At the moment I'm doing quite a lot of training with Holly. She's already learnt that she must sit before she gets any fuss and before she gets fed and she looks at you when you call her name.

I'm also trying to teach her to stay, come, lie down, give and to sit at the door when it's open until we tell her she can go through. She takes great delight in running up the stairs straight into the childrens room when ever she can and we then have the 'lets find where the puppy is hiding' game.

My worry is that I'm doing too much with her. She's 13wks old and hasn't yet had her 2nd vacinnation so she can't go out for a walk and I don't want her to get bored, which is why I'm doing so much with her.

HELP!!!!

Thanks,

Fiona

Hi Fiona,

I am glad that you are having such fun with her :D

I would be tempted not to let her run up and down stairs at this point or jump on and off of furniture? Her bones are still growing and you really don't want to put any extra strain on them.

I must say that you are doing a lot more with a 13 week old puppy than I would, but maybe that is just me :D I tend to let my puppies have their 'head' because I want them to work and they need to think for themselves. I would practice sit/stay and recall, but that really is about it One thing that I would say is that she needs to have time away from you. If you spend a lot of time in her company trying to stop her getting bored, you could be making a rod for your own back. She will come to expect that level of attention and stimulation all of the time.

HTH

Leigh

Fiona,

I have been reading all your postings about Holly with great interest. I am dogless at the moment, pending (hopefully) the arrival of a puppy in the summer so I'm really envious of all the fun you are having! I'm also learning loads too as our first dog was rescue and so the puppy stage is a closed book to me!

Sorry I can't give you any advice, which is what you asked for, but just wanted to let you know I'm reading with interest!

Hope she's OK after the 'incident' with the Dog-in-law!!!!!

Linda

I agree with Leigh about not letting her run up and down stairs too much, it really is not good for her shoulders and hips.

I don't think you are doing too much with her as long as you keep the lessons short, and great fun, and stop before she gets bored with them. It is amazing how much they can do at a very young age but you really have to be careful about not letting them get fed up with training or you could put them off for life.

Joan
Take the rough with the smooth

just let her have fun,as well,i think you are doing to much at 13 weeks.i have seen dogs who owner have done to much to quick,and considely telling what to do,with no play time or time of their own,the dogs that i have seen where the owner are on them all the time,have behavior problem,with other dogs beacuse they donot know when they can play,or when the nexr comman is coming,but be firm but kind to her.but let her be a puppie first,

Hi Fiona

I hope you aren't doing too much because i have been doing all the same things with Bailey (he is also 13 weeks old ) He does Sit, down, stay, come, leave and shake "hands" Well sometimes :D
I try to keep the training sessions to about 15mins and use titbits and lots of fuss and play tug of war games etc at the same time.

He had his second jab just over a week ago so he started going for short walks but that is only 15mins a day at the moment so am still playing with him quite a bit and doing about 2 to 3 lots of training and he seems really happy . He is also starting puppy classes on monday. When is Holly having her 2nd jab?

That answer probably wasn't a lot of help sorry!

Tracy

PS What age do dogs normally start to bark? - I haven't had a single woof out of Bailey yet!

tjd,try not to do tug of war play,only if you are going to win,donot allow him to win,but the main reason is their jaw,by playing this the dogs mouth could go over shot,the jaw stop devloping in a dog round two of years,has well teeth could go out of linement.

A Leigh said, be careful about the charging around at this age, plus letting her do it, then the game afterwards could cause you problems. I also agree that you need to make sure that she is not too dependant on you for company, and that she learns to live without you for a while. Those of us that kennel dogs get this out of the way from day one, and it usually takes a few days for them to get the idea.

As regards the training, if she takes it, all well and good. Just don't bother pushing it too much if things change later on. I say this because as they start to explore their surroundings they usually find everything else more exciting than your training, and then you can start to feel a bit dissapointed and frustrated. But just bear in mind she's only a baby, and concentrate on stopping her doing the wrong things, rather than worrying too much about the right things. I'm afraid I don't know what breed she is, but it's worth bearing in mind that if she's a working breed, then most working trainers don't really bother doing anything much with them until they are at least 6 months old, but more usually 8/9 months. So you've got plenty of time to enjoy her.

