Obedience Training

[meoklmrk]

Hey everyone!,

Just wanted to ask a few questions with regards to obedience training, Cooper is now 9 weeks old but I wanted to start some light obedience training with him as he is already starting to test boundaries, sometimes now when I call him he will look my way and then turn right back to what he was doing or just sit and look right at me, he also seems to interpret my displeasure of something i.e. chasing the cat, grabbing the bottom of someones pants when they are walking, or nipping as play and I can't understand why. What am I doing wrong?

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

You're not doing anything wrong...he's a BABY. You can start something simple like "sit" but in all reality "training" isn't going to come for another couple of months. Don't stress much, he's still extremely young so everything is a game and everything is new. Right now it's about distracting him with something he can chew on when he goes after things he shouldn't versus actually training him.

Good luck.

 

[meoklmrk]

You're not doing anything wrong...he's a BABY. You can start something simple like "sit" but in all reality "training" isn't going to come for another couple of months. Don't stress much, he's still extremely young so everything is a game and everything is new. Right now it's about distracting him with something he can chew on when he goes after things he shouldn't versus actually training him.

Good luck.

Thank you for the reassurance, I thought I was being a terrible boxer mum, but I guess I was just expecting too much of him.

 

[whiskers]

Yeah, it's a bit crazy when they're young. I think it's really hard to sit down and actually have training sessions when they're that young, because they have NO attention span whatsoever. But it's never too early to start reinforcing the behaviors that you want. Carry treats around with you and reward him when he follows you around and chooses to be near you, reward him for sitting politely or for ignoring the cat, etc. Build a solid reinforcement history now before he picks up bad habits, they are SO impressionable at that age and the things you reinforce now, are the things that he will continue to do in the future because it has always worked for him.

For chewing and nipping, redirect him and give him something he CAN chew on, and make a big fuss when he chews on the appropriate things. If he's nipping at your pants or ankles, you might have to walk into a separate room and shut the door for a moment, and then come back out... and if you're consistent and remove yourself every time he starts that behavior, soon enough he will understand that you leave and the fun stops when he starts biting pants, and so he will stop the behavior because he gets no reward from it. Understand though that this takes time, especially as he starts teething he will want to gnaw on everything... but it will stop eventually.

 

[meoklmrk]

Thanks for the tips, Cooper is a good boy for the most part, he really just is very nosy and loves to be involved in everything. Obviously I am trying to teach him that doing positive things will get rewards and attention and doing negative things won't. He is actually quite clever and picked up "sit" in about five minutes. I try do a little training with him everyday nothing too heavy and make sure that it is great fun for him.

 

[sharondawson]

My Juno was the exact same at that age. She would try and take down a 6ft man. It's hilarious to watch. I enrolled Juno into abiedience training class when she was 6 months old which was a bit late, the trainer said 16 weeks was a good time to start.

Enjoy your baby

 

[meoklmrk]

I have been looking into obedience classes in my area and I hope to enrolled him in one when he I'd a little older.

 

[dodgeandmar]

I have been looking into obedience classes in my area and I hope to enrolled him in one when he I'd a little older.

A lot of places have classes for puppies starting at like 10 weeks old. They aren't so much for training but more to acclimate the puppy to other dogs and to teach the puppy to come when distracted. I think most that teach actual training start at like 4 to 6 months.

 

[johann]

A lot of places have classes for puppies starting at like 10 weeks old. They aren't so much for training but more to acclimate the puppy to other dogs and to teach the puppy to come when distracted. I think most that teach actual training start at like 4 to 6 months.

While you may not do much actual training at a puppy class....going to a well-run one is priceless. You'll get tips on common puppy behaviors, playtime with other puppies, and starting to work on attention and some very basic commands.