Stacy_ wrote:
Tyson never chewed anything he wasn't supposed to while outside his crate until I had to go on an extended stay with my mother and left the husband in charge of the dogs. Let's just say my husband did NOT get an 'A' in "pays attention" and my garden shoes have nice "DS Bling" on them now in the form of holes.
OMG Stacy this just happened to me with my brother. I came back to my shoes having nice awkward holes in them. The response to my "WTH" question was, "I was putting on my shoes and he did that."
Rob, yes, that is how I worked with Hendrix. As a personal thing I only use "no" for "OMG that is soooo wrong" situations like when I turn around and he's halfway under the fence. I use "ah ah" or "eh" because it catches their attention. I think the first week Hendrix was convinced "eh" meant "freeze" because he would when I said it. But that's a personal choice and "no" works well too, just make sure you have a word for when it's bad. I seem to use a variety of words without thinking and Hendrix seems to know "hey" means "yo, dude, whatcha doing?", "eh" or "ah ah" is "okay I need your attention", "no sir" is usually a bit more serious but not wrong, like a frown, and "no" is "this is wrong." They learn fast. I also mark what he's doing wrong. Like, "No, we don't chew on the couch. Where's your toy? Let's chew on moose" or something. Then I also would shake the toy and move it around, therefore making it WAY more interesting than chewing on the couch. Sometimes we would play a little and sometimes not. I would just make sure whatever I was trading was of a higher value even by a bit. Also, as a side note, for wood chewing there's a company (called Puppy Stages or something, they're usually next to Nylabones) that makes chews that smell and taste like wood. When I saw he was going for wood, I would trade out with that. Also, apple bitters are great for the items he just wouldn't leave alone…. like the baseboards.
As far as trashcans, my one friend recommend putting cayenne around the rim. My dude won't go near my desk trashcan now. Though, if they bypass the pepper, I haven't quite figured that one out yet. For the kitchen, we have a trashcan that pulls out of a drawer. So when he hops up to investigate, first let him look, and if he was going for it, I'd start closing the can and say "no, we don't eat garbage." I also will put my palm in front of his nose, almost cupping his muzzle but not touching, and very gently start to push or direct away. He falls back to all four paws with that. I still mark why I'm doing it and redirect. Also works great for counter jumping attempts. I also try to implement a behavior I want him to do if I open it. Like counters, he will sit and stare at me now. He'll occasionally jump up if he thinks there's something he wants, and then I correct with a no and redirect.
As for the leave it… oh boy. This was a fun one and we still work on it daily. As a BTW, the whole trick where you lay cookies on their paws and they leave it? Yeah, my guy jerks the paw with the cookie on it and stares at it as if it has insulted him. Hilarious but not the same trick. Anyways, so how I started teaching it was sitting on the floor and holding a treat. I would show him the cookie, and then close my hand around it. He tried to get it. The second he backed away or stopped trying to get the treat, clicked and gave him the treat. Once he caught on the idea, then I started marking it with the command. I would show the cookie, close my hand as I was saying "leave it", and if he didn't go for it click and treat. Now, I did the next step two ways. I worked on duration and to mix it up, would also keep my hand open and only close around if he made a move. If you watch their heads, you can see when they're about to move and beat them. Though he did steal some off me when I wasn't fast enough.
As a side note, I use "uh oh" when I take the treat away in training if he does something wrong. Like when he was just not stopping trying to get the cookie from my hand, I would say "uh oh" and remove my hand. Wait a second, bring back the hand and redo the exercise including showing the cookie. "uh oh" still works as a "hey I asked you to sit and you didn't."
Once I was confident he had the concept, I moved to the floor. I would place a treat on the floor, say "leave it" and if he moved towards it I would cover it up again. They catch on quickly when they realize they are controlling it. We've gotten up to ignoring something for 30 seconds, and "leave it" applies to an assortment of things. Also, practicing with toys and other non-food items helps. Though with toys I always get this hurt, "but I LOVE that toy" look… so instead of food we have to play with the toy for a minute. Ironically, we practice his "out" this way too. So it's play, "out", pause, drop on floor, "leave it", wait and mark, and play, rinse and repeat.
As for potty, my guy is just learning the bells too. They are magical. I also taught him what each thing was, "go pee" and "go caca", but he learned to pee on command in like 3 tries… and would if you even spelled pee. It worked a bit too well. I never got mad for accidents, just took him outside and tried to get him to go again or picked him up mid pee so we finished outside. Consistency for that is best and until they learn only go outside, not saying the magic words.
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