Willie Training!

Since the day we brought Willie home I started training him. He learned sit, and down with no problems whatsoever! I make him sit before receiving meals, going outside, getting treats (as a reward), leashing, and playing fetch. I have found the word "sit" does not even need to be used..he knows that he has to sit before doing any of the aforementioned times! The same to be said with down; which I have used to give treats, and when attempting to practice stay...(I will admit I haven't spent hours on this training....we have gotten up to about 10 seconds of Willie staying in one spot without moving), and I've also used down when I come home from work as a way to calm him down...this never works, but I will keep trying! Training Willie to "come" on command has also been a real treat...sometimes it works, and other times it doesn't. I like to call it selective hearing. When we are outside, and Willie is on his tie-out "come" only works when there is a treat (cheese) dangling from my fingers. Inside "come" works 95% of the time...it usually does not work when he is concentrating on a kitty that is laying on the other side of the puppy gate.

The play biting has gotten mildly better, but I still haven't found a way to nix it all together. It seems that we have gone through all of the suggested methods:

Trading your hand with a toy (Never worked)

Stopping play all together (which in some circumstances is very difficult)

Spray bottle (Willie finds this as a game!)

Growling at him (Only excites him more, but seemed to work for about 20 seconds)

Ignoring him all together (again hard especially when the play biting occurs when on the couch)

Time Outs (We've used the excersice pen as his time-out spot...this seems to diffuse the situation for at least 10 minutes after his time-out has ended. Note: Time-outs last between 5 and 10 minutes)

Play biting (snappy alligator syndrome) can become very frusturating at times, and it takes all the patience in the world to keep calm, cool and collected. Play biting seems to escalate during the teething stage; which thankfully isn't forever!

I have recently started to work on "leave it" I started this after Willie became obsessed with anything resembling a paper towel, and once he would get ahold of said "paper towel" he would refuse to let go, and would put up an immense fight; which I have always won, but it was very concerning when he would growl and snap during these altercations. Now this has only happened 3 times, and they all occured outside. People in our neighborhood find that our tree lawn looks like the perfect spot to dump their used tissues, paper towels, and napkins. I have now made it a point to make sure the area is clear before we venture out. But I definitely need to put a stop to Willie agressively guarding anything paper. Thankfully he doesn't react to me grabbing anything else out of his jaws! If anyone has any suggestions on how to get Willie to stop this behavior....I am all ears! :)

I will be signing Willie up for Puppy Kindergarten in July, and I hope this will help train Willie, and myself :)

With a puppy you must have patience, perserverence, and constistency! When you have two full time workers in your family training may take a little longer than you would like, but be rest assured you will get there....we haven't mastered it yet, but I know we will!