OT: - Seeking advice for new dog owners | The Boneyard

OT: Seeking advice for new dog owners

87Xfer

Resident Ignorant Dope
Joined
Feb 17, 2020
Messages
3,011
Reaction Score
9,180
Looks like we've got a new family member inbound. A local breeder had the intended new owner of this pup show up drunk to pick her up, so they told the guy to get lost. They asked a friend of ours who has a dog from a prior litter if she could think of a good home for her. They sent a pic to my wife and daughter and it was pretty much all over.

We had about a dozen siberian huskies pass through our household when I was younger, but I haven't owned a dog since college. I could use any tips you have to offer, particularly related to good training resources.

doggo.jpg
 

CL82

2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champions
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
56,511
Reaction Score
206,273
What’s the breed?

I would definitely crate train her. It’s fast and easy and relies on the fact that dogs prefer not to poop and pee where they sleep. My personal approach to training dogs is affirmation and praise rather than discipline. Catch her doing things right and praise her and she will quickly pick up what you want her to do. Which is in to say that a stern word, generally “no“, or withholding of treats isn’t part of the process. It is, but I prefer to keep that to a minimum.
 

87Xfer

Resident Ignorant Dope
Joined
Feb 17, 2020
Messages
3,011
Reaction Score
9,180
What’s the breed?

I would definitely crate train her. It’s fast and easy and relies on the fact that dogs prefer not to poop and pee where they sleep. My personal approach to training dogs is affirmation and praise rather than discipline. Catch her doing things right and praise her and she will quickly pick up what you want her to do. Which is in to say that a stern word, generally “no“, or withholding of treats isn’t part of the process. It is, but I prefer to keep that to a minimum.
Thanks for that. I've never done the crate thing but we're planning to get one on the way to pick her up.

She's an Australian cattle dog, also called a red heeler. Supposed to be super smart and very trainable. Just needs LOTS of exercise.
 
Joined
Feb 20, 2019
Messages
195
Reaction Score
608
Hide your shoes. Crate her when you aren’t home. A working dog like that needs a lot of stimulation or it will act out. A long walk and a vigorous play session daily should suffice.
 

CL82

2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champions
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
56,511
Reaction Score
206,273
Thanks for that. I've never done the crate thing but we're planning to get one on the way to pick her up.

She's an Australian cattle dog, also called a red heeler. Supposed to be super smart and very trainable. Just needs LOTS of exercise.
I have a Rhodesian ridge back which has a similar personality. Smart breeds are great, because they pick up things quickly, but also tough because if they’re bored or you lose your status as top dog they will test you. Be consistent, fair and firm and it should go well. Plenty of affection too, obviously.

The thing about crate training is you have to know how long your dog will last before leaving to go to the bathroom. In that way, you can take them out just as they’re about to go and then praise the heck out of them when they go outside. It takes a little discipline on your part, but it is a super fast way to house train a dog.

Finally with a high energy breed like that, you need to make sure she gets exercised a ton. She’ll be happier, less likely to develop bad behaviors, and it’s great bonding time.

Edit: as long as you’re teaching her commands anyway, you might as well teach her hand signals too. I use a fist for “sit”, flat palm parallel to the ground chest high for “lay down”, and flat palm parallel to the ground but moving downward for “all the way down” which I use either for punishment or to cool her out if she’s over excited. I also point to my heal for heal. Train her using both at the same time and then, once she has it she will respond to either.
 
Last edited:

87Xfer

Resident Ignorant Dope
Joined
Feb 17, 2020
Messages
3,011
Reaction Score
9,180
I have a Rhodesian ridge back which has a similar personality. Smart breeds are great, because they pick up things quickly, but also tough because if they’re bored or you lose your status as top dog they will test you. Be consistent, fair and firm and it should go well. Plenty of affection too, obviously.

The thing about crate training is you have to know how long your dog will last before leaving to go to the bathroom. In that way, you can take them out just as they’re about to go and then praise the heck out of them when they go outside. It takes a little discipline on your part, but it is a super fast way to house train a dog.

Finally with a high energy breed like that, you need to make sure she gets exercised a ton. She’ll be happier, less likely to develop bad behaviors, and it’s great bonding time.

Edit: as long as you’re teaching her commands anyway, you might as well teach her hand signals too. I use a fist for “sit”, flat palm parallel to the ground chest high for “lay down”, and flat palm parallel to the ground but moving downward for “all the way down” which I use either for punishment or to cool her out if she’s over excited. I also point to my heal for heal. Train her using both at the same time and then, once she has it she respond to either.
Thanks, makes a lot of sense. I'll pay particular attention to the bathroom timing from the start - good tip!
 

