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Training Options We offer a training program to our buyers.
Above picture is of puppies at 8 weeks old when given the "sit" command as a group. The puppy kindergarten program gives the puppy a real head start toward successful adjustment in his new home. You will have an alert and eager to learn puppy as you can see in the faces all focusing on me and doing what they need to do to get the "treats." 4 Weeks Puppy Training - A 4 week course teaching sit, down, come, puppy's name, NO command, loose leash, and crate training. Housetraining will continue in this training segment and some puppies completely master it before age 12 weeks, depending on bladder control development. Housetraining success is not always achieved until closer to four months, thus we can't guarantee housetraining success in this training segment because it depends on the maturing process in each individual puppy. Puppy will be exposed to maximum stimulus to encourage brain growth and minimize future fear problems. The puppy will learn bite inhibition from wrestling with other puppies and gentle adult dogs. Puppy will be exposed to cats, chickens, guinea fowl, children, other dogs, etc. Puppy will go to buyer at age 12 weeks or whenever it has completed the extra four weeks training. (additional $500.00) Click here to see a video clip of one of our puppies halfway through this training option. Click here to see a video of a puppy at completion of this 4 week training option. Click here to see my channel on YouTube
Crate Training Beginning crate training is accomplished by putting a crate with no door on it in the puppies' play pen. Soon they will seek it out as a place of security. Later, it is an easy transition to the regular shipping crate for a secure place, by gradually closing the door for periods of time. It's painless learning. The puppies that will be shipped are accustomed to the closed crate ahead of time to minimize stress on their trip.
The puppies first bedroom is a wire type dog crate as shown in the picture above, so they quite naturally are comfortable in a wire crate. Before a puppy goes to their new home, I will get them accustomed to the crate as needed for each individual family. You will also see in the above arrangement that my puppies are not kept in a garage or kennel but right in the center of my home. They have periods of play outside when weather permits, in a fenced, safe environment. The picture above was taken at age seven weeks and they no longer needed newspaper on the pen floor for accidents. I previously used to move the puppies outdoors when they were a month old if it was neither too hot nor too cold. I then had to bring them inside and work with them individually for potty training. However, I have had such outstanding results with keeping them indoors the entire time, that I intend to do this with future litters. I was amazed myself to have the puppies all learning to go out to potty when they were five weeks old. Click here to watch a video of the puppies going out to potty at age 5 weeks in the first portion and age six weeks in the last part of the video.
Training Your Doodledawg Puppy We use the reward system in training our puppies, as well as positive energy, pack leader methods. Included with your adoption package will be a fully illustrated book on dog training, which will help you to continue with your puppy's success. Our dogs will do wonderful things for one of our homemade .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Collar and Leash Training When you receive your puppy at eight weeks, it will already have had three weeks of puppy training. At five weeks of age, when the puppies begin their weaning period, we introduce them to the collar and leash. At first the puppies will scratch and paw at the collar but will adjust to the feeling in a day or two. During this time we spend a lot of time with the puppies, to ease the transition from nursing and cuddling up to their Mommy. We will put the leash on each puppy for a few minutes at a time, since their attention span is still short, and not try to lead, just let them get used to it. Usually they begin by mouthing the leash and some will even take the leash in their mouth and lead us. During this time we also begin to introduce them to new sights and sounds. This part is easy since we live on a farm with chickens, guineas, cats, and so on. Under careful supervision the puppies will be introduced to other dogs, such as our other housedogs and a few friendly cats, who will allow the puppies to chew on them and wrestle with never any danger to the puppy. And of course, they continue to wrestle with their littermates. You can continue this early leash training after you get your puppy, if you choose to get the puppy at eight weeks of age. Before twelve weeks of age, let the puppy have a loose leash and never pull. It's fine to coax the puppy to come along on the leash by offering tasty little tiny treats for every right response. They figure it out pretty fast and next thing you know the puppy will be walking beside you. At twelve weeks they can begin the heel command. Before that it's all kindergarten. Puppies that get the extra month of training will be taken for walks regularly and be able to walk a half mile with good behavior and walking close by your left side. Let me know if you are left handed and prefer to have them trained to the other side. They will actually be able to take walks longer than a half mile at that stage but a half mile with each puppy is my limit. They will also be taught some road safety, since we move off the road when a vehicle comes. This is good for them to learn at a young age.
