Three Days Grace
When you first bring the pup into your home, please try to keep outsiders out. No walks, no car rides, no play sessions. Think Low and Slow.
When dogs go through an event (home transistion, skuffle with another dog, day care etc) their brains release cortisol, just like we do. It takes 3 days for that to naturally dissipate. The kindest thing we can do is lower our expectations and guard their mental health during those 3 days.
When we ignore that, we build adrenalin. That leads to behavior challenges and a dog that has a more difficult time learning. When in doubt alway reset the pup.
Puppies need about 22 hours sleep a day. When we look at necessities like eating and potty. Learning needs to come in short spurts. Some learning comes in play, other learning in training sessions. Often we see friends get new pups and they are run ragged. Then wonder why they are getting bitey. Then they answer that with more exercise... which leads to more behavior challenges, and on and on. Sleep, they need sleep.
We are what we build. You'll hear me refer to "building a dog" and that is precisely what we are doing. If the pup spends time running and playing and ignoring humans... that's what we get. If the pup spends time building stamina for being calm and focused, that is what we get. Both are muscles, we simply choose to build the calm muscle over the hyper one.
A reset is simply 3 days with the vast majority being spent in the crate. Sleeping, allowing the body to process. Out for potty, eating, back to bed. It gives the humans a chance to set up the relationship. Barking gets no reaction, calm gets "Niiiicccceeee" and some kibble. Reinforcing what we want to see repeated.
For each behavior there is an opposite behavior. Take barking for example. Most people react when the dog is barking, but ignore when the dog is quiet. Just like the stamina for hyper or calm, we need to start looking for the behavior we want and rewarding that. Reward the calm, ignore the barking.
At the end of the day we are teaching the dogs to choose. If we have to direct it (quiet, down, sit etc) they are responding, not choosing. If you want a behavior reward it. Zip your lips. Our training is 90% non verbal. It's also 90% rewarding what we want to see the pup repeat.
It's typically a new training style for the humans, so the low and slow first 3 days is beneficial for you too. Between food delivery, potty protocol and leash handling ALL without a single correction, it will be enough to ge the hang of!
Drop all the correction words from your vocabulary! No, uh-uh, stop, hey, don't. Drop all the commands! Sit, down, give it, quiet, leave it.
3 Days Grace. We build the humans to learn to train as we build the pups. To start, work on your vocab and being silent.