Tag Archives: training a new lab puppy

July 20, 2017 · 9:19 am

Amber at 4-1/2 Months

Amber has decided she likes Molly’s bed under my computer counter. She goes in and out over and over, stepping on my feet, making my chair swivel, squeaky toy in her mouth. She thinks it’s a great game.

I think we’re over the hump on her digestive problem now. She has remained playful and happy throughout, but is now almost completely back to normal. I’m going to start giving her a bit of puppy food again and we’ll see if that’s a problem or not.

She is spending more and more time with us inside. We taught her “PLACE” (the big bed in the living room) and she either plays contently or goes to sleep, over and over.  She and Molly sit together on the bed, or Molly chooses to sit elsewhere, but isn’t freaking out. Amber is dive-bombing her less over time.

One of her favorite things now is for either my husband or me to come over and sit on the floor beside her ‘place.’  She knows it’s then okay to come sit with us, play, and love – and we do a lot of that.

This morning we worked on “DOWN.” She didn’t want to cooperate at first, but changed her mind when she discovered she got a cookie if she was down.  We’re working on SO many things all at the same time. One of the important things now is to take food from our hands without teeth. I’ve found that if I touch her eat, she will take the treat more gently. Who knew?

We keep reminding ourselves, one day at a time.

Meanwhile, I’m making sure that a couple of times a day, Molly and I sit together. She’s my lap dog, and she loves it. I don’t want her to feel she’s getting lost in the shuffle of training the new puppy.

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June 15, 2017 · 4:10 pm

Amber’s Rug

Amber is a very oral, chewy puppy, not knowing how to handle things unless she’s tasted them first. It’s how my arms and the back of my hands got punctures, scrapes, and mysterious lumps and bruises on them when we first got her. She didn’t ‘bite,’ as such. She turns her head quickly from side to side with her mouth open, particularly when she’s excited, and her puppy teeth are very sharp!

 

We put a multicolored woven rug – the kind that many people use as an exercise mat, or a naptime rug for kindergardeners – in Amber’s crate when we brought it home. We also put a towel in there for extra padding and comfort, plus a soft chew toy.

This is what remains of the rug. It will no longer even THINK about lying flat. It was to the point that little bits of a plastic-like ‘stuff’ were on the floor on the porch. Since we didn’t want her actually EATING the rug, we went looking for a bed that we could put inside the crate. I threw this poor thing away.

You can see the new ‘bed’ that now lines Amber’s crate. It probably won’t look like this for long, so I snapped a couple of pics of it in its pristine state.

We have always used a spray bottle filled with water to deter our dogs and cats from doing things we don’t like. This has – and continues to – work with the two cats and Molly, our 12-year-old cocker spaniel/schnauzer fuzzy white dog. Not so with Amber! She LOVES to be sprayed with water. She wants to BITE the stream of water.

My husband played ‘bite-the-water-stream’ with Amber with the hose while I swept and then mopped the back porch, and then emptied the kiddie pool. She was totally wet and laughing with her tongue hanging out when they finished. She then proceeded to jump into the fresh kiddie pool and splash around even more.

We are definitely in an era now where nothing stays clean, dry, or in one piece around here for very long. My broom and mop are getting a workout. We again thank Cathy for telling us about a pet gate with a people door. I think she may have saved us from breaking bones. Amber can now jump over the gate we had across the doorway. She can no longer go UNDER it, but when we raised it to where she couldn’t jump over it – yet – I was no longer able to scramble over it to get to the porch! THANK YOU again, Cathy.

My sister-in-law, Mary Lou, recommended another good thing in our efforts to stop Amber from chewing on things that are not chew toys. It’s called “Bitter Apple” Spray. I just ordered some, though – at this point – I’d have to spray the whole HOUSE. I’ll have it ready when she zeros in on a few things, continuing to go back to them, like the basket I have in the office, and spray THAT.

One day at a time.

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June 14, 2017 · 12:39 pm

Amber is Training Us Again

 

Amber goes right to a basket I have in the office to chew on the edge, so we got her this new rope. She LIKES it, but still goes back to try to chew on the basket after playing with the rope awhile – with or without a person on the other end.

