Hi,

A few questions if I may. 2 weeks ago, I acquired a 10 weeks old female
Jack Russell. That's my first dog in a long, long while. I also read
Jerry's Wit's End program after reading some of his posts here. Makes a
lot of sense, although I find Jerry's way of writing extremely
confusing (HOWE'ing everything and whatnot).

First off, I'll admit that I probably confused the hell of of my dog,
throwing cans left and right (sound distraction), trying to break her
chewing of everyting as well as trying to teach her the "Come" command
in the same period. Basically, here's what it looked like: Chewing
shoes: Distract with can, good dog. That stopped her, but 5 seconds
later, tried to chew wires, so distract with can, good dog. Then 5
seconds later, tried to chew something else. Then tried the "Come"
command, with cans. Anyway, you see the pattern. Since she doesn't
always listen to my "Come" command, I decided to stop with the cans for
a week or two. I probably messed up somewhere, and I want to re-start
with a clean slate, if it's possible. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Here are the questions:

Housebreaking: What do you recommend when catching the dog in the act?
I caught her a few times, and just picked her up gently mid whizz or
mid poop to bring her outside. Not sure, that's the way, but I didn't
see that part addressed in Jerry's document. So, should I just let her
finish her business in the house? She always try to find a spot the
farther away from the door she should ask for. Funny thing is that a
lot of times, I spend time with her outside in the backyard, just
hanging around, and when we go back inside, that's when she does her
business. 30 seconds after we went back in. I try not to show it, but
it's very frustrating when that happens. Also, she's a fairly silent
dog, which makes knowing when she needs to go much harder.

Walking the dog: I try my best not to let her feel her collar, by using
the give and take good dog approach, but at some point, it's just
impossible not to let her feel it (for example when she reach the end
of the 6' leash). I pull back as gently as I can, trying not to let her
feel the collar for more than 1 sec, saying "no, good dog". Most of the
time, she will walk beside me, and I praise her for it when she looks
up at me, but when she decides to explore or test me, I sound like a
broken record i.e "no, good dog" every 2 seconds, sometimes for 5
minutes without pause. I'm probably messing up somewhere, but I'm not
sure where. Any pointers?

I haven't started to train her with the heel, sit and other commands
yet since I don't feel I did the basics right with my "Come" command.
Hopefully, I`m not too late to start anew.

Regards,

Denis

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 06:47:24 -0800, Deltones wrote:

Housebreaking: What do you recommend when catching the dog in the act?

Pick her up, carry her outside, watch her go, and praise and reward when
she does.

But the biggest thing is that you shouldn't be giving her the opportunity
to mess in the house. Until she's figured it out, she shouldn't be loose
in the house unless you're paying sufficient attention to catch her before
she starts.

Crate train her. Use a crate that's sized for how big she is now, even if
that means you'll need to get a bigger one in a couple of months.

Watch her closely when she's out of her crate, and take her out at the
first sign that she needs to go. Take her out every hour even if she
doesn't show signs, and reward her profusely when she goes where she's
supposed to.

--
The concept of pacifism as it pertains to crime is generally predicated
on the concept that all life is of value, and that using violence to
injure or kill in defense of mere property is disproportionate - the
value of the material is much less than the value of the life of the
person attempting to take the material. Surprise! I concur. The life of a
human being is of greater value than, say, the contents of my wallet. But
this ignores something more important - the fact that the contents of my
wallet are the least things at risk. Because someone willing to threaten
bodily injury or death in order to take my wallet violates the tenets
of the society in which both of us live. He puts in fear not only me,
but the entire society. He has proffered a new social contract - "Give
me what I want, and I won't hurt you."

Jerry,

I snipped most of your post for brevity, but I realized after reading
your answer that I really need to get back to basics. Thanks for
pointing that out.

Oh, WON last thought. AbHOWET the HOWEsbreakin
problem? That's often complicated by CRATING.

During that difficult period it'd be EXXXPECTED
that you've been CRATING your dog, which teaches
them their HOWES is their crate and YOUR HOWES
is their TERRORtory to FHOWEL.

I do have crate, and after reading this, I'll store it away. Your
explanation about fouling the rest of the house but not the crate
really make sense. Oh, and talking about crates, the first night I had
her, I closed the door of the crate, as this is what almost everybody
was recommending. She was hell of earth, and at 5 in the morning, I had
to put her in the bathtub as she crapped on herself during the night.

