How Many People Should Be In Charge Of 'training' A Pup?

[persephone]

Your puppy is not vaccinated fully yet- please do not expose her to areas where other dogs go a lot

regarding getting out of her collar- if you use a martingale she will not be able to .. or if you do a flat collar up tight enough she will also not be able to! it is all your responsibility .. to set her up so she just CANNOT make too many mistakes

[persephone]

She's 9 weeks old Goldee. She's far too young for any walk longer than a few minutes.

If she's over exercised you can end up with big issues from a skeletal perspective. I'd be issuing an edict = you do NOT walk my dog without me!!

[goldee]

Your puppy is not vaccinated fully yet- please do not expose her to areas where other dogs go a lot

regarding getting out of her collar- if you use a martingale she will not be able to .. or if you do a flat collar up tight enough she will also not be able to! it is all your responsibility .. to set her up so she just CANNOT make too many mistakes

Oh no no i have been very strict that she is not allowed out what so ever until she is vacinated and even then i am waiting a few weeks to be safe!

[goldee]

Thanks! I getting her in the next available puppy school class and hope to take her to obidence classes too. People are eager to take her out for walks to the beach etc, but she'll try to get out of her lead (at least until i know how to control/train and teach her it!) which will just take time.

I wonder if i am better of waiting until i have a bit of control and teach her some things before! So at least i know i can control her on the lead.

She's 9 weeks old Goldee. She's far too young for any walk longer than a few minutes.

If she's over exercised you can end up with big issues from a skeletal perspective. I'd be issuing an edict = you do NOT walk my pup without me!!

Seriously, if you cannot get your parents to respect your wishes for this pup, I highly recommend you return her. She will not profit from the current situation and you only get one chance to raise her right.

What sort of training/corrections do you think she'll get on walks from the family member who thinks slapping her face is OK?

Oh no i dont mean a long walk, just take her down there (not let her walk there). But even then i dont plan on doing that for at least another 3-4 weeks.

No, there is no need to return her. They are doing what they think is best - even tho i dont and she is my dog so ultimatly i decide. So i'll have to be very clear with them of what i want. I will be moving out in a year.

[corvus]

IME, no two people signal in the same way, even if you've talked about the signal and everyone uses the same one. Essentially, the dog has to learn a new signal for every person. Erik is even more discriminating, which is why I now don't put anything on signal until he's offering it confidently in different situations. Otherwise he gets confused and so do I. Once he's started to generalise the behaviour, he usually generalises the signal much more readily.

So I agree that it's probably easier to have one person teaching all the new things and then having other people in the house practising known things. Having said that, my dogs just learnt two signals. No biggie. It took them a little bit longer is all.

[koalathebear]

goldee - I hope you're not feeling too anxious/overwhelmed after making your post I know the feeling all too well of: "OMG, I've committed yet another cardinal sin in puppy-raising that can't be rectified and my poor puppy's fledgling psyche is scarred forever!!!"

I agree with everyone else that it's probably not great that poor Ava's getting mixed training signals from family members but hopefully you'll be able to assert your position as her owner. Ava's a cute little puppy - everyone wants to play with her but eventually the novelty will wear off and you'll be the one sorting out everything - including all the less glam stuff like poo and bad puppy manners :D Hang in there and stay strong ... :D I know it can be hard - I don't even live with my family anymore and their disapproval over the way we treat Elbie can be a bit tough sometimes. They think we spoil him (i.e. not wanting to leave him alone for too long at once) and that he's of working dog stock so should be tougher.

As for our household, we didn't know that only one person is supposed to do all the training so both my boyfriend and I train Elbie and he seems fine and very happy with it. We are generally both around for training sessions, though, so we do try to keep consistent and Elbie doesn't seem confused at all about our commands - we're training him to respond to both voice and hand gestures. I was the one who started teaching him "are you shy" and my boyfriend helped with getting it more polished. My boyfriend trained Elbie how to spin and I gave suggestions.

For obedience classes though, just to make sure it's not confusing at all, my boyfriend will be his handler and I'll watch from the sidelines - I'll help with obedience practice at home.

Edited June 3, 2010 by koalathebear

[Bubitty]

Hi Goldee,

As mentioned already it would be best if one person took over training your puppy.

Also please protect the poor puppy from being slapped. There is nothing a 9 week old puppy can learn from being slapped in the face.

[goldee]

Hi Goldee,

As mentioned already it would be best if one person took over training your puppy.

Also please protect the poor puppy from being slapped. There is nothing a 9 week old puppy can learn from being slapped in the face.

Thanks. I'll make it clear to them. Oh, and she isn't being slapped. Its a gentle tap - but even that i dont want them to do. Ive made it clear i dont want them doing that, so hopefully it got through

[goldee]

goldee - I hope you're not feeling too anxious/overwhelmed after making your post I know the feeling all too well of: "OMG, I've committed yet another cardinal sin in puppy-raising that can't be rectified and my poor puppy's fledgling psyche is scarred forever!!!"

I agree with everyone else that it's probably not great that poor Ava's getting mixed training signals from family members but hopefully you'll be able to assert your position as her owner. Ava's a cute little puppy - everyone wants to play with her but eventually the novelty will wear off and you'll be the one sorting out everything - including all the less glam stuff like poo and bad puppy manners Hang in there and stay strong ... I know it can be hard - I don't even live with my family anymore and their disapproval over the way we treat Elbie can be a bit tough sometimes. They think we spoil him (i.e. not wanting to leave him alone for too long at once) and that he's of working dog stock so should be tougher.

As for our household, we didn't know that only one person is supposed to do all the training so both my boyfriend and I train Elbie and he seems fine and very happy with it. We are generally both around for training sessions, though, so we do try to keep consistent and Elbie doesn't seem confused at all about our commands - we're training him to respond to both voice and hand gestures. I was the one who started teaching him "are you shy" and my boyfriend helped with getting it more polished. My boyfriend trained Elbie how to spin and I gave suggestions.

For obedience classes though, just to make sure it's not confusing at all, my boyfriend will be his handler and I'll watch from the sidelines - I'll help with obedience practice at home.

Thanks, Koalathebear

well, maybe just a bit! And the suggestion of returning her shocked me. She is in a good, loving home. I am just trying to train her differently to our last dog who had a great and spoilt life but didn't get much training as i was a kid and parents worked. We had her for 14 years and people just need to adjust to having a dog again (its been 3 years) and not do the same bad habbits with did with the last dog.

I am trying to put my foot down so to speak with people - everyone else has their own ideas they want to do - such as taking her out to the beach. I've been strict in not letting her go out in public, only back yard (wont let her out the front until she's had all her vacinations).

She is getting the hang of the command 'sit' but i will do it in a different tone of voice than someone else will (they will be much louder/harsher). I think once the basic commands are in, it should be fine, but its not helping when i try to teach her something and people butt in while im doing it!

Yeah, with obedience i plan on going alone with her.

thanks.