The Training Contrast: Training Puppies Versus Adult Dogs

00:00 — Kati introduces puppy training as a broad topic with different opportunities and challenges.

Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered Trigger Warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Off Leash and Unfiltered. I'm Kati Peppe, owner of Diamond Canine Dog training in Biddeford, Maine, and today we're talking about puppies. Um, so I've talked about puppies, I think a lot lately, but we just picked up a new puppy. So we have our own new puppy, and so I have puppy on the brain right now, and there's just, so, it's honestly probably one of the most in depth. It's, it's the most man. It's just such a vast topic, you know what I mean? Like, there's so much to talk about.

There's so much to cover, there's so much you can do. There's so much opportunity, um, that it's honestly hard not to just make the whole damn podcast about <laugh>, about puppies. Um, but the flip side to that is they're not puppies for that long. By the time they're six months old, we're treating them like an adult dog.

It doesn't mean they're done growing, doesn't mean they're completely done developing. It doesn't mean, you know, any of that stuff. It just means they're now like, fully formed. They're, they're capable of, you know, um, changing their behavior and all that stuff. So, uh, six months really is, is where we draw the line between puppies and not puppies, um, from a training perspective. Anyway, so my eco programs are for dogs that are about six months and older, and then puppy programs are for dogs that are under six months, uh, usually under five months even. So I wanna talk about those young puppies, um, a little bit.

I wanna talk about the difference between training a puppy and training an adult dog. 'cause I, I do so much talking, I do so many videos and so much abduction on, you know, eco training and how to use a prong caller and how to inhibit behaviors.

Um, and this is valuable information, and that's the information most people need. But, um, sometimes I find that then when people have been like watching this stuff and listening to this stuff, they pick up a new puppy and they think it's the same and it's not. It's not the same. So I wanna talk a little bit about what the differences are. Um, and this was actually not just inspired by the fact that we have a new puppy right now of our own, but at my go home session yesterday, um, it was for a puppy who is about 12 weeks old, maybe slightly older, um, but you know, about three to three and a half months old.

03:00 — Owners of a twelve-week-old puppy ask how to teach leash walking.

And his owners, and rightfully so, right, because they don't know they're asking, but they were asking about like leash walking, right? Because I showed them like the leash walking exercises that I do with the puppies, and they are exercises.

We don't just go out and walk in this long, straight, boring frigging line where they're gonna get all tuned out and just pay attention to the environment and pull me in every direction and lag behind and pull ahead. That's not what we do with puppies not here. Um, so naturally the question is, well, when will my puppy walk next to me? Right? When will he be good on a leash? When will he know how to walk nicely? Um, and this is such a huge, huge problem for so many people, or such a huge focus for so many people.

And I hear it a lot, a lot, a lot, um, from everybody. I mean, even adult dog owners, but even puppy owners, new puppies, young puppies, um, that their dog pulls on the leash and they're trying to teach them to walk nicely. And I have to tell you, people spend so much time, so much time, so many hours using every stupid piece of information they can find on the internet.

Again, not blaming the people, right? This is the information that's out there. This is what the authorities quote unquote authorities, right? Um, this is what the quote unquote experts are telling you to do, and people do it naturally. So they're out there and they're spending hours doing stuff that is completely frigging pointless. <laugh> just, it's almost like they told you. It's almost like they're saying, like, I just wanted to see if you'd do it right. And they're at home laughing at you. Um, because you know, every time your puppy tugs on the leash, you stop or you make 'em sit or you turn around.

Um, I gotta tell you, it ain't gonna work, <laugh>. It's just not gonna work. So if you have a dog that's, you know, 4, 5, 6 months old, we put a prong collar on them, we teach you how to use it. Um, you can get a beautiful walk very, very quickly.

Um, it's not nearly as harsh or versive as people think it is. Yes, there are usually corrections involved. Um, but you basically, you just tell your dog, no, you can't pull me, and they stop pulling you and it's great. Now, puppies, it's not what we do. First of all, I'm not super concerned about the walk with puppies. We can do it later, like I just described. Like they let 'em get a little bit older, let 'em get a little more mature, let 'em learn all the other stuff we have to teach them. And then you can say, Hey, don't pull me, or there's a correction, right?

