Blue merle australian Shepherd

brian4d · Feb 9, 2017

Wife and I are the proud owners of a Australian Shepherd / Poodle mix (mostly Aussie). 9 Weeks old and the dog has more energy than I'm used to. Does anyone here have experience with the breed or similar? I'm beginning with the basics. No, stay and sit. He has the attention span of a goldfish and doesn't seem very trainable at this point. Am I expecting to much or maybe there is a special technique I need to use?

Right now the command with reward treats is not working. I'll say the command and reward with a treat when done right. When I try to work with him his attention will go elsewhere and run away, pick up a toy or something else. It's been 8 years since I've raised a puppy and I'm thinking I have forgotten the general time frames of when/how to train.

K-rover · Feb 9, 2017

Those dogs need jobs to do. I would start with a long walk on leash and get him nice and tired. Then work on training.

brian4d · Feb 9, 2017

K-rover said:
Those dogs need jobs to do. I would start with a long walk on leash and get him nice and tired. Then work on training.

Great idea. I have noticed his attention is better after exercise.

Maximumwarp · Feb 9, 2017

9 weeks is pretty early. A family friend is a Malamute breeder and has been teaching obedience classes for 30+ years, and she won't allow dogs under 6 months. Aussies and Poodles are both extremely intelligent dogs, and Aussies absolutely love to work and to please. Just give it a little time. With dogs like that, Border Collies, etc., the joke is that you just give them an obedience handbook and when you come back later they'll have it read and memorized. I don't have any experience with the reward system of training, her class is correction-based.

Shiftonthefly1 · Feb 9, 2017

Sounds about right. I have an Australian Shepherd myself. He's a ball of energy. I spent A LOT of time training him. He was surrendered twice back into the adoption clinic because of his behavior.

What I found that if I tuckered him out a bit before working with him it helped. A simple walk around the block isn't going to cut it. This dog was bred for endurance. His DNA give him high energy. The truck is to get that energy focused on you. Don't have toys around. No other people or stimuli. I found the audible clicker w the reward worked well. If you hope to make any progress you need to spend some of that energy. I take my dogs to the desert every other day. He runs probably 6 miles when we go. He doesn't need that much to train but he will need a good run first.

I did cheat some. He was so spastic I had to get a shock collar to get his attention. The are controversial I know. But I was at wits end. I had the same problem as you. I'd only give him a small jolt when he would try and run away. You can't ever let him see the remote or make the association with the collar. You need to put it on an hour before you work with him. It will get better. These dogs are freaking brilliant. He will get it. You just need his attention.

He and I went through the basics of service dig training. He's now a legit service dog. Although I'm guilty of letting him do much more than he should be allowed to do. I have 3 dogs now and they are like my kids.

brian4d · Feb 9, 2017

Maximumwarp said:
9 weeks is pretty early. A family friend is a Malamute breeder and has been teaching obedience classes for 30+ years, and she won't allow dogs under 6 months. Aussies and Poodles are both extremely intelligent dogs, and Aussies absolutely love to work and to please. Just give it a little time. With dogs like that, Border Collies, etc., the joke is that you just give them an obedience handbook and when you come back later they'll have it read and memorized. I don't have any experience with the reward system of training, her class is correction-based.

If that's the case it's going to be a long 11 weeks. Not going to be easy but that's why we decided to take on a new puppy. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Thanks.

brian4d · Feb 9, 2017

Shiftonthefly1 said:
Sounds about right. I have an Australian Shepherd myself. He's a ball of energy. I spent A LOT of time training him. He was surrendered twice back into the adoption clinic because of his behavior.

What I found that if I tuckered him out a bit before working with him it helped. A simple walk around the block isn't going to cut it. This dog was bred for endurance. His DNA give him high energy. The truck is to get that energy focused on you. Don't have toys around. No other people or stimuli. I found the audible clicker w the reward worked well. If you hope to make any progress you need to spend some of that energy. I take my dogs to the desert every other day. He runs probably 6 miles when we go. He doesn't need that much to train but he will need a good run first.

I did cheat some. He was so spastic I had to get a shock collar to get his attention. The are controversial I know. But I was at wits end. I had the same problem as you. I'd only give him a small jolt when he would try and run away. You can't ever let him see the remote or make the association with the collar. You need to put it on an hour before you work with him. It will get better. These dogs are freaking brilliant. He will get it. You just need his attention.

He and I went through the basics of service dig training. He's now a legit service dog. Although I'm guilty of letting him do much more than he should be allowed to do. I have 3 dogs now and they are like my kids.

What a great looking Aussie. What type of service dog if you don't mind me asking?

Looks like I may need to focus on the energy for sure. Here is our addition. Meet Tucker.

Shiftonthefly1 · Feb 9, 2017

He's freaking adorable. Scout is general service only at this point. He has passed the bare minimum behavior/obedience courses. So he'd be right at the stage where people SAY there "service dogs" are. At this point he would be considered an emotional support dog. The more complicated the tasks the more training. Seeing eye dogs being at the top of the food chain. Scout and I both had to be trained. Me giving commands and him to obey them. It was a long road. Start small. They want to please. I have 2 more dogs so he doesn't get as much training as he should. All my dogs are rescues so he's got a much better life now. Scout was in a kill shelter and due to be put down. My saving him was supposed to be a foster situation. During the training I realized I didn't want to let him go.

