Positive reinforcement training ("Perfect Puppy" by Dr. Sophia Yin)

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Does anyone here have experience trying the "Perfect Puppy in 7 days" method of positive reinforcement training?  DH and I have been reading this book by Dr. Sophia Yin and the method seems pretty sound but very rigorous and time-consuming.

It basically involves rewarding the dog with treats for asking politely for everything by sitting (including affection, greetings, going out etc.), tethering or crating at all times and using very few cue words but mostly physical cues (like being on a hands-free leash).

We are expecting a litter of puppies to be born any day now so starting to look into things!

This is the book I'm talking about:

https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Puppy-Days-Start-Right/dp/0964151871...

Before I compile a list/"game plan" of how we are going to go about training I wanted to see if anyone had tips.  DH is planning on taking a week or so off with puppy when we bring it home to give us a good start on training since we'll be moving a couple weeks later (yikes!).

Thanks!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I did find some leads using that website. Hooray for Charlie. We are on vacation til the end of August but before we go home I will call the ones who's websites and philosophies seem best for Charlie.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Well it looks like DH is taking 1-2 weeks off work when new puppy arrives which should give us a great head start on establishing routines and potty training :)

When we took Luna home we were both working full time and we basically had a weekend before returning to work and leaving her alone all day.  We have grown wiser lol. Not that Luna was poorly behaved but with our next pup being much larger we want to have a very polite dog!

The puppies have been born and there are enough females (We are #3 in the list for females, there are 4 females) so it's feeling more real!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Keep us posted J. 

[Stacy]

That's so exciting! I hope it is a wonderful experience for all of you! Training has done amazing things for me and Maggie. I hope it's the same for you!

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Thanks!

Luna was "trained" (she was generally well behaved but not perfect) but we figure with a dog that could be double the size Luna was, a 5 year old daughter, a brand new house this Fall and a baby on the way... extra vigilant training is in order :p

[Carol and Truffle]

Just WOW!! Y'all have a lot of changes on your plate!

I thought we were suddenly overwhelmed (1st grand baby due any day, will board 8-year-old mini-dachsund for a while when grand baby makes her/his appearance, 5 month old 'doodle (Truffle) who is overly exuberant, lost my job where I could take Truffle to work & started new job where I don't yet have permission to bring her in (and she's not yet well-behaved enough to take her anywhere where absolutely everyone is extremely tolerant) - and no children at home to make her life worthwhile while DH & I are at work) ... but I do think your situation takes the cake!

And I know you are still handling Luna's developments with great challenge.

When is new baby due?

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Luna is gone unfortunately as of May, hence the new puppy :)

Baby is due in January so at least I'll be home on mat. leave for the dreaded puppy "teenage" phase and can keep an eye on her :p

It's going to be a crazy year for sure.  

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

And oh so fun......  Enjoy your new home, your new babies (four and two legged) and the rest of your family.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Update - been working at this method since puppy came home Saturday.  so far it's working pretty well!

The tethering has been challenging (she had clearly never seen a leash before) but the "ask politely for everything by sitting" is definitely working!

Every time one of us walks away and stops she comes nearby and sits.  We are working on sitting to go in/out of the house and not jumping up on our 5 year old.  

Next up (before DH returns to work next week) is to work on her separation anxiety!  She gets quite upset if we leave the room without her... no good since she will have to be in an ex pen (with a bed and pee area) while we are at work.  She is very strong and can actually push the ex pen across the room even if we put a chair lying down on the floor on the outside.. going to need a couple heavy boxes or something so she can't move the ex pen (it's in a corner of the room, so just need to stabilize the two free sides).

We are moving in 2.5 weeks so she'll be in a different "alone time" area in new house - we have a mud room (tiled floor) with a back area that can be gated off with a baby gate.  Should be a bit better since she won't be able to push that around the room.

[Stacy]

Just a thought. I left Katie in an x-pen when she was a puppy. I got a soft top for it (I found it on Amazon) I didn't think she was big enough to climb over, but I didn't ever want her to figure out that she could. Maggie isn't that big but she can leap tall buildings in a single bound. I feel like if I had had her as a puppy I could have taught her to respect gates instead of being resigned that she will be wherever she wants.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Riley can already put her paws up on the top of the ex-pen wall... which is how she's moving it around so easily.  I don't think it'll hold her for long that's for sure!  The baby gate is quite sturdy/tall though so it should be a better solution.  The mud room also has a door that we can close so even if she does get out she won't get too far.

[Stacy]

The nice thing about the top was that it fit over the sides so it kind of gave the whole thing more stability. But it sounds like you have a workable option. I was so sad about the baby gates though. I just kept buying them, sure that something would contain her. The last one was the tallest I could find. 41" I put her in the kitchen and left for work and she was over the top in 10 minutes. She didn't knock it over, she cleared it. My vet laughed at me. He said, of course she did. She's an athlete. She clawed at the back door when she was in the garage, which was no big deal. But I didn't have any other doors in the house I was okay with her destroying in her quest to leave the room. It was quite the trial and error figuring out something that would work. But I credit most of that to her being a rescue dog. I never had any issues like that with Miss Kate. Now that Maggie is crate trained (and potty trained) life is so much simpler.