Puppy tax

    • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.worldOP
      13·
      9 months ago

      She was kennel trained months ago. She’s 9 months now and has regressed with potty training because her routine and living situation changed 4 times in her life. I got injured and had to stay with my parents for a while and just as she started getting used to the changes, we moved back home. She also is still figuring out how to communicate with me in a way that I understand. She has trouble asking to go outside a lot of the time.

      • SaintWacko@midwest.socialEnglish
        8·
        9 months ago

        We use a string of bells hanging from the back door. It took my pup about half a day to figure out that if he rang the bells we’d let him outside

        • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world
          8·
          9 months ago

          We have bells.
          About ½ the time, she makes a gesture towards the bell, misses, and just barks at me.

          Then, occasionally, she’ll get excited by the bark, find a stuffie, and forget that she even wanted to go outside. The things we do for love.

        • navi@lemmy.tespia.org
          1·
          9 months ago

          Note: hang the bells next to the door so the dog doesn’t associate every door open with ringing the bells. This helped us on puppy number two not trying to ask to go outside to play 😂.

      • saltesc@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 months ago

        Mate, that’s ruff. Ha!

        Serious, I got a few talk buttons set up for my 1 year old pup (as of yesterday). First button I taught was “Outside”. First it was treat training to teach him how to press buttons, which was very fast. Then I recorded “Outside” to one. Whenever he stood at the door, I’d press it, then open the door. Didn’t matter if he actually wanted to go out or not. Or I’d get him to press it with a treat, but his first reward was opening it before the treat. Very quickly (matter of days) he knew to hit the “Outside” button and I’d get up and open the door.

        A common alternative to this is a bell at the door, but I wanted to teach some words.

        “Play” was next. Then “Cuddle”. Then he’d.combo hit “Play cuddle” and realised that meant specifically rough housing. Then “Outside play” meant walk, so I made a button for that.

        I think next is some harm ones like if he’s trying to say he has pain, plus some yes and no, then I think we’re good and both happier for it.

        Seriously give it a go. It’s really not that hard.

        Edit: Oh, and the best part is he knows the word “outside” means a door opens to go outdoors. So doesn’t matter where he is, outside means outside. Can be at a friend’s place, “Do you want to go outside?” he runs to a door, it opens, he goes and does his business.

        • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.worldOP
          1·
          9 months ago

          I use bells on my door and my beagle uses them most of the time. Both of my dogs know what words mean and my beagle is very capable of communicating. It just took him time to learn how to tell me things. If I am unsure of what he wants, I tell him to show me, and he’ll walk to whatever he wants. Like the door or his food bowl.

    • Tinks@lemmy.world
      11·
      9 months ago

      That’s so heartbreaking. We went through similar in the past year with our late lab and it crushed me every time because she clearly hated going in the house but couldn’t help it.

  • theangryseal@lemmy.world
    7·
    9 months ago

    My poor old dumb guy has been a month mess free.

    He’s trainable but the poor guy is dumb as a box of rocks and hyper to boot. I love him though.

      • theangryseal@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 months ago

        My toddlers play dress up with him haha. He’s always wearing something.

        Tonight he’s in mom’s jacket.

        • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          9 months ago

          My childhood dog adored children, and would let them do literally whatever they wanted to him. When my little sister came into the family as a foster child, the dog went nuts over her. She did not understand how to carry the lil dude because she was 3 and has intellectual disabilities and autism. I have a picture somewhere of her carrying him through the yard upside down and the dog was absolutely thrilled despite being upside down. The dog weighed 5 lbs, so he was a tiny boi. He lived to be 18, and I got him when he was 4. He had a great run at life. :)

    • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      9 months ago

      My puppy is not food motivated at all. She just likes me throwing a party when she does well.

      She is also so unfocused all the time. Totally seems like she has dog ADHD. I’m working on teaching her “focus” which is a command to stop and look at me with her full attention. I taught my beagle that and it’s great.

      I’m also teaching her “chill out” as a command to calm down while playing too rough. My beagle responds to that as well.

      My puppy is incredibly smart and knows almost all of the commands I use, but she’s at the age where she is like “fuck you, I do what I want”

      She has also been cooped up for a while because of an injury I got and the winter weather. She listens much better when she gets adequate exercise.

      My beagle was much harder to train, so I’m confident my puppy will get everything down. It’ll just take time.