The Effect of Teasing and Roughhousing In the Eyes of Papillon Training Experts
December 18, 2009 by Daniel · Leave a Comment
Some dog owners seem to derive fun from teasing Papillon puppies. Of course the definition of teasing is so broad, and this leads us to the point that teasing and roughhousing as a whole is either positive or negative, formative or otherwise.
Strange as it is, positive teasing is real. As a papillon training activity, it can even be fun for both pet and owner. Teasing can also shore up a puppy’s confidence by making all the weird, noisy things people do predictable for the puppy. But non-stop, malicious teasing is obviously another story, and therefore, is totally no-no.
The positive teasing alluded to here include momentarily restraining the dog, hiding the toys or treats of the pup, making funny faces or dances in front of it, but promptly following it up with a consistent praise for the dog plus a reward or a treat. The dog’s eventual confidence will generally arise from its acceptance of your unexpected actions as reinforced by the praising and the reward. Obvious in all this is that there are proper moments for being unpredictable, and that there ought to be moments too for being the clear-headed and assertive alpha pack
Puppies need to be trained to absorb a healthy amount of teasing. Otherwise, without the necessary preparation, nothing else could prepare a puppy when it gets chased by a screaming child with outstretched arms. But dogs in general enjoy chases for as long as they are taught it is non-threatening.
From the point of view of Papillon Training, how does one know if its alright to tease a particular dog or not? After a few minutes of the tight dog hug, or of a monster-walk chase, or of the weird dance, try standing a good distance from the dog while asking it to come and sit for some treat. If the dog comes with tail wagging and head held high, he generally appreciates the game. Otherwise, the dog approaches licking its lips, with lowered head and tail, then either lies down or rolls over when asked to sit. The dog does not seem to like you at this point. Stop interacting and try to repair the damage by getting the dog to come to you, reinforcing its approaches by giving it treats or bellyrubs. What’s sneaky about teasing is that it can either grow beneficial or detrimental, so always check that your puppy is having a good time. Stopping to check every fifteen minutes is sufficient enough.
Control during games is worth discussing here. Here is one test to know if you have control of the dogs. At any time, you only ought to need one or two papillon training commands to get your puppy to stop playing and lie down calmly. But if this is not possible, there is too much deformative roughhousing with your puppy.
The Importance of An Adolescent Dog’s Socialization and Papillon Training
December 12, 2009 by Daniel · Leave a Comment
A butterfly dog’s adolescence years—the so called teen years—is a period of make or break behaviors that can have so much effect on adulthood. Ignoring your papillon’s need for education may result to a dog that is hyperactive, bad-mannered, poorly socialized. What follows are some papillon training notes on taking better care of dog socialization.
Socialization often turns foggy and seem to require a new level of effort during a dog’s adolescent period, sometimes with the underlying reason of the timing of the dog’s maturing. By this time, puppy classes are a thing of the past, and owners want the dog to get used to daily procedures especially when the dog reaches around six months old. The dog’s waking hours are also devoted to meeting what amount to the same set of people, dogs and pets. This may eventually lead to the dog limiting itself to an inner circle of people with which to spend time with.
If your adolescent papillon does not get out and interact with a healthy amount of unfamiliar faces on a regular basis, the dog’s socialization so far might suffer. If at five months the dog was very sociable, by eight months the dog is chock-full of defensive and low self-esteem behavior. What used to be one of the friendliest dogs in the block is now skittish around house guests, or barks, snaps and lunges with hackles. All this papillon training information show the importance of not just being content with puppy socialization, but following it up with the socialization of your adolescent dog.
The socialization of your papillon with other dogs also deserve more discussion. The situation also gets somewhat awry in the case of very small and very large dogs. The reason behind all this is that teaching a dog to get along with every other dog is more complex compared to what most think. First of all, the cousins of our dogs in the wild — wolves, coyotes, jackals — are not used to acting friendly with strangers, but that’s exactly what we expect of Canis familiaris. Second, it may never happen anymore that a dog will be perfectly sociable with every dog. We the masters of dogs also need to accept that our pets also have some people or dogs that they do not particularly like. Third, it is part of the system of dogs to squabble, and more so with the males. If there is a male dog that has never been involved in a physical confrontation, then this dog is among the exception, not the rule. Among adolescent dogs, altercations sometime seem to take on an all too real angle.
A dog midway between puppyhood and adulthood is in a socialization dilemma, as we have said, but in the following case owners are once more the responsible role players. Small dogs may get affected by the fear for their safety of their owners, so their meeting big dogs is curtailed. In the same way, owners of large dogs are similarly concerned that their working breeds may hurt significantly smaller playmates. To end, this indeed is the critical vicious cycle that papillon training need to work on promptly: how to deal with dogs that get less socialization due to (sometimes legitimate) safety concerns, in order to cut down on future behavior issues that arise from even lesser socialization?






