Puppy Stages, The Good, The Bad, The Independence!

[Karol J.]

This week our trainer told us that between 3 months and 6 months our sweet puppies will start displaying independence and free thinking. This will be displayed in our giving our puppy a command and them ignoring us! She advised that we must be persistent, and not back down no matter how long it takes to get them to do the command. If we give up the puppy will "drop" that command and not do it for you until you retrain it, or sometimes not at all. If we are persistent, it shows our puppy that we mean what we say, and reinforces that we are Alpha Dog.

She did assure us that when our dogs do this, that it shows their intelligence.

BE PERSISTENT Doodle Handlers! :-D

[Kelly Gallagher]

Our trainer just told us the same thing the other night. His words were "your dog will ignore you because it can". He basically said that "we must win" when it comes to commands. Also, the longer a dog is allowed to do something, ie. jump on people the longer it will take to break them of the habit. I think his words were "your reaction dictates the frequency of the action". It was our first Basic Obedience class with Maddy, now 5 months, and it was very helpful.
Kelly

[Karol J.]

Yes, the joy of jumping....

[03pilqobzlvp7]

Duff is 8 months and has been enjoying this "independent" stage for a few weeks. I thought it was frustrating until we started dog sitting for our friend's pug yesterday. THIS DOG IS SO DEFIANT AND DOESN'T LISTEN TO ANYTHING! I'm losing my mind and may just have to spend a few hours re-training him so I don't lose my mind.

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

Yup, yup, yup. I think we have all "lightened up" during this independent stage at one time or another and realized that persistence keeps sanity :-D

[Karol J.]

And also being able to talk to others who are going through the same thing. ;-D