The Tilly Thread

[okiwa]

Hi everyone!

I thought making a thread for Tilly would be better than taking over the forum! I am again in need of some advice.

Firstly due to Tilly's habit of barking when someone leaves the room or if she wants to play with our other two dogs I want to teach her quiet. But I also want to teach her speak because I find it adorable and clever when a dog barks when told. So far she has got sit, lie down, down (off the sofa but she doesn't listen unless you have a treat), paw and she is learning roll over. I was wondering how to teach her quiet and speak? Also which one is best to teach first? I started teaching her speak but it means every time she sees a treat she barks so I was thinking of teaching her quiet instead (as she forgets speak) and I don't want her barking when I show her a treat for a different command.

Also we have started taking Tilly to the beach, trying to get her used to the sea. So far we have just been walking near the water as Tilly isn't sure. But sometimes she follows our other two dogs in a little or gets surprised by a wave. Should we just keep doing what we are doing?

Also am I trying to teach her too much at once? :/

[Sophiesmama]

When we were teaching Sophie to speak, we always made her sit first. I have found that when we have her sit, she listens better. We actually would get her to sit, and with a treat, command "Sophie, Speak!" we actually barked ourselves to show her (I know, she was training us LOL!) She learned it right away. Then we taught her Sophie Speak two times and we hold up 2 fingers. She got that pretty quickly too. We have found that if we couple her name with the command she listens and knows we are talking to her. We have not mastered the Sophie Quiet command. She will do it some of the time. She is 7 1/2 months and when she is very excited, or playing hard we don't always get her to be quiet. We would walk up to her when she was barking at the window and lay our hand on her and say in a soft voice, Sophie Quiet. Sometimes we would touch our palm to the front of her muzzle. She would comply some of the time. Now that she is older she doesn't yap yap like a younger puppy, so she's not that noisy anyway. They out grow a lot of it.

[felicity62]

sorry fellow puppy owner I cant advise on this one, I wondered how her biting and mouthing were doing?

[okiwa]

Im finding she is still barking to get a treat rather then being quiet. She knows if she barks I will say quiet (once she is quiet) I give her a treat but once she has had a treat she barks for another.

Tilly is still biting and chewing but not as bad as before, she seems to at least listen to us now rather than going crazy. She still tries to bite us quite often but when we tell her dont bite she usually stops.

[Sophiesmama]

It sounds like she is learning! Hey, how about posting some pictures!?

[okiwa]

Sorry for such a late reply! There hasn't been much of a change to be honest. Her barking is still a problem and she is still weeing in the house. Yesterday we managed to have no accidents but we have to watch her like a hawk...even then sometimes she is too quick for us. Hopefully yesterday was the start of her understanding!

She is also still crying/barking for half an hour when I put her to bed. She also cries when she hears my dad come in at 4am in the morning (he works nights) and wont shut up for about an hour even though I let her go outside in case she needs to. I could just leave her downstairs with him but I am worried if I do that she wont learn to sleep all night and he doesn't plan to work nights for much longer if he can help it. It would probably make house training more difficult too as he is the one person who doesn't pay attention and let her out enough. Hopefully she will learn barking gets her no where though! It is just taking a while. At night I ignore her if I know she doesn't need to go out (when my dad isn't working she goes the whole night with out going in the garden) and during the day if she barks I distract her by telling her to sit, lie down, give a paw...then she gets fuss because she is quiet and doing as she is told.

As for house training I have no idea what else I can do to try speed up the learning process. We let her out often...about once ever half an hour, we let her out whenever she goes anywhere near the back door or if she circles. When she does a wee outside 90% of the time she does it by the back door. When she does one outside she gets a treat and fuss.

Chewing is ok...she still likes chewing and she definitely likes shoes! But I have a feeling that will take a while to stop. She does try and bite us too but you can tell she is being playful. When we tell her not to bite she tends to listen...most of the time!

One thing Tilly has done really well with is waiting for her food! I get her to sit and wait before I put her bowl down and even when its on the floor she still sits and waits for me to tell her she can eat it! She will wait no matter how long I get her to wait for bless her! So cute

I will find some photos to put up soon!

[felicity62]

hey i am not familiar with anything lab/puppy related but are you not best to ignore day time barking rather than distract? it maybe teling he rbarking does get her somewhere, as you reward her with fuss and attention.

when your dad comes in, does she actually need to go to the toilet or is that a habit itself? either way your dad coming home is the distraction not how you deal with it-does that make sense? your dad has to come home and that is the thing that wakes her so by leaving her downstairs it isnt creating the habit ? she is woken anyway and is getting your full attention by going outside. she isnt sleeping thru the night at the moment is she, so she isnt going all night anyway. rosie always wakes at 4am (the reason she now sleeps downstairs) but she eventually settles back down until i get up at 6am.

none of this is easy by any imagination and like i say i am no expert (i have loads of issues with rosie still) we do have lots of positives tho, she is very good with toilet training and got it very fast! we also have a ritual for feeding "bed and wait" are soooooooooo cute, she looks like she could burst when waiting

[okiwa]

heya.

Getting her to do tricks when she barks means she stops barking and starts doing something i want her to do and she doesnt get the treat until shes dont a few tricks and has been quiet for a while. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I did try to teach her "quiet" but then she just seemed to know when she barked i would tell her "quiet" and then when she stopped barking she would get a treat. So that didn't work. The detraction technique was something i found on youtube but I am not sure this is working either.

The problem at night is sometimes she needs to go out and other nights she sleeps all the way until 8am. If I do take her down for a wee then she goes out and straight back upstairs.