I know have two pits. One that is so chill and mellow and the puppy with more energy than brains. Both rescues. Both in kill shelters. The pup was tied up and abandoned. The older pit was simply surrendered and left there. Freaking people.

K-rover · Feb 9, 2017

Remember dogs are technically puppies until they are about 1.5yrs old. I recently had to put my 10yr old pit mix to sleep due to tumor on his heart.. I rescued him when he was 2 months old from the shelter. He was rotten until he was about 2yrs old.. But then he became the best dog I could have ever asked for!! Im still fighting back the tears from losing him..

A tired dog is a happy owner! Good luck, hes adorable!

brian4d · Feb 9, 2017

Thanks everyone. I'm was semi at my wits end. I would never, ever give him up but I am to the point that I need to take charge and go about this a different way. The other hard part for me is remembering he's only 9 weeks old. I'm going to work on leash walking this week and really try to burn off some of the energy. Until then I'm hearing 16 weeks + would be a really good starting point for intensive training. We have an 8 year old Spoodle that's set in his ways and making this situation even more interesting.

kk88rrc · Feb 9, 2017

Just went through this with our Husky pup who is now 6 months. We got him at 8 wks and the first two months were loooooooong.

Keep training sessions short & fun and use high reward treats.... little bits go a long way. Train before meals so they are more motivated.

I feel the two most important commands to work on at this age is recall and name recognition.

Be careful with too long of walks because of their growing bones. Some people say 5 min per month which is crazy conservative especially for high energy dogs like your Aussie & my Husky. We kept them to around 30 mins or longer if we were just wondering around in the woods or exploring in town with lots of stops.

Puppy classes can be good if you find a good trainer and check for puppy play groups for socialization. Our local pet supply store holds them on the weekends. Also exposure to many many different things is great to building confidence.

kk88rrc · Feb 9, 2017

Also regarding leash walking, search for the Zen approach which basically has the pup teach itself but it's slow going because you stop every time there is tension on the leash and you wait for it to go slack.

Here's one link... http://www.zendogtraining.net/resources/blog/leash-walking-your-puppy but there are better write ups out there.

A couple of other links I found useful for socialization & puppy development....
http://www.planetdogblog.com/files/scavenger-hunt.pdf
http://www.planetdogblog.com/files/dog-developmental-stages.pdf

Blueboy · Feb 9, 2017

And please always remember to say a command if you say his name.

Folks just yell the dog's name and expect them to know what you want.

We also use Ok as a release word.

And we like 2 word commands - Sit and then Stay.

Which we still use at every feeding: Sit, Stay, place dog bowl down, then Ok to release for them to eat.

Have fun - they are only pups once!

p m · Feb 9, 2017

kk88rrc said:
Also regarding leash walking, search for the Zen approach which basically has the pup teach itself but it's slow going because you stop every time there is tension on the leash and you wait for it to go slack.

Here's one link... http://www.zendogtraining.net/resources/blog/leash-walking-your-puppy but there are better write ups out there.

That approach has not worked at all with our Airedale. Just not a single bit.
... And dogs know perfectly well what you want when you call them without a command to follow. Most importantly, they have to stop and look at you when called.

K-rover · Feb 9, 2017

Blueboy said:
And please always remember to say a command if you say his name.

Folks just yell the dog's name and expect them to know what you want.

We also use Ok as a release word.

And we like 2 word commands - Sit and then Stay.

Which we still use at every feeding: Sit, Stay, place dog bowl down, then Ok to release for them to eat.

Have fun - they are only pups once!

Along the same line as this.. When disciplining him, dont use his name. He could associate his name with punishment. Oh and for the love of God, please dont feed your dogs crap food!!

brian4d · Feb 9, 2017

K-rover said:
Along the same line as this.. When disciplining him, dont use his name. He could associate his name with punishment. Oh and for the love of God, please dont feed your dogs crap food!!

All great advice. As I said, our spoodle turned out really well. He knows at least 10 commands and does them instantly. I will need to get him out of the room when I'm training Tucker because he still will perform every command just by word alone, no name. This makes it even harder to train. I assure you I did not train him that way, his name was always used. Just that eager to please I suppose.

As for the food no worries there. Tucker loves Ol' Roy. :rofl:

LuisC · Feb 9, 2017

https://youtu.be/SSUXXzN26zg

kk88rrc · Feb 9, 2017

p m said:
That approach has not worked at all with our Airedale. Just not a single bit.

It hasn't worked for our Husky either, but he is from a long line of sled dogs and more importantly I have not been consistent with it. He gets better everyday though.

I think this technique would work well with an Aussie or anyone with a ton of patience. I was working in NYC this week and I passed a guy walking his dog using the zen approach.... he would go maybe three or four steps, have to stop for a couple of seconds, and on and on but he was consistent.

brian4d · Feb 9, 2017

If the Zen approach does not work, what other option do I have? Right now he will walk about 20 paces then stop and sit for around 10-15 seconds then walk again. I think the only reason he's walking at all is to keep up with our other dog. I can't believe I can't remember how we trained our first dog. Goodness...

kk88rrc · Feb 9, 2017

Remember he's only 9 wks old. We did not do any type of formal training for the first month or two.

Blue merle australian Shepherd

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