Can with Pennies???

[rjsone]

I have heard mention of filling a can with pennies and shaking it when my puppy is misbehaving. Does anyone have any experience with this method?

I fear that he may become too dependent on hearing the sound of the can. Then, "no" and "stop" may not mean as much. What happens when the can is not handy?

My puppy is only 9 weeks old, and I have only had him for 3 days. But, I want to get everything right from the beginning.

 

[jjones]

I had heard the same thing-only to use it if your dog was jumping. At first the dog was curious and then it wanted to play with it-it had absolutely no effect on it at all. However, we do have a friend that has a beagle and it worked wonderfully for her little jumper. I feel boxers are in a class all their own. What I have seen work on other dogs, does nothing for mine.

 

[Alisha Mobley]

Our trainer uses these for his dogs. He said he has cans of pennies setting around his house so he can gain access to one at any time. The purpose of this is kinda like a verbal correction. Not only does he shake cans w/ pennies but throws small pieces of chain close to the dog. This also is mainly for the noise of the chains. They are very light weight and if accidently hits the dog it won't hurt them. These items probably wont work uless your dog knows they are meant to be a correction. They need to be used w/ a corrective verbal command also. I haven't tried the can and pennies but have tried the chain method and it doesn't work for mine. Our trainer uses the chains mainly for when the dog is breaking a down from a distance. I've tried this and it only causes mine to jump up and see what just landed by them. I prefer to use verbal corrections while rushing back over to the dog to place it back into the down/sit/etc w/ my hands. Then of course praising the dog for going back into the correct position.

 

[Tulsa-Dan]

This is merely a training tool. It is used to get the dog's attention and to make him stop whatever it is he's doing AT THE MOMENT, and to divert attention to the proper behavior. I used a simple hand clap to the same effect. My hands are always with me so no need to take a can with me wherever I went.

I would highly recommend getting a copy of "The Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson available at any major bookstore, and use it as your training guide. It is my "bible" for training my girls and has proved invaluable to me time and time and time again. I can't recommend it enough.

Good luck.

 

[JulieM]

The thing about the can is that the dog is not supposed to know you have it - he should be associating the noise from the can with his <paws on the couner> (insert misbehavior of choice here). If he sees you with the can, he associates the noise with *you seeing him* put his paws on the counter - so he may learn to do it while you're watching, but he'll also learn it's safe to do when you're not.

A much more effective method is to teach an alternative, contradictory behavior. A dog cannot sit and jump up at the same time - if he learns to sit on command, you can give the the command *just before* he starts to jump up, and praise him for sitting, instead of letting him jump up and correcting him for it.

 

[Alisha Mobley]

I know training can get tricky when it comes to the little things and trying to think like a dog can be even harder but I have a few questions...

Originally posted by JulieM
The thing about the can is that the dog is not supposed to know you have it - he should be associating the noise from the can with his <paws on the couner> (insert misbehavior of choice here). If he sees you with the can, he associates the noise with *you seeing him* put his paws on the counter - so he may learn to do it while you're watching, but he'll also learn it's safe to do when you're not.

If the dog doesn't know what a shaken can of pennies means how will it work and how can you teach him what it means w/out letting him know your the one shaking the can?

Originally posted by JulieM

A much more effective method is to teach an alternative, contradictory behavior. A dog cannot sit and jump up at the same time - if he learns to sit on command, you can give the the command *just before* he starts to jump up, and praise him for sitting, instead of letting him jump up and correcting him for it.

If your dog is jumping up on the counter and you use the sit method to prevent him from jumping won't he still learn to only jump on the counter when you not around? This is what mine have learned about the kitchen table. They don't get on it when we're in the room but we've walked in on them many times, as soon as they see us they quickly get down. I know there has to be a way to teach them jumping on the table is bad even when we aren't in the room but I just can't seem to think of any tricks. I don't want to have to bring the crates back in for this one thing but I also don't want my dogs on the table. Any suggestions?

 

[JulieM]

Originally posted by Alisha Mobley
I know training can get tricky when it comes to the little things and trying to think like a dog can be even harder but I have a few questions...

If the dog doesn't know what a shaken can of pennies means how will it work and how can you teach him what it means w/out letting him know your the one shaking the can?

What does a shaken can of pennies mean? The can is an aversive - it doesn't have a meaning, it is supposed to startle/be unpleasant to the dog, so that the dog can make the association "whenever I put my paws on the counter, an ugly noise happens that stops when I take my paws off the counter."

If your dog is jumping up on the counter and you use the sit method to prevent him from jumping won't he still learn to only jump on the counter when you not around? This is what mine have learned about the kitchen table. They don't get on it when we're in the room but we've walked in on them many times, as soon as they see us they quickly get down. I know there has to be a way to teach them jumping on the table is bad even when we aren't in the room but I just can't seem to think of any tricks. I don't want to have to bring the crates back in for this one thing but I also don't want my dogs on the table. Any suggestions?

Yep, sorry, I should have specified, what I meant here was jumping up on people (which, of course, they can't do if there are no people around ) For curing counter (or table) -surfing without human presence, see this great post on using a motion detector:

http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/archives/motiondet.txt