together.

When Dingo was a pup I would take him out on lead when he first woke up. I would tell him to "go pee" and of course he would. Praise & treats!

Today he will still pee on command.:D

I am a big fan of crate training. Most dogs enjoy having their "safe" place. Don't use the crate as punishment. It should be a place the dog wants to go to.

For our dogs the command to get off something is "Off."

Look into puppy classes. These train the human as well as the dog. Also socialization is extremely important. What good is having a companion if you can never take him anywhere?

I've used clicker training and it works. The key is to find a reward that is your dog's "currency." For a pup it's usually treats. For Dingo it's play. He will do ANYTHING to get me to throw the ball.
 
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Fishslayer....
Thanks for the input. Lost my wife 5 years ago and I'm looking forward to having him around.
I took him to visit a few friends yesterday and he traveled in the crate. When we got there, he was in unfamiliar surroundings in their houses and after playing and sniffing, he went back to the crate to take a nap. It's easy to see that he finds it a familiar and comforting place to go.

He makes his first visit to the vet tomorrow. So far, he hasn't shown much of an interest in treats but, like your Dingo, he really loves playing. I guess that's his current currency.
 
Crate training.

No it's not a horrible thing. It is the preferred method of training a dog.
Dogs are pack animals/cave dwellers. They will not foul their own sleeping area. After a while the find their "crate" box comforting and feel secure in there. Put his blanket, toys a ticking clock etc in there with him.
I don't care how much they cry the first few nights, leave them in there until it's time to get up and take him out to the same spot if you can.

Do the leash thing also. None of this paper training stuff.
 
Cockers are very soft-hearted, and you can easily break his spirit with "negative" training. Always use the positive techniques as others have mentioned. Buddy, my black Cocker (RIP) would have sooner died than mess in the house. When he got cancer and had an accident, he was so devastated and embarrassed all I could do was show him and tell him that I still loved him. He'd already beaten himself up worse than I ever would. Poor guy.:(
You are wise to do crate training early. Old dogs never take to it, but pups will easily.
 
Rugskipper said:
Cockers are very soft-hearted, and you can easily break his spirit with "negative" training. Always use the positive techniques as others have mentioned. Buddy, my black Cocker (RIP) would have sooner died than mess in the house. When he got cancer and had an accident, he was so devastated and embarrassed all I could do was show him and tell him that I still loved him. He'd already beaten himself up worse than I ever would. Poor guy.:(
You are wise to do crate training early. Old dogs never take to it, but pups will easily.
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Thanks Rugskipper....Yeah, my last dog was a cocker...about 30 years ago and he was just as you described. Maybe since this one is a mix, he'll be a little more easy going.
 
Good looking little guy you got there.Great advice by all.I have two dogs and training them was like night and day.My male giant schnauzer was a real knucklehead and thought every thing was funny.It usually was but I had to try not to let him see me laughing.My female portugese sheep dog takes everything to heart.Both are real good dogs.Your pup will show you his own personality.
If you get up at 6am on week days your gonna have to get up at 6am on weekends.
 
That's a nice looking pup you have there.

Crate training is a good method. If you are going to be around during the day then there are other methods. Rather than free feeding, I fed Pugsters (and still do) twice a day at the exact same time each day. Within a couple days I knew exactly when she needed to go out. After a couple weeks she was asking to go out.

Pugsters says hi to Nudge.
 
DeathGrip said:
Good looking little guy you got there.Great advice by all.I have two dogs and training them was like night and day.My male giant schnauzer was a real knucklehead and thought every thing was funny.It usually was but I had to try not to let him see me laughing.My female portugese sheep dog takes everything to heart.Both are real good dogs.Your pup will show you his own personality.
If you get up at 6am on week days your gonna have to get up at 6am on weekends.
Click to expand...

For the first 5 nights of crate training, he whined just a little about an hour after I went to bed but immediately went to sleep when I reassured him I was there. Then, around 3:30 he would wake again and I would take him outside.

The past two nights though, he has slept the entire night. I even had to wake him up at 7:00 this morning! For a little puppy, he's doing extremely well with such a small bladder. I am careful though and don't give him any water past 8pm. After that, we go outside at least twice before bed.

And I agree that their personalities are all different. I do think this one will be a great pet/companion though. He's already won me over.
 
Mine were both crate trained.There will be times when you have to go places that he can't,so it's a good idea to leave them alone for a little quiet time.This way they don't get separation issues.Everything in little steps and he'll be fine.
 
I meant to say in my first post that he is a Very Cool looking Dog!:). Also, with that "pedigree" He has a lot of smart dog genes so he should be a easy dog to train.
Be sure to give him "work" to do, other wise he will get bored.
Needs to run, fetch retrieve,whatever is fun for him. Get him tired every day.
 
OCD1 said:
I meant to say in my first post that he is a Very Cool looking Dog!:). Also, with that "pedigree" He has a lot of smart dog genes so he should be a easy dog to train.
Be sure to give him "work" to do, other wise he will get bored.
Needs to run, fetch retrieve,whatever is fun for him. Get him tired every day.
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Thanks OCD1...
It's been a busy time since I brought him home. And you're right, he's much happier when he's tired and seems to enjoy himself a lot more. Just not sure which one of us is more pooped out! But hey, I can use the exercise.
 