87Xfer

Resident Ignorant Dope
Joined
Feb 17, 2020
Messages
3,011
Reaction Score
9,180
Name?
TBD. Probably going to let our daughter decide. She seems to be leaning toward Senna (Years ago I told her that we once had 2 huskies from a litter that we hadn't found homes for and if we had kept them I was going to name them Cosworth and Senna (after Ayrton). I guess the name stuck with her.
 

8893

Curiouser
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
29,851
Reaction Score
96,490
TBD. Probably going to let our daughter decide. She seems to be leaning toward Senna (Years ago I told her that we once had 2 huskies from a litter that we hadn't found homes for and if we had kept them I was going to name them Cosworth and Senna (after Ayrton). I guess the name stuck with her.
Cool. Good friends of ours let their daughter name their new dog when she was a toddler. She said "Chick Chock" and they went with it. I didn't think that was so cool, but I always laugh when I hear it.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
2,580
Reaction Score
7,042
All good advice above...key with crate training is outside immediately upon leaving crate...and never left unsupervised when out of crate, so you can catch her attempting to pee/poop...then right outside. Feed her in the crate too. I know it's hard with a puppy, but lot's of training sources say to only use affection as a reward during training...else it looses it's effectiveness.

I liked the Cesar Millan program...exercise/discipline...then affection. Be the pack leader

We have a Aus cattle dog/husky mix...very smart. Needs lots of exercise & play. Make sure you train her to walk on the leash properly at the outset...not letting her lead or pull. Our guy was about a year old when we adopted him and we are still working on the no pulling on leash.
 

Attachments

  • cooper (2).jpg
    cooper (2).jpg
    99.5 KB · Views: 98

dvegas

Duck Fuke
Joined
May 1, 2012
Messages
1,414
Reaction Score
3,670
Get/Use a harness instead of a collar, but get a collar with the dogs name and your cell # embroidered on it. Never comes off (except for baths), and you don't have the annoying tag (even if you chip the dog). I'd also advise crate training. And wee wee pads if its a lap dog.
 
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Messages
13,637
Reaction Score
70,128
I have a Rhodesian ridge back which has a similar personality. Smart breeds are great, because they pick up things quickly, but also tough because if they’re bored or you lose your status as top dog they will test you. Be consistent, fair and firm and it should go well. Plenty of affection too, obviously.

The thing about crate training is you have to know how long your dog will last before leaving to go to the bathroom. In that way, you can take them out just as they’re about to go and then praise the heck out of them when they go outside. It takes a little discipline on your part, but it is a super fast way to house train a dog.

Finally with a high energy breed like that, you need to make sure she gets exercised a ton. She’ll be happier, less likely to develop bad behaviors, and it’s great bonding time.

Edit: as long as you’re teaching her commands anyway, you might as well teach her hand signals too. I use a fist for “sit”, flat palm parallel to the ground chest high for “lay down”, and flat palm parallel to the ground but moving downward for “all the way down” which I use either for punishment or to cool her out if she’s over excited. I also point to my heal for heal. Train her using both at the same time and then, once she has it she will respond to either.

Good advice. One of our dogs is an English Bulldog we got at 7 weeks. For the first week or so my wife and I basically bit the bullet and traded off waking up every hour or so to take her out of her crate and outside to do her business. I was actually amazed how quickly she was house trained. She's never had an accident in the house.

Exercise is key too. Our other dog is a lab rescue and we take him on three or four walks a day so he's pretty beat by bedtime. Honestly, having two dogs is great in this regard too because they wear each other out. The lab is actually a service dog drop out so he's pretty well behaved, although for the first couple weeks he'd try to eat anything nailed down. We bought some spray that's supposed to turn them off but apparently he loved the taste of that too.

Positive reinforcement with treats works great for training too, you can cover the basic commands pretty quickly.
 

UC1995

Back to Basics!
Joined
Jul 14, 2015
Messages
943
Reaction Score
3,814
I also second the harness and no choke collars. Something that pinches the shoulders together if tries to bolt. Over the back and under the front legs are great! We have a 100 pound Neo mastiff and it is the best way from saving us from falling if she sees a squirrel.
 
Joined
Mar 27, 2020
Messages
1,171
Reaction Score
3,805
Training immediately. The group training as puppies can be good but it's all positive reinforcement. Herding breeds tend to want to bite feet and eat everything like shoes.