06:00 — Kati recommends brief leash drills instead of spending hours repeating corrections in the driveway.

Super simple, guys. Um, and you don't need to spend, you know, five hours a day out there, critter around in your, your driveway back and forth. Every time the puppy pulls you, it's, that's just stupid. Just don't even, don't even waste your time.

It's such a waste of time. Um, so we do, do walking exercises with them though, and those are very short, right? So we just kind of walk back and forth and we start teaching the puppy that if they notice we turn and they turn with us, there's a click for that immediately. And then that click is usually followed by food, right? So they go, oh, 'cause puppies here are always working for all their food. So they, they become a lot more tuned in. They tend to gravitate toward watching you and keeping an eye on you anyway, uh, and being attentive to you, which is what we all want.

So just having your puppy work for their food is gonna help pattern that, which is great. Um, but then you can take that to the, the leash walk, um, and start teaching them, Hey, if I turn and you turn with me, you're gonna get food.

If I stop and you stop with me, you are gonna get food, right? And that is so, so valuable. If when we're moving, you stay next to me for a few steps, there's food, right? So the timing of your click is important with that. Um, after every two or three clicks, make sure you're feeding. Um, puppy should know what the clicker is, hopefully by the time you're doing that exercise. But, um, anyways, this isn't, uh, an episode on going in depth on that, on that exercise specifically. But I wanted to tell you, like, I wanted to draw a picture for you of what the contrast looks like when we're dealing with a puppy versus an adult dog, right?

So I have a three month old puppy and I'm walking back and forth and I'm teaching them to watch me and turn with me and, and, you know, walk next to me.

Um, stop and sit with me when I stop and I'm feeding, feeding, feeding, feeding, right? And if they don't notice, well, it might be a little leash tug, and that's fine. Just get their attention back and keep going. Um, but that's it. We're, we're patterning what we want, we're developing pathways in the brain. We're cementing and solidifying, can't really say cementing, but we're strengthening those pathways in the brain, right? So it'll become easier and more natural. And the younger they are, when you do that, the better. It's gonna help immensely, right? But here's the thing, their question was, so when will he walk nicely?

They're like, oh, so like a year from now, he'll walk nicely. And I'm like, no. Right? And you're probably expecting me to say much sooner than that. But the truth is, he will never, most likely, he will never walk nicely if this is all you do, never.

09:00 — Food-based patterning will not produce a dog that walks perfectly on leash all the…

So I don't like to gaslight people. And that's what I said, your pup, this will never, ever, ever get you a dog that just walks nicely on a leash all the time. It won't. So I'm not one of those people that's gonna tell you to just go home and work on it and be consistent and just keep working on it. And eventually, no it won't. That's not how it works, right? But we do this with the puppy. This is our foundation, and that's all you're doing with a puppy, guys. You're not looking for perfection. They're babies.

Think about building up all the things you want. Think about not just teaching them commands, but teaching them behavior and teaching them a way of going through their day and through world where you're at the center where they watch you and they follow you and they're interested in what you have to say and what you want them to do. And man, you can harness that by using their food for training. And you can start to really develop a certain type of relationship with the dog. And that that's what you're doing with a puppy, right? If we wanna walk with a dog that's, again, five, six months old, I make sure I have a tool where I can correct the pulling and I just correct the pulling.

So if you do this work with your puppy, it has a ton of value, but you're still going to have to do the adult dog portion of the training, which is you are going to have to tell them at some point, don't pull me. There's a consequence for pulling me. So it's an important distinction to make. And I think sometimes I'm starting to notice that people have a hard time wrapping their head around that stark contrast. Um, or they think that the puppy training that we're doing is going to be enough. And it's not the, let me be very clear.

The training you are doing with your puppy is not going to give you a perfect dog. Like that alone will not give you everything you want. It will not make things reliable. It just won't. It's puppy training. It's a foundation. That's it. It is not complete training.

