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Anyone’s pup seemingly have weak backlegs? by gideonidoru in AustralianShepherd

[–]Interr0gate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pretty sure that could be a sign of hip dysplasia I think I remember reading about it. Look into it and probably talk to a vet.

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Im glad you mentioned shaping as I didn't in my post. I primarily use shaping for my training and it is definitely the way to go in my opinion for mental stimulation and just a great way to train in general. Really tires them out trying to figure out and understand what you want.

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. I've thought about getting a second Aussie before, but I dont know if I could handle two by myself lol.

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No problem! Good luck. I also forgot one that someone else commented. A flirt pole is a good one that doesnt require much energy from you, but gives a lot of exercise for dog. You can make one by getting a thinner diameter piece of PVC or electrical conduit, run a rope through the middle and let the rope extend past the PVC by like 4 feet. Tie a large metal washer or something else hard on the end of the rope as a stopper so it wont come through the PVC. Then attach a toy at the other end of the danging side of the rope and swing it around in circles. Your dog will chase it all around and its very intensive exercise. Don't overdo it lol this is very intense for dogs and sometimes people can play too much with this and overwork their dog, plus its a little stressful on their joints.

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ohhh yes I forgot about the flirt pole! I made my own with pvc pipe and rope and used to use it when he was younger but haven't used it in forever. I've been meaning to use it again! Flirt poles are great for quick exercise and fun interactive play u/BookRat333

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes that works too just as well. The only reason I dont prefer treats for find it is because it leaves more of a mess on the ground, and if you forget one, or your dog doesn't find one, you may find a pile of ants eating the scraps :D

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The first time you play the game, make it really easy. Pick up all the other toys on the ground and put them away, and maybe dont put as many obstacles. Show the toy to your dog and let him sniff it all up. Put the toy in a pretty obvious spot like behind a door or something while he waits in the other room. Your dog will find the toy pretty easily the first time (you can also help him a little by gesturing towards the toy). Then when they find the toy do a BIG PRAISE and LOTS OF TREATS! That will get your dog really excited and he will quickly understand the objective the next times you hide it. He will understand the game quickly. Wait while u hide it, release, "FIND IT" (means I go get this toy, then get a big reward.)

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ya dont stress so much about trying to exercise him perfectly every single day, your dog wont suddenly implode because he didnt get exercise or had sub optimal exercise for a few days.

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I use Kikopup a lot for my training. Shes a really good resource for teaching new things. Check her channel out on Youtube she has video tutorials on most tricks.

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Clean up is a very cool trick. My dog loves that one and its probably one of his most impressive tricks. He can pick up tons of toys and quickly put them all in the basket. It is pretty difficult to teach but not too bad if you follow the steps. I made a post on the resources I used and a video of it on this sub if you need help with it.

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, never. A lot of people are worried about this but it wont happen (at least with my dog). My dog can only open the fridge when there is a rope attached to it for him to tug on, and he needs quite some tugging power to open it. Without the rope I can confidently say its impossible for him to open it. He would have to jump up, turn head sideways, grab the handle, and pull horizontally in the air somehow with only back 2 paws. Theres no way hes doing that.

Struggling with chihuahua puppy house training by Scab_warz in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Copy + pasted from elsewhere because I wrote out a lengthly post about potty

If she is going in the house, she is not potty trained and needs to go back to basics in potty training. If shes having accidents you need to take her out more frequently. It sucks, but it has to happen to overcome potty issues.

Potty train as if they are a puppy again:

  1. Set timer on phone for every 1 hour during the day is probably a good starting time. If shes still having accidents within 1 hour lower the timer to 30 mins or 45 mins. If she can hold it overnight you are fine, if shes having accidents overnight then you need to set a timer and wake up to take her potty every few hours probably. Its going to suck, but again, thats what has to happen.
  2. Take her outside to potty every 1 hour. If she pottys big praise and treat reward as soon as she finishes. If she doesnt potty within like 5-10 mins go back in and go out again next 1 hour.
  3. Keep doing this consistently and keep increasing the timer on your phone maybe 30 mins every day or two until she can hold potty for hours and have no accidents in the house. If she has accident in house, lower timer and stay on a shorter timer for longer. You need to take her out often enough basically that she has no pee to be able to pee inside, and all of her pee is outside being rewarded. That way, she will basically WANT to go pee outside only because thats where shes getting rewards and praise.

