Danny
Posted : 12/21/2006 11:17:28 PM
Hello there
There are a million things you can teach something like this, and it does in no way require loudness or startle (even though startle can work of course).
Let me try to outline in all brevity a simple and gentle way to teach this: find a don't-do-this-marker that you use every time the pup does something he or she is not supposed to do. Say, he jumps up the counter with his front paws, you say 'ah-ah' (or some other words or sound you want to regularly use), then gently take him down. On the other hand, you have a reward-marker. If the dog does something you approve off, you say 'gotcha!' (or 'yes' or whatnot), and he gets praise or a little treat and maybe even something he wanted off the coutner in the first place. Now you are set to practice. Watch your dog. If he is about to jump up, give your ah-ah. If he still does it, gently get him off. Sooner or later he will not jump up, or he loses his footing when he tries to get up, or he goes down by himself right away again. Thats your moment to catch: Gotcha! and treat. Once this works well, you dont always gotcha/treat, but only every now and then and just praise him on the other occasions. You can make the difference between do's and don'ts even more pronounced by providing short time-outs (at this young age 30 seconds is plenty) every time he jumps up and ignores the ah-ah. For a timeout you put him into a separate room by himself, or put him on a leash fastened to a door-knob a little away from where the action is. As I said, just 30seconds to maybe at most a minute - not longer. You do this consistently and the little bugger will soon learn to mind your ah-ahs.
A nice bonus of training things this way is that the reward/abstain markers you have established can then be also used to train all sorts of other things.
Most importantly remember: patience and consistency will carry the day! ... sooner or later ....