How old before I start training

[Mustang5ohhh]

This board has been a great help so far. My male is 8 weeks old. I picked him up on Sunday afternoon. I've had one other Rott she's gone now ... hips. I trained my last one myself, well the normall stuff at least. I remember waiting a little while (6 months or so) before starting to train her. I found it to be a little on the hard side. I don't want to make the same "mistake" with this one. Did I wait to long with the last one? Is 8 weeks still too young to start teaching how to sit and come (the basics)? Thank God for the internet ... wish this was around 8 years ago!

[Simba]

I got my puppy 2 months ago at 8weeks. I waited a couple of weeks to get him used to us and then began training him myself a few minutes each day. He is now 15weeks and knows how to sit, stay(for a few seconds), come, off and has just learned to lay down. We also just started puppy kindergarten with him. I am glad that I started training him in the basics at home before taking him to obedience class because even though he is by far the youngest in the class, he is ahead of them all in his basics.
They sure seem to pick up fast on things when they are young.

[Sue]

to start training, now that your baby is home with you. Just remember that he is a baby and has a very, very (read 'almost non-existent :) ) attention span. Keep it short, very positive, and be patient! Good luck!

[BarryMcD]

I mean no disrespect here, but you are about 8 weeks late in starting your training!

By now you should have handled this little guy in every way imaginable. He should be used to being held in the air under the arms and held upside down without much fretting, he should be used to having the pads of his feet tickled, and every inch of his body stoked and massaged, and he should be staring to get accustomed to having you open his mouth and handle his toe nails--if he has not already had them clipped without any fuss. He should have been taught by now not to nip or bite with a "NO Bite" command.

To compare: I have a female Rottie that just turned 3 months. So I am now one month ahead of you. I kept careful records of her growth and training. (I use Clicker Training.) Between 8-10 weeks, I had her trained to respond to a verbal cue to do a solid and reliable Come, Sit, and a short Stay. She had perfected an Attention exercise: (When I am near and call her name, she looks into my eyes immediately, even if food or toys are dangled nearby.) She had already been trained to touch a target with her nose, and would follow a target stick around the room. She was accustomed to sleeping in a crate, ate all her meals in it, chose to nap in it about 80% of the time, slept throught the night (7 1/2 hours), and had been taught to Settle. She would submissively roll on her back and let me hold her that way without fussing. And she was just starting to pick up the commands OFF and UP, referring to getting off of or jumping onto a chair, step, or person.

The only thing I failed at was paper training. You see, I have other dogs and I built a very elaborate doggy door that they use. I figured the pup was too small to make the long trip to the door, go up a set of three steps, get through two hanging flaps, and find her way outside, let alone stay out there in our New York winter's 30 degree temperature long enough to go potty. I had planned to paper train her temporarily, and then in a few months, when she was much bigger and could negotiate the steps and all, I would show her the doggy door. Well, after racing around for weeks plopping her on the paper every time she started to squat, one day at about 9 weeks, she found the door herself with no prompting or help, and went outside. Since then, she uses the door routinely to go outside to go potty. I could almost hear her thinking, "Why didn't this idiot show me where the door was before?"

So, first, please don't take any of the above as bragging. It's not that I am a master trainer. Simba said it in the last message: They pick up things incredibly fast when they are young. Although some systems are clearly not matured, such as bladder control, their minds are like sponges. As well as I was doing, I underestimated this pup's abilities to use the doggy door, and missed in my estimate by about two months!

I have been Clicker Training three other adult dogs for about a year, and I was so impressed by the results I thought Clicker Training was the Holy Grail! But after a week or two with this pup (started clicking at 6 weeks), I could not believe how much I was underestimating her potential. I would plan on training a behavior with a goal of perfecting in a month, and she had it down pat in a three days!

After a couple weeks, I realized I was the only slow learner around here! So I accellerated the training, and at 3 months, she can do practically everything my three adult dogs can.

I am not a fan of conventional leash training, but if that's your thing, go for it and get started. I would recommend though that you look into Clicker Training if you've never heard of it. Just search the web. There are tons of sites. Within a week, you can mail order some clickers and start. Cheap, fun, and let me tell you, effective. The animals love it! I love it!

