New puppy needs training asap *Updates and training tips for your puppies!*

[Ole rooster]

I would say don't keep the dog. If the husband, considering he seems to be the trainer, doesn't have the time to do just that, don't keep the dog. You are going to be very unhappy if you do. Before any dog is turned lose around the chickens, especially a pup, it has to be on a lease. I has to have weeks and weeks of training. From your story I just don't see you have the time to do what's necessary,

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Actually, we have made leaps and bounds in progress since my first post

. I am with her constantly from the time we wake up to 9:30 AM, then from 5:30 to the time we go to bed, and she even sleeps in the same room, so I am with her most of the time. Of course I am with her even longer on Fri-Sun. Hubby is with her one on one from 9:30 to 1 on weekdays, so she gets a lot of interaction time and we both love her now. I have always been the primary trainer and she is responding very well to the type of training described in this thread. I think this thread has been one enormous learning experience and I hope anyone who stumbles across it will read it and know that they can train their dog, not 'asap', but in a timely fashion, to be a great dog, whether they purposefully adopted it or she fell out of a bush on their way to their front door

On a slightly different note, I have a question! I think Naga will start losing her puppy teeth soon. She is starting to wimper a little when I give her the normal hard chew bones she has been liking. Our first dog started this behavior about a week prior to losing his first teeth. What do you give your pups to chew on when chewing on hard toys seems a little uncomfortable? Right now I just gave her an old washrag, but I would like to hear what you do!

 

[r4eboxer]

I give my dogs frozen meat to chew on. They love the treat and it soothes. I give it raw and with bone in or out, whatever I have on hand. I do not give anything with neck bones, wing bones or weight bearing bones.

I too have been training puppies. I have three GP's that I have trained and you are totally correct. If you put in the time and are determined to do it you can and will.

Congrats on all the success you have had and Great Job!

 

[centrarchid]

With dogs having acces to outside, no adjustments are made with respect to chew options. Pup will adapt.

Also at some point pup may kill a chicken. Work forward from that point as dog will still likely loose interest in doing such. All of my best dogs killed at least a chicken or two before settling into role. You will be getting that backslide soon.

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Thanks for the heads up. I know the adolescent period can be trying, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it I guess. Also forgot to mention she is 100% inside dog, either myself or my husband is with her when she goes outside. I kind of want her to be more of a personal guardian than a livestock guardian anyway. My chickens live in a large privacy fence that covers nearly an acre so larger predators stay out, and since it's adjacent to my house we really don't see much in the way of predators anyway.

 

[FireTigeris]

Remember the 'puppy brain' and 'adult brain' of a dog have a communication at the 'teenage' time for that breed of dog. (labs around 10months-1.5 as an example) in that phase they tend to forget everything.
Even the guide dog puppy raisers are warned about this phase, my 2 yr old pit bull is just showing signs of coming out of this phase (it mast start later for them).

Be VERY careful with your birds and the dogs in this phase, the last burst of puppy and all the strength and agility of an adult. (like human teens really)

 

[centrarchid]

Thanks for the heads up. I know the adolescent period can be trying, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it I guess. Also forgot to mention she is 100% inside dog, either myself or my husband is with her when she goes outside. I kind of want her to be more of a personal guardian than a livestock guardian anyway. My chickens live in a large privacy fence that covers nearly an acre so larger predators stay out, and since it's adjacent to my house we really don't see much in the way of predators anyway.

Darn. That privacy will stop overweight / unmotivated dogs and some three legged coyotes but Mr. and Mrs. Fox are going to be taking their share. Let your dog have fun giving the fox community hell. You are also going to get raccooned and oppossumed.

 

[littlechicklet]

Very good advice, Littlechicklet. And don't worry about being long winded on here, look at my posts lol! Your dog in your profile is gorgeous. He has that look I like, muscular but with a sweet face

I do need to work on my approach with her when she is rough with the cat, it's not getting worse, but it sure ain't getting better either, and my little kitty isn't the brightest crayon in the box so sometimes she forgets she can just jump out of reach and cries for me to make Naga stop instead. What I have been doing lately when that happens is grabbing Naga by the collar and telling her 'No' and giving her a little shake but that's not the way to do it because as soon as I let her go she's back chasing Mai again, just as rough as when she started. We will work more on 'Leave it' and it will be in my next update. Btw everyone's dogs are lovelies!

