Common Puppy Questions
Sophia Yin, DVM San Francisco Chronicle December 2000
For more information, refer to Dr. Sophia's book, "How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves" © 2004. TFH publishing
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Q) We are looking forward to bringing home a seven week old yellow lab puppy. We will crate her, but we will be unable to keep her in just one room when she is up and about due to the width of the opening doors to our kitchen (7 feet and 9 feet). Any recommendations on what to do when she's not napping in her crate on how to confine her?
A) For a pup in potty training the three safe sites are at rest in a comfortable crate that's small enough so that she holds her urge to go, outside in a dog-safe area where she's free to do her duty, or tethered via leash to your side so that you can take her outside at the first signs that she's going to let loose. When she's running freely in a whole room or two, watch her like a hawk searching for breakfast. A brief glance in the other direction can spell disaster. It doesn't take long for a pup to do her duty, and it takes even less time for a Lab to search out and destroy valuable objects that look to her like toys.
Once the little Lab is fully house-trained you can confine her unsupervised to a larger dog-safe areas in the house, preferably an area where she gets to see you or interact with you frequently. To keep her in your kitchen, try an extra long baby gate or purchase a portable exercise pen. You can set the six-paneled pen up in your kitchen or modify its use by spreading the panels out in a crooked line to block the exit from your kitchen.
Q) Also do you recommend training with treats? Labs live to eat! But I have some second thoughts about that training method.
A) Although some dogs can live without tennis balls, human attention, and squeaky toys, no dog can live without food. As a result, food is a strong motivator for dogs, especially those who haven't taught their humans to cater to their every culinary whim.
What's more, since you're going to feed your dog anyway, you might as well teach her to earn her meals. This can be as simple as having her perform a few tasks such as sit, down, or stay for a few kibble before she gets her entire meal. Or it can be a full blown training and play session where Fido practices bits of her growing repertoire and learns new tricks and tasks. This schedule ensures at least 15 to 20 minutes of focused interaction with your pooch per day.
Alternatively, you can measure out Fido's full daily food and treat allotment and dole it out in impromptu training sessions throughout the day. Now Fido will never know when to expect fun. But she'll be ready just in case.
Once your pup consistently aces an exercise or trick, you can gradually replace food rewards with praise instead for that task. Then use food primarily for learning new behaviors and intermittently with the behaviors she has down pat. If all goes right, you'll quickly create a happy healthy pet who loves to learn.
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© 2000 Sophia Yin, DVM No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission from Sophia Yin.
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