The Education of Ben

[BlessedWithGoats]

Good boy Ben!! He sounds like he is doing super wonderful with his training!!
I'd also like to have my dog be able to do a sit/stay/down from a distance! I'm currently working with Compadre to get him to walk with me, he's doing pretty good with that, and also to get him in the goat pen... He knows sit pretty well, I do have to practice with him in the face of distractions though.
Keep being a great boy Ben! You are a superstar! And good boy Jake, for being a great role model for him!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Glad he's doing so well!

 

[Beekissed]

Pics of Ben...the brown on his face is cinnamon. He always wears such a solemn little expression...rarely do I see this pup with a gleeful, puppy-like face or mode. Just his personality, I guess. He's a real sweety.

Jake, his deer leg and little Ben...who is quickly gaining in size.

 

[Southern by choice]

Ben sure is a cutie!
Is Ben a companion dog or a LGD?
I notice the level of obedience training you are doing with him...

We worked on "down" or "lie down"...he's none too consistent on that, but I'll keep trying. I want to be able to tell him "down" from a distance and have him lie down immediately. I'd also like to have him sit/stay from a distance as well. I have a feeling this is going to take much, much repetition....as with most training.

I have been offline for awhile. How old is Ben?

 

[Beekissed]

Ben sure is a cutie!
Is Ben a companion dog or a LGD?
I notice the level of obedience training you are doing with him...


I have been offline for awhile. How old is Ben?

Ben is both a companion dog and a LGD...he is currently 3 mo. old. Since he is working in close proximity to where we live and work, he needs to have the necessary social skills when our extensive family visit and when my 83 yr old mother takes Jake and him to the mailbox with her. She's tiny and easy knocked over or her skin torn easily by paws and claws, so the need to have him act calmly and obediently around her is imperative for our comfortable living here.

His only livestock to guard are the chickens and it's likely he won't bond too much with the flock, so we are pretty satisfied if he just does the job of guarding the territory to which he is confined...which is just above the house and centered around the garden and chicken coop and their range.

The reason I want him to be able to lie down or stay from a distance is for when small children or my mother are in his boundary, which happens pretty much daily. There's nothing more terrifying for the elderly and the little than to have a large dog thundering gleefully towards them across the yard...and it's just easier to train him than it is to train them on how to deal with it. Jake is the easiest dog to order around in the world and my mother still can't remember to stand up to him on certain things...she does just the opposite of what I show her to do each and every time. Gets the same results, too, but she still persists in that behavior.

 

[Baymule]

Ben is such a handsome boy! I will be keeping up with this thread.

 

[Beekissed]

Ben has discovered the eggs in the coop are tasty....and earned himself a coop blocker on his collar. It's just a lightweight piece of a broom handle, but it keeps him from going in the pop doors.

Works like a charm!

His training is coming along and he continues to progress in sit/stay and down/stay, walks well on either side and comes very well. Worked on "stay" in the truck and he did great, also did great when told to unload from the truck. He is showing good progress each day, doing better than the day before. This evening I provided distractions and he did very well once again.

 

[Beekissed]

Ben is doing very well with all of his training except one thing....pooping in the wrong place in the yard. I keep scooping it and placing it where it should go and covering his last poo spot with cinnamon to discourage another drop, but he just isn't getting it. I've led him over there after his meal and waited, but he doesn't go when I'm there. Later on I'll get back to the house and look out the window to see him going in the wrong place once again.

Anybody got any tips for this?

Other than that he is doing great....he's much quicker to respond to all that he knows~sit, lie down, stay sit, stay lie down, come, back and the general correction sound of "AAAAaaaaaaaattttttt!!!"

He's now lying down to get his food....he went from sitting patiently and calmly, then I put him in a lie down position before he gets his food...he'll be expected to do that each time before he gets fed until he automatically lies down to wait each time. Eventually he will be expected to lie down/stay until I tell him he can have his food, just like Jake.

I know that doesn't seem important to most folks, but both dogs tend to gobble their food and if they have to wait calmly before commencing, they tend to eat slower.

I want him to be able to display calm behavior at feeding time, before he gets so big that a dancing, jumping dog becomes a danger to anyone there....Aliza likes to go with me to feed the dogs, so waiting calmly and still is important for them, for us.

Today he swallowed a small squirrel in under 5 min.....a whole squirrel. Yesterday he swallowed a squirrel skin and head in under 15 seconds...didn't even chew much at all. He also snatched chicken bones and guts right from under Jake's nose today and Jake let him....this tells me that Jake is more than willing to let this pup take over later on. That's okay with me, as I need this pup to be the dominant dog. Jake is much too friendly to stray dogs and I really need this pup to take a more territorial stance to these dogs. This may keep me from having to kill stray dogs in the future...namely, my neighbor's dogs, which he lets run loose..one is a known chicken killer.

My egg count is up...no more pups slipping into the coop to steal an egg or two.

 

[Baymule]

My GP, Paris was a chicken killer and was given to us. Her previous owners actually GAVE her eggs for a treat! Who does that??? So, while I was able to turn her around on the chicken killing and she became a chicken guard, she would still slip in for an egg. She knew she wasn't supposed to, she looked around, then went in the coop for an egg. I love your broomstick idea! I watched her squeeze through a 9"x12" hole from the run into the coop. Right now she is in the back yard, we are working on fencing, then will start on 3 sided sheds for our someday sheep.

 

[Beekissed]

I actually do that.... Not for this little fella, but all my dogs have always gotten the too poopy or cracked eggs from the coop. My theory is they will eat eggs anyway if they can get them, so giving them doesn't cause them to do so....as evidenced by this little pup, that had never been handed an egg before.

That's just a natural thing, much like chickens eating any cracked or crushed eggs in the nest. Feeding the chickens eggs doesn't turn them into egg eaters no more than feeding eggs to dogs turn them into egg thieves....both creatures already eat these things on instinct.

Any dog worth his salt will steal and eat an egg when given the opportunity. When Ben gets too big to get through the pop door I'll no longer have to worry about it. Any egg they find out in the bush is fair game and they are welcome to them.