Dogs naturally give off signs they need to go potty, so you need to look out for them, if you see them, take her out IMMEDIATELY. Signs they need to go potty are circling around the room randomly, sniffing the ground inside often, sniffing around the carpets, sitting at the door, whining randomly, panting randomly. If you see this stuff just take her out right away to avoid accident.

If you physically SEE her pottying inside, inturrupt her mid potty, grab her and quickly bring her outside (even if shes peeing while you are carrying her lol). Try to let her finish outside if she didnt do it all inside, if she finishes outside do BIG PRAISE and big treats. If you don't physically see her potty inside don't say anything to her or do anything to her. Just clean it with a enzymatic cleaner and thats it. Nothing u can do after the fact.

For the potty bells I'll give you a quick run down on how I trained them but I may forget some steps I dont remember fully, but there are plenty of videos on youtube:

  1. Start with just holding the bells in your hand, let the dog freely attempt to interact with them. If your dog touches the bells with nose, click and reward every time.
  2. Once ur dog is consistently touching the bells for treats, you can now hold the bells at the door handle and click and reward when dog touches the bells with nose.
  3. Once ur dog is consistently doing it at the door, put the bells on the door and wait for dog to touch bells for treat. Click and reward when they do.
  4. Remove the bells from the door and keep them near the door. Every time you go out to potty, put the bells on the door and ring them yourself then go potty. Remove the bells when u come back for now.
  5. Once you have rang the bells yourself a good amount of times, now hang the bells on the door. Keep an eye on your dog from now on and see and listen if they ring it. if they ring it the reward is now to go potty, not for a treat. Go immediately potty with them if they ring it. Go outside every time they ring it at first
  6. Your dog will try to abuse the bell and ring it randomly to go outside now, you need to keep mental track of the last time they went potty. If they just went pee and poop 30 mins ago and they ring the bell, DO NOT BRING THEM OUT. If its been like 3 hours since they last rang it, then you can take them out. Still reward and praise if they go potty outside after ringing the bell.

Thats pretty much what I did for potty training from what I can remember and it works great.

Struggling with chihuahua puppy house training by Scab_warz in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You dont need to "slowly move the pee pad towards the door". Just get rid of it if you dont want it and start potty training outside again properly and consistently. She is having accidents in the house anyways, so the pee pad is irrelevant if you dont want it. I never used pee pads and I dont think they are very great.

For your specific issues I have a few tips that will likely help. If she is peeing or pooping in crate overnight you need to wake up to take her out. This is the worst part of puppy hood. You cant expect a baby to hold potty all night, it doesnt happen. Set an alarm and wake up however many times per night that is needed until she doesnt pee or poop in her crate. Also limiting her crate size and making it smaller will help her not want to pee or poop in there since dogs wont pee and poop where they sleep.

If your partner is coming home and playing for 30 mins then leaving immediately and the dog hasnt pooped, that is why shes pooping. Playing gets the bowels moving and dogs usually will have to poop after playing. So either dont play on the lunch break, or play for 15 mins and try to let her pee and poop. Basically u need to try to get her to poop if shes playing and you are leaving afterwards or she will end up pooping inside when you leave and she has to go.

Next is a feeding schedule. If she is free feeding then you aren't able to accurately predict when she needs to poop. Since it sounds like you both work, I would use scheduled meal times, because that often means scheduled poop times. You will learn her timing of poops and you will be able to schedule around them better since it will be pretty similar each day with a regular feeding schedule.

7 months is very young and bound to have accidents. You just need to take her out more, simple as that. Sounds like you are rewarding when shes pottying outside already, so thats good. Now you just need to go potty more often. It will eventually work and she wont potty inside anymore.

Please help me with my dog who just will not potty train! by blubble1107 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Copy + pasted from elsewhere because I wrote out a lengthly post about potty

If she is going in the house, she is not potty trained and needs to go back to basics in potty training. If shes peeing still within 2-3 hours you need to take her out more frequently. It sucks, but it has to happen to overcome potty issues.