Thank you and I also think everyone's dogs are beautiful!

I wanted to add do as many training sessions as you can per day but keep them short. Say train for 10 minutes or so each and take a break. Also if you give a lot of treats throughout the day stop. Only feed the dog her food at meal time (or times if you feed her more than once a day). The cheese works great because its something they do not have to crunch like a biscuit treat and if its the only time they get people food it makes it all the more desirable.

I talk a good game but trust me I have one dog I would never allow around my chickens. He may eventually do better but its my failure because I have not worked with him enough. He also falls short on the formal recall command again my fault. Like many things its easy to know what and how to do things but if you are not consistent it does not work.

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

How are your puppies doing?

Hello again everyone! Just wanted to touch base again on the training. Naga is now completely housetrained. We have trained her to sit by the door every time she has to go. We did this by only allowing her out this particular door when it was potty time, and over the course of a month and a half she caught on. Some dogs can do it quicker, others slower. I think she is generally average as far as her learning rate goes.

She has also finally gained my trust to be with the chickens without a leash. I still never let her out with them alone, but we have been spending a lot of time with them every day and she has been pretty desensitized to them. A trick I learned while doing this was to take her favorite toy out with us, and every time I thought she was about to start chasing them, I would direct her attention to the toy and we would play. It's probably not a good idea to play with your pup if they've already started chasing the birds though, that will just teach them that chasing them is good. I would only do it when she stared at them more than a few seconds. Now, she sits among them, but mostly minds her own business. I trust her enough to be up to 50 feet away from her while she is loose, and I feel like I can let her out of my sight for very brief periods if I have something I'm working on outside. By brief I mean less than a minute. So far she has made big improvements in this area! Desensitization is the key! Find a way to make the dog think the chickens are boring. Or at least not as interesting as what you have in your hand.

Naga is really doing great with every aspect of her training. I have followed parts of all the training suggested by you awesome BYCers, but mostly I have followed the general outline described by Chickensrdinos. If you are new to this thread, her method is on page 1 or 2. The only thing left that she is really struggling with is the cat. Every time I post on here she has made small improvements, but she still has a long way to go in this area. She has gotten to where if she absolutely can't resist playing with the cat, at least she plays appropriately about half the time. Mai (the cat) seems to enjoy occasional play sessions with Naga so long as she doesn't get rough, but like I said she only plays nice half the time. I have not figured out a way to desensitize her to Mai like I have the chickens yet, which is strange because they live together, whereas she is only with the chickens about an hour a day. How did you all do it?

Well that's the update, now time for a story! Naga proved her worth the other day by saving my husband from a scorpion sting. I wasn't there, but he told me he was sitting in his chair in the living room and Naga was asleep, but suddenly she woke up and walked over to him, staring at his leg. She immediately lunged for his leg, and he thought she was going to bite him, but instead she pulled off a scorpion that was crawling on him and killed it!! Maybe not as great as those stories you hear about dogs saving their owner's lives, but she has become quite special to me, someone who normally doesn't even like dogs. I think she could be transforming me into a dog lover... She also showed up at our house on hubby's birthday.

 

[aschm01]

I've got 2 German Shorthairs (age 3), an older GSD and a senior feist mix and they are a dream around the chickens. We are all new to chickens. Surprisingly, my birdiest dog, the female German Shorthair, is the best guardian. I did use a shock collar at first, but I only had to vibrate it... just to let her know that the chickens are part of the "no zone." I have since removed it and she spends her time escorting them around the yard to range, practicing her point and all that. I don't hunt with her. I might one day. The GSD has been trained to bark at a red tailed hawk that likes to visit the yard for squirrel snacks. The other two could care less about the chickens. My dogs are members of the household and go in and out at will, have fluffy beds, get baths and all that so they are pretty beholden to me and I think this helps a lot with training.

The thing is, dogs are only as smart as you are. So stay calm and patient and good luck.