Some Questions from a new puppy owner

[TheBlackMoth]

As some of you may know I have recently bought my girls a pair of Jack Russell puppies.

I have bought After you get your puppy and also the It's me or the dog book (which I like a lot).

But neither of these deal with having two puppies at once.

The little girl is much smarter than the little boy and is getting the hang of sit, down and stay quite easily. The little boy only has sit sorted. The difficulty is training them when the little boy keeps trying to snatch the treats. Anyone got any ideas.

The second point is do your dogs wear a collar in the house - my cats don't wear collars at all and I am not used to putting collars on animals.

Also do you use a harness on puppies or attach the lead to the collar.

(It is twenty years since I had dogs - and I didn't handle them brilliantly then - I really want these to be nice dogs and I know it's up to us to get it right.)

 

[GinaB]

I've never had to train two at once, but I'm sure it can be frustating. In regards to collars, none of mine ever wear them unless walking and even then it is a chain or a slip lead.

I hate the use of harnesses and haltis. But that is just my preference, so up to yourself on that one!

 

[piebaldsparkle]

My JR has a collar on all the time incase he escapes out the garden/front door.

When you have two puppies, it is sometimes useful to do some training separately. Try doing some with one in the garden and one in the house.

I have always just attached the lead to the collar, but don't know if that is right or wrong.

 

[KJJ]

I would suggest training each puppy seperately - let the other play with the kids in the front room whilst you shut yourself in kitchen with the other... then when they are both together they should copy each other as they both know what is being asked adn shouldn't snatch for the treat!!!!

I used a halter on Finn when he was younger... one of these.. that you can clip the lead to behind the shoulders...

But he got waaayyy to big and strong for the halter very quickly... so changed over to a collar which he did well on... however I would suggest trying the lead on collar in conjunction with the halter if you plan to just use collar in future .... (If it were me though and I had a JR I would use a halter all the time) You just need to watch that they don't pull against or lean on the halter or else they can grow incorrectly and damage their back legs. x

 

[GinaB]

That's exactly why I hate them KJFIT, seeing people letting dogs walking along on the back legs as they won't walk them to heel

I can understand why people use them for initial training for big dogs like your Finn.
But for wee small dogs? I think it comes down to laziness as well in not training them. Pulling in such a fashion is bad manners. Although I am aware of the likes of chihuahua who have very delicate windpipes that you have to be careful with and wee halters are better for them.

 

[KJJ]

[ QUOTE ]
That's exactly why I hate them KJFIT, seeing people letting dogs walking along on the back legs as they won't walk them to heel

I can understand why people use them for initial training for big dogs like your Finn.
But for wee small dogs? I think it comes down to laziness as well in not training them. Pulling in such a fashion is bad manners.

[/ QUOTE ]Agreed - I don't think there is anything worse than seeing the dog walking on 2 legs!!! .. that's not to say that they can't be trained properly to use a halter but the heel work is extremely important - not just for manners but for physical implications too!!

You would never see a LARGE dog on 2 legs in a halter this is purely because the owner 1) will not be able to hold the pulling dog to support it like they could a small dog and 2) the owner wouldn't tolerate it, like they do with small dogs..

So be warned Nuala - GinaB and I are disapproving members of "2 legged halter wearing dog walkers" hehe!!

[ QUOTE ]
Although I am aware of the likes of chihuahua who have very delicate windpipes that you have to be careful with and wee halters are better for them.

[/ QUOTE ]Yes every dog have delicate windpipes but proper training can nip the pulling in the bud before it gets to bad (THANKFULLY - I seem to be there with Finny - but I should have done it much much earlier!!

)

 

[GinaB]

A new clique idea there KJFIT! Lol

The Beast was so easy to teach, she was taught from a very young age, ie as soon as we got her! As a puppy we had her following us around garden to heel via small treats and toys. Also Tina the lab, well she'll do anything for food

 

[KJJ]

[ QUOTE ]
A new clique idea there KJFIT! Lol

[/ QUOTE ]Hah - we'll just add 'HATERS' to the end of it and we can have a clique of our own!!!

[ QUOTE ]
The Beast was so easy to teach, she was taught from a very young age, ie as soon as we got her! As a puppy we had her following us around garden to heel via small treats and toys. Also Tina the lab, well she'll do anything for food

[/ QUOTE ]Yes see Finn was allowed freedom as until I moved Jags to new yard, allowing him off lead/trying to treat him was difficult due to other hostile dogs!!!

(at old yard)

He's a gooden now though and knows mummies pocket = treats!!

 

[TheBlackMoth]

Well this is it. When I had dogs last time - I just had dogs - didn't do any training really and one was out of control and one was fine. I just thought the out of control one was a naughty dog. Obviously, I know the error of my ways now and am reading up to make sure I can at least try and get it right. The dogs are really for my 16 year old and she is doing most of the training - although we are all getting involved at bit.

 

[prose]

[ QUOTE ]
Although I am aware of the likes of chihuahua who have very delicate windpipes that you have to be careful with and wee halters are better for them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Same as with Boston Terriers, but I've done Advanced Obedience with Stella, and so she heels really well. I did train her in a regular flat collar, though, as I find the dog is more responsive than if they were in a harness.

If you are after a harness, I can highly recommend the Puppia ones, as they are durable, but are made of a soft mesh, and so there's no chance of it rubbing against the dog's skin (you can get them on ebay in the UK) .

Here's Stella sporting a red one and a black one...

 

[milor]

two pups are more than twice the amount of hard work to raise - partly because they bond with each other and so are less inclined to look to you for rewarding interaction. It can be done but you must train them separately and give each some individual time so that they learn to pay attentio to you.

get yourself a good book on clicker training, some treats and a clicker - then spend a part of every day teaching them that obeying a command followed by a click means a tasty reward.
Start with just 10 minutes at first then gradually build up the length of time you train but remember you will need to do this seperately for each pup. Perhaps you could allocate the training of one to your daughter and do the other yourself.

Most good breeders would no more sell two pups to one owner at the same time than fly to the moon ! -it's very hard work indeed - good luck and come back on here if you need any more help

 

[ktb]

when i had my two mini schnauzers together as pups we had 1 2 weeks before the other and they got on like a house on fire and played with eachother so we got stuck in with the training part of it. because they are small we had cat collars to start off with and the bells on them were very helpfull as you cant hear those little feet on the laminate flooring!!!

as the got bigger we changer there collars to normal dog collars and when we started taking them out we had one on a halti/harness and he would pull about a bit whereas the other was fun but after a while we took him off the harnes because it calmed down and prefered to stay with us!