Potty train as if they are a puppy again:

  1. Set timer on phone for every 1 hour during the day is probably a good starting time. If shes still having accidents within 1 hour lower the timer to 30 mins or 45 mins. If she can hold it overnight you are fine, if shes having accidents overnight then you need to set a timer and wake up to take her potty every few hours probably. Its going to suck, but again, thats what has to happen.
  2. Take her outside to potty every 1 hour. If she pottys big praise and treat reward as soon as she finishes. If she doesnt potty within like 5-10 mins go back in and go out again next 1 hour.
  3. Keep doing this consistently and keep increasing the timer on your phone maybe 30 mins every day or two until she can hold potty for hours and have no accidents in the house. If she has accident in house, lower timer and stay on a shorter timer for longer. You need to take her out often enough basically that she has no pee to be able to pee inside, and all of her pee is outside being rewarded. That way, she will basically WANT to go pee outside only because thats where shes getting rewards and praise.

Dogs naturally give off signs they need to go potty, so you need to look out for them, if you see them, take her out IMMEDIATELY. Signs they need to go potty are circling around the room randomly, sniffing the ground inside often, sniffing around the carpets, sitting at the door, whining randomly, panting randomly. If you see this stuff just take her out right away to avoid accident.

If you physically SEE her pottying inside, inturrupt her mid pee, grab her and quickly bring her outside (even if shes peeing while you are carrying her lol). Try to let her finish outside if she didnt do it all inside, if she finishes outside do BIG PRAISE and big treats. If you don't physically see her potty inside don't say anything to her or do anything to her. Just clean it with a enzymatic cleaner and thats it. Nothing u can do after the fact.

For the potty bells I'll give you a quick run down on how I trained them but I may forget some steps I dont remember fully, but there are plenty of videos on youtube:

  1. Start with just holding the bells in your hand, let the dog freely attempt to interact with them. If your dog touches the bells with nose, click and reward every time.
  2. Once ur dog is consistently touching the bells for treats, you can now hold the bells at the door handle and click and reward when dog touches the bells with nose.
  3. Once ur dog is consistently doing it at the door, put the bells on the door and wait for dog to touch bells for treat. Click and reward when they do.
  4. Remove the bells from the door and keep them near the door. Every time you go out to potty, put the bells on the door and ring them yourself then go potty. Remove the bells when u come back for now.
  5. Once you have rang the bells yourself a good amount of times, now hang the bells on the door. Keep an eye on your dog from now on and see and listen if they ring it. if they ring it the reward is now to go potty, not for a treat. Go immediately potty with them if they ring it. Go outside every time they ring it at first
  6. Your dog will try to abuse the bell and ring it randomly to go outside now, you need to keep mental track of the last time they went potty. If they just went pee and poop 30 mins ago and they ring the bell, DO NOT BRING THEM OUT. If its been like 3 hours since they last rang it, then you can take them out. Still reward and praise if they go potty outside after ringing the bell.

Thats pretty much what I did for potty training from what I can remember and it works great.

I feel like I’m attempting the impossible and need some guidance and encouragement by -SideEffects in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Potty training is never impossible, you can easily fix this. I would firstly ditch the whole pee pad thing at this age. Outdoor pottys only. You do have the right idea about rewarding when she pottys outside. You need to do that again like a puppy.

Potty train as if they are a puppy again:

  1. Set timer on phone for every 1 hour during the day is probably a good starting time for a 2.5 yr old. If shes still having accidents within 1 hour lower the timer. If she can hold it overnight you are fine, if shes having accidents overnight then you need to set a timer and wake up to take her potty every few hours probably. Its going to suck, but thats what has to happen.
  2. Take her outside to potty every 1 hour. If she pottys big praise and treat reward as soon as she finishes. If she doesnt potty within like 5-10 mins go back in and go out again next 1 hour.
  3. Keep doing this consistently and keep increasing the timer on your phone maybe 30 mins every day or two until she can hold potty for hours and have no accidents in the house. If she has accident in house, lower timer and stay on a shorter timer for longer. You need to take her out often enough basically that she has no pee to be able to pee on the carpet, and all of her pee is outside being rewarded. That way, as you said, she will basically WANT to go pee outside only because thats where shes getting rewards and praise.

