Puppy Training.

Training a dog is time consuming, but rewarding.  You don't have to spend an hour at a time in a training session; in fact it's best not to.  We spend little sessions of 10-15 minutes a time with Brienne and we consistently reinforce behaviors at random times, like sitting before meals and such.

Here are some of the things I have learned through trial and error while training Brienne:

Clicker Training:
This is something that I (regrettably) have just now started.  To do this you must first "load" the clicker.  "Loading" a clicker is quite simple; what you do is click and then treat.  Repeat this until your dog looks at you expecting a treat when you click, that's when you know he or she gets the idea that clicking means there is a treat to come.
Clicker training allows you to reward in a more timely and consistent manner - you will get faster results with this method.
You don't have to buy a clicker, you can use a Snapple bottle cap (or any cap that pops when you push it), or you can simply say "yes."  But you still have to "load" the system before it becomes truly effective.

Lure Training:
Lure training is awesome for training sit, lie down, play dead, roll over, and a whole host of other tricks.  The concept is simple: lead your dog into the position you want by holding a treat in front of his or her nose.  Click or reward at the right moment, and repeat.

Discouraging jumping:
If you're an owner of a large dog like we are, you'll appreciate the importance of having your dog greet with all four paws on the ground.  Brienne is 66 pounds of furry love and you better believe she comes at you with full force - there's a reason we call her a truck dog.  We have children in our home quite frequently, so this behavior is unacceptable.  It's all in the name of puppy excitement, but 66 pounds is a lot of weight and she can do a lot of damage pretty quickly without meaning to.  I've done a lot of searching, no, scouring of the interwebs to find a solution to this, and I've tried several approaches.
Let me tell you right now kneeing your dog in the chest doesn't work.  Not for us anyway.  It might be because hubby wrestles Brienne during playtime, but whatever the reason kneeing her encourages the jumping.  So that idea is out.
Having your dog on lead is a good idea in general.  This way, if you have unexpected company you can step on the lead to prevent your dog's front paws from ever leaving the ground.  Do make sure to leave enough slack that your doggy can look around freely.
What we're trying now is behavior conditioning.  It seems to be working better than the above two methods.  What you do is confine your dog with a baby gate or puppy play pen before your guest enters your home.  You and your guest cannot pay any attention to your dog until he or she quiets.  This can get difficult if your dog is anything like Brienne; she gets loud, and I mean loud.  Resist the urge to tell your puppy "no" because any attention is inadvertently rewarding the behavior.  Once he or she is quiet, praise quietly (clickers are great for this) and give treats.  Give lots of treats for any relaxed behavior like what I call a "butt-flop."  Butt-flops happen when your doggy is lying down and his or her bum moves to the side so that his or her hind paws are no longer directly under his or her bum.  Eventually the association between guests and excitement will fade.
The hardest part about training your puppy not to jump is asking other people to comply.  I stopped taking Brienne out for walks because people on the creek path would stop and let her jump all over them.  When I asked them politely to discourage her, they would usually reply with something along the lines of, "oh, I don't mid if she jumps on me."  Yes, but  I mind if she jumps on you.  Once the stranger replies in this way, there's really nothing else to be done because if I insisted that she not jump up, the stranger would generally get offended.  I will never understand why, all I was asking was for my training efforts to be respected, and I was asking nicely.  Ah well.


Those were the major things I wish I'd picked up on sooner.  Just thought I'd share them with ya.

Puppy Lessons.

Having a puppy has taught me quite a bit about myself.  The most important lesson in the myriad of learning experiences is that I am not a puppy person.  I love dogs, and really all animals, but having a puppy is something else.  I won't be doing it again. 
The most annoying lesson in this whole adventure is that I am not in control of my temper the way I thought I was.  Particularly in the morning before the wee one and I take morning nap.  It's all well and good to say I'm in control of my emotions, but applying that to trying to catch a puppy for twenty minutes in the freezing cold is a different matter entirely.  That situation is infuriating because Brienne thinks she's playing a hilarious game while I'm fuming angry with her.  The other day I scolded her for ten minutes once I finally got her inside.  Because dogs can understand English... 

