Monday, December 9, 2013
A Puppy's Progress
In just the three months we've had him, Zeus has definitely come a long way. He's grown from about a ten pound baby to the almost fifty pound dog he is today. His height has more than tripled since we got him. Not to sound sappy, but watching a puppy grow up before your eyes is something incredible. He hasn't just grown physically though. You can tell he has matured mentally. He understands the world around him much better. He knows what he can play with and what not to touch. He knows his basic commands and he has his potty-training down too. And the best part is that he's still so young. He literally has his whole life ahead of him and it feels so good to be the one who gets to spend the next fifteen years with him. He has brought nothing but happiness to our house. We even mentioned after the first month that even though he can be a handful sometimes, the house just would not feel the same without him.
A Puppy Has a Problem
As awesome as Zeus is, he has one problem that even now continues to be a giant pain in the butt, literally. He's a biter.
When we first brought him home, it was cute. He would nibble on your hands after petting him and we thought it was just something he'd grow out of. We were wrong. At about five months old, he still bites a lot, the only problem is that now it actually hurts. Those puppy teeth are sharp, and now that his jaw muscles are stronger, he can break skin quite easily. My strategy so far has been to grab him by the collar and hold his mouth shut for about 10 seconds every time he bites me. It has been pretty effective and he definitely bites me a lot less than he did before. He still bites other people a lot though and it really gets annoying. It gets to the point where I have to go put him in his crate when people come over to avoid him hurting them or ripping their clothes. I've talked to the vet and varies workers at pet stores, but nobody seems to have an effective way to help me stop his mouthy behavior. I guess I'll just have to hope he grows out of it after his teething phase.
When we first brought him home, it was cute. He would nibble on your hands after petting him and we thought it was just something he'd grow out of. We were wrong. At about five months old, he still bites a lot, the only problem is that now it actually hurts. Those puppy teeth are sharp, and now that his jaw muscles are stronger, he can break skin quite easily. My strategy so far has been to grab him by the collar and hold his mouth shut for about 10 seconds every time he bites me. It has been pretty effective and he definitely bites me a lot less than he did before. He still bites other people a lot though and it really gets annoying. It gets to the point where I have to go put him in his crate when people come over to avoid him hurting them or ripping their clothes. I've talked to the vet and varies workers at pet stores, but nobody seems to have an effective way to help me stop his mouthy behavior. I guess I'll just have to hope he grows out of it after his teething phase.
A Puppy Learns a Thing or Two
After having Zeus in our house for about three weeks, I decided it was time to give him a lesson in some basic commands. My goal when I got him was to make this puppy into an outstanding, obedient, overall perfect dog when he grows up and for that to happen, he needed to start at square one. I wanted to teach him how to sit, stay, come, and lay down. I researched online for the proper way to teach a dog commands but every piece of advice I saw offered a different method for accomplishing this task. I decided to just get it done my own way and I'm not sure if I'm a great teacher, or if he's just a really intelligent dog (far more likely), but he seemed to pick up on things very quickly.
In order to teach Zeus how to sit I simply held a treat right above his head and slowly moved my hand forward. This caused his head to slightly tilt back and forced him to go down into a sitting position to get the treat that was right near the back of his head. As this happened I would be saying, "Sit" repeatedly. He had that pretty much down at the end of two 10-minute training sessions which I personally think is very impressive.
To teach him how to stay and come, I started by telling him to sit. Once he sat, I would hold my hand straight out in front of me with the treat inside it and repeat, "Stay" while slowly backing up. At first, he naturally didn't understand what I was asking of him and he would just run after the treat. Every time he did that, I would put the treat behind my back and say, "No" in a firm voice. Then I would start over from the beginning. After about five minutes, he started to understand that I wanted him to stay put. It took about four 10-minute training sessions for him to fully understand "stay". Once he began to get a hold of "stay", "come" came almost instinctively. All I had to do was lower my hand and cup it facing up with the treat inside it, and shout, "Come". To my surprise, there was virtually no training required. From the very first time I tried it, he seemed to know to come to me.
"Down" was definitely the trickiest command to teach him. My strategy was to get him to sit, and then move the treat down towards the floor while repeating, "Down". However, every time I tried this, he seemed to just stand up and put his head down towards the treat. I would then put the treat behind my back and say, "No". Zeus and I went through this dance countless times until once when he got so frustrated that he laid down on the ground. I immediately gave him the treat and praised him. After that incident, I switched my teaching strategy to just simply trying to get him tired so he'd lay on the ground and I could give him the treat. This new strategy worked shockingly well and he understood "down" about ten minutes later.
In order to teach Zeus how to sit I simply held a treat right above his head and slowly moved my hand forward. This caused his head to slightly tilt back and forced him to go down into a sitting position to get the treat that was right near the back of his head. As this happened I would be saying, "Sit" repeatedly. He had that pretty much down at the end of two 10-minute training sessions which I personally think is very impressive.
To teach him how to stay and come, I started by telling him to sit. Once he sat, I would hold my hand straight out in front of me with the treat inside it and repeat, "Stay" while slowly backing up. At first, he naturally didn't understand what I was asking of him and he would just run after the treat. Every time he did that, I would put the treat behind my back and say, "No" in a firm voice. Then I would start over from the beginning. After about five minutes, he started to understand that I wanted him to stay put. It took about four 10-minute training sessions for him to fully understand "stay". Once he began to get a hold of "stay", "come" came almost instinctively. All I had to do was lower my hand and cup it facing up with the treat inside it, and shout, "Come". To my surprise, there was virtually no training required. From the very first time I tried it, he seemed to know to come to me.
"Down" was definitely the trickiest command to teach him. My strategy was to get him to sit, and then move the treat down towards the floor while repeating, "Down". However, every time I tried this, he seemed to just stand up and put his head down towards the treat. I would then put the treat behind my back and say, "No". Zeus and I went through this dance countless times until once when he got so frustrated that he laid down on the ground. I immediately gave him the treat and praised him. After that incident, I switched my teaching strategy to just simply trying to get him tired so he'd lay on the ground and I could give him the treat. This new strategy worked shockingly well and he understood "down" about ten minutes later.
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