You're building what you want, you're nurturing what you want. You're focused on the relationship you're building, the attentiveness you're building, you're showing your puppy how to interact with you, how to live with you, what you want, what you want, what you want. And as they get older, you're gonna start to filter in a lot more of what you don't want, want what you don't want, what you don't. Right? Pick your battles with a puppy. So I'm not correcting an eight week old puppy for almost anything. Okay? We brought our new puppy home. He is nine weeks.

12:00 — Kati describes her nine-week-old pug jumping, whining, pulling, ignoring recalls, and bothering the adult…

He's a pug, he's dopey jerky, little pug.

Um, he jumps, he winds, pulls on the leash. He'd ignore me if I called him. He's all over the big dog, okay? And what I'm using for this, he potties in the house management, I'm using mostly management. So have I corrected some things? Yeah, I have a little bit, and I'm gonna talk about that. Um, but if you just take your puppy home and you turn 'em loose and you let 'em do what they want, they're gonna do all kinds of stuff you don't like. And so then you only have two options. You either allow them to pattern and practice and rehearse the stuff you don't like, so it becomes normal, or you have to walk around punishing them constantly.

Now, how's that gonna make your relationship? Right? And I'm not saying punishment ruins your relationship. It absolutely does not. But you bring, you get to use your brain a little bit, folks.

So it's like everybody wants like this black and white laid out for you list of yes, no, good, bad. And it just isn't how it works. You gotta use a little bit of logic, <laugh> and critical thinking here, okay? So it's like, yeah, punishment is absolutely necessary, and honestly, it might be the most important piece of your relationship with your dog. You, if you don't know how to do that, you are screwed if you have a dog that does anything terrible, okay? So punishment is, is fantastic. It's fine, it's great. You need it. However, you bring home an 8, 9, 10 week old puppy and you just jump in to, you know, leash popping 'em, bonking 'em on the head, whatever your, your corrections are.

Um, and you're doing that all the time. That's not how I wanna start out with my, my dog. I don't want that to be our beginning. He's so young, he doesn't know anything yet, nothing at all. He's just met me, has no relationship with me, has no idea where he is or what's going on. Everything's unfamiliar, everything's novel, everything's exciting, and all he knows is there are these new people around and they just chase me around and bonk me, right? That's not what we're doing. We're not doing that with a young little puppy.

However, you can pick your battles, right? And you filter that in along the way, but you gotta use management guys. Like if your puppy's chewing your furniture, chewing your shoes, all over your big dog, like that's your fault, you know, peeing in the living room floor, your fault. Like you need to use your management while you're doing all of this positive reinforcement training that we're talking about and patterning all this stuff we're talking about, leash guidance, all the stuff we're talking about. So our puppy, back to what I've started correcting with our puppy, um, he's pretty good about settling in his kennel.

15:00 — Kati begins correcting persistent kennel whining only after positive reinforcement and settling skills are…

And occasionally I will use a playpen because he's so tiny and so young, and our weather is so cold right now. There are times where I really can't go outside with him or stay outside with him to try to get him to potty.

Um, and I hate potty pads. I don't recommend them. I tell everyone not to use them. And here I am using them. Um, but not all the time. Um, just in certain situations, um, especially since I suspected he might have been sick, uh, for a little while after we got him, but he seems to be doing fine. But anyway, he settles in his kennel and in his playpen pretty well, but once in a while he has started to kind of like be persistent about it, right? He'll be sitting there kind of whining. Um, and so I have started saying no and going over, and I'll give him a, a firm poke right in the side, like right in the rips.

Um, and you know what? It works. And he's quiet after, and he usually lays down and goes to sleep.

Um, that is probably my number one biggest thing at this age. He has to learn coping skills. He has to learn to shut off and settle. It is not negotiable. It cannot be any other way. This has to happen. And if we can get a puppy this young and pattern that from the beginning, fantastic. And yeah, you can do things to make it easier in the beginning if you need to, but be careful about keeping that going or even making it worse, right? So he's got some toys in his kennel and some stuff to chew on.

