I've read that it is important for the owner to walk thru gates & doors first. My 9-week puppy is desperate to get back into the house - I have to hold him back by his leash -& feels uncomfortably like a correction (which I understand should not be levied on such a young pup).

Is the puppy trying to tell me:
(a) he doesn't recognize me as alpha; or
(b) he just wants to get in from the cold (it's winter here)

Bev,

I am not sure what the pup is trying to tell you, but we've taught and use the "wait" command before Falcon can go out or come in any door. I choose if I want him to wait until I'm out or if he can go first - on my release. At nine weeks your pup is pretty young to expect much more than typical puppy enthusiasm about everything, but you could start training with markers to shape this behavior.

What I love about the wait command is now if we are walking our property and the dog starts to go over the crest of a hill and I can't see him - "Wait" keeps him there till I get closer. He also has to wait at the bottom or top of the stairs until I'm up or down. :-)

Hope this helps1

Ok Bev, take a minute and chill out Relax and take some time to bond with your pup and housebreak him. A fun enthusiastic puppy is a good thing but enjoy the puppy part!

I agree completely with Al. Remember this pup didn't want to walk on the leash out of your front yard!! My pup hates going out (have to coax her), but loves coming in (have to make her wait). But when they are little -- just move with them and say, "yippee we were outside and you went pee and it was cold, good boy!!!"

Thanks all,

I knew I'd draw a little fire asking about a puppy so young - my thinking was really for "down the road" - but with my menopausal brain if I didn't ask when I thought about it could be lost in my mental abyss!

Cheers

Make it a fun game--like all puppy education. A lot of it is about your tone of voice and setting up the game so the pup can win. It's easy to teach this waiting at the door skill with the pup in the crate. His instinct is to bolt out when you crack the door open--so keep your hand on the door and close it on him when he tries to get out. Say wait and then try opening the crate door again. It doesn't take many repetitions for him to realize that in order to get through the door he has to restrain himself until you give him the magic word that then gives him everything he wants--including praise for correctly waiting.

Once he understands Wait at the crate door you can transfer the same game to getting out the back door. It's about teaching him the skill of self restraint --not always restraining him yourself.

Thanks. Is it appropriate to restrain him at door/gate until he's learned "wait" in the crate?

There's no set order to this. You can start playing the "wait at the door game" from inside your house at the back door as you go out. You don't even have to be holding the leash then, and nobody is standing in the cold. The principle is the same---when you go to open the door, if the pup tries to push his way in front of you or to exit the door on his own, just say "oops" and close the door. Then tell him to wait (which is easy for him to do, because he can't go anywhere with a shut door. See? He's winning the game already--he is waiting! Good boy, good to wait.)

It'll take several times of starting to open the door, then closing it--but he will "get" the game--which is, that he gets what he wants when he chooses self-restraint.

I believe that all command words, including "wait" need a release word (I use "okay") to signal that they have completed the assignment and are free to move.

All this said....he's 9 weeks old. Don't expect too much. At that age they have attention spans of just seconds. It takes repetition and positive feedback. What you don't want to do is make a big emotional deal out of every time you go through a door.

Who goes through the door first is only ONE small way to help establish appropriate leadership with a dog. But it's not the only one, and it may not even be a ritual that every dog needs. A dog that isn't constantly pushing limits and already sees his human as a leader doesn't have to have it drummed into him every second of every day. I don't enforce that at my house. I don't even pay attention to who's going through the door---because I know that I COULD make them wait if I wanted to, and they would happily comply.

Hope some of this rambling helps.

Enjoy your pup.