I'm not proud to say that I've smacked her with things.  Most notably the brand new (to me) shoe I had just brought home from Goodwill.  After nursing the baby to sleep for bed I got back up and found that she had grabbed the shoe off the back of the couch and decimated the heel and toe.  I was beside myself with anger; I had been really happy to find some shoes, dangit.
I feel like a little person when this happens.  I should be better than that.

So I decided to channel my frustration into a guide for anyone who maybe needs help with their puppy, or dog.

First of all - and most important:
Do not use negative reinforcement.  This does not mean that you can't tell your puppy "no."  This means that you shouldn't do things like shove your puppy's nose in their pee/poop while potty training, or smack the dog with an item you don't want them to have.  Why?  Because smacking your puppy with an object he or she is not supposed to have teaches them to be afraid of you.  The punishment is connected to you and not the object.  For this reason, if you shove your puppy's nose in an accident they just had, you're teaching them that pottying in front of you is bad which can result in poop eating (dispose of the evidence) and ninja peeing.  And no one wants a ninja puppy, because walking into a room and stepping in puppy pee is very unpleasant.  I wish, in all the things I read about potty training, this explanation had been provided.  Instead, everything I read said, "don't do this!" without going into the consequences of actually doing it.

Remind yourself as much as you need to that a bad behaviour is simply the result of lack of learning, or some kind of reinforcement.  In no way does a puppy spite you.  There is no thought process in dogs that says, "I know my owner dislikes this, so I'm going to do it to tick them off.  That'll show them!"

If your dog is not doing something you're asking - like coming when called - take a moment to think about why.  Rarely is this the dog's fault.  Here are some potential reasons, using the example of coming when called:

• Your puppy doesn't know the command yet.
• You've called your puppy to you to punish him or her.
• You've unintentionally punished your puppy when you called them.
  Brienne won't come if there's snow on the ground because if she comes inside, the fun ends.
• If you're not in a position to enforce the command and your puppy chooses to ignore you while he or she is still learning.
  What this does is teaches your puppy that the command actually means nothing, so no response is need on his or her part.

There is no need to use force when training your dog.  Restraint (like being on lead) is another matter entirely, and is probably better than total freedom in the beginning.  I'm talking about shoving your puppy's bum down when asking them to sit.  A simple way to avoid this is by lure training.

Don't scoff at clicker training.  A clicker is just $2 at Petco, and can be a really useful tool for timing and consistency when teaching a new command.

Have a baby gate, crate, puppy play pen, or some other means of confining your puppy to certain areas of your house.  This is handy for training a puppy how to properly greet guests, and to generally keep them from mischief.

One of the more important things to remember is that until your puppy is 100% reliable in all environments and situations, have them on lead.  Not only is it embarrassing when your puppy runs away and refuses to return, it's not safe.
If you're not confident in your puppy's recall command, don't take the chance.

On a related note:
We kept Brienne on lead inside for a long time.  This helped tons with potty training and other situations (like greeting, and Halloween trick-or-treaters) by allowing me to keep her near me at all times.  It also did wonders for my stress levels because when I sat down to nurse the baby I wasn't spending that whole time wondering where the dog had gone off to, and what mischief she was getting into.
Alternatively, you can use a puppy play pen.

Get a training lead!  We have a 50 footer, and it is great for playing fetch and teaching various things - especially come when called.  The idea of going to a dog park is less intimidating now, because I know I can have some measure of control over situations Brienne might get herself into.

The Golden Rule to any dog - especially an untrained one - is to be patient.  It is way easier said than done, but it helps if you don't project your emotions onto your pet.  Like I said before, your puppy doesn't hate you, he or she just doesn't know better.

The Silver Rule is consistency.  Patience first, then consistency.


Here are two youtube channels that have helped me immensely!
Zak George
Tab289