Training a New Puppy Tips

Our little merlie monster is growing up! All legs and ears now, he is, running and sliding down the hallway to stop at the front door and greet the guest, or the mail, or an imaginary friend at the door with a leggy puppy version of a sit. Noob can almost hold that sit, too, but still forgets when the excitement of the door swinging open to reveal the visitor is just too much. Then the puppy butt gets the wiggles and propels the rest of the puppy up off of the floor, but he's learning to be a good boy and sometimes remembers mid jump, cutting off a bark mid-squeak, remembering to go back to that sit before he's landed again.

It's hard not to laugh at Noob, but if you do, he thinks he needs to do it again to make you laugh, so you choke back the giggles and try to look stern -- with varying success.

This is one of the more difficult stages of raising a puppy. They're beginning to grow up and it's easy to forget you're still dealing with a baby so there's plenty of frustration to go around.

Noob is old enough now that his Aussie-ness is beginning to manifest itself in various ways.

First, Noob's found out he can jump. He can jump high. He can jump over things. He can jump on things -- and people. So far he hasn't figured out he can jump over the fence; he's mostly kept it to hurdling the sofa, the coffee table, nothing too dangerous . . . well, except for that time he decided to try sailing over the sofa -- and Tsarina as she was sleeping on the back of it. That was unfortunate. Not, though, quite as foolhardy as the time he thought he could use Boss Lady's back as a launch pad.

Boss Lady cut Noob a little slack on that little faux pas since it could be attributed to the stirring of his DNA, something they share, sort of, both being Shepherd types.

The rest of the crew, even KAOS, aren't finding much enthusiasm, or even tolerance, for that part of Noob's development into a grown up dog, since they're getting drafted to play the part of sheep in Noob World.

So now you and Noob have some new things to work on. The jumping's tricky, because you have plans for you and Noob to burn up the agility courses and maybe even do some high flying as a frisbee dog, so you don't want him to get the idea that jumping is always bad, just that there are times when it's best to keep four on the floor. You'd also rather he not do any jumping on hard surfaces since it's hard on puppy joints before those growth plates have hardened.

Not jumping inside the house is a gimme, but convincing him of that might be something more than a gimme. Since he's sensitive (and so are you), you have no intention of scolding him or thumping him on the nose or putting your knee in his chest when he jumps up. Watching him land on his butt at the front door gave you a good idea, though, now whenever he starts to jump in the house, you give him the command for sit or down. He can't jump while he's sitting or laying down! He sits, you click/treat; sometimes just click, since you'd really like to think that there might be a day when you don't have to make sure everything has pockets and those pockets won't smell like liver treats. The same lessons translate to the outdoors. You figure if you walk him down the fence line, putting him in a sit or a down periodically, he'll begin to get the idea that he's supposed to be well behaved at the edge of the yard. With any luck, that will translate to better behavior along the fence line as he gets older, or at least give you a basis to work on any behavior modifications that might be necessary.

The herding is a little different, and you really don't want to quash those natural instincts. Noob's having fun, and Boss Lady's even acting like she's enjoying the game as well, besides, its amusing to watch Noob try to herd cats and see Lady loosen up and join in as well. You'll even encourage the game, throwing a dozen or so large balls out in the yard for Noob to "herd" into the corner. Hey, as long as Noob doesn't push the Tsarina too far. After all, it's all fun and games until someone gets stuck in the eye.

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