We have our hands full at the moment and Alfie seems to be continuously doing something that is wrong, whethers its jumping up, nipping, chewing, you name it he does it. and i seem to be continually telling him off.

What i am puzzled over is when to reward so that he understands that what he is doing is right, for example if he jumps up onto sofa, thats not good but if he then gets down when told that is good, so i feel as if i should reward the good behaviour, but as there is such a short time scale in between good and bad, will he not misunderstand why he is being rewarded.

I am sure wit will get better, but I do feel as if i am fighting a losing battle at the moment

Thanks
Cathy

Have a think about clicker training - the clicker marks the good thing that you are going to reward and as Springer brains are so fast it is a great way to tell them they did the right thing and the reward (food, toy, praise) will follow even if a few seconds later. It also allows the dog to work out what is required. It worked brilliantly for my mad and highly intelligent Sprocker Stanley who loves 'playing' clicker and now Hilda has worked out the click is the sign of reward she too is getting really into it. Even Max our 9 year old has learnt new things by this method. Loads of info on internet about it and books galore. Good Luck.

Thanks for that, i will look into it. I have 5 in my family, it is almost as hard work to get the rest of the family to be consistent as it is Alfie.

I have also noticed that alot of training schools don't start training until they are older, our local one offers training at 6 months, thats 3 months away, although they do also do puppy socialisation. I am concerned that whatever i start with won't be consistent with what the school will teach

Im sure its a male springer thing!
Pudgey does this to get attention he will on purpose be as naughty as he can to get attention and to be told off....he loves it because even though it is negative, it is still attention.

Over the past month we have stopped his jumping, sofa climbing and nipping because we simply ignore him...and i do mean completely ignore him.

When you walk in the house or room he is in, walk straight past him looking ahead not down dont speak to him or look at him and if he jumps up..walk into him as though he isnt there.....this stops the jumping because they realise it doesn't work!

If he jumps on the sofa, get up and walk out...if you think he is about to jump up by all means put a 'sit' in to stop him and if he does sit even for a second THEN you click and reward.

When he is laying down...click and reward. When he is playing with his toys..go and play with him with lots of praise...look for when he is good, even if its not brilliant, its a start!

This is what i did and i had the same problem as you i think...its sounds the same. They just get a kick out off negative attention so completely stop it all.

Hope this helps x let us know x

Thanks, looks like a clicker is next on the shopping list.

We do ignore as much as possible but when the jumping up includes biting and the chewing involves a much loved toy or shoe (that was out of reach but he has managed somehow) the we have to react to that, dont' we?

By the way how old is yours now, just to give me an idea of how much longer this madhouse will continue!!!

You only have between 3-5 seconds to reward or punish the behaviour.


You need to charge the clicker before using it, otherwise it is pointless.

You need to get him out and socialised with everything and get to some puppy socialisation classes. Train in the cues that you are going to use, dont worry about whether you get the cues wrong as long as Alfie knoiws what they mean and he responds to them a good trainer wont mind.

And no its not just Males, Jess was a big pain in the bum as a pup.