And of course, puppy's teeth and everything too. So you have to keep that in mind. And with an adult dog, I don't usually put anything in their kennel. Sometimes I'll give him a single bone. Um, but I, I like them to be still and quiet and calm and have to shut off.

But, you know, with a nine week old puppy, no, he's got stuff in his kennel and uh, you know, if you put something in there to kind of keep them busy a little bit, like that's okay. But if they finish that thing up, they get tired of it or whatever, and then they, they go to whining. You can't just go put another thing in their kennel to keep 'em busy, right? So you can't, if every time your dog pipes up that they're bored or they wanna get out, they don't wanna be confined anymore, and you just go over and put something into remedy that do something to remedy that for them.

18:00 — Puppies need coping skills for kennel time rather than adults constantly fixing every moment…

They don't develop their own coping skills.

So you wanna really focus on making that a thing right Now, again, an adult dog, like they usually have an e-collar on, you put 'em in the kennel, they whine, there's a correction. If it doesn't work, we turn it up, there's another correction. And to some people they go, oh my god, it's awful. Dog's gonna hate the crate. So mean. But it doesn't, it just doesn't work that way. It doesn't because once they settle, they get to see that everything's fine in the crate, they lay there, they're calm, things are great, it's actually pretty relaxing.

And then that starts to become their normal. They just go in and relax. That's what we want,

Right? With a puppy, it's like, no, I'm not popping an e-collar on him. He is nine weeks old, but, and all puppies are different. So some people's, some puppies are a lot more confident and forward and, and resilient and, and they need a firmer tone. They need a firmer energy. Some puppies are very soft and sensitive. They're easily scared. So you're gonna adjust to whatever your puppy is like, but whatever you do, it needs to be effective to get them to settle. So I'll just listen to it for a few minutes, right? But if they don't settle down, I'm gonna go over and I'm gonna try something to see if I can get them to, to knock it off and settle down.

Because like I said, those coping skills are so important as a puppy. The second thing I go after, um, with young puppies, maybe not immediately if they're eight, nine weeks old, or maybe it depends again on the dog, like how soft are they?

How confident and pushy are they? You know what I mean? So you gotta look at the big picture. Um, but like with my puppy that we just got, um, he tends to be very, very bity mouthy, <laugh>. Ps don't have very big mouths, but he actually has pretty strong jaws and pretty sharp puppy teeth. Um, and he likes the bite at your clothes and at your hands. And I've let a lot of that slide, but I've been starting now, um, when he bites my hands to press down on his tongue. So he just starts to learn.

It's uncomfortable to bite me, okay?

Um, as far as pestering my big dog, I just go get 'em and I put 'em away. I separate them. Uh, eventually I will have to punish that behavior if it doesn't stop. But right now, there's no rush for me to do that, right? Management has to be part of your recipe. He jumps on me. I don't care. I let him jump on me. I might shoo him off. Um, I don't nurture it though, right? So with puppies, it's like we're more geared toward rewarding what we want and just being careful about not rewarding what we don't want.

And then I'm very, very selective about the things that I punish, uh, and how I do it, right? So I'm not trying to scare the absolute daylights outta the puppy. Um, but, you know, we pick our battles and the battles we pick, we have to win. I think that's really important. Um, because if you don't, then you're setting yourself up for a long relationship of I just can't change my dog's behavior. Like that's our pattern. Dog does things I don't like, and I can't change it, and I do something and it doesn't work, and I just accept defeat.

You don't wanna start that pattern.

Um, so, you know, pick one thing, you know, if your puppy's doing something that's not tolerable or that's gonna really affect him negatively the rest of his life, go after that. And that's usually coping skills, like being calm in the kennel. It's huge. You know, a puppy starts whining in the kennel. People go over and, and they talk to it, right? Even if they don't mean to, it's like even if they're smart enough not to take the dog outta the kennel, they're still making eye contact. They're still walking over there saying, oh, what's your problem?