Amber was regularly spilling the ‘no-spill’ water bowl we got her, so we bought a small metal one with a rubber edge. She immediately chewed off the rubber edge, and then dumps the dish before we even leave the porch! I don’t want her to be without water, so we found another one at the co-op today. It’s the same design – metal with sloping sides and a rubber edge – but it’s LARGE. My husband took it out to the porch and filled it up. He said she hadn’t dumped it by the time he came in again….

Amber is pretty good on the retractable leash, walking pretty well with us now. She is no longer afraid going up and down steps. The problem comes when she sees something she really wants, like one of the cats, our dog, Molly, a dragonfly, a clump of dirt she found yesterday…..  and pulls so hard I’m afraid she’ll pull me off the steps or make one of us fall. We ordered a new retractable ‘no-pull’ leash from Chewy.com and it was delivered today. It attaches to her harness, then has a strap that goes around her tummy. When she pulls, it tightens up and squeezes her belly. We tried it today, and it SEEMS to work. She pulled, it squeezed, and she stopped and sat down. We’ll keep working with this and see how it goes.

We’ve been trying to encourage her to take care of business when we walk her. We’ve gotten it across because she LOVES treats. We say, “Hurry Up!” and she pees. She gets a “Good Girl!” and a treat. This works like a charm, with the complication that she’s a smart dog. She now thinks she should get a treat for each pee, and so pees about 4 times while we’re out. We only give her a treat for the first one, so she’s a bit frustrated, looking at us and our pockets, not believing she shouldn’t get another treat. She finally takes care of the rest of her business and gets another treat – but we have to watch her because she cheats! She ACTS like she’s taking care of business, but doesn’t….

She thinks we’re ‘pretty nice,’  but VERY slow to catch on.

 

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June 5, 2017 · 9:05 am

“Inside” and “Outside”

Trying to teach a dog the difference between “inside” and “outside” is difficult.

Amber knows that when she’s ‘inside’ the crate, she doesn’t want to make a mess. She waits – and we get up early – to take her ‘outside’ each morning.

Now she SEEMS to be learning that when she’s ‘inside’ on the back porch, she shouldn’t make a mess. She hasn’t made a mistake in over two weeks now! We take her ‘outside’ 6 to 8 times a day – sometimes for a ‘hurry up’ walk where we take care of business and go back ‘inside,’ and several times a day much longer walks, where we explore, sniff, see interesting stuff, interact with other family members, find interesting sticks to chew on, or take a dip in the kiddie pool.

Now we’re bringing her ‘inside’ the house a couple of times a day. Sometimes it’s only Amber and her people. Other times she sees Molly, our 12-year-old cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross, who barely manages to stay in the room with her, since Amber is so busy jumping into her face, wanting to lick her and play. Sometimes our two cats are ‘inside.’ Abby, the older cat, tries to disappear, hissing. Smoke taunts Amber. They get nose to nose, Amber’s tail wagging madly. Then Smoke calmly whaps Amber in the face.

These ‘inside the house’ visits are short, intense, and are getting a bit better each time. Amber gets excited, of course; and even though she has just been ‘outside’ to take care of business just before she comes in, might have an accident.

Each day we make progress. Amber’s vocabulary now includes:

  • “Amber,”
  • “sit,”
  • “off,”
  • “no,”
  • “cookie,”
  • “Good Girl”
  • “Walk”
  • “crate”
  • “hurry up” – if it’s first thing in the morning

She is also responds, but may or may not actually:

  • “come”
  • “bring it”, and
  • “leave it”
  • “no pull”

Sometimes she has to wear a barking collar, but is having to wear it less and less. Each day she is a bit better on not pulling on the leash, though all bets are off if there is a dog or cat to be greeted.

She loves anything that squeaks. Yesterday while we were out, we found a pig that makes a farting sound. She LOVES it. :0)

To sum it up – EXTREMELY active, happy puppy. Exhausted, but in love ‘parents.’

“The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.” ~ Unknown

 

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