We have a Border Collie at our Airport. He is the second or third. As the airport was built in a watershed area (our local Government finest moment) there are all kinds of birds, Big birds, Florida kinda birds.

The dogs only mission in life is to chase the large flocks off the runway so they do not get in the jet engines. Borders are some of the hardest working dogs there are. Poodles were orginalyl raised as hunting dogs and are incredibly smart
Spaniels are also very smart. I had a Springer for 12 years, smartest dog I ever owned. Yorkies are just plain cute dust mops,;) ( they are smart also)
It will be interesting what breed dominates as he gets older.

If you can, join a local dog club/obedience class. They are usually free and a real riot(fun) and help socialize the dogs to other dogs and people.
 
When we got Harley and started training him to go out we put a desk clerk bell beside the door and we would take his paw and ring it everytime we went out, after about 2 weeks he started doing it himself. Now when he wants out he will ring his bell and we take him out.
Good looking pup you have there !
 
I raised 3 Pitdogs at the same time together in the same house. They are all different,what and how they hear when you speak, their personalities and what matters to them most all varied. Figure out what matters to him in order to get his attention. let him know your boss and he is a very close second. Once he trust you and understands the order he will automatically get tuned in to what matters to you to keep his spot. Sometimes if your to rigid you can short circit the blueprint that is allready in there. I hope this makes sense as I know what to do but may not be saying it the best way. Sounds like you truly care about turning out a good dog, I think you will do well.
 
dnonac said:
For the first 5 nights of crate training, he whined just a little about an hour after I went to bed but immediately went to sleep when I reassured him I was there. Then, around 3:30 he would wake again and I would take him outside.

The past two nights though, he has slept the entire night. I even had to wake him up at 7:00 this morning! For a little puppy, he's doing extremely well with such a small bladder. I am careful though and don't give him any water past 8pm. After that, we go outside at least twice before bed.

And I agree that their personalities are all different. I do think this one will be a great pet/companion though. He's already won me over.
Click to expand...

Now that he is well acquainted with you, take an old t-shirt of yours after you have used it as your nightshirt for a night and make a crate pad out of it for him. Your scent will reassure him that the world is OK and the crate is the place to be.

It has been touched on but bears some emphasis; commands should be one word and delivered once, i.e. say his name and then the command. at this puppy stage work with him for about 10 to 12 minutes three times a day on his obedience training. After 5 to 6 months of age, go to 20 minutes per session for twice a day. Keep everything on a fairly rigid schedule. He will learn it quicker than you will.

IMHO, one book published 30 years ago on dog training is still the best 'starter' book out there, get Barbara Woodhouse's "No Bad Dogs" and follow her training methods. She makes Cesar? look like a rank amateur. ........ Big Cholla
 
Resist the urge to give him rawhides. Soon he'll be teething and looking for things to chew on. Rawhides look like the perfect answer. They chew them up and swallow a piece and it gets stuck in their throat. I spent a $500 night at the emergency vet learning this. If you give him a rawhide make sure it's the one thats made from compressed small chunks. I prefer Nylabones. If he is teething put the Nylabone in the freezer for a while before giving it to him. If you give him a cotton sock to chew on, cut off the top that has the elastic in it before giving it to him. Otherwise he will ingest the elastic and it will get stuck in his digestive tract. I spent a $500 night at the emergency vet learning this. I had a black Cockapoo once, "Roscoe", he was very friendly and very smart.
 
Another +1 for the "business on command". I'm in a situation where I have to leash my dog and walk her beside a major road to do business. Having this command tells her that we are not outside for a walk, we are not outside to check the last vistor to the hydrant, we are outside to do business and thats all. It really comes in handy those snowy cold morning. I've dog-sat other dogs that think they have all day to to walk around the block and do business on their terms, I think that is the wrong answer.

Another good command is "leave it". Its a good command when there is an object, smell, or any other distraction you don't want them to pay attention to. When I'm walking through the woods with my boxer she can take off at anything like a rabbit or squirrel but as soon as I say "leave it" she stops trail and comes right back to me. The same goes for on walks, if she stops and sniffs I say "leave it" and she's back on command.

When I walk her, she is on the "heel" command, and while under a command she does not do business, or stop and sniff or even look at any other people or dogs. She has gotten so good she is walked on a small lead that is wrapped around my belt loop, so I have a hands free walk with my dog, which is awesome!

Being that my dog is so concentrated under command I have an "off command" command which tells her she can go be a dog and do dog things like run around, sniff, mark territory, play and roll around.

The most important thing to dog training is consistency and to stick with it. It took my dog 3 years to be good under command. I pounded her with all kinds of training and commands for the first 3 years. She would understand the commands but I wasn't getting the snap to it, or the undistracted responses that I wanted. Then one day she woke up and put it all together, and we haven't looked back since.


On a side note, I once trained my dog to open the fridge which had a rope tied to the handle, then she would reach in and fetch me a beer (that was in a coolie cup) and bring it to me. It was the best thing I ever did until my dog realized at around 3am she had a free pass to the fridge. So I untied the rope at night and only kept in on the door when I wanted a beer runner. Thats when she realised she could bite into the beer can and retrieve one of her favortie elixers as well. I tried bottles but they are too heavy for her. such a shame.....
 
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