Jan Fennell Philosophy in Real Life

[Training - Experiences, Challenges, and Mindsets]

Hi Everyone!

My husband and I are bringing home our goldendoodle in a little over one week! We've read Cesar Millan's "How to Raise the Perfect Dog" and Jan Fennell's "The Dog Whisperer" to prepare for Ollie - we've found that we love the philosophy of the Pack and plan to implement a lot of what we've read, but it's overwhelming. Just wondering if anyone has real life examples or advice on how to implement these. Or even just things that have worked/not worked in the first few months of puppyhood in general. Thanks!

[Susan and Bentley]

Positive reinforcement, patience, and repetition mixed in with lots of love and fun!  And training classes.  I personally am not a fan of Cesar Millan.  The old pack theory has been debunked by the very man who came up with it.  Enjoy your puppy and get ready!!!! 

[Susan and Bentley]

My trainer, who gave me a lot of reading material. I've also heard that off camera, Cesar is very mean to the dogs.  But again, that's just what I've heard and read about.  In any case, here is one article I found.  Victoria Stillwell was recommended to me by my trainers  As everyone else has said though, lots of positive training, lots of patience, and lots of love.  Bentley learned so fast it was scary.  And I too taught him to use the bell to go out.  I would take his paw and hit the bell and say potty and take him outside.  He picked it up in a couple of days.  It was so exciting the first time he did it by himself.  He did abuse it a little but that's just the puppy in them. 

https://positively.com/dog-training/myths-truths/pack-theory-debunked/

[Susan and Bentley]

ask away!  I leave the bell on all the time.  We have it on our back door which leads to the backyard.  If you only have a front door I would probably hang it on a hook or something right next to the door otherwise the bell will drive YOU crazy every time it opens and closes.  The other thing I wanted to say, which I know someone else already has, is that you have to know your dog.  And you will learn quickly what he responds to, and what he doesn't.  What works for one dog, might not work for another.  We were taught that ANY attention, whether it's positive or negative is still attention, and that's what the dog is looking for.  So we went with the positive attention which in Bentley's case, was the way to go.  He is very stubborn, but very smart, and more aggressive (not in a bad way) than passive.  Yelling at him, hitting him, or any thing negative makes him more aggressive.  But all he wants to do is please us so any positive attention, treats, toys, playing with him, petting him, that's what works for him and for us.  But I couldn't have done without taking him to puppy training school.  The trainers were amazing, had a really big space, and we have a dog that for the most part, listens to us.  He's not perfect, but neither am I!!!  (He is however, perfect in my eyes).  He is certain likes and dislikes.  For example, as a puppy he did not like to be held tightly. And he didn't, and still doesn't love to be picked up.  So we don't, unless we need to or if he wants to be.  But you learn there likes and dislikes as you go along, and their personality comes out.  In all honesty, Bentley is extremely affectionate and cuddly, but at the same time he does have a temper.  Again, not perfect but....

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

You might try the on-line dog trainner, Doggy Dan.  He is recommended by this site.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I am definitely a fan of the "Doggy Dan" training method, especially with puppies. I think there are some parts of the Cesar Millan method that are good, but on an overall basis Doggy Dan's approach is more in line with what I believe and what I have learned from trainers who I have worked with. I think one of the most important things is to remember that puppies are like little sponges....they really want to learn what your expectations are but they come into our lives pretty "clueless".  We need to show them, be consistent with our responses, and teach them that good things happen when they listen to us.  I'm a fan of positive reinforcement, but I also believe that puppies need to learn when they are doing something inappropriate.  I used "time outs" a lot when my guys were puppies. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

You can get a free trial.  There's more information as well as a number of Doggy Dan YouTube videos at this link....https://www.youtube.com/user/TheOnlineDogTrainer.

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

You'll find lots of different training philosophies that contradict each other.  The common thread among them all is consistency and patience and love.  I still like a lot of Cesar Milan's methods and my doodle is still goofy and cuddly and loving even though he knows I'm alpha when it comes to where he needs to be when I'm eating and sleeping.  The clicker training used by PetSmart was OK for early commands, but I couldn't be consistent with it because you need to have the clicker at ALL times and I couldn't commit to that.  So I had to switch to verbal rewards (and petting praise) and verbal "Un-unh!" for corrections.  (No didn't work for me because it's such a common word and confused him to hear it so often in every day speech, so I stuck with the growling "un-unh" to correct him and it still works to this day 3.5 years later.) 

But mainly....love on your new puppy a lot and be extremely consistent with what you want him to do.  If you don't want him on your furniture, then never let him on it or it will confuse him.  I choose to let them on my couch and chairs, but others don't like that.  I don't let them sleep in my bed with me, but will let them into my bedroom in the morning and on my bed for morning cuddles before I get up for work.  You are alpha so you get to decide what you will and won't let him do from day one.  

