From: liza@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Liza Miller)
Subject: Re: troublesome puppy
Organization: Stanford Univ. Earth Sciences
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 17:24:48 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.155409.3285@linus.mitre.org> pdsmith.mitre.org (Pat Smith) writes:
>In article <1992Oct7.211229.5921@morrow.stanford.edu>, liza@pangea.Stanford.EDU (Liza Miller) writes:
>> In article <1992Oct7.191749.20696@linus.mitre.org> pdsmith.mitre.org (Pat Smith) writes:
>Talk to some professional dog trainers - crating is effective.  I personnaly
>put the dog in a 1/2 bath and ignore him for a while about 1 hour.  He responds 
>very well to this and stops his bad behavior really quick.  
	I think that is a silly way to "train" the dog, but if it works for
you . . .

>> >biting.   You will have a real problem when this playful puppy is and adult 
>> >who bites.  Curb the behavior now. You must be consistent and firm.  Give 
>> >him proper punishment when bad and praise when he is good.  They learn quick
>> >and want to please you. Good luck.
>> 	I agree with that as well.  Dogs should not bite unless you are
>> training them for shutzhund work in which case you should know what you are
>> doing!  If your puppy bites, these two steps will really help control the
>> problem.  1.  YELP loudly as you pull your hand away and scold the puppy.
>> "Ow, that hurt.  Why would you do that to me.  Bad!"  2.  Offer the pup an
>> appropriate chew toy and praise her when she plays with it.  "Good pupster,
>> that's a good chewie, huh?"  Do this for several days and you should see an
>> improvement.
>
>Comment - this is really bad advice.  Why on earth would you yelp at the dog
>and then reward him with a chew toy or treat?  They don't realize what seems
>logical to you.  They just think they are rewarded for biting.  Yelping No and 
>punishment is preferred.  Dogs understand a few words - their name, No and so
>on.  What they hear with your method is No! xmnasdfandfnam a fnkmfnxc ajfjf.
>No afjna adfjf nafma  akdfjl.  (Nos and a lots of gibberish).

	Sorry, but it is NOT bad advice.  It is called TRAINING.  Merely
telling your dog what is BAD is not enough.  You *have* to train your dog
what you DO want it to do.  This is a normal training method.  You correct
the dog for the bad behavior and then you make it to the correct behavior
and praise it for being good.  

>> 	If this technique doesn't stop the inappropriate biting, it at
>> least teaches the pup that biting people is not good and biting chewies is
>> good.  At this point, you can assume that the pup knows it shouldn't bite
>> you and is choosing to anyway.  My next step is to push my hand, finger,
>> foot, whatever is being bitten further down the pup's mouth while saying,
>> "No bite, bad puppy."  If this doesn't deter it, then I would grap the
>> little darling's face and give it a good shake while staring in it's eyes
>> and saying in an angry, growly voice, "No bite."  If this still doesn't
>> work, you have a tough, little hombre there and a good smack under the chin
>> would not be inappropriate.  If you do these steps well, slowly, and
>> methodically and follow each correction up with a reminder of the
>> appropriate behavior, your dog should stop biting you.  If it is still
>> biting after this program, then perhaps you have a piranha and not a puppy.
>> :)
>> 
>> 
>More I don't recommend striking the dog under any circumstance.  That is a
>good way to create a mean dog.  Your technique of exchanding a chew toy for
>your hand whent the dog bites - does not teach the dog that biting the chew
>toy is better than biting people. It teaches him that if he bites people
>he is rewarded with a chew toy.
>> --

	Well, striking a dog is controversial, but it can be effective
under the right circumstances if done in a controlled manner.  I'm not
going to debate this with you.  
	
	My technique of exchanging a chew toy for your hand when the dog
bites DOES teach the dog that it can bite on chews but not on people, if it
is done correctly and consistently.  It certainly has worked wonderfully
well on the five puppies I've had in my house over the last year for
training.  All training is based on this principal:  correct bad behavior,
but that is only half the job.  You MUST teach the dog what is GOOD
behavior.  

	When you train a dog not to jump on you, you don't just yell at it
everytime it jumps.  You also have to teach it that staying down on the
ground will elicit a good reaction.

	I'm sorry, but locking your dog up when it is bad is NOT training
it.  It's punishing it and the dog is not likely to learn anything that
way.  If you would encourage the dog to good behaivor and praise it for
that, you'd have much faster, surer results.

	Of course, all of this is merely my informed opinion. Read some of
the following books:  How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With (Rutherford &
Neill), Mother Knows Best (Benjamin), How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend and
The Art of Raising a Puppy (The Monks of New Skete) and see if they suggest
locking your dog up for an hour as a good corrective method.  

--lizalee



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Liza Lee Miller         My dogs are labradorable!     liza@pangea.stanford.edu
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