How much exercise?

[zookeeper]

I know that a well exercised pup is a happier, better behaved pup but how much exercise is necessary? Brie is 3 months old and about 22 lbs and it seems like all I do is exercise her. We go for 2 - 3 walks a day that are around 30 mins in duration. I also play fetch with her twice a day for about 20 mins each time and she gets two one hour outside play sessions with our other dog. She still seems to have a lot of energy. In the evening she gets just wild (it reminds me of when my kids would get over-tired as toddlers) and I don't know how to settle her down. Is she getting enough exercise do you think? Could she just be acting out because she's tired or overstimulated? Any ideas on how to settle her down? I've tried just calmly petting her but she doesn't respond well. She bounces all over and gets snappy. I'm out of ideas and really out of time. There is laundry to do as well as playing with the pup, you know.

[Carrie]

That sounds like plenty of exercise for a 3 month old pup, maybe too much. What breed is she?

Are you doing any obedience practice? That helps to give the dog a "job." It's something to concentrate on and get their minds off of other things for a while. If you use positive reinforcement, lots of reward, fun, etc, she'll love it.

When you try to pat her to calm her down, she is taking that for reward for her wild behavior. When she is jumping up and nipping, don't pay attention to her. Give her nothing good so that her reason for doing that will disappear. Give her alternative behavior. Does she know sit? Just when she's about to jump up, tell her, "sit." And reward for that. If she's already jumped on you, turn sideways so she falls off and ignore her completely. Ask for a sit again and treat and praise. She'll learn what behavior gets her attention and goodies and what behavior does not.

Good luck. Let us know how she develops.

[zookeeper]

Her mom is a standard poodle and we really don't know what dad is. We have just started puppy school and during the day she is quite well behaved. She is learning sit but it's just funny. When I tell her to sit, she has to run around until she's right in front of me and then sit. (so she's sure I don't miss seeing it, I guess LOL) We were trying to teach her off so when she'd jump up on anything or anyone I'd say off very sternly and when she got down she'd get a treat and lots of praise. She learned pretty quickly that to get the treat and praise she needed to get up onto something she shouldn't (like the couch) and then we'd tell her off and treat her. Ended up we had more of a problem after we started than we did before. It's really just in the evening that she seems out of control but if we ignore her she starts to rip up the carpet or the furniture or grabs our pants and tears them. I know that using the crate to discipline is a bad idea but I'm wondering if a few minutes in the crate would help her settle? I'm really at a loss.

[Carrie]

She's a smart one. Well, just show her what she can do and chew (lol) and reward for that. Show her what you want...if you have to physically, but gently guide her off the couch and give her another activity. Seperate the act of getting off and getting rewarded. In other words, don't reward for the act of getting off, but instead for doing something constructive when she is down on the floor. Give her another skill to do.... or chew toy. If she gets back on the couch, pull her off again and give her her own bed or special throw rug (designated) on the floor.

I found so much help in showing my pup what I wanted. They don't understand sometimes when people just say, "no." It can just sound like a scary, angry sound. They don't always associate it with something they're doing...necessarily. It is so helpful to guide and direct, redirect from "bad" behavior to something constructive. You have to get up often from your comfortable couch and show them. I know how trying it was with my Doberman pup....such a busy guy. I'd jump up off the couch 40 times a minute to show him something he could chew on or where he could lie down or how to be gentle with the other dogs. It works a lot better to emphasise what the dog can do rather than the dog hearing "no, no, no, no, no" all the time. Hard to do, but if you think about it a lot, it soon becomes not so hard.

[Barrett]

Do a bunch of short training sessions with her through out the day too. Working the mind can be just as tiring as working the body. I do as many as 10 short training sessions with my dogs that only last for about 5-10 minutes each. My dogs are one and two years old and have been through advanced training classes so I can drill them hard for each session. They snap to attention, I run through the drills fast calling out commands one after the other for the full 10 minutes and they are drained by the times we are done. You should be doing 5 minutes at the most with your puppy and only make it a game for now. Keep things happy and fun and always end on something you puppy does great so she feels good when she is done. It's fun and helps tire them out at the same time.

[Carrie]

Terrific ideas from Barrett, as usual!

She learned pretty quickly that to get the treat and praise she needed to get up onto something she shouldn't (like the couch) and then we'd tell her off and treat her

Just looking at this again. LOL. She learned all right. But she probably didn't know that it was something she shouldn't. I think she learned that she should. You inadvertantly trained her to jump up on the couch and then jump off because she knew jumping off was a good thing. She got praised and treated for jumping off. But how in the heck can she jump off if she doesn't get on first??? LOL.

[zookeeper]

Thanks for the ideas guys. I'll try them all! It's just so hard to think like a dog sometimes. LOL And, yes, we've stopped treating for 'off' and are redirecting instead. She's learning. And I do know that most, if not all, of our problems come from miscommunication. She is a sweetie, though and we love her no matter what!

[Carrie]

Well, Poodles are extraordinarily smart dogs.
Sometimes the smarter ones are really harder to train in some ways. I found that to be very true with training horses. I prefered the ones with average intelligence. LOL. But she sounds like a doll. She'll be great.

[Gerald]

Something to think about is having a "puppy cord". My trainer recommended this method and it has helped me keep Rocky from doing the things I don't want him to do. All that I use is a 6 foot or so nylon cord with a clasp(?) thing at the end and hook it to his harness like a leash. So he if trys to go for the couch, I can put my foot on the cord or grab it and say "OFF", then redirect him. Usually he has a toy or two on the floor, so I get his attention with that and praise.

He still jumps on the couch, though, but usually I can go over there and tell him off. After a couple times he gets the idea that if he goes up there, he is coming right down. It's getting better, but for me personally it's not 100 percent there.

Also a fun thing to do with your dog training wise is clicker training. I do some clicker stuff with Rocky. It's a fun game to play, and it really can sharpen up some commands. I used it at first for the "down" command, which is my word for lay down. After a few days with the clicker, he really picked it up. Now if I can get him to do it with verbal only I would be set!

p.s. here are some links for clicker stuff:

http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/lessons.html
http://www.clickersolutions.com/
http://www.clickertraining.com/home/

[mrsgrubby]

A puppy cord is a good idea.

Also, just because you put the puppy into the crate does not mean he is in trouble. Feel free to put him in there to rest in the evening for a bit.

Teach him to go in by command and give him a treat. We have a new foster puppy that is soooooo active, and she gets sooooo tired but won't rest. We make sure to put her in her crate and rest for a bit here and there. Within 5 minutes of putting her in there she falls asleep and we laugh. It's like, wow there is soooo much to do I just can't rest out here. but we can tell she is soooo tired and so we help her by putting her in it.

[zookeeper]

Thanks, mrsgrubby, that's what I was hoping to hear. She is trained to go into her crate on command and doesn't fuss at all so I know she's comfortable there. At bedtime she settles right down when she goes to her 'room'. I just didn't want to misuse it. It really is like she just is afraid if she stops she'll fall asleep and miss something so she keeps moving faster and faster to avoid falling asleep! I'm going to try the crate tonight.

[zookeeper]

Well, yesterday I upped Brie's training sessions and did four 5 minutes, walked her twice and played fetch just once. A much more manageable schedule. When she got wild in the evening I sent her to her bed with a treat and she was asleep within two minutes. Everyone was happier last night, including Brie. Thanks for all your help!

[Carrie]

A-w-w-w...sounds like a great idea. Sometimes puppies get punch drunk like little toddler babies. They get so wound up and you know they've had enough exercise. You put them to bed away from stimulation..sometimes they throw a little tantrum and then they conk out. LOL.