Adventures in Crate-training: The Morning After

[wordinista]

Okay, so I didn't get as good a night's sleep as I thought I would, but this had more to do with The Cough That Would Not Die and less with Darwin, who has Lungs Of STEEL OMG.

Allow me to recap my evening:


11:00 PM -- Bunneh puts a sleepy D-bear into his crate, where he promptly cuddles down and passes out. 

12:00 AM -- Bunneh goes to bed.

12:00-1:00 AM -- Bunneh tries not to cough so hard she shakes the bed.
 
1:30 AM -- Bunneh finally falls asleep.

1:45 AM -- Bunneh is woken by Tora-kun, who tells her she's snoring and needs to roll over.  (Stupid congestion.)

1:55 AM -- Howling commences

1:55-2:10 AM -- Bunneh and Tora-kun bicker discuss what to do next.

2:15 AM -- Bunneh climbs out of bed, takes D-bear out for potty, and moves the crate to the dining room (previously it had been sharing a wall with the bedroom -- and an air-conditioning intake vent, which is great for accomodating passing soundwaves).

2:25 AM -- Bunneh returns to bed.

2:26 AM -- Howling re-commences.  Not as loud, but still audible.

2:30 AM -- Bunneh and Tora-kun find their respective iPods.

2:30-?? -- Bunneh listens (and falls asleep to) Mozart's Requiem until the iPod dies.

6:30 --  Bunneh's "Darwin Alarm" goes off.

Needless to say, he was freaking out with joy when I went out to the crate (I have to wonder if he slept at all last night, really).  The rest of the morning has been business as usual, and while I'm still a little tired, I'm nowhere near as exhausted as I have been these past few mornings.  It's actually been a pretty rough morning for Darwin, because along with the Evil Night of Cratedom, we're also stepping up the "NO BITE" training (play got a little rough last night and Tora-kun got bitten -- it wasn't malicious, but it was a pretty nasty puncture), so this morning he's been scolded at least four different times for nipping/mouthing.  I realize he's just a puppy, and a puppy's mouth is basically his hands, but all the same, he's GOT to learn that biting = BAD.  (The only issue seems to be when he wants to play. He just gets carried away.)

All of that said, I'm getting a little frustrated with the various puppy behavior books/articles out there.  One of them is all, "If you want your dog to be properly socialized, your puppy should be handled by at least twenty children before it's three months old!"  And I'm like, Okay, there are two big problems with that statement -- the first being that I don't KNOW twenty children.  The best I can come up with is four.  The second problem is -- if Darwin isn't a master of bite inhibition, I'm NOT bringing him around kidlets until he IS.  Now, mind you, when I take him to Petsmart, he's not at all shy around other people (including children), and usually I can keep him calm enough that he won't spaz out and jump up on the kidlets. 

And these articles all seem to be saying the same thing: IF YOU DON'T FOLLOW THIS ADVICE YOU WILL HAVE THE WORST DOG EVAR OMG!

But, you know... dogs are unique, and have distinct personalities.  Bronte and Kisa came from the same litter, had the same upbringing, and are two totally different cats.  If I don't follow Book A to the letter, or if I don't think the advice given in Article C is very helpful, I don't think it'll mean that I will eventually have an unruly, ill-behaved dog.  Some of the advice is really helpful.  Using positive reinforcement on Darwin is working really well for housebreaking, because he just eats up the praise with a spoon.  (On the same token, he's very sensitive, and when he gets scolded, you can see how much it affects him.  We had to stop using the "penny can" because it was scaring him more than it should have-- he'd huddle down in a corner, trembling, and it really wasn't helpful as a training tool.)


So, despite one night of heartbroken howling, this is not the end of Darwin's Crate Adventures.  Not by a long shot.

I just need to load up my music library with some nice classical music.  I think that's the only way I'm going to get any sleep.

Comments

[moonphased.livejournal.com]

Hee! Puppyadventures continue! *huggles* Hang in there! Your baby will turn into a booful doggeh!! :D

And bwah, as far as the biting thing goes, good gawd, I have to tell you about mom's dobie (again). She was a howler, screamer, and man, she was a nipper/biter, too. In fact, even though she'd calmed down as she got to be about nine months to a year, she was still pretty hyper and would sometimes mouth and play too rough. And OMG, puppyteeth = HURTAGE. XP

*L* Thing is, it also sounds like Darwin is a lot less high-strung than Aki was, so I have the feeling that mouth manners will take a lot less work on him than it did her. ^_^

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

Man, and Dobies have BIG ol' teeth, too! Eep!

