For a very good guide to all sorts of dog training processes and dog behavior challenges, I use and recommend Clickertraining ...that link goes to the description of this terrific ebook you download immediately, wherever you are! -- Rosana

Recently we finished turning our large roofed-over front porch into a sunroom. Over a couple of months, my husband Kelly and a helper had built side walls with windows and a place for a dog door. Today we got three sliding glass doors installed across the front, thereby blocking the usual way the dogs come and go. The dog door got fitted out with a swinging plastic flap.

To train the dogs to use the new dog door, this afternoon Kelly and I closed all the sliding glass doors while the dogs were inside. We worked with 10-year-old LarryDog first, while our 11-month-old Rottweiler, Lola, was confined in the house. With tiny morsels of meat in our hands, Kelly and I positioned ourselves on either side of the new swinging contraption. We took turns swinging the flap enough that LarryDog  could see the hand with the treat, and we coaxed him through. It took about half a dozen round trips for him to get the idea. Meanwhile, Lola was whining impatiently from inside.

"I bet Lola will catch on faster," Kelly predicted as we changed the dogs around. I agreed.

But fear is a powerful force. Where LarryDog wasn’t really bothered by the flap, Lola didn’t trust it for a minute.

We did get her to go back and forth by holding the flap up high and giving her rewards for going through that way, but we were in no real hurry.  Both dogs did figure out the glass in the sliding glass doors very quickly. We supervised them around the doors till we were sure they understood. We have not yet tried the doors in their open position, with just the screens to stop a dog from going through. Later for that.

After dinner, the dogs wanted to go outside. LarryDog went confidently through the flap and I held it open enough that Lola braved it too. When they wanted to come back in, I was in the new sunroom, right by the flap but that meant I was also right by one of the three sliding glass doors. The dogs stood on the outside of that door watching my antics as I tried to coax them around the corner of the building to come in the dog door.

After a while, I tired of that and went outside with them. I walked around to the outside of the dog door, and called them. They came around to me. Larry went inside by nosing through the flap. Lola hesitated a moment and darted through after Larry. Oh brave puppy!

UPDATE  A WEEK LATER: Now they come and go like they have been doing it all their lives!

Puppies are wonderful, and Christmas is a delight. But what about the combination?

Whether this will be your present puppy’s first Christmas (as it will be for our Rottweiler Lola) or a puppy is planned as a Christmas gift, here are some tips.

[1] Never give a puppy as a surprise present. The commitment to care for this young animal needs to be made by the person who will be the owner, after thinking about it a good bit. the only exception to this would be a situation where there has already been a lot of thought and/or discussion on the part of the owner-to-be.

[2] If you are giving or receiving a puppy at Christmas, consider making the actual arrival of the puppy happen on the 26th or later. Christmas tends to be a busy day for many families, and it can be a day when you leave for Christmas dinner at another home. Of course, there can be exceptions to this, such as a gift to a lonely elderly person who will be home.

[3] For all puppies in your home, including ones that you already have — plan your gift-giving so that the dog isn’t overwhelmed by hectic activity (specially if you have some kids) and also be sure the dog doesn’t have a chance to eat wrapping paper, ribbons, tape, etc.

[4] During the holiday season, if you have a tree, be sure the pup leaves it alone, specially when electricity is involved. Breakable ornaments can be a hazard too. When we had a Basenji — a breed noted for its curiosity about everything — we had a small tree that would fit on a table out of her reach. With her, we had to do that for ten years!

[5] If this holiday does tend to overwhelm a timid puppy or dog, just keep an eye on the dog and go off quietly with it for some special moments. This can be as simple as taking the animal with you briefly when you go to the bathroom and taking some time to pet it there. If the dog or pup is already used to a crate, being in there often reduces stress. There are also herbal tranquilizers or ones you get in advance from your vet, if needed.

[6] To prepare for a new puppy at any time, see my puppy supplies checklist at:
http://training-dogs.com/puppy-supplies.html

and my puppy potty training page at:
http://training-dogs.com/potty-training-dogs.html

Happy holidays to everyone, whatever you celebrate!

[tags]puppies and christmas[/tags]

Yesterday I was out most of the day, so it was late afternoon by the time I got to my email. Surprise! Our Rottweiler Lola had been chosen Dog of the Day at Dogster.com! It’s been barely a month since we joined it, and there are many thousands (someone said 30,000) of dogs there.

Here’s a part of the homepage of Dogster yesterday:

I don’t know why we were chosen. I poked around Dogster a bit to try to find out how they choose dogs of the day, but didn’t see anything. This photo shows her by our kitchen door, and I have a short text about how I clicker trained her (once was all it took) to pull on a rope and enter the kitchen. Maybe she got picked because it’s a nice story.

So for whatever reason it happened, I’m happy. Maybe it will increase awareness of clicker training.

While I was busy poking around Dogster before dinner, Lola was outside being a very bad dog. She had just figured out how to pull carrots out of their little garden bed, over the too-short fencing, and she had herself quite a feast. Guess that was her way of celebrating! Kelly changed the fencing even before his morning tea today.

Come visit Lola at Dogster!

[tags]social networking for dogs, clicker training dogs[/tags]

Recently I left hubby and dogs for a weekend over at a friend’s place. She has a new baby and a two-year-old, and her husband was away. I know the two-year-old well, and it was fun to see how quickly her vocabulary is expanding.

We went to a potluck at a nearby church and during the social hour at first, the two-year-old enjoyed running on the lawn. I followed her around. She wanted to play right next to the electrical outlets for the holiday lights that were on. I said we had to play somewhere else. She considered making a fuss — I could practically see those little wheels turning — and decided it wasn’t worth the trouble.

A bit later, we were playing hide and seek around a wide tree when she noticed that there was gravel at the base of the tree. She picked up two pieces and I said she couldn’t throw rocks here. She tossed those two back and methodically worked her way around the base of the tree, looking at me to see if I would let her throw gravel anywhere. I wouldn’t.

For the rest of the time there, she didn’t test either of those rules. We came back out after dinner and she ran around in that area again. It was clear that she "got it" — no power cords, no gravel. Now of course in a grumpier mood or on a different day, she might challenge again. But what interested me was watching her mind work.

Our year-old Rottweiler does things very similar, though of course she doesn’t put language to it, nor does she test in the way the little girl did, working her way around that tree. But Lola too will very quickly understand what we want and often give it to us right away.

[tags]puppy training[/tags]