Scooby Being A Naughty Boy With Kids!

[Cob-Web]

I suppose you just have to try your best to assess your pups character before you bring them home for the first time, so you start a suitable behaviour programme from the very begining.

I never thought of it like this - even though we've only had one pup, I didn't consider his character when we decided on our "behaviour programme" (that makes it sound so organised   ) , although obviously his personality (and that of his ancestors) was a big deciding factor when we chose him  

We applied NILIF techniques from day one - as it was the way in which we has successfully modified the behaviour of our rescue dog, but more importantly, it made sense  to us, and was something that we found easy to apply  

Could there have been some puppies in the litter with a "character" which didn't suit NILIF, and would have responded better to a different approach? If so, I honestly don't think that I am experienced enough to assess their character at 8 or 10 weeks old - would a breeder be able to do this and advise on which behaviour programme would best suit which pup?

I have noticed in several threads that people have said the trainers at the puppy classes that they went to used the words dominant/confidence/nervous to describe different puppies - the trainers at our classes didn't do this - and I didn't see a lot of difference in the behaviour of any of the puppies of about the same age as Molo  

[Workingspaniel]

The reasons we considered Bella to be a headstrong puppy on the many times we visited her when she was still with her mum and siblings was because she would beat up most of her brothers and sisters and win! She also liked to bully her mother about being fed milk and was always getting told off by her mum (but this never seemsed to faze her! She'd always go back and try to tackle mum into a lying down position in order to get more milk! even though she should really have been weaned by then    )

We saw this boistrus behaviour and decided to try and channel all this energy and confidence Bella naturally had into positive training. But we decided the first thing to do was make sure Bella knew her place, as we definitely didn't want to be hounded by her, like her mother was, for food! So this is where Fennels stuff came in, we didn't use it to extremes, we tailored it to fit in with our daily routines and had principals such as if myself and Bella were to walk through the same door, I would always make sure I walked through the door first; therefore Bella would be forced to follow me and not lead me. Simple things like this seemed to hit home to Bella about who was in charge  
Of course things don't always go to plan! and training principals don't always work how you want them too etc...
But we, as a whole were very strict with Bella (gave her lots of love and cuddles and hugs etc... but it was always on our terms and not hers) Our mixture of things seem to have worked a treat with Bella. Of course our training methods won't necessarily work with a different dog, it's all about recognising the natural traits of your own young dog and trying to channel these qualities into acceptable behaviour, using whatever method your dog responds to and understands.

I believe that the most important things when trying to get a dog to understand what is required of them are to be patient, firm and consitent. However I am no experienced dog trainer, Bella is my first dog ever! but these are the three underlying themes which I have picked up on from all of the training books which I have read.

I'm afraid that I'd never come across Nilif before now, but I'll have a read about it and see if I can learn anymore from it. Thankyou for recommending it  

Best wishes Mary