Realize that the first three months or so are the most vital in determining the dog's social behavior. So another aspect of "training" should involve taking your pup out to meet every pedestrian, dog, mutt, bag lady, policeman, and mailman in your town. She should be so used to people and other animals coming and going and passing by that she doesn't even blink. This social training is vital in a large breed. If you don't get her round and about, or invite plenty of people with dogs and cats into your house every week, by the time she is a year old she'll be defending you from every stranger that approaches!

Sorry if I've used a rather alarmist and urgent tone, but asking when you should START training an 8 week old Rottie is like sitting in a ditch with your fender wrapped around a tree, asking when you should step on the brake.

Since I am only about a month ahead of you with my 3 month pup, I'd be glad to exchange private messages and answer any questions or tell you a little about Clicker Training, if you are interested. I promise I won't holler and berate you! In any event, get working with that little guy. He's hungry for your guidance!

Barry

[Mustang5ohhh]

No disrespect taken. Just having trouble understanding how I'm 8 weeks late. It's was my understanding that a pup shouldn't be taken away from the mother until 7 weeks and the breeder wouldn't let me pick him up un til 8 weeks. As for the rest thanks for the tips.

[twnzplusone]

BarryMcD, how was Mustang5ohhh supossed to start all of this training prior to picking up the pup? If the pup is not released from the breeder until 8 wks then the training cannot really start until then. As far as a reliable sit, stay and come at 8 wks, I don't buy it. Any puppy will come to you at that age because they are still so young. Wait a few months and I'm sure the "reliable" sit, stay and come will not be there. Not to say that the dog won't listen but I don't believe that there is any "reliable" about a puppy. I do believe that you should start some traing from day one and plenty of social interactions after the shots.

Mustang5ohhh, I am sure that you will do a wonderful job raising your pup and you have already made the first step by being here. I personally wouldn't paper train my pup like BarryMcD did because then you will have to potty train him again a second time to go outside. Make sure your boy gets plenty of socialization (when shots are done), plenty of love, and go ahead and start some training. (but don'e expect too much at first)

[BarryMcD]

Mustang & twnzplusone:

Sorry, I was thinking of my own experience of raising a mutt from birth myself and didn't realize you had gotten the pup from a breeder.

The answer to your question is that all the things I described about holding the pup, rubbing it all over, etc. are things that any good breeder would be doing during those first weeks. So you probably were delivered a pup that had already been properly handled and started on its way to socialization.

You just need to carry on the work now. :)

Don't mind me! I always come across on the Internet as either critical or overly sarcastic. I didn't mean to suggest that you were screwing things up or anything like that. If it sounded that way, I apologize. :o

Gotta use more of those smilies! What you might lack in training knowledge I lack in social skills!


But twnzplusone: I DID have a reliable sit and come, and a short stay at eight weeks, and still do at almost 13 weeks, except now I've got UP and OFF working and the target stick is like a magnet! If you've never done clicker training, you just won't believe what it is capable of! You said: "Any puppy will come to you at that age because they are still so young." Will any puppy at age 12 weeks remain in a Sit Stay for 3 minutes or more? Mine did twice in the last two days. Any puppy will come to you at that age, true, but not only when called after a 3 minute Stay!

It is so easy to underestimate these little guys and not help them achieve their potential! And I'm not talking about whipping them eight hours a day with a chain. We spend 5 to 10 minute sessions several times a day, and you see the progress immediately, from session to session. Also, in my experience, I have to disagree with those who say puppies have no attention span and you must train in short 4-5 minute sessions. I've had little Cherokee doing all kinds of tricks for up to 20 minutes at a time. The 3 minute Sit Stays that we are currently working on--That's about as long as some folks say you should spend on the entire training session! And the puppy loves every minute of it!

I'll admit it is probably the dog that is smart and not me, but don't get me started again now!

[Trinitii]

I'm in no way a professional trainer but I will offer a little tip that has helped me with my little one. When she was about 10 weeks old I started training come, I would play with a toy and say come..of course she didn't but she was always close that I would grab her collar and pull her to me and lots of praise then say good come. I did this every once in a while through out the day. whenever she came close to me to grab her. Now that is the one command (besides sit) that she is really good at.

It a great tip to me because my last rott was horrible to teach the come command to but I always waited later in the training process.

Lots of luck

[Mustang5ohhh]

Thanks for the help so far ... and Barry thank you, I'm goin to try the clicker this weekend.