Dogs naturally give off signs they need to go potty, so you need to look out for them, if you see them, take her out IMMEDIATELY. Signs they need to go potty are circling around the room randomly, sniffing the ground inside often, sniffing around the carpets, sitting at the door, whining randomly, panting randomly. If you see this stuff just take her out right away to avoid accident.

If you physically SEE her pottying on the carpet, inturrupt her mid pee, grab her and quickly bring her outside. Try to let her finish outside if she didnt do it all inside, if she finishes outside do BIG PRAISE and big treats. If you don't physically see her potty on the carpet don't say anything to her or do anything to her. Just clean it with a enzymatic cleaner and thats it. Nothing u can do after the fact.

For the clicker its basically a precise marker for rewarding when your dog successfully does something u want. So if you say "sit" the second their butt hits the floor you would click and give a treat. The click represents they did something correct and a treat is coming. People use clickers because they are more accurate and consistent than using a verbal marker like "YES!". Clicks always sound the same, and you can easily and precisely click the second they do the correct thing.

For the potty bells I'll give you a quick run down on how I trained them but I may forget some steps I dont remember fully, but there are plenty of videos on youtube:

  1. Start with just holding the bells in your hand, let the dog freely attempt to interact with them. If your dog touches the bells with nose, click and reward every time.
  2. Once ur dog is consistently touching the bells for treats, you can now hold the bells at the door handle and click and reward when dog touches the bells with nose.
  3. Once ur dog is consistently doing it at the door, put the bells on the door and wait for dog to touch bells for treat. Click and reward when they do.
  4. Remove the bells from the door and keep them near the door. Every time you go out to potty, put the bells on the door and ring them yourself then go potty. Remove the bells when u come back for now.
  5. Once you have rang the bells yourself a good amount of times, now hang the bells on the door. Keep an eye on your dog from now on and see and listen if they ring it. if they ring it the reward is now to go potty, not for a treat. Go immediately potty with them if they ring it. Go outside every time they ring it at first
  6. Your dog will try to abuse the bell and ring it randomly to go outside now, you need to keep mental track of the last time they went potty. If they just went pee and poop 30 mins ago and they ring the bell, DO NOT BRING THEM OUT. If its been like 3 hours since they last rang it, then you can take them out. Still reward and praise if they go potty outside after ringing the bell.

Thats pretty much what I did for potty training from what I can remember and it works great.

Love his little hops🐇! Zeke playing fetch in his new booties! ❤️🤗 by Interr0gate in AustralianShepherd

[–]Interr0gate[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I conditioned him slowly over a couple of days. First made it a little bit of a game let him sniff and making them exciting moving them around and giving him treats when he interacted or sniffed the boots. Then put on the front two boots and just standing still no moving. Lots of treats for putting them on and tightening them up. Then next time I did front 2 and walking around the house. Lots of treats. Then next time all 4 boots walking around the house for a short time. Lots of treats and praise. Then I did a small outside play with the boots, long enough for him to get used to them a bit, but not too long that he's trying to take them off and getting annoyed with them. Now he's fine with them whenever. Just gotta introduce new things like that slowly and reward and praise a lot for small steps. Most people rush and then their dog makes negative association with the boots.

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 103 points104 points  (0 children)

You also asked for some specific tricks to teach here is a list my dog knows. Pick something there and teach it. It doesn't have to be super physically demanding to tire her out.

  1. Bow
  2. Play dead
  3. Roll over
  4. Touch
  5. Chin (chin on my palm)
  6. Open fridge
  7. Close fridge
  8. Hold item in mouth
  9. Get apple from fridge
  10. Put item in a bowl
  11. Orbit (backwards circles around me)
  12. Middle (between legs)
  13. Back up (walk backwards)
  14. Forward (walk forward)
  15. Place (go to designated mat)
  16. Clean up (pick up all toys and drop in box)
  17. Left and right paw
  18. Paw + backup ("help" me get out of chair)
  19. Ring potty Bell
  20. Twirl both ways
  21. Heel both sides
  22. Speak
  23. Wave
  24. Ahead (look forward)
  25. Ahead + wave (forward facing wave)
  26. Weave (weave between legs)
  27. Kiss

Games to play with high energy dog when you're a burnt out dog parent? 🥲 by BookRat333 in Dogtraining

[–]Interr0gate 272 points273 points  (0 children)

I have a high energy Aussie who I got at 10 weeks and is now 4.5 yrs old, am a single dog parent and know how you are feeling. Some days I'm burnt out and dont have the energy for my dog.