The following night, I let the door open, putting a towel near my bed
for her to sleep. Her crate is in the kitchen. I said what the hell,
let's try it. Totally different behaviour. I was pretty happy about it
that's for sure

Thanks again for the advice,

Regards,

Denis

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 16:07:14 -0800, Deltones wrote:


I do have crate, and after reading this, I'll store it away. Your
explanation about fouling the rest of the house but not the crate
really make sense. Oh, and talking about crates, the first night I had
her, I closed the door of the crate, as this is what almost everybody
was recommending. She was hell of earth, and at 5 in the morning, I had
to put her in the bathtub as she crapped on herself during the night.

How much training did you do with her and the crate, before you locked her
in it?

And how old is she and how long did you leave her in the crate?

And where was the crate? Alongside your bed? Or at the other end of the
house?


--
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.

I do have crate, and after reading this, I'll store it away. Your
explanation about fouling the rest of the house but not the crate
really make sense. Oh, and talking about crates, the first night I had
her, I closed the door of the crate, as this is what almost everybody
was recommending. She was hell of earth, and at 5 in the morning, I had
to put her in the bathtub as she crapped on herself during the night.

How much training did you do with her and the crate, before you locked her
in it?

And how old is she and how long did you leave her in the crate?

And where was the crate? Alongside your bed? Or at the other end of the
house?

Jeff,

That was the first night I had her. There was no particular training
done with her. The crate was in the kitchen, my bedroom is maybe 10
feet from where I put the crate. As for how old she is, I got her at 10
weeks, she's 12 weeks old now.

Regards,

Denis

"Deltones" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

And where was the crate? Alongside your bed? Or at the
other end of the house?

That was the first night I had her. There was no particular
training done with her. The crate was in the kitchen, my
bedroom is maybe 10 feet from where I put the crate.

You shouldn't blame the crate, then, for your misuse of it.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 04:36:25 +0000, Rocky wrote:

"Deltones" said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

And where was the crate? Alongside your bed? Or at the
other end of the house?

That was the first night I had her. There was no particular
training done with her. The crate was in the kitchen, my
bedroom is maybe 10 feet from where I put the crate.

You shouldn't blame the crate, then, for your misuse of it.

But those of us who said "use a crate" without either explanation or
references to explanation of how it should be used certainly could share
some blame.

http://www.inch.com/~dogs/cratetraining.html


--
That's the mild form of the vilification that is the reflexive tool of
intimidation for the Left when it doesn't control the state. When it does,
you get the gulag and the firing squad.
- David Horowitz

Jerry,

Here's something you wrote:

and take her out at the first sign that she needs to go.

That'd be a perfect opportunity to teach
the dog to ASK to go HOWET, jeff. Taking
the dog HOWET pryor to him ASKING disavails
them of LEARNING HOWE to ASK to go HOWET.

How would I teach a dog to ask to go out? In a previous post, I
mentionned that my dog is a fairly silent, so I have to rely on her
body language. Since I can't spend all my time watching her, she let
herself go in the house, which happens way too often for my taste.

Also, if you remember from a previous post, I told you I stopped using
cans because I felt I didn't use them properly and probably confused
the dog to hell. Well, I tried them again yesterday, as per your
recommendations, when she started to chew on my shoes. She just ignored
the can, chewing away like nothing happened, even when the can landed
just behind her. I know she's not deaf, so what the hell is going on?

I'm trying to get back to basics with the "Come, good dog" command with
cans when trying to go outside, and now she turn away from me and go
hide, which she didn't do before. I praised her for it, but that dog is
starting to seriously damage my calm. A dog afraid of going outside,
who knew? So what I did is I left the door opened, stepped outside by
myself and went into the backyard. She followed me a few minutes later,
and I praised her. What is she trying to accomplish by running away
from my "Come, good dog" command? It's not like I beat the **** out of
her, I praise her all the time. One thing I can think of is that it's
starting to get cold where I live, and she doesn't seem to like it one
bit.

Oh, last point. In your Wit's End document, you say that the sound
distraction with cans should not be prolonged. But the fact is tin cans
falling on hardwood floor bounce, and bouncing tin cans with pennies in
them don't make short noise. Any suggestions?

Regards,

Denis

Hi Jerry,

I forgot something in my last post. Did I ruin my chance to train my
dog correctly by trying to fix bad behaviours first instead of
following things in order as they appeared in your manual? My dog seem
to ignore the sound distractions and my "Come" command now and getting
more nervous. Hey, maybe dogs forget the screw up after a week or two
and I can start over

Regards,

Denis

Jeff Dege said in
rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

You shouldn't blame the crate, then, for your misuse of
it.

But those of us who said "use a crate" without either
explanation or references to explanation of how it should
be used certainly could share some blame.

Just don't include me in "us" - every time (at least as far back
as this aging brane can remember) I've recommended a crate, I've
explained its proper use.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.