Tucker starts behavioral training
Tucker is about three months old, so it’s time to start the puppy beatings.
For the first couple of weeks, he spent his time getting used to his big sister Sadie, his new parents, and learning his boundaries. He’s learned a few words, like “kennel”, “come here”, and sometimes “sit”. He’s also learning what he can chew on (dog toys) and what he can’t (socks).
However, we’ve spent most of this time treating him like a cute little puppy, instead of an untrained, misbehaving pre-dog. UP until now, we’ve been repeating commands over and over, all the while offering treats, for doing basic things like “go to your kennel” (that’s the treat jackpot, as far as he’s concerned) and my whistle calls which bring Sadie out of a deep slumber on the other side of the house every single time I whistle. However, he hasn’t done too well with punishment for ill-mannered behavior (like chewing up cables or yapping in the house).
We were lucky that Sadie responded so well that it was almost like not having to train her at all; but Tucker’s different. Yelling at him when caught chewing something he shouldn’t usually just causes him to saunter off and find something else to chew on that hasn’t been taken away yet. He just doesn’t care.
The hardest part about a puppy is having to do behavioral training. I’ve started rolling him (Sadie’s been doing that since the day we brought him home), but he’ll just spread out on his back and treat it like another game (Sadie hasn’t had much luck either). I’ve also started leash training him tonight, and he is not happy about it. He’s yapping, and constantly pulling away, and tries to chew the leash (although, he suddenly just crashed, and is now sleeping soundly at the furthest distance he can get from me).
Here shortly, I’m going to start walking around the house with him still leashed to my wrist. I’m sure he’ll do better when it involves moving around, rather than me anchoring him to one spot in the house. Hopefully, given his age, he should start paying a lot of attention to me within a week or two; making the rest of his training much easier.