Oh, poor baby, I'll take you out in a little bit. Or whatever. You know, that sort of thing. And that's just super, super, super rewarding and nurturing. Uh, I have to assume, right? So no attention unless it's some kind of a consequence to try to inhibit that fussing.

So super careful not to reward the things you don't like and use your management with a puppy, with an adult dog. Yes. We're, we're mostly just correcting things, right? It's like they're older now. Um, they're more mature, they're more developed neurologically, they're developed. Um, they can make the associations, they've already got a relationship with you. They already know that you're good to them. They already know that you love them. They already know that you give them food and treats. They already know that you're not a threat to them and their wellbeing, they already know that.

So now you know, you have an adult dog that pulls you tell 'em not to pull, pull you, you have an adult dog that jumps on you tell them not to jump on, you provide a consequence. So that's the difference, right? With puppies, it's not just about shaping behavior, it's about building a relationship and a mindset of how we go through the world, right?

You also, you also have a responsibility on top of stopping behaviors. You have a big responsibility of teaching them about the world in general and building confidence and trust and a relationship with you, right? So we want punishment for sure, like actually, honestly, the earlier you can teach them what no means, the better. But you don't wanna be doing that all the time. You don't want that to characterize your relationship, characterize your day, right? And that's how we want the big picture really to look long term is like things are good, they're good most of the time, right?

24:00 — Corrections should teach puppies what no means without defining the entire relationship.

But then once in a while, there's a moment where I have to tell you, Hey, you can't do that. I have to draw a real boundary. I have to provide a consequence. And that's really what a healthy relationship should look like with your dog. Um, but yeah, I mean, puppy or puppies are hell on wheels. Like you'd be chasing them around, correcting them constantly. Like, we're not gonna do that. So there's a big difference. Big, big difference. And I wanna stress too, that even with the adult dogs, the older dogs, it's like, yeah, we, we correct these behaviors, but I think people think that you're doing it then all the time.

And that really shouldn't happen either. Not because it's bad, but because you're just not doing it right? If that happens. So in the vast majority of scenarios, if you properly punish a dog, a behavior, that behavior goes away. You shouldn't have to tell them every day or every two hours during the day, right? If you have to provide that correction over and over and over and over and over again, you're not doing it correctly.

So, and I know I've said that before, but just completely different gears with young puppy versus adult dog. Completely different gears, totally different focus. My focus with a puppy is not knocking out bad behaviors. That is not the focus. We will start that, but it's the tip of the iceberg, right? There's time for that later, right now with a puppy, lay your foundation, teach them about food, lores, teach them about the clicker, teach them about leash, pressure pattern, what you want. Teach them their command. Do those walking exercises we talk about, right? And if you've got a puppy that's like a wicked biter, then go ahead punish it, right?

But when that same puppy is chewing your furniture, peeing on the floor, pestering the other dogs, that's your fault. Put 'em away.

And then, like I said, at some point down the line, you let puppy mature a little. You let things develop a little. Yeah, you will have to punish other behaviors like the ones we just mentioned. You just, you don't have to do it right now, <laugh>. And if you're, you're working with an adult dog, then, then you do, you do have to do it right now because the time has come, right? They're an adult dog, they're doing these behaviors. Um, they've already developed their view of the world, their view of you, and you're either gonna correct the behavior or you're not.

Uh, so just two different, two totally different approaches. Um, really, even though, I mean, we use lots of reinforcement and patterning with adult dogs as well. Um, but mostly for obedience, right? It's like for manners, for, um, bad behaviors, unwanted behaviors. No, I'm not gonna waste my time reinforcing what I want because the dog needs to be told what I don't want, you know, a mature dog and what you don't want. So just two different mindsets, guys. Two different, um, two different things happening there. Really. That's it for today, guys. Um, I could go on and on about this topic and uh, maybe I will <laugh> not the next one.

We'll talk about something else next time. But, um, there's more puppy ones coming, so hopefully some of you people out there have puppy. All right guys, thanks for joining me today and I look forward to next time.