Bite Inhibition and Kitty Loving
Our Airedale puppy, Tatum (from years ago), at 9 weeks of age, wrestling with Windy
Puppies learn an important thing called "bite inhibition" from wrestling with other puppies and dogs. This means they learn to control their bite and know when enough is enough. Dogs who have not learned this can sometimes inflict a bite wound simply because they do not know how hard is too hard when biting. Thus, even after you get your puppy, it is important to continue helping them to learn bite inhibition. This can be done by getting together with a friend who has a healthy vaccinated puppy or gentle dog, or if you have another dog who will allow it and will not harm the puppy, allow them to wrestle. You can also teach them somewhat by your own response when they bite too hard. Let them know that they hurt you. Stop the play and walk away or hold your fingertips in a biting position and using firm pressure on the back of their neck, hold them down for just a minute, as another dog might do to show them not to bite so hard. This is the equivalent of an adult dog disciplining them for biting too hard. Never, never allow the puppy to think it is OK to bite hard or to hurt someone. It may seem like a cute game when they are little but will not be so cute if someone gets bit when the dog is older. The purpose here is not to teach that they can't bite but to teach them how to control their bite. That's what they learn from each other when they wrestle and play. Some choose to teach the puppy that biting is not allowed - period. The problem with that reasoning is that dogs use their mouths much as we do our hands. A dog taught not to use its mouth will be inhibited, for example, from helping pull a drowning child from the water. He has been taught "never use your mouth on a human being." On the other hand, a dog that has been taught bite control and can control the pressure of his mouth can be a wonderful asset. For example, I have had dogs assist a goat who had their head stuck in a fence to get unstuck, gently working them loose. One of our dogs even brought a baby rabbit to us, in her mouth and unhurt. Once when I was trying to catch some guinea keets, one of our dogs assisted by finding the keets and holding each one for me until I got to him to get it, all without hurting the babies. I have even had a dog who grabbed a telephone repairman by the ankle and held on firmly. The fellow had put a ladder up to the outside of our house, inside our yard, right above my son's bedroom window. The dog climbed the ladder and grasped the guy by the ankle, firmly enough to scare him real bad but did not hurt him at all, not even a mark. How was the dog to know the fellow was the phone repairman? Had the dog not known how to control the pressure of his bite the ending to this story may have been different. As it was, we called off the dog and asked the fellow to please knock on the door next time. These examples are to demonstrate why bite inhibition is a good thing for a dog to learn and why it is not always best to just teach them not to bite at all. The point is to teach them to control their bite and when it is appropriate to use their mouth and when not. When your puppy mouths your hand, I recommend allowing him to do so as long as he is not biting. You will notice in some of my videos that I do allow the puppies to mouth my hand. They do so very gently because they have learned to control their bite. Allow what you WANT to allow. You are in charge. If the puppy bites or uses too much mouth pressure, holler like it hurts. If they repeat biting too hard, end the playtime. They soon learn what you allow and what not. However, as in all training, consistency is very important. Click here to view a video of our cat Harvey helping teach Bite Inhibition to Goldendoodle puppies. The results?
Emmy on the sofa with Harvey
Mattie, above, was the first puppy I trained with Harvey. Above is her at almost one year of age with her family's cat, Mischa. Here's what her owner wrote: "Just wanted to send you a few new pictures of Mattie. The last one is hilarious - Mattie loves Mischa and is always trying to lick her face. Mischa is a good sport and lets her do it, even though you can tell Mischa doesn't really like it. Mattie is our little sweetheart and we just love her so much. She has brought us so much joy!" All our puppies are introduced to our cats when they are just a few weeks old. Harvey is a special cat because he loves puppies and they are able to have a positive experience. We also have a couple others that are friendly, as well as one that barely tolerates puppies and one that hates them, so the puppies get to see that cats come in all sorts of temperaments. They learn in the process to try to be friends with the cats. I am very happy with the results of this part of the early puppy training.
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