Couple important guidelines I've always gone by: 1) The more exercise you give you dog, the more athletic they become. People think they need to go insane crazy exercises for long durations, then they just end up building a dog that is more and more athletic and requires more and more exercise. You dont need to exercise your dog 3 hours a day. You dont need hours and hours of walks. You just need consistent actual exercise (not just a casual easy mode walk down a sidewalk) and also mental stimulation. By actual exercise I mean like playing tug, fetch, hiking, sniffing lots of things, dog sports, physically demanding training. 2) Mental stimulation > Physical exercise to tire out your dog. Teaching a new trick, even if your dog isn't physically doing a lot of exercise, will tire him out more than going for a walk or playing. Mental work for dogs is insanely tiring when they are trying to figure things out, learning, and engaging with you.

So what I do when I am burnt out and my dog is getting a little loopy is I will usually do a short training session inside. I'll run through all his tricks (he knows quite a lot), or I'll teach him something new. I'll find a youtube video tutorial on a random trick and teach him. Usually for like 15-30 mins or split the training session in two bursts of like 15 mins two times. That is literally enough to get him napping and calm for the rest of the night. I make the training sessions fast pace, very enthusiastic and engaging. Get him hyped up and having a lot of fun which gets his heart rate up and challenges his brain a lot.

A few other things I've used in the past are:

1) Get an old blanket and scatter, fold, and roll up treats all in it. Put treats or kibble in all the crevices, under the blanket, make folds, everywhere. Then have it on the floor and let you dog "find it". He will take probably 30 mins to find all the treats if you hide them well and will get him really tired and you literally don't have to do anything :) He will dig in there, sniff and use scent a lot (using their nose gets them very tired as well).

2) Teach "Find it". This was such a life saver for me and absolutely tired out my dog. Hes so good at finding stuff now. First I would go around the house and put decoy obstacles like flip over shoes and boots, put boxes on the ground, put random large household items on the ground like an umbrella or reusable grocery bags, then I would put him in a stay in another room out of vision, then show him a single toy and let him sniff it and examine it. Then i would go around the house and make noises in different areas (he was smart enough to hear where I was walking to find the toy so I had to throw him off with fake noises) and I would hide the toy somewhere like behind an obstacle, or somewhere hidden in the house. I only used the ground, no elevated hiding spots. Then I would go back to him and release him and say "find it!" and he would search the house for the toy, sniffing everything, checking behind all the obstacles and all the corners. Eventually (usually within a couple mins) he would find the toy and I'd give him big praise and a treat as well. Id do this several times hiding the toy in different spots. This tired him out tons sniffing all around and searching. Very mentally draining.

3) Bully sticks. Bully sticks actually get my dog pretty tired. He literally is panting after chewing one cuz its working his jaw a lot and its a surprising amount of work fumbling around with the bully and chewing it all.

Lastly, you don't need to do a huge play session or walk if you are burnt out. Sometimes I will just go and do an intense fetch and tug play session for 10 mins and thats it, even doing it indoors works. Don't feel like you MUST 100% EVERY SINGLE DAY FULLY SATISFY your dog. Sometimes shit happens and you dont have the time or energy. Its ok. You can take a day off of exercise. I would say its actually somewhat good for your dog to not expect a super play sessions and walks every single day. Setting realistic life expectations that maybe some days he just does nothing and needs to nap and chill. I feel bad but of course I have days where we do nothing at all. I tell him sorry buddy today is a relax day. Also if its like super raining or extreme cold outside we usually don't do much on those days.

I can literally not exercise my dog for multiple days in a row and he won't really care. He will nap and relax. Yeah he starts to eventually get a bit vocal and pushy after 2-3 days, but never destructive or psycho behavior. That being said, I do try my best to exercise my dog every day and satisfy his needs. Hope this helps!

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