Category: Puppy Stuff, Common Problems ¤ Author: Shirley Chong ¤ Title: Puppies and Kids ¤ Kathy Fowkes has a problem with her 15 week old puppy, Penny (not sure what breed) being overly possessive about things and puncturing her children indiscriminately. First of all, I'd say puppy-proof your house. Raising a puppy is like raising kids, a wise handler picks their battles and prevents the rest. It's a pain in the neck, but keep the trash where the puppy can't get into it UNTIL you are ready to deal with that particular issue. And tell your family that puppies were put on earth to teach humans to put their socks away! Also--if you are going over what to do and what not to do with the puppy every day with the kids, it's obviously not working. So stop it! Nine year olds and eleven year olds have memories, so I think the problem is that you're not communicating with them in a way that they understand. So, figure out other ways to communicate what you want. Now, the demon puppy from Hell, oooops, I mean Penny. The first thing I would do with her is stop feeding her out of a bowl on the floor (or wherever). Start by feeding her out of YOUR hands. Aim for her to take the food NICELY from you (no chomping, pushing, mugging, etc). If she can't be nice, smile sweetly and put the food away until her next regularly scheduled meal (if she's a toy sized puppy, though, be careful to make sure she's outgrown tendencies to hypoglycemia). When she's taking the food nicely from you, start having your children feed her from their hands. Again, the aim is good manners. Start out with the kid standing/sitting right next to you and when she has successfully eaten a meal that way, start putting in a tiny amount of distance between the two of you. Work up to the point where you can be on the other side of the room and she's still being nice with both kids. The next step is to put each mouthful of food in her bowl and let her eat it out of her bowl. Put it on the floor, let her eat that mouthful, pick up the bowl, put in another mouthful, put it back on the floor. Again, you're aiming for good manners, no crowding, pushing, mugging, etc. When you can do this successfully, repeat with your kids. By this time, she's had LOTS of practice at being civil around her food dish. The next step is to put about half her meal in her dish, let her have a couple mouthfuls, pick up her dish, add something TRULY SCRUMPTIOUS and put it back down. Practice until she's perfect with you, then repeat with your kids. Why all this to-do with her food? Because for one thing, she needs to know that good stuff comes from cooperating with the humans and BAD THINGS (like starvation) come from being rude and pushy. Also, you're teaching her the basics of emotional control. Now, at the same time you are doing the above, use the clicker to teach her to "Drop It!" Hand her something (fairly large for her mouth makes the process go faster), wait until she drops it and click. Work until you've got that on cue (and hey, you're also working on the hold for retrieving, such a deal). For her treat after the click, be sure to use a WIDE variety of reinforcers! Sometimes it's a food treat, sometimes it's another toy, sometimes you wave the object she dropped around and let her tackle it again. Work on Drop It with a wide variety of objects, until she can do it successfully with many different items. Then incorporate your kids as clickers (most kids have GREAT timing with a clicker!). The first few times you decide to give her the item back as her treat, YOU pick it up and give it to the kid (safety measure). Work with her with both kids until they both have Drop It on cue. Teach her to bring you things to check out. The easiest way to do this is to have her retrieve something that has a treat tucked inside that she can smell but can't get at on her own. I use a piece of PVC pipe about four or five inches long with holes drilled along the length. I stuff it with a piece of hot dog or sausage (something rubbery) and teach the dog to bring it to me so that I can pop out the goodie (with a pencil or dowel). When dogs figure out that I can get the goodie out, they are ASTOUNDED. I start with handing the dog the piece of pipe, then saying Drop It! and popping out the goodie, then move the pipe further and further away from me. Once the dog can retrieve the pipe, we start on other (more easily destroyed) things. I have a little cordura nylon bag that has a cinch opening (it's from a camping store, for storing little things in) that I use. Eventually, I work up to things like socks, gloves, and Ziploc-style baggies. Again, YOU do each step yourself, until she's perfect, and then have your kids do it. And then... after having established your kids as Good Things, Purveyors of Food, Holder of the Clicker... if you are still having problems, it's time to make the world fall in on her cute little head. My "weapon" of choice is a two litre plastic pop bottle. Rinse it out (for aesthetic reasons ), put the cap back on it and pop the black plastic thingie off the bottom (it's just glued on). Now bop yourself on the head as hard as you can. Bop your kids. Have your kids bop each other. It's startling but it doesn't hurt. Practice on yourself and on each other until you can consistantly give each other HARD bops. Bop with conviction! Um... maybe you shouldn't do this outside because the neighbors will definitely think you're weird (at the very least). And then set up a situation where you think your puppy might decide to defend "her" possessions. Have your kid tell her to Drop It, and slowly reach for her. If she lets them have it, click and JACKPOT! However, any move on her part towards the kid and she gets... BOPPED! Say "AH!" and hit a home run off her cute little Demon Puppy >From Hell head. Then give her another chance to defend. If she does the Drop It, click and JACKPOT. Don't ever wave the "big bopper" around as a threat (and don't let your kids do it either). Either bop her or not. It's the surprise that does it and there's no surprise involved if you wave it around. The "AH!" (or whatever sound you choose) is a conditioned positive punisher--it's like the clicker, it precisely marks the instant she did wrong and the bopper just backs it up. Strongly resist the temptation to overuse it! Too much "AH!"ing and it looses it's power (you have to bop bigger and more often, she gets snarkier, etc). Keep clicker training her and have your kids keep clicker training her-- she needs many, many good experiences with the kids and a very few (but perfectly timed) bad ones. M. Shirley Chong The Well Mannered Dog