new doggie - training advice

[blue_stealth]

I am looking for some advice in a few different areas. We adopted a 9 month old chocolate lab/irish wolfhound cross 3 weeks ago. She doesn't seem to have been trained at all, besides minor crate training and kind of house breaking.

Comments

Continued

[rozae]

5. If you need a break from her during mealtimes, you could crate her or confine her to a puppy proof room (say, with a baby gate). It can be hard to supervise a puppy while eating dinner, after all. Ultimately she will need to learn some good table manners. You could choose to work on those now by rewarding her (with some of her own food, or some treats, or even safe table scraps--do not feed table scraps if you don't want her to come to expect them though!) for NOT being rude while you eat. It really shouldn't take long for her to realize that keeping her butt on the floor (for example) earns her yummies while you eat. The only downside to this method is that you may find you take longer to eat your dinner, because you're taking the time to dole out rewards for good behavior. :] Whatever route you choose, make sure she isn't rewarded for putting her paws on the table by stealing your food or rude dinner behavior is just the beginning of your concerns. (This can escalate to full out counter-surfing, ruined Thanksgivings, etc.) Remember: rewarding behaviors will continue. Behaviors that yield no rewards will stop.

7. I think that's going to depend on why she's barking. If she's trying to make them go away by barking and then they walk away, she just learned how to make people go away. The behavior was rewarding and so it will continue. Figure out why she's barking, eliminate rewards, and teach her an alternative behavior to replace it. If she's just not socialized, which could be the root of why she's barking, working on socialization will help a ton.