First Time Training

mewzard

Experienced Member
Oka HATES a bath, loves to run through water/splash in it. Puppies don't need bathing though not unless they are totally and throughly filthy. If she gets muddy brush it out when it's dry - so much easier.
Shes a puppy... its fun! Oka would dig in her water bowl for fun... stopped when we got her a raised bowl...Only as she had grown and was having to bend alot to get to the bowl.
I would click when she wasn't looking and give her a small treat for 5 minutes in a row.
That would actually teach her to look AWAY from you. What Sara says is true - the click is saying to the dog "THAT right there is what i want." show her you have treats and then wait for her to look you in the eye...it may take a minute or too, you have to click the second she looks at you, say her name -->then treat her like crazy - she'll get it quickly.
 

mewzard

Experienced Member
Darn probably as my Facebook page os set for friends only... I'll see about moving it over to YouTube tomorrow - I'm off to bed right now.
 

abby_someone

Well-Known Member
She also freaks out in the bath - not sure why. Maybe the running water scares her. It's ironic.
Do you have an anti-slip mat in the tub for her? I have read that the tub's surface can be scary for pets because it does not feel like they have secure footing.
 

jeffseele

New Member
The best thing to do if she tries biting(teething) you is to grab her paws and squeeze them until she starts whining. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt the dog much and it teaches her not to bite you, although it's only teething. It worked with my dog and she's very sweet and well behaved now. Australian Shepherds
 

jackienmutts

Honored Member
The best thing to do if she tries biting(teething) you is to grab her paws and squeeze them until she starts whining. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt the dog much and it teaches her not to bite you, although it's only teething.
Oh, please don't do that. Why would you want to basically hurt or scare your puppy? Why would you want to squeeze your puppies paws til they cried? That makes me sad. When a puppy is mouthing, 'yelp' OUCH!, remove attention and/or give them something appropriate to chew on immediately. You should be using this time to build trust and a bond with your puppy, not squeezing their paws as punishment for mouthing/playing too roughly. Showing them what they should be doing, instead of punishing them for what they are doing, is always the best way to go. You don't ever want your puppy to associate your hands with something scary, you don't ever want your puppy to grow up fearing you or what your hands can do - and it can happen so easily.

I do have one question - some Huskies are very vocal. Any chance your pup is really kind of more vocalizing rather than really growling when you pick her up? Good advice to kneel down and scoop her up, rather than bending over her and grabbing her up (if maybe that's what you were doing, don't know .. just IF) - perhaps it's scaring her and she's trying to tell you so. Or - some dogs just don't like to be picked up, she might be one. Good suggestion to try just leading her away to where you need her to go - maybe attach a leash, pat your leg, and ask her to follow? Lots of good advice given above. Just be consistent and patient with her - and keep reminding yourself, she's a baby, she's trying to figure out a big confusing world. Make sure everyone is using the same words to ask things of her, it will help her to catch on faster, and really cut down her confusion.
 

mewzard

Experienced Member
The best thing to do if she tries biting(teething) you is to grab her paws and squeeze them until she starts whining. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt the dog much and it teaches her not to bite you, although it's only teething
Urgh...no please don't grab your dogs paws...what an awful meathod to use! Imagine everytime you sneezed someone hit you hard in the face...how would you feel everytime you needed to sneeze?!
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Dustin..hope it works this time :):
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Carbon

New Member
I'm not sure if you solved the crate issues, but there is a video called Crate games that you can get from Clean Run.
 
Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I've been very busy!

She is great so far. She is a ball of energy. She semi knows her name and knows how to sit and almost to lay down. I was gone for a solid month straight so now the training officially starts!

I have a few questions:

I have been taking her food every meal from her to test aggression and get her used to that - same with toys. She is fine with me doing it but if my roomates dogs even enter the room she gets aggressive. She doesn't growl or snarl - but she does kinda snip at them. Is there a way to fix this?

She is still a little slow on learning her name but she knows things like "Sit" and "Go Potty"

The breeder told me she is part wolf - is there a way to get a test done to make sure?
 

sara

Moderator
Staff member
Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I've been very busy!

She is great so far. She is a ball of energy. She semi knows her name and knows how to sit and almost to lay down. I was gone for a solid month straight so now the training officially starts!

I have a few questions:

I have been taking her food every meal from her to test aggression and get her used to that - same with toys. She is fine with me doing it but if my roomates dogs even enter the room she gets aggressive. She doesn't growl or snarl - but she does kinda snip at them. Is there a way to fix this?

