y’all are giving your puppies way too much freedom too soon and that’s why you’re having such a hard time curbing those common puppy problems
🐶 the accidents
🐶 the incessant nipping
🐶 counter surfing
🐶 chewing on inappropriate things
🐶 destroying your favorite items
🐶 being a f**king menace
you’re inadvertently setting your puppy up for failure. a leash, a crate, an ex-pen, whatever your flavor of management, goes a really long way.
puppies are insanely hard no matter how much structure you give them. the change in routine, the shark teeth, the lack of ability to make good decisions. i know exactly what to do and even im struggling.
but i see people let their puppies free roam their entire house and refuse to tell their 8 week old puppies “no” and i don’t know how they aren’t being committed.
save yourself the headache. your puppy doesn’t know how to make good decisions. set them up for success from the moment you bring them home. not sure if they’re ready for more freedom? try. if they fail, that’s fine. put the leash back on and try again at another time.
also for the love of god stop giving your puppy so much affection if they’re biting the sh*t out of you. it’s already reinforcing to them. you’re feeding into the behavior. you can interact with them in other ways.
signed, someone who desperately wants to show affection to her cattle dog puppy but can’t, because he only bites 🖤
bagel’s leash skills are coming along nicely. we’re keeping to low distraction neighborhoods so that it’s easier for him to stay focused on me rather than wanting to chase every leaf or grab every object in the grass (although he did a great job not chasing the leaves today!). well slowly build up distractions and move to our own neighborhood when i think he’s ready, but i love his ears flapping and his little prance 🥹🥰
sometimes avoiding a reaction is impossible. the conditions aren’t set up in your favor. watching this back i wish i had the ability to give tuna more space to avoid a reaction, but given the situation she actually did a really fantastic job. there was an incredibly out of control dog off camera who’s owner kept dropping the leash (????) when he got sick of being dragged by his dog which just agitated me and affected my energy. not to mention the fact that tuna’s leash got tangled affecting my ability to handle her properly. the most important thing here is that this was less than 2 minutes of a 3 hour visit we had at the park where she was able to relax around a variety of her triggers. and she did fantastic! i’m so proud of her!! #reactivedog #reactivedogtraining #dogtraining #lancasterpa #lancasterdogs #lancasterpadogs #traineddogshavemorefun
