Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - The "A_J is a new dog owner & he needs help" thread

Acetylene · 12-16-2006, 07:18 AM

Hi AJ,

For your food questions, you can check out the pet food thread on this forum to see some alternate viewpoints and then decide for yourself how you want to proceed. Personally, I do not think food is the right place to economize. You are made of what you eat, and so is your dog!

Shelties are one of the smartest breeds in the dog kingdom, and intensely eager to please. I don't know what they are mixed with (obviously that will influence their personality) but you should assume that your dogs want to please you and merely need the understanding and self-control to do so.

The mouthing is a problem for all babies, especially when they are taken home so young. The good news is, they will learn from each other something called "bite inhibition". This is a fancy word for learning that bites hurt and they should be gentle.

As far as training them not to mouth people, the best and kindest way to do it is to behave the way another puppy would behave, as they are programmed to learn this way already. If the puppy bites, yelp "OUCH" and act hurt and offended, and stop the game immediately. Go ahead and ham it up so they get the point that they hurt you and should not bite you.

This introduces intrinsic consequences as a training method, always ideal (though not always possible). Whenever you can, you want the consequences, good or bad, of your pups' actions to be logically related to those actions. Thus, biting you makes you sad and not want to play with them; playing nice makes you happy and WANT to play with them. Very simple and directly related, and therefore easier to understand than trying to connect biting with hearing a strange noise. Some people refer to this as the difference between "training" and "teaching".

As for the peeing in the night...you can take away the puppies' water at about 8 at night and that will help them sleep through the night. They won't be harmed by going a little longer without water and it will help them to gain bowel control.

12-16-2006, 07:18 AM	#17 (permalink)
Acetylene Addict Location: under a rock	Hi AJ, For your food questions, you can check out the pet food thread on this forum to see some alternate viewpoints and then decide for yourself how you want to proceed. Personally, I do not think food is the right place to economize. You are made of what you eat, and so is your dog! Shelties are one of the smartest breeds in the dog kingdom, and intensely eager to please. I don't know what they are mixed with (obviously that will influence their personality) but you should assume that your dogs want to please you and merely need the understanding and self-control to do so. The mouthing is a problem for all babies, especially when they are taken home so young. The good news is, they will learn from each other something called "bite inhibition". This is a fancy word for learning that bites hurt and they should be gentle. As far as training them not to mouth people, the best and kindest way to do it is to behave the way another puppy would behave, as they are programmed to learn this way already. If the puppy bites, yelp "OUCH" and act hurt and offended, and stop the game immediately. Go ahead and ham it up so they get the point that they hurt you and should not bite you. This introduces intrinsic consequences as a training method, always ideal (though not always possible). Whenever you can, you want the consequences, good or bad, of your pups' actions to be logically related to those actions. Thus, biting you makes you sad and not want to play with them; playing nice makes you happy and WANT to play with them. Very simple and directly related, and therefore easier to understand than trying to connect biting with hearing a strange noise. Some people refer to this as the difference between "training" and "teaching". As for the peeing in the night...you can take away the puppies' water at about 8 at night and that will help them sleep through the night. They won't be harmed by going a little longer without water and it will help them to gain bowel control. __________________ There's no justice. There's just us.