Puppy training things that worked for me

[MaiasMom]

Long ago I had this light bulb go off in my head, DUH!

I bought a miniture Schnauzer puppy a long way from where I lived a 4 hour drive. On the trip home with him I stopped a few times to let him out to pee. What I realized is that when I would walk away from him, he would follow. Light bulb moment.

As I walked away and before he would follow me, I called him, he did not know that he was suppose to come, he just did it naturally. I just reenforced what what he would do naturally.

Same with sit, when I would see him start to sit down, I said "sit" then a good boy when he sat.

same with down, stay and shake and best of all Pee and poo. after a while he would do all of these things on command.

I used a crate for night time. When I went to pick him up from the breeder I took along a big soft stuffed toy removing anything like button eyes and nose first. I put the toy in with his litter mates to put their scent on.

When I saw him start to fall asleep, I put the toy in his crate, put him on top of it. He never cried once during the night in the crate. I did not wash that toy for a long time until he was happy to go sleep in his crate door open or closed at night. I left the door open during the day time and closed at night after taking him out to pee and poo.

They don't like to pee or poo where they sleep so crateing at night helped "educate" his bladder. I did have to get up early to take him outside.

Don't expect a puppy that has been asleep to follow you out side, if you, can pick it up and take it outside.

I also took some of the soiled newspaper that the puppies peed and pooped on with me. I put a sheet of it in a place in my yard that was his toilet area. Put him on the paper and mission complete. I made him stay on the paper until he did the deed. Turned the paper over and rubbed it on the grass to mark the spot. It took a couple of days but after that he knew where the spot to hit.

From the beginning I put him in a harness. I started with short periods of time. I always put the harness on when we were going to do something fun. I would put it on when we were in the car and lock it into the seat belt. This gave him room to sit, stand and move around a little and be safe in case I had to hit the breaks.

At that time I traveled a lot in my car for work, I could take him with me so this was a fun thing for him.

Bath time. Since he would follow me into the bathroom I just picked him up, held him close to my body with my back turned to the water. Slowly turning around to get him wet and telling him "good" rubbing and petting him as I did it. I never let the spray hit his face. For the next 17 years if I got in the shower he would push his way in for his bath. The hard part was keeping him out.

Things that scared him. If something scared him I never made a fuss about it, ignored it. I did not want to reenforce the fear. I took him out on the sidewalk and let traffic go by. on a leash and in my arms when small of course. If I did not react, he did not react. Noise never bothered him after that.

I had 17 wonderful years with John Buddy, he in turn trained my female Standard Schnauzer Maia. He was 15 years old when we brought Maia home, he was not thrilled at first but soon found she was fun to play with. As he grew older his eyesight was going especially at night, his hearing was going and he could not see in the dark anymore. Maia being the wonderful mother that she is would go out into the yard, place herself in front of him so he could smell her and she would lead him back inside.

He was having trouble getting up the stairs the last 6 months of his life. Sometimes he would stumble and fall. She would place herself behind him and stop him from falling and then bark for me to come help him.
He could not walk very far. I trained Maia to pull a cart. Buddy sat in the cart and she pulled him so he could enjoy our walks even though he could not see or hear well. One of these days I will post a picture of Maia pulling her cart. She loves it, it means we are going shoppint! Hey a girl needs to go shopping. Since I can't drive much anymore we walk to the store. All the store owners know her and that I can't drive so no problem with her coming into the store.

I didn't teach her this, she just knew what to do for him. I know this sounds hard to believe but it is true. She does this with my disabled granddaughter also.

I had to let Buddy go April 2007, he was in to much pain to go on. To this day Maia will sleep in his bed, small as it is and drag his blanket around. I took her with me when we went to let Buddy go so she would understand why he was not with us anymore. They do understand death. As he was going she stayed very close to him and licked his face.

Anyone who has ever had a pet that was so special will understand how hard it is to let them go. You do it because you made a commitment to do whatever it takes for them and it's a hard decision to make. My Maia is 3 years old and I know I will have to do this again as I have with every pet I ever had. They tend to live long lives with me. The cat is 17 years old, I had 2 that lived for almost 20 years each.



MaiasMom