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The training has begun...

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We recently brought home our English Bulldog puppy 1 week and 4 days ago.  He will be 10 weeks old on July 29.  We've been working on his housebreaking and that experience has gone up and down quite a bit, but I think his mistakes were a fault of our own.  We didn't take him out within the 1.5 hours he was supposed to go out.  We're trying to get ourselves on a schedule so that he has no reason to mess in the house and in my mind I'm just hoping that it will "click" in his mind that potty time means outside time.  I've been considering incorporating clicker training to his housetraining to see if it helps him at all and then possibly trying to train him to ring a bell to let us know he wants to go out but the only problem with that is he's in a massive chewing phase.  I think he's probably going to chew the bell just to have something to chew. Oh, speaking of chewing...

He's got some pretty annoying chewing habits.  I understand he's a puppy and has a need to chew to relieve those gums of his but it's kinda irritating when he thinks that chewing on fingers, toes, shoes, slippers, socks (all with feet in them), wall corners, table/chair legs, etc. is appropriate.  We've been trying to redirect his chewing to his toys and sometimes it works, but other times he'll either not be interested in the toys at all and continues to go after the "bad" things or he will only pay attention to his toys for 10 seconds before coming back for more "not allowed" items.  I'm trying to keep to my positive reinforcement but it's hard not to want to say, "NO!" or scold him in other ways in these moments.  I have read about using clicker training to help with chewing habits so I will try those and see how it works out.

As far as actual clicker training goes, I've been doing the association excercises or "charging the clicker" I think it's called, so that he knows a click means a treat.  After some time though, he loses interest.  He'll either go on to something else more interesting or he'd plop on the floor lol.  Treats can hold his attention for a bit but when I think about it, his toys are the things that he goes nuts for.  I'm sure he'd go nuts for food if he were a little hungry so I think I will try that method first, but if that doesn't work I know that the toys will work.  I wonder how clicker training with toys works.  With treats you just throw the food and keep going, but if I had a toy I'd have to give it to him which means I'll have to take it back at some point and it would feel like the training is inconsistent.  How do you train with toys as an enforcer?

Another problem I'm having is he doesn't know his name very well.  Sometimes he'll look at me and other times he doesn't.  I don't know if it's him knowing his name but being stubborn or if he doesn't know his name at all and is only looking at me because I'm making sounds.  It's quite difficult to keep his attention and it makes it that much harder to train him or keep him from doing things I don't want him to do.

Wow, there's so many things I want/need to train him for.  I'm not even quite sure how to approach this.  I don't want to confuse him by doing many things at once  Anyone have any suggestions on training tips or how to just approach this entire situation?

Thanks for reading!
Abbey

abbeygail's picture

Hi RB, Thanks for the link!

Hi RB,

Thanks for the link! I'm definitely going to look more into it.

To answer your questions, I've got about 15 different toys and 3 are out at a time.  I rotate them every week so he doesn't get bored of them lol.  He's confined to the kitchen for now but I've introduced him to other areas of the house already and played with him in some.  The kitchen is as puppy proofed as I can make it but the things I can't take away from the kitchen are the things that he goes after like the table/chair legs and the wall corners that stick out.  He doesn't go after anything else.

I'll be making a new entry about this but I've got him registered for a puppy class that teaches with clicker training.  I'm just trying to work with him now to avoid any bad behaviours from developing or getting worse.

Again, thank you for the reply and I appreciate your support and your suggestions! :)

Abbey

Hey Abbey

I never raised a puppy, but this sounds like a confusing time for you.  So many things you want.  Have you been disiplined enough to make a 'behavior wish list?' - I used to do this when parenting my son got overwhelming. It helped me focus on on what was bothering me the most, so I could work on that issue first.

Are there any clicker trainers nearby enough to come visit and give you some support? 

I'm a total newbie, but I guess I'd spend a lot of time clicking eye-contact, with extra-yummy food.  My guess is that 30 seconds 6 times a day is a lot better than 3 minutes once a day - your baby is just a baby!  What I like about the idea of clicker training is that it's the trainee who is doing the work, really using their mind to figure out 'what makes my trainer click me?'

As for the chewing, I think it's fair game to use P- and place puppy back in the crate for a while if drops the OK toys and goes for the not-toys.  I think a yelp of pain and quick withdrawal of attention for sharp bites on human flesh is an ok use of P- too. Are you rotating the toys? Is the rest of the area pretty puppy proofed?

I wish I could be more help, and I'd love to hear how things are going. I really enjoyed reading

http://www.clickersolutions.com/blog/index.htm

Best Wishes,

RB