puppy education

[Meenah]

Any hints to this puppy training business? We have our third class tonight, and Winston (4 1/2 month miniature dachsund) isn't really catching on!!! We are stuck on sit. It seems his little butt just doesn't want to sit all the way down. He does have a sweet temperament, doesn't seem to be stubborn, but I'm beginning to wonder who controls who!!!
Luanne

He's a Dachshund isn't he? We had soooo much trouble with Snickers. Let's just say what my Vet told me. "He's German, what do you expect?" I guess we were just tooo much alike as I am German also. Hope you have better luck than I did

Trisha

[Meenah]

That explains it, my paternal grandfather was German!!!!
Winston actually did a little bit better tonight. I tried a different treat to use in training, maybe this will help. I'm not sure how much time to spend with training each day.
Luanne

[Michele]

Luanne...if you have 10-15 minutes to spend training him each day that would be great....you may have to split that over 2 or 3 times throughout the day if his attention span is short.

Does Winston like the treats? Does he gobble them up? Tui (my dog) doesn't really like treats....and she takes forever to eat them....we used praise as her reward for sitting etc...so she is trained to do things without having to have a treat in our hand...the only bad part to that is she doens't listen really well for other people...only for Russ and I.

When you put him in the sit does he have to stay in it for a while or just for a few seconds....if it's a while he might not like it...and maybe you could work on the down. Tui has bad hips and hates sitting for prolonged periods (more than 20-30 seconds) so we are very careful about putting her in a down if it's going to be longer than that...otherwise she just stands up out of the sit.

Little dogs are more difficult to train....and he might be a little on the young side where his attention span is just too short.

Do you have him sit before you feed him? That really helps the training...also when you walk him outside...make him sit at the door before going in or out...and try to make him wait for you to go first. Helps establish you as the boss and helps him get used to sitting.

It's frustrating at first but he should get it.

[Meenah]

Thanks so much. As soon as his butt touches the ground I give him the treat and praise him. He is getting better. I am using the treat and hand signals, they told me in class not to actually say sit until he understands the hand signal. I will split the sessions up as you suggested, he is just a little guy.

I was always a cat person, but this little puppy has won my heart. He has the sweetest temperament, he loves to cuddle. I have to figure out how to use my scanner and post a picture of him.

I was in Alexandria,Va two weeks ago, and I took him with me. We went to a "dogggie happy hour" . There were about 75 dogs there. Winston had a blast. I have pictures of him with Great Danes and little bulldogs. The happy hour was at the Holiday Inn in the courtyard. They had water our for the dogs and treats if you wanted them. They also had drinks & food for sale for the humans!!!! All of the profits went to the K9 division of the police department. What a great idea and a great time.

[PrincessFiona]

He's German, what do you expect?

I have a sign hanging in my kitchen...it reads: "being married to a german builds character"

Boy does it!!!

Sounds like things are going better, Luanne...Dachsunds are sooo cute!!!!

kris