Playing Catch Up - Training & Socialisation

Hi all,

I'm in need of some advice. We got Poppy when she was 11 weeks old so already past the normal time for coming home. She has been really good in the house and was starting to learn "sit" and "down" and was generally walking on the lead better.

Then she was poorly, just after her first puppy class (we met another pup from the same class at the vets oddly enough) and wasn't up to training much. Then I've spent 12 days in hospital and she's been at home with hubby. Now, he looks after her as best he can (he's totally blind and puppies are a bit of nightmare for him) and she looks in great condition, but all her training has gone out of the window.

She now pees/poos wherever and whenever she wants, has got used to sleeping on our bed not in her crate (ok, so Oscar slept on our bed all his life and that was ok but we weren't going to do it with Poppy), and has forgotten everything about "sit", "down" or walking nicely on a lead. Her puppy class will only take them until they are 18 weeks old (she is 15 now) and then they go on to "beginners" but that also has older dogs who are just starting etc in and can be unruly (so I'm told). Also, the next beginners isn't until January.

She has also missed a whole pile of socialisation things I had planned to do with her.

So, now I'm not sure what to do next. I've gone back to basics with toilet training (although I can't get up and down stairs easily and we spend more time upstairs than down) and am trying to get her to learn "sit" etc again but I'm short of ideas on catching up her socialising and training and really nervous about looking for a new training class to go to.

I think I'm probably panicking but as Oscar was such a nervous dog I don't want Poppy to end up with the same issues.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Ali xx

Please don't worry about not doing certain things by specific times ~ it's not the end of the world & if you worry too much & try to rush things, you'll only end up confusing your dog or flooding her with too much.

The best thing you can do now is to try to keep to a set routine as much as you can, especially for toilet training & basic commands.

Watch that you're not confusing socialising with habituation. Socialising is just getting used to interacting with the species your dog is likely to encounter a lot ~ so with puppies it's mostly people & other dogs & just learning how to behave with other dogs, how to read adult dog body language etc.

Habituation is when a dog encounters different sights, sounds, smell etc, but nothing happens, either good or bad (unless you engineer it otherwise) so the dog learns that these things can be ignored because they don't mean anything. So you'd would want a dog to become habituated to the sound of aircraft if you live near an airport, or to livestock if you live on a farm, or to traffic noises if you live in a busy area etc etc.

You can habituate most dogs to these things regardless of age, provided that they don't have any previous good or bad associations & provided that you do it correctly. The only reason that there is a school of thought that you have to do these things by the time a dog gets to a certain age, is because there is a period in a puppy's development when the fear reaction to new things is dampened down. This usually coincides with the time at which puppies are more mobile, start to explore their immediate surroundings, start to interact with adult dogs that they meet. It would make things more difficult if puppies were still extremely fearful at this stage of their development; they would be reluctant to explore & would cling to mum. So nature has helped to solve the problem by giving a window when the fear reaction is dampened down. Many people thought that this is when it is best for puppies to be rehomed, that you need your puppy to meet all sorts of things during this period, & woe betide you if you don't, as it may never get used to them .

This theory has largely been debunked now. Puppies (& dogs) can still be habituated to lots of things as they grow older so there's no need to worry if your puppy is starting a bit later than others. She'll soon catch up. So don't rush, don't worry & take things slowly & calmly & most importantly, make Poppy's experiences positive ones, & I bet you find that come January she'll be more than ready for the Beginners Class

I find that when a dog has regressed in its training or socialisation and you go back to the beginning, it`s a lot quicker and easier the second time. Because really, the dog knows what you want, so it`s question of putting things back into place.
I would only tackle one or two things at a time, personally. The house training has to be high on the list, obviously, so maybe a bit of recall as well? because that is crucial too.
Don`t worry about meeting time targets. I`ve retrained & socialised quite elderly dogs so there`s no rush!

Having had several dogs with issues I have to disagree to an extent.

I'd be going anywhere I could whenever I could, boot sales, markets, town centres, roads where I only met afew cars/people, busy roads, outside big supermarket etc etc.

I'd try and do one thing a day for the next month or so.

Lots of sits and downs in all these places to teach her to behave and generalise the behaviours she already knows.

Toilet training back to first base and she'll be fine.

Good luck---and enjoy her.

rune

I agree that socialisation is very important - but the dog needs to be in control first IMO. So I`d do sit and lead-work first because if she panics when out I wouldn`t have any control.

Fair enough if that's your opinion & your experience, but surely the most important thing is to ensure that all these experiences are positive ones, or at least neutral? There's no point in taking a dog to all these places if it scares them, or they're not ready, or you're going too fast for the dog to cope.

Personally I'd rather go slowly & steadily & make sure that all went well, rather than try to whizz through all these different scenarios in a month. And anyway, if you go more slowly & ensure a good grounding, then a dog is far more likely to generalise about situations & find common features with other new or novel places that will ensure positive associations.

And there are other factors to take into account in each individual case. In this scenario, the owner has just spent time in hospital, has a blind husband & is clearly worried about how things are going with the puppy. I think the last thing she needs is to feel that she's got to rush around with the puppy to fit all this in ~ the danger of it going wrong would be far higher. And then there's the relationship with the puppy ~ your method may well be ok with a fairly confident dog, that has no issues & a good & trusting relationship with the owner. But in this case it could well be that the more important thing is for the owner to start to build up her relationship with the puppy again & get back that all important trust.

I would imagine that Aligord has a bit of common sense and will not stress the dog out in situations.

One scenario a day to aim at is not bad---it is actually quite fun. Obviously if you are going to train in the situation you will take rewards with you so the stress shouldn't be too bad.

I have had so many people say that they have plenty of time and come a cropper when the dog hits 8/10mths.

rune

Yes I've also known things going wrong at the 8-10 month age but not because things were handled badly at the outset ~ more because this is the time dogs generally reach sexual maturity & no matter how good the early training, things can still go awry at that age! Hormones eh.... who'd have'em!

Thanks for the help guys. I'm trying to work really hard with Poppy at home and get a good bond with her and get some basics in. At the same time I am taking her to as many places as I can and letting her experience them within her comfort zone.

She came into the pub with us the other day when we went out for dinner and behaved fantastically well. I was such a proud mum!

Having found out that I have actually fractured a vertebrae and my coccyx I know I'm going to be on a bit of a 'go slow' for a while (and we have to move house) but I'm feeling more relaxed having read your replies and I know as long as I steadily increase the amount of things she sees and does and work on her training at home she will be fine.

Ali xx