Puppy Training Tips

Puppy Training

When we first started writing to the Puppy In Training website our main focus was to chronicle the journey of my guide dog puppy, Stetson and share all of our experiences in puppy training and raising a guide dog.

A couple months after Stetson started his formal guide dog training we were asked to raise a second guide dog puppy in training. We accepted and so began the chronicles of our next guide dog, Derby and his puppy training.

If you’ve been following along then you know Derby the little yellow puppy in the picture below was career changed the middle of last year.

As time passed this blog has evolved and we enjoyed not only sharing our experiences with guide dog puppy training, but also just about everything that came across our desk regarding dogs and puppies.

It’s been over three years since we first started our guide dog puppy training journey and as many of you know today I am without a guide dog puppy. However, after writing over 300 articles to this blog I wanted to share some of my favorite and most popular puppy training articles.

Puppy Training

While not all totally about puppy training I’m sure you’ll enjoy these articles and some of the adorable puppy pictures.

Top 10 Dogs Good With Children – If you’re looking to get a new puppy I’d suggest checking out your local shelter or rescue. There are many adorable purebred and mixed breed puppies and dogs at your local rescues and shelters. If you’re looking for a dog good with kids then check out this first part about dogs good with children. You can also find the second article in this series here: Dogs Good With Children Part II
Can A Litter Of Puppies Have More Than One Father? – When I first started volunteering with the Cuddly Canines rescue I picked up 7 little German Shepherd puppies and they all looked very different. The owner of Cuddly Canines told me that it was possible that their were multiple father’s of this litter. I found this very interesting and threw together a short article about litters having more than one father.
How Much Should I Feed My Puppy – After raising several puppies over the past few years I noticed some (Stetson) got a bit chunky while eating the same amount as others (Derby) who got very skinny. I put together a short article about what your bag of kibble recommends versus what we feed our guide dogs.
How To Handle Your Puppy’s First Night At Home – We always crate train our puppies. Some like Derby are easy and sleep straight through the night from day 1. Others like Stetson and Linus cry, bark, howl, scratch, scream…you name it from sun down to sun up. This article lists a few hints on how you might be able to make your puppies first night at home a little easier on you and him.
Crate Training Puppies – This was a direct response to one of my readers having issues with her puppy and crate training. I gave 14 tips on how to crate train your puppy.
What’s The Life Expectancy Of Your Dog? – I love my dogs and often wonder about their mortality. I hope they will live between 15-20 years. However, I wanted to see what average life expectancy was for different dog breeds.
The Cutest Puppy Ever – I wanted to put together a series of articles on all the puppies I had raised over the past few years and post a few pictures. Unfortunately, I didn’t have photos of all the litters, but I did take a lot of Derby, Stetson, Linus, and the litter of seven German Shepherd mixes. This is the first article in that series. I already closed the voting poll, but you can still check out the adorable images of puppies.
Dachshund Acts As Mom To Baby Piglet – The beginning of February 2008 a story came across my desk about a piglet adopted by a Dachshund and her litter of puppies. I wrote a short article and posted some pictures. Little did I know that the story would become and internet phenomenon for Johanna Kerby, Pink, and Tink.
Black And Tan Labrador Retrievers – It’s been controversial, but when I first started training Stetson as a guide dog I heard about Black and tan Labrador Retrievers and wrote an article about what I heard at Guide Dog group and read on the internet.

How’s My Puppy Training Going?

What are the state of my dogs? Well just in case you haven’t been following along. Over five years ago I adopted my first dog Linus from the Carson Animal Shelter. About two years after adopting Linus I began fostering rescue dogs and puppies with the rescue organization Cuddly Canines. About 6 months after working with foster puppies I began volunteering as a puppy raiser with Guide Dogs of America. Stetson was my first guide dog puppy in training and was career changed (dropped) after two months of formal guide dog training. Derby was my second guide dog puppy in training and was dropped several months before he had a chance to start his formal training.

So what have we been doing if we haven’t been training a puppy? As many of you know, Derby was adopted by another loving family and unfortunately we haven’t heard much back from them, but hope that he’s living a wonderful life with plenty of room to run around. After getting career changed Stetson moved back home with me and Linus my Australian Shepherd mix rescue dog. Right now me and my two big black dogs are focusing on four main goals:

Working on Linus and his behavior around other dogs and people on our neighborhood walks.
Working with Stetson and Therapy Dog Training. We talked about this a while back and have recently been sidetracked.
Puppy sitting other guide dog puppies when needed.
Taking video of guide dog puppy training and our group meetings.