HI

I agree about taking care of her joints and bones, and separation etc.

HOwever, iMHO training should basically be a game, so if you are taking that route with her, there should be no problem at all.....it definitely won't be too much for her.

Lindsay

Thanks everyone for your replies. Yes we are having lots of fun with her, she's crazy :D and we do make training very rewarding for her, lots of treats and hugs when she gets it right and each session is no more than 10mins.

We are desperate to stop her going upstairs as we are well aware that her joints won't take to the stress very well. That's why we are trying to stop her from going out of the lounge door without our permission. Hopefully this will then stop her from going out of the front door and onto our driveway, well we can hope :D

Holly is due for her second vacinnation tomorrow so by the end of next week she should be enjoying the outside world. She is doing very well after the incident with the 'dog-in-law' and seems to have settled down again. My parents are down tomorrow with their mad spaniel and I'm sure they'll get on ok. We're going to introduce them in the garden and as long as there's no blood pretty much let them get on with it.

Thanks again for all your advice. Oh, and whoever it was that said don't have a puppy with small children - they were right. It is very tiring, extremely nerve-racking and very hard work. The rewards are immense but it really isn't easy. My children are very good with the dog and, with the exception of the little one, can be trusted to leave Holly alone, but it is still very hard. Definitely something I wouldn't do again. Don't get me wrong I love Holly to pieces but it is harder than I thought it would be.

fiona - feeling very stressed having just discovered the girls have got chicken pox

I relate to this!
When I got my first puppies I took two of them and had an 18 month old and 5 year old. I almost called the breeder and said, I'm sorry, I love them to pieces, but I took on way too much!
So glad that I didn't do that, cause the feeling passes so quickly, I would have forever regretted it. Like you I was a training fiend. I don't regret that at all. I always made it fun and short, and I have gotten two such well behaved dogs in return. The first 6 months I was trying to be on top of it all, it paid off big time!

Hi Fiona, sounds like your one busy lady!

Are you able to put a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs to stop Holly running up and down them ? Just a thought. I used to carry my weims up and down stairs for as long as I could, was okay with my bitch as I managed to do it until she was almost 5mths but my boy.....well I only managed until he was 14wks and then had to pass that job over to my other half for a few more weeks. Once they couldn't be carried they were only allowed up and down the stairs on a lead.

The reason I carried them for so long was because at the time we lived in an apartment and had 3 flights of stairs instead of your usual one flight in a house, which thankfully we now have.

I've got a stair gate at the bottom of the stairs to stop Isabelle from going up but Holly is so small she can squeeze through the gaps!!!

Luckily this morning, Holly hasn't been so keen to go upstairs - probably because the children are outside playing in the garden and she loves to be with them. Jonathon has got chicken pox now, poor lad he's only just gotten over the mumps and now this

Today has been a much better day with Holly. She's eaten everything I've given her and she's really settled into a routine. If only I could stop her from running off with Issys nappies I'd be a happy bunny:D. Holly takes great delight in running away with the nappy that I've spent ages folding!!

Fiona

Fiona didn't the breeder tell you that you should have a Happy Puppy not a Nappy Puppy.......LOL :P

Poor Jonathon, hope he's feeling better soon. When I was a child and had things like measles and chicken pox I used to get hyper and had more energy than ever before

Try getting an old cardboard box (Tesco often have a selection!) cut a strip about 9" high and weave it through the stair gate and double it back on itself on the ends. With a bit of luck it'll take Holly a little while to realise what you've done, and hopefully by then she'll be too big to squeeze through.

I spent ages yesterday morning cutting out the cardboard to weave through the stairgate only to discover that Holly is now too fat to fit through the gaps!! She could fit through the day before but all of a sudden she's too fat.

Still at least that solves my worries about is she eating enough :D

The children are going back to school tomorrow as their pox is all better, just hubby to go now and things will be back to normal.

Fiona