I will say that the absolute best thing I ever did was train him to ring a bell at the back door when he needs to potty.  I work from home and wouldn't know if he was scratching or sitting at the back door.  I can hear the bell from my office or living room and it's GREAT!!!  I started using the bell when he was 10 weeks old.  The only reason I didn't do it from day 1 at 8 weeks was because I never knew about it until my vet mentioned it to me when I took him in to meet her and establish a relationship between them. When I adopted Maggie 8 months later, Kona taught her how to use the bell in just one use of it.  She was old enough to see that when he rang the bell, the door opened.  Smart puppies!

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

The puppy I trained from day one with the bell for potty (Kona) has never used the bell for play.  Only for potty.  So I must have done something right with him.  I think it's because I started using it when his brain was so "blank" at 10 weeks old so it sunk in and imprinted that it was only associated with potty.  I watched him like a hawk and every single time I saw him sniffing or arching his back (poop walk) I jumped up, scooped him up, ran to the back door and sat him in front of the bell and lifted his paw and hit the bell with his paw, and THEN opened the door.  I took him to a spot on the lawn and stood over him and used the command "Hurry Up", and repeated this process each time he woke up from a nap, or showed any sniffing signs.  I can count on one hand the number of times he had an accident in those two weeks of training on one hand, and each accident was my own fault for not taking him to the back door soon enough after sleeping or eating, or not watching his sniffing.  

And in 3.5 years of him living with me, I can count on one hand the number of times he has rung the bell just to go play or steal something.  One time was hilarious.  He knew he couldn't destroy my clothing in my house, so he had the brilliant idea to ring the bell to go outside to destroy my bra. You can see the height I have my bell set.  I was sitting at my computer when I heard the bell ring several times.  I cracked up when I saw him anxiously waiting to go outside to chew up my bra. 

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

If you look closer at my photo of Kona by the bell, you'll see that I don't have it attached to the door for that reason.  I didn't want him to associate the sound of the bell with just any reason to go outside.  I have it screwed into the wall NEXT to the door.  I love the questions. Keep them coming.  

Your puppy looks like an F1 Goldendoodle, meaning one of his parents is a Golden Retriever so he is first generation in looks.  He will likely have a flatter, wavy coat and maybe even shed a little bit as a first generation.  He is gorgeous and that long flat coat is adorable as their "feathers" start to come in.  You'll see a few of them on here and they will make you smile!  Both of Kona's parents were multi-generational doodles, and those pups tend to have a more predictable coat and predictable traits since the traits have been around for several generations. He is a large mini, and was the runt of his litter of 10 pups.  When I got him at 8 weeks old, he was only 3.5 pounds!  And you can see that he already had quite a bit of wave in his coat as a young puppy. A few of his siblings had the tighter curls on their face and head and they are now much more tightly curled than Kona.  I picked out the one with the fewest curls because their coat is easier to care for over the years.   

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

I just read more on your instagram site and see that he is indeed an F1 Goldendoodle.  And he looks MUCH bigger than Kona's baby pictures (Note that I had to carry him in my purse when I picked him up because the crate I brought for him was way too big!  Ollie already looks like he's over 7 pounds!  I could hold Kona in one hand when he was 8 weeks.  I'll try to find some photos of more flat haired babies and how their feathers came in later (after 4 or 5 months old...and even more later)

[Gwyndolyn Morasko]

I mentioned that Kona only used the bell for potty needs.  And I do believe that's because of me catching him at a VERY young age and only using it when I KNEW he needed to pee, so that association really stuck in his little brain. (I used the term "Hurry Up" and "Let's go Hurry Up" because it felt a little less "icky" saying it at a restaurant or friend's house than "Go Potty".   But with Maggie, she taught me that she responded to "let's go Potty" better.  I adopted her when she was about 10 months old, so I can only guess that she had been trained with that term and so I use two phrases on them.  Even their occasional dog sitter is amazed that they often won't go potty unless she tells each of them their known phrase.  Silly dogs.)

My adopted girl Maggie will use the bell for multiple reasons. She learned that ringing the bell opened the back door by watching Kona do it just one single time.  She is scary smart.  But since I didn't potty train her, her brain just associated the bell with the door opening.  Nothing to do with potty.  So she will use it when she just wants to go sit on the back porch for fresh air, which is fine. But I have to check first because she is my wild woman varmint hunter and she'll ring the bell if she hears a varmint (to her...a neighbor cat is also a varmint) in the back yard.  So I've had to live through a few 3 AM varmint chasing adventures where I thought she had to pee, but in fact she was on a mission to corner an opossum behind the garage!  But since you are getting your baby as a young pup, you can help train the door opening to the bell to just be for potty time.  

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

So cute. Haha.
Yogi tried using the bells for when he wanted to go out and play. But this wasn't until after
he had learned to use them correctly. So at that point we just ignored him, so it didn't take long before he stopped ringing them except to go out and use them for business.