We have a year old Husky/Lab mix and did the training ASAP, and we also have an individual trainer that comes to work on specific things we need help with on an on-call basis. Cannot recommend this enough, if it's in the budget.

However, you have to be bought in to working on the training with the dog, not just assuming that the trainer will do it.
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
Messages
47
Reaction Score
249
Get “the puppy primer” by Patricia McConnell . As soon as you have your first round of distemper and bordatella vaccines joint a puppy/training class. Realize that the dog won’t be fully protected from infections until the last of the vaccine series when greater than 16 weeks. Get pet insurance .
 

nomar

#1 Casual Fan™
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
15,315
Reaction Score
39,387
Sorry to hijack this thread, but my 6-year-old goldendoodle, Ollie (there's your advice right there, 87) has gotten worse in terms of barking. We live in a city and he's barking at everybody he hears going by and everybody that comes in, whether he knows them or not.

We bought a collar that shot out citronella when he barked-- didn't work. We bought a non-shock collar which has two protruberances that vibrate against his throat and which beeps when he barks -- that worked great at first, but now it doesn't bother him at all, even after I turned it up to 11.

We hired a trainer but she got sick. I guess we could get another one. But short of shock collars, does anybody have any recommendations as to something we can buy to curb this maniac's barking?

Also, yes on immediate potty training (do not over-rely on weewee pads inside the house) -- your dog will learn to go outside faster than you think. Yes on crate training. For a few months, when we left the house we would lock him in the crate, but soon enough we began leaving the door open. He now likes the crate and goes into it for naps. We trained him to go into on the prompt "kennel up" but now we don't even need to say it; once he knows we're leaving and not taking him, he goes right into it.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
2,035
Reaction Score
4,432
If you really want it trained, like really trained, then send it away to be trained. You're not going to be able to replicate what a professional trainer can do.

You can 100% tell dogs that have had professional training - you won't be doing this, but for guys that hunt their dogs know what I mean, it's 100% not a set it and forget it deal it's constant work post the professional trainer.
 

8893

Curiouser
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
29,851
Reaction Score
96,490
Sorry to hijack this thread, but my 6-year-old goldendoodle, Ollie (there's your advice right there, 87) has gotten worse in terms of barking. We live in a city and he's barking at everybody he hears going by and everybody that comes in, whether he knows them or not.

We bought a collar that shot out citronella when he barked-- didn't work. We bought a non-shock collar which has two protruberances that vibrate against his throat and which beeps when he barks -- that worked great at first, but now it doesn't bother him at all, even after I turned it up to 11.

We hired a trainer but she got sick. I guess we could get another one. But short of shock collars, does anybody have any recommendations as to something we can buy to curb this maniac's barking?

Also, yes on immediate potty training (do not over-rely on weewee pads inside the house) -- your dog will learn to go outside faster than you think. Yes on crate training. For a few months, when we left the house we would lock him in the crate, but soon enough we began leaving the door open. He now likes the crate and goes into it for naps. We trained him to go into on the prompt "kennel up" but now we don't even need to say it; once he knows we're leaving and not taking him, he goes right into it.
Have you tried BarxBuddy?


We adopted a 2 1/2 year old Springer Spaniel rescue a year and a half ago (to accompany our 12 year old Springer) and she had (and still has to some degree) a few unwanted behaviors we needed to curb, especially jumping up on counters (and people). My mother-in-law loaned us one of these and it works very well. Now all we need to do is grab it and point it and she stops whatever she's doing.
 
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
Messages
47
Reaction Score
249
Nomar- you can order purina calming care online but it takes a couple months to work. You can get an adaptil collar to see if help. Your dog may need a combo of training and actual medication, and a veterinary behavior specialist is the best for that.
 
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Messages
408
Reaction Score
5,590
Dogs are the absolute best.

Find one command that they take to and train them like heck with treats and praise to master doing that. Like really really master it in any situation.

One of our dogs took to “sit” the other much more to “down” so we went with it for each of them. Do that and you always have the one go-to when you need them to stop doing whatever behavior it is and pay attention to you.
 
Last edited:

phillionaire

esta noche somos mantequilla
Joined
Aug 28, 2011
Messages
3,505
Reaction Score
11,427
Get a bell for your door and train it to ring it when it has to go out. Every time you take it out ring the bell and give it a treat and keep reinforcing the bell bathroom treat connection. We did it with our new puppy and it took about two weeks before he figured it out and it’s been great.
 

Online statistics

Members online
594
Guests online
3,644
Total visitors
4,238

Forum statistics

Threads
155,779
Messages
4,031,376
Members
9,864
Latest member
Sad Tiger


Top Bottom