Training Troubleshooting

[HannahCarney]

Hello!

Our 12 week old Cavachon picked up on her training really quickly and now we feel that she is hitting a bit of a roadblock... 

She is a very mouthy dog and we are really trying to train her not to nibble on us. She seems to get so excited and will lunge towards our faces and try to nip our noses. It's all in a very playful manner but after a "yip" and firm no and us ignoring her for a moment she still doesn't seem to associate that she is not supposed to do that. Any tips to help reduce this mouthyness?

We also have been working on sit and lay down. She was amazing with sit and seemed really solid to move on to lay down. Once she had lay down we started to do a combination of the two back to back. Now, for some reason, when we give the sit command she'll go straight into lay down even with the different verbal and hand cue. We try to guide her nose up using a treat but she'll just stand, we try again, and then lays down. Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this? We can't really progress with her training until we get this down but seem to hit a major stopping point.

[Adrienne]

Hi again!

Puppies have a strong need for play and they come up to us to meet this need. Not surprising, considering that just weeks prior, when they were playing almost non-stop with their littermates. They are therefore often baffled when we tell them no, because they don't know exactly what we mean when we say that, and they just can't help it but want to play. Yipping may also excite more some pups, sometimes making them bite more just for the fun of watching a reaction from us. 

For her mouthy behavior, please take a look at this guide with games for training her bite inhibition: 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/bite-inhibition-games/

I particularly like to ask nippy and jumpy pups to target hands, this gives them an alternate behavior to engage in:

  https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/ .

If you do a random search of the forums, you'll also find lots of threads on nippy puppies with many more tips. Here are just a couple:

 

This can happen sometimes with quick pups who are eager to anticipate us. To remedy the down/sit situation, I would stop mixing and matching them for a while (at least until she has mastered them to the point of stimulus control) to prevent further confusion. 

I would therefore focus on several days doing only the sits and praising and reinforcing them. Important would be to make sure that you mark that sit  (with your clicker or verbal marker) very quickly before she has an opportunity slouch down in the down position. If you wait too long, she may believe that she got it wrong and may crouch down in hopes for your feedback. So make sure you mark/reward that sit the moment the rump touches the floor.  If she manages to still anticipate and slouch into the down, ignore and walk away, and then try again, making sure to set her up for success on the next trial by marking that sit more promptly. 

Afterward, you can do a few days practice with only the down. Important would be that she doesn't anticipate you by slouching down into the down before you ask for it. If she does, ignore it and walk away. Then seconds later try again, this time though make sure that you are quick enough to cue her into the down so that she doesn't anticipate you. When the elbows touch the floor, mark/reward.

If you are able to though, you can also try getting her to lie down without asking for the sit first. She might comply if she got enough muscle memory from her previous down practice and if she's very swift. Just do your downward hand motion while she is standing and see if she complies, If she does, give a jackpot and rinse and repeat several several times.