I know it's just because he's playing. He's not malicious at ALL -- he's such a little sweetie-pie, honestly. He just gets excited. And, well... puppy. That's all there is to it.

I have faith, though, that he's fast on his way to being the Best Dog Evar. XD

[jazzy-fay.livejournal.com]

As far as socializing him goes, just take him out with you whenever you can. A trip to Petsmart will work fine. He'll be in a dog-friendly environment and will not only get exposed to humans (and children), but to other dogs as well. Also, if there's a "puppy kindergarten" that you can take him to, those are really great.

On the biting: all puppies teeth. It's just what they do. If you've ever watched puppies play together, they're brutal with one another. However, they do know when they've gone too far. So the key is to basically teach little D that humans are delicate and he can't be so rough with you. There's actually a really easy way to do that. It sounds odd, but trust me, it works (I have 3 Great Danes, it'd be disastrous if they were biters). The next time he teethes on you or Tora, yelp. Mimic that little high-pitched noise that puppies make and he will stop. That's basically puppy-speak for "stop, you're hurting me". After a few times, he'll get the idea that humans are these pathetically weak things that just aren't very much fun to roughhouse with, and he'll find something else to do. Again, I know it sounds weird, but it works. But the most important thing is to make sure that you are consistent with whatever you do.

Hope that helps you a little and that it didn't sound like a lecture or anything. Good luck and give the little guy a hug for me.^.^

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

Oh, it didn't sound like a lecture at all! In fact, I'm hugely grateful for any training advice. He's really a smart little bugger, and he's picking things up quickly (like the potty training and "sit"), but I definitely want to nip the biting in the bud before it becomes a problem. It's easier to deal with him when he's 15 or 20 lbs rather than when he's 40 or 50 lbs.

We've made about 3 trips to Petsmart already, and he's done wonderfully on each trip. And we are planning on enrolling him in the puppy kindergarten class there, so he gets more opportunity to be around other people and dogs. I'm also thinking about keeping up informal obedience classes (not the formal "dog show" obedience stuff), and possibly looking into agility classes (since Aussies are supposed to excel at that). I've heard that the key with this breed is to keep them from getting bored -- so that's what I'm trying to do!

[sarolynne.livejournal.com]

Just to add to what she said about making a high pitched squeak, it's also good to make sure that he knows that if someone says "ow" he has to stop. We've had good luck with that with the Malamutes--definitely not a dog you want biting--because it doesn't take them long to figure out that "ow" means you're hurt, and then they have a good habit in general.

[jazzy-fay.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Aussies are definitely intelligent. There's actually a woman up here that has Aussies that she shows for obedience and agility (one of her puppies was actually in Puppy-K with one of mine) and seriously, her dogs are amazing. I've seen her give one a command that it had never had before, in a situation it had never been in before, and the dog executed it perfectly. They're just an amazing breed. And utterly adorable!

[tx-tsuki.livejournal.com]

Ahh, the no can. Our dogs didn't like that either. Praising when the doggy does good and firm discipline is the best.

Ha, those articles. Our dogs love our kids. But not other people's kids. I think it has to do with the little shit kid down the street teasing them. If Jay's friends come over, it takes a lot of butt sniffing, pacing and eye-balling before the dogs let the kids pet them.

You might try taking Darwin to a park to get him used to being around kids and all the noise that they make. The biting. Puppy teeth hurt. We screwed up and played rough with the dogs when they were puppies and now they can't live without it. We give the dogs 15 minutes of wrestle time, which they never use up because they figure out that we are puny humans and it is more fun to chase each other through the house at high speeds and jump on the furniture. When they do get rough playing with us, we just take a finger and tap them on their nose, along with a stern "NO" in our mommy/daddy voice. That leads to the pouty sad face™ and they back off. You might get some dog toys that you can play with him, like a rope. You get one end and he gets the other.

[darkfrog24.livejournal.com]

So "Tora-kun" is Siphon? e fascinande