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Training a Puppy


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At the risk of sounding horribly patronising (not my intent), personally, I think it's important to recognise that different breeds of dog have different characteristics and "personalities", so an approach to training them has to be adapted to suit the breed. Not all dogs will respond to the same approach, from what I've read. From my experience with west coast terriers, repetition and a strong, commanding voice has been useful; as, although they appear a little dim, they get the idea after a while if you're consistent with your vocal command and body behaviour. Some other breeds are a little more immediate with their interpretation of a command and get the idea quite quickly.

Are you just trying to train it the basics in terms of domestic behaviour? What type of puppy, out of interest?

If I ever get fiscally secure, I am seriously considering getting a dog.

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Honestly, don't be afraid to give them a good skelp. Fear = respect = obedience. And don't mollycoddle it too much, even though it's probably the cutest thing in the world. Can I look after it when you go on holiday? I love dogs.

nope, terrible advice (apart from the mollycoddle bit, i failed at that).

phil's spot on. different breeds have different temperaments but all respond to treats. Westies in particular don't respond well to discipline, as they're uppity wee things. Don't buy supermarket dog treats for training either, use cheese, chorizo, ham, chicken, bits of roast beef, anything that's got a bit of flavour and can be cut into wee bits to be fed regularly. start with basics and enroll in a puppy class. puppy class gives them a chance to get used to other dogs and learn while having distractions.

stick at it. our westie was a nightmare when we got her and we've been broken by her a few times. we always go back to treats and repetition and it really works. you need to constantly reinforce training with positive rewards. if you notice on crufts, all the dogs are constantly given a reward for their behaviour, be it a play on a tuggy or a treat.

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My mum used to breed Rottweilers. Puppies are bastards, but it's all about repetition and rewards. Dogs fucking love food and are driven by it more than anything. If it does a shit on the newspaper and not on your new Nike Shox, give it a gobful of treats. Make sure it knows that shitting and pissing in the house is wrong by laying down the law. Same goes for chewing, and other stuff you don't want them to do.

Also, socialising is hugely important. Take it to obedience classes, to teach how to walk and not be a an overly excitable numpty. Giving it experience of being around other dogs at a younger age as possible, whilst teaching it to walk next to you and not running off like a little cunt, is hugely beneficial. If you keep it away from other dogs, whenever you go to the park, it will shoot off towards other dogs whenever possible to try and shag them, or sniff their arse, or have a scrap. Alot like a teenage boy

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nope, terrible advice (apart from the mollycoddle bit, i failed at that).

phil's spot on. different breeds have different temperaments but all respond to treats. Westies in particular don't respond well to discipline, as they're uppity wee things. Don't buy supermarket dog treats for training either, use cheese, chorizo, ham, chicken, bits of roast beef, anything that's got a bit of flavour and can be cut into wee bits to be fed regularly. start with basics and enroll in a puppy class. puppy class gives them a chance to get used to other dogs and learn while having distractions.

stick at it. our westie was a nightmare when we got her and we've been broken by her a few times. we always go back to treats and repetition and it really works. you need to constantly reinforce training with positive rewards. if you notice on crufts, all the dogs are constantly given a reward for their behaviour, be it a play on a tuggy or a treat.

Westies aren't dogs, they're glorified rodents.

A mixture of affection and hard discipline. Discipline is as important as reward and affection. This is the case with most dogs.

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You've got to be careful with using ham etc... our neighbour is a vet, and says it's too salty. Anoki often gets "human food" treats, because he's a spoilt cunt and he got really fat.

Totally. Human food is mostly bad. Too rich in things that Dogs can't really handle. Dog chocolate drops seem to work. I ate one once. Underwhelmed.

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Guest Gladstone

As others have said - repetition is really important.

Also, as Phil said, different dogs are motivated by different things. Some are really motivated by attention and "fun" (like throwing a toy for example) whilst others are motivated by food. Labs (our last dog) are massively motivated by food. Ellie would do anything you told her within an instant if there was food involved, but couldn't really give a fuck about chasing a toy and bringing it back. Not even as a puppy - she just couldn't be fucked with playing with toys for more than about a minute. Our previous dog was a crazy border collie and he would (literally) play for hours if you could be arsed. He was motivated by food too, but far more by chasing things and taking them back etc. He had endless energy.

The other really important thing when training a dog is consistency. Make sure that everyone involved with the puppy is doing the same things, particularly when it comes to everyday behaviour, like not jumping up on people or biting or jumping on furniture, chewing things etc. Puppies are ace, but they're at their best if trained to a decent level (by that I mean they'll generally do what they're told at the first time of asking).

Moose does make a good point regarding discipline although I don't think skelping the dog into submission is a good idea (and I think Moose was exaggerating for comedy value...), but it needs to know that the humans are in charge.

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You've got to be careful with using ham etc... our neighbour is a vet, and says it's too salty. Anoki often gets "human food" treats, because he's a spoilt cunt and he got really fat.

well you're not going to feed it a whole roast ham. just wee slithers as a reward. we mainly use chorizo though and cheese. she's a fiend for cheese. but again, just tiny bits at a time.

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Thanks for the replies - it's mainly a toilet training issue at the moment, although I feel it's probably more a lack of control on the puppy's part than actually being bad. There are loads of articles and bits of advice online, it's just a lot of them are contradictory and it's pretty daunting not knowing what to do when you have a puppy pissing all over the living room.

Think we have a routine in place now, so hopefully we will start to see the benefit sooner rather than later...

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Tell it not to just lump the ball up the park and be physical, teach it technique and ball control and it'll be a real force when it reaches the youth leagues.

I just proper lolled in a full office and had tears running down my face and then had to explain not only what had made me laugh, but why I was reading about dog training on the internet!

Steve: Why are you reading about dog training?

Derek: Cos he's hard at it!

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