CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Specific Discussion => Puppies => Topic started by: bakesy on November 25, 2018, 08:55:39 AM
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Hi all,
Cooper is 22 weeks and he’s started some habits which I would like to nip in the bud, one is that he will start following me around obsessively staring at me and barking about an hour before his food is due, I am trying to keep him on a schedule of 7am/12pm/5pm but I end up feeding him early as I can’t get anything done....
Also he steals things and is quite possessive when we try to get them off him and he growls at us??
Thanks in advance
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Rather than write a long diatribe, here are a couple of links by (probably) the best dog trainers on You Tube. Zak George and kikopup.
Make sure you have plenty of time - when Jack was a pup I could easily spend an hour or more watching their videos!
Zak George on stopping barking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFZ003dY8cU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFZ003dY8cU)
kikopup on solving resource guarding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nyt2WLdQGs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nyt2WLdQGs)
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Thanks Barry
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Rather than write a long diatribe, here are a couple of links by (probably) the best dog trainers on You Tube. Zak George and kikopup.
Make sure you have plenty of time - when Jack was a pup I could easily spend an hour or more watching their videos!
Zak George on stopping barking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFZ003dY8cU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFZ003dY8cU)
kikopup on solving resource guarding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nyt2WLdQGs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nyt2WLdQGs)
Love watching Zak George in particular, lots of different sorts of dogs and very positive training methods.
As regards feeding - I fell into the trap at the beginning, of feeding at exactly the same time every day and still now, over 3 years on, Humphrey is a pain around mealtimes, (never have worked how he knows exactly that its a quarter to six! :huh:). Its obviously a bit difficult when they‘re still little and need a regular top up but I‘d suggest aiming at gradually trying to vary the times a little bit as Cooper gets older. I‘ve become a bit harder now and send him to lie down and he only gets fed when he‘s quiet, obviously that‘s a bit of a big ask of Cooper at 22 weeks but you can maybe work towards it, try a bit of distraction maybe, or even feed him early now and again before he starts to whine. The main thing is to break the „I whine, I get fed“ cycle. I wish I‘d been a bit more consistant earlier on, old habits are hard to break!
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That’s great advice thank you, I’ll definitely try not to give it to him just because he’s demanding it! Makes sense.
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Mine can do this but were far worse when Wilf was here as he demanded feeding at 5am every morning and then Stella would join in - interestingly a spell in kennels for both of them broke that cycle (they were in kennels for something else though but it really helped)