Puppy Help!

[mudpuppy1299]

My 12 week old vizsla pup is overall a good girl. She is a typical bird dog with bundles of energy; which of course sometimes leads to mischief! I have started to notice that when she picks something up that she shouldn't (paper towels, slippers, etc.) and I tell her no and try to remove the item from her mouth, she begins to shy away like I'm going to physically harm her. I have never laid a hand on her, only verbal repremanding. I don't want this to lead to running away with a bird when we begin working on retrieval work. Any suggestions?

[brad27]

Instead of "NO" maybe it would be good to start using "here" and "give".

[AzDoggin]

Instead of "NO" maybe it would be good to start using "here" and "give".

or "here" and backing up in an excited voice, trade a toy she CAN chew on for the other item.

It may be that she has too much freedom, also. I wouldn't want a pup that young to be into all that stuff. Can you restrict her movement to a smaller (safer) area of the house? Ex - pen, child gates, furniture - whatever to keep her in your view. I remember we always kept a basket of acceptable chew toys, and whenever pup wanted to chew things that were not OK, we'd swap the item with an OK toy.

At this age, it's alot more management than it is training. She's an infant still...enjoy - it goes FAST.

[4dabirds]

My 12 week old vizsla pup is overall a good girl. She is a typical bird dog with bundles of energy; which of course sometimes leads to mischief! I have started to notice that when she picks something up that she shouldn't (paper towels, slippers, etc.) and I tell her no and try to remove the item from her mouth, she begins to shy away like I'm going to physically harm her. I have never laid a hand on her, only verbal repremanding. I don't want this to lead to running away with a bird when we begin working on retrieval work. Any suggestions?

Do yourself and he dog a favor and buy the book culture clash by Jean Donaldson It will help you to understand dog behavior , with this knowledge you can make a good choice on what types of advice to take for training. One piece of advice I can give you is to only use the word no if you plan to correct the dog. If you are not in a position to correct the dog and you say no it carries no weight and the dog will know it. There will be no reason for the dog to comply. In this situation it sounds just like a puppy being a puppy the dog can not differentiate the paper towels from the chew toys so there is no reason for correction. Take the advice given about exchanging what is acceptable for the dog to chew for the unacceptable.

[kninebirddog]

I agree with the have her bring it to you and doing a trade out for something she can have. Last thing you want to do right now is make her think carrying things around and you having them is a bad thing as it Can led to issues in the future
So be sure you have things she should not have in places where she can't get to them and even if it is a 500 dollar pair of shoes..retrieve reward and put them in a closed closet

[mudpuppy1299]

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I have been giving her too much freedom; I just hate to lock her up in the kennel all the time. I take her to work with me and put her in an X-pen when I can't watch her, but sometimes I get distracted and she finds something she shouldn't while she is out. What is an acceptable amount of time for a 12 week old pup to stay in an x-pen or crate throughout the day? I want her to get enough exercise. Thanks again.

[kninebirddog]

A pup will be fine if you see you have to do something Crate her and then when you are done bring her out and go potty and then back in the house.
Another idea is to make an area where she can play and not get into trouble. They have doggie gates which you can block hallways and doors

X pen you can get 2 of them and clip together that is plenty of room for a pup to reside in during the day

[PointingQuail]

I've been in your shoes. In a perfect world everything the pup shouldn't get into is simply out of reach but I understand that's kind of impossible. You don't want o ever reprimand her for bringing you something. Instead try and teach her a leave it command. Just type in "teach a dog to leave it" in a youtube search bar. You can teach this in literally five minutes. When she knows that you can catch her picking up stuff you don't want her to and intervene at the right time. She will eventually leave it alone. For now, when she picks up a slipper, call her in with a "fun" voice and giver her praise for bringing something to you. This seems counter productive but you are preventing a future problem. In the pup's eyes when she comes to you everything is ALWAYS good.(IMO) Then tell her "give" in a command voice while removing the slipper or whatever and just put it back where she got it. If she goes to get it again say "leave it" and praise her when she does so. This last part only comes into play once she knows the "leave it" command.

[4dabirds]

I've been in your shoes. In a perfect world everything the pup shouldn't get into is simply out of reach but I understand that's kind of impossible. You don't want o ever reprimand her for bringing you something. Instead try and teach her a leave it command. Just type in "teach a dog to leave it" in a youtube search bar. You can teach this in literally five minutes. When she knows that you can catch her picking up stuff you don't want her to and intervene at the right time. She will eventually leave it alone. For now, when she picks up a slipper, call her in with a "fun" voice and giver her praise for bringing something to you. This seems counter productive but you are preventing a future problem. In the pup's eyes when she comes to you everything is ALWAYS good.(IMO) Then tell her "give" in a command voice while removing the slipper or whatever and just put it back where she got it. If she goes to get it again say "leave it" and praise her when she does so. This last part only comes into play once she knows the "leave it" command.

With this advice you have completely ignored the problem. Some things are for the dog and some things are not. If the dog is playing with something you do not want the dog to play with why would you reward that behavior. If you teach a dog leave it that is fine when you are present but does not stop the dog from handling objects when you are not there.

[PointingQuail]

I've been in your shoes. In a perfect world everything the pup shouldn't get into is simply out of reach but I understand that's kind of impossible. You don't want o ever reprimand her for bringing you something. Instead try and teach her a leave it command. Just type in "teach a dog to leave it" in a youtube search bar. You can teach this in literally five minutes. When she knows that you can catch her picking up stuff you don't want her to and intervene at the right time. She will eventually leave it alone. For now, when she picks up a slipper, call her in with a "fun" voice and giver her praise for bringing something to you. This seems counter productive but you are preventing a future problem. In the pup's eyes when she comes to you everything is ALWAYS good.(IMO) Then tell her "give" in a command voice while removing the slipper or whatever and just put it back where she got it. If she goes to get it again say "leave it" and praise her when she does so. This last part only comes into play once she knows the "leave it" command.

With this advice you have completely ignored the problem. Some things are for the dog and some things are not. If the dog is playing with something you do not want the dog to play with why would you reward that behavior. If you teach a dog leave it that is fine when you are present but does not stop the dog from handling objects when you are not there.

I have not completely ignored the problem. The behavior that is being rewarded is retrieval. Why would ever not reward that behavior? Eventually if you tell a dog to leave something alone and he the knows the leave it command he will leave it alone for good, eventually. You do have to catch him in the act of picking up the unwanted object like I mentioned before, but only at first. And this way there is no negativity with coming to the handler. Eventually the dog will understand. I know this from multiple dog experience. It may not work in this case but has worked in the past.