this method of leash training comes from Richard Wolters, of the famed Water Dog, Gun Dog, Family Dog series of books. Old as they may be, still some of the best advice for owning & training a working breed dog you intend to also have as a housedog. Pick them up at almost every local library in the country. The object is to have a dog that focuses its entire life on you, you are everything to this dog. And if used correctly, a loyal trusting dog that does anything you teach it. Confinement (crating) can actually be used more as a "timeout" place, or yes if you are leaving the house for a long period, crate them. Wear them out with some tug or play & let them relieve themselves first, & make sure they have something good to chew on ..... a REAL bone. If you raw feed I'd think you have alot of those. I broil country style ribs (pork & beef) to chop up for food, & the bones, I ziploc & freeze. Puppies LOVE frozen bones. Helps them teeth, keeps em quiet, helps prevent anxiety from boredom.
My biggest issue is how much faith people put in a crate, dogs, especially puppies, can injure themselves in a crate more easily than choking themselves on a leash. When tied down the dog only gets enough lead to stand & turn & lay back down, but, not enough to move away & squat to pee, not being able to move away will usually cause "whining" first & alerts you the dog needs attention. If you are worried about choking then certainly use a harness instead of any collar that "chokes".
As for crates, I am not against them but not everyone can afford the GOOD $400 crate. Most people end up with the under $100 crate from the big chain stores. Not every crate is created equally. Crates do little for housebreaking other than keeping them from peeing on the floor, in fact if not taken out enough in the early stages, the puppy will actually rely on the crate as a place to go. Puppies up until at least 14 weeks have very little if any bowel control, in or out of a crate. If they pee in the crate now you have 2 messes to clean, & cleanliness is KEY to housebreaking. So now your up at 3am cleaning a crate & a puppy. Whereas with the dog just tied, I can use the towel they were laying on to wipe up the mess, a quick mop with a disinfectant, put down a new clean towel, wash the old towel in hot water & bleach. Again, thats IF they pee. Tied at the correct length of lead, they will whine.
The psychological differences between crated & tied dogs is huge. Crated dogs have way higher separation anxiety & are more high strung when let out of the crate, usually much harder to control, especially when first let out, the go berzerk, as opposed to dogs that are tied which are more calm submissive dogs, they have less aggression issues & will (as they age) have a longer more alert attention span. They are more confident in their surroundings or basically, less tense.
The object in my method of house breaking is not just to get the dog to go outside, but, go anywhere, anytime, on command. Not everyone lives in a house with a backdoor leading to a nice big yard. People who live in apartments/condos, any place where it takes more than 30 seconds to go from the spot of the mistake, to the appropriate place, will benefit by marking the pee/poo behavior.
As I stated. during the day, every 30 mins (at least) take the dog out, say nothing but the command word, if they go .... mark the behavior. If they dont, no biggie try again in 15 minutes. Many dogs can be timed so you will have a better idea of when to expect an outage. Some dogs are like clockwork, some are not, so this is not a foolproof method. The telltale signs are watching the dog for sniffing & body position, unfortunately this does not always work for puppies about to pee. So your best bet again, every 30 mins minimum, take Phideaux out.
As for feeding the dog from your hands, regardless of the type of food, My motto is "every mealtime is a training time". I also rawfeed
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For the ring sport or Shutzhund dog, NO may not be a very important command, for the typical housedog, it is imperative.
NO dont chew my shoes
NO dont jump up on the furniture
NO dont bite on the kids
NO dont chase the kids (teach kids not to run or tease the dog .... EVER)
NO dont walk through that door without me.
& so on.
NO, is vital!
In the past 5 months I have found a ton of websites for dog training. Most suck (for lack of a better term). I was attracted to Leerburg because they gave the perception of open minded, common sense dog & handler training. After this thread Im not so sure about that anymore. My method of training may be a bit different from the norm. Im not a professional trainer, I have only owned & trained my own dogs. My methods are basically just a mixture of many different styles of "positive reinforcement" training. There is no point in being part of a "Discussion Board" if you don't discuss. Ya never know when another Michael Ellis type person may come along and teach old dogs, new tricks. I'm not him, Im just saying. But If posting about training methods that differ from the Leerburg Standard, then I'd feel better removed from the registered users database.
Thanx
RC Dennis
Re: Newbie puppy owner asks many questions
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