She is still a little slow on learning her name but she knows things like "Sit" and "Go Potty"

The breeder told me she is part wolf - is there a way to get a test done to make sure?
There is a very easy way to fix this... dont take anything away from her. Seriously, it causes more issues than it's worth. Taking resources away from dogs, (even if you're giving them back right away) will cause resource guarding. Dogs live in the moment, they do not reason the way we do. A dog thinks like this "oh hey! yummy food! HEY THAT'S MINE!!! oh hey! yummy food!" It's that "HEY THAT'S MINE" that can get the dog into all types of trouble, depending on how they react to what they're feeling.

You taking food and toys away from the puppy is more than likely the reason behind the growling with the roommate. If you want her to respect that all good things come from you, you should feed her by hand, making her work for every piece of food, or better yet, put all her daily allotment of food in little containers around the house, whenever you or your roommate pass a container, call her to you, give her a piece, then ask for something, (sit, down, shake, or turn it into a little training session) for more of the food, then put the container back and carry on with your business.

When she's eating out of a bowl, have your roommate walk into the room with something really yummy, like a piece of hot dog, or some other type of real meat. If your roommate can get close enough, have them drop it in her bowl, then carry on, otherwise ignoring her, or if she gets angry with them even near her, have them sit on the floor with their back to her, with the piece of meat on the floor beside them... she'll come over to investigate, possibly only after she's done, but that's fine, cuz after a few times, she's going to associate them with really good things, and she'll let them get closer and closer, until they can drop the food into her bowl.

Always trade her for something she's got with something better, if you want to take something away, never just take it away.

Here's an analogy:

I give you a $50 bill, then a short time later I come up to you and snatch it away. the next time I give you a $50 bill, you're going to watch me carefully, and either hide it, or shove me away if I come too close. but if instead of snatching the $50 bill away, I hand you a $100 bill? you're going to eagerly hand over the $50 bill in trade.

I adopted a deaf dog with severe resource guarding issues, within 4 weeks I could stick my hand in his dish, pet him, touch his face, all while he was eating... I just showed him that I was trustworthy, and that I'd never take anything away from him, so he didn't need to guard his food.

One other bit of advice. Always respect her growl, NEVER correct a growl. Her growl is her early warning device, if she has the growl trained out of her, then the next warning is a snap.
 
She doesn't growl at any humans. Most of the time when I have to move her food bowl it's because we are changing rooms. She never growls at the roomates dogs either. The only thing she does is kinda nip at their face if they walk in. She even does this if they walk near her "bed" (under my desk). With my roomates though, she loves them.
 

charmedwolf

Moderator
Staff member
You could do the same thing with the dogs. Every time the dogs come by toss her a tasty treat. Like a "Oh look there is another dog! Have a cookie!!" It gets them in a new mind set that other dogs coming by= treats. Prevents a lot of things that could happen if she happens to get bolder around the other dogs.
 

sara

Moderator
Staff member
OH a whole different kettle of fish. I think you forgot to put dogs after roommates. She's making sure the other dogs know that the food is hers, she's insecure enough about the food to tell them off. My dogs will all growl at other dogs getting near their food. I feed all my dogs at the same time, in the same room, but I stand in the middle of the circle and make sure none of the dogs bother the other dogs.

regardless, you really shouldn't be taking food away from her, she could easily start being food aggressive with people.
 

mewzard

Experienced Member
The breeder told me she is part wolf - is there a way to get a test done to make sure?
Well all dogs are part wolf if you wanna be finicky about it :LOL:. To be honest from the pictures at the beginning of the thread there is nothing there that looks wolf to me. How much "part" did she say? This is something i've been looking at for 2+ years, Oka is part of a breeding programme to create a 'wolf look alike' dog. Google "sansorrella", hit enter at the bottom of the page and the link of "our pack"... you'll see :).
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To be honest the amount of wolf e.g. 50/50 doesn't matter so much as what people call "wolf content" matters; a cross could be 50% dog/50%wolf (f1 cross) but be 'low content' and be just like a regular dog, and another from the same litter be 'high content' and act like a wolf, wary of humans, not domesticatable (possibly not a real word but i hope you get what i mean). So the amount of wolf and the dog would be the same but the effect on each indiviual puppy mixed with each puppies experience means that certain puppies would act in a more wolf like manner.
Also there are laws about keeping wolves and wolf crosses, which will vary from country to country, and in your case probably state to state, that you may want to check out if you think this is the case with your pup, also it may help you work out if the breeder was telling the truth...as many say this kind of thing just to make a sale. :whistle:
I've managed to write an essay again :rolleyes: but as i said wolf crosses and wolfalikes are something i've been reading/involved in for 2+ years.
 

abby_someone

Well-Known Member
also it may help you work out if the breeder was telling the truth...as many say this kind of thing just to make a sale. :whistle:
Boy! Isn't that the truth! I once saw a lady (with no teeth, mind you) that claimed to have "purebred" boxers for sale at the local fair. The week before that, a friend told me that she had tried to sell him a "purebred" pitbull from the same litter! :eek:
 
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