We’ve also been tinkering with the idea of possibly raising another guide dog puppy, but we aren’t quite sure if we’re ready to take on that responsibility yet. A secondary option we’ve been considering is possibly fostering rescue dogs and puppies from our local shelters.

It’s been nearly three years since I started writing to this blog and hopefully we’ll continue for another three more. We’ll continue to do our best to keep you informed about the latest puppy training tips as we continue our journey with Stetson, Linus, and any other puppies or dogs that pass through our lives.

Have you recently raised or plan on raising a puppy? Let us know if you have any puppy training questions in the comment section below.

Crate Training Puppies – 14 Useful Tips

In theory crate training puppies sounds simple. A quick note: I often use the term crate and kennel interchangeably throughout this article.

Crate Training Theory: Your puppy does not want to poop or pee in the place he sleeps…put him in his crate (make sure it’s not too big or he’ll pee/poop on one side and sleep on the other) and he won’t poop or pee (unless he really has to). I wrote this article on How To Crate Train Your Puppy In 5 Easy Steps. Of course it’s not always easy to crate train your puppy.

Not long ago I received an email asking me for hints on how to get a new puppy from crying, howling, barking in his kennel during the night. I’ve actually received many emails asking me for similar advice.

Today, I compiled a list of all the tricks and hints I’ve tried with my puppies or heard have worked with other puppies. If you’re a regular reader on my blog then you’ll know that two out of my last three puppies did not enjoy the kennel and barked, howled, and cried throughout the night during their early days. If this is your first night at home with your puppy you also might want to take a look at this article: how to handle your puppies first night at home.

Crate Training Puppies – 14 Useful Tips

Every puppy is different. Some have no problems with their kennel while others (as you know) have a difficult time adjusting to the kennel. To answer your questions: yes, you do need to just leave him in the kennel and yes, expect to be woken up 3-4 times a night during the first week or two. Try to do your best to stick with your puppy and be consistent with his training. Every time you take him out of the kennel and reward him for whining by letting him sleep on the bed he’s learning that whining will get him what he wants.

Puppies are difficult to raise. It definitely takes a commitment. It can take a couple days for him to get used to the crate all the way up to a couple months.

Here are some suggestions you can try that might help you:

If he’s crying you should try taking him out to see if he has to go potty. After you take him out bring him straight back to the crate.
Cut off his water and food at least an hour and half before bed time. That way he won’t wake up as many times in the middle of the night.
Try playing with him a lot before bedtime to tire him out.
If it’s a wire crate try enclosing it by putting a sheet over it.
If the crate’s not near your bed try putting it near your bed where he can see you.
Try sleeping on the floor next to the crate.
Feed him all his meals in his crate.
Put some snuggly toys in the crate to keep him company.
During the day when he takes a nap move him to the crate. You can try this with the door open or closed.
Try leaving the door open but lying down across the doorway of the crate as if to nap with him, to make him feel more comfortable in the crate, and at the same time make my body block the doorway.
If he’s in the crate and he’s not crying give him lots of praise.
Try the heart beat toy. I’ve heard of a toy that simulates the mom’s heartbeat that helps the puppy sleep. Try this toy: Petstages Heartbeat Pillow
Try the heated toy. I’ve also heard of a toy that has a thing on the inside that you can warm on the inside and insert in the toy. Makes the puppy feel like he’s with one of his litter mates. Try this toy: Pet Stages Warming Soother
The one that worked for me and Stetson – I was a wreck and I thought Stetson would never get used to his crate. The only way I was able to get him to sleep was to talk to him for 5-10 minutes, telling him what a “good boy” he was when he wasn’t crying (if he did cry I would just keep silent tell he stopped). To try and quiet him down I’d either say “quiet” or “Shhh”.

By the way, if you leave anything in the crate with your puppy make sure he doesn’t start eating or chewing on anything that may be harmful to him.

Try to be consistent with your puppy. Try not to take him out of the crate unless he stops whining even if just for an instant.

One last tip: If you’re lucky enough to pick your puppy out of a litter be sure and bring a plush toy with you and rub it all over his litter mates. Then when you get home and it’s time for bed put the toy in the crate with your puppy. The scent of the litter will make him feel more at home and give him the feeling that he’s sleeping with one of his litter mates.

Best of luck with your puppy. Let me know if any of the above suggestions work for you.

What do you do when crate training puppies?