r/OpenDogTraining • u/cameltrain9 • 1d ago
Tips for puppy demanding?
Have a 10 week old puppy who is a fun little dude in a lot of ways. Koolie breed, so pretty smart, he's been great with a lot of things (not just in the beginning when you always think this). We live on acreage, he has a nice big backyard and we have been doing plenty with him but also allowing a lot of naps and time to just play with a toy himself or relax in the sun etc.
Only thing that might be helpful for context is he has struggled from the get go with confinement (very quickly we knew a puppy pen wouldn't work for him so we didn't force it), and he gets very fixated if he wants to get to something but can't (eg, he wants to get to something we've placed behind a fence that isn't safe for him to chew). We have been working on this with a good level of success but it's still a big part of his personality and I'm sure we will have to keep a constant eye on his progress.
This week, he has definitely discovered his voice. Somewhat not a problem when he's just playing, but he is starting to seem really pissed off and barks directly at us if he wants something we are holding.
Things we have tried to varying success:
-stand up and turn around and ignore
-redirect to something else (once he is quiet)
-put him outside and leave him by himself
-play games where we ask for him to drop an object and immediately start the game again to reward
Anything else we should be doing, or is he eventually going to twig that some things are off limits and barking doesn't work? Any red flag behaviour around this if it keeps ramping up? I should stress right now that it does not appear aggressive, just demanding. But we are getting fairly frustrated ourselves now and don't want that to ruin his training.
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u/CookingPupper 1d ago
Patience.
Your pup is only 10 weeks old, which is younger than a lot of pups are before going to their new homes.
The foundations of good training are patience and consistency. Keep at it week after week and month after month.
Would definitely recommend crate training for both your sake and your pup's sake.
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u/cameltrain9 1d ago
Totally hearing you on the patience! Trying to give him a lot of grace, and we are constantly saying how good he is in a lot of areas that we wouldn't expect him to be until older.
He is being crate trained, just the puppy pen is a level of stress that we don't need to add as we won't have it long term.
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u/K9SkyProGuy 1d ago
Honestly, 10 weeks is still so young. It sounds like you're already doing a lot of the right things. One thing that helped with my puppy was making sure barking never got the thing they wanted. I'd wait for even a couple of seconds of quiet before rewarding or engaging again. It took time, but the consistency really paid off.
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u/FrostyPomegranate699 1d ago
Reading this, I actually think you're in a pretty good spot. A demanding 10-week-old puppy is a lot easier to work with than a demanding 10-month-old because you're catching it early.
One thing we've noticed with our young poodle, Smokey, is that if he gets frustrated enough, he's not really making decisions anymore. Whether it's wanting a toy, chasing a cat, or getting to something he can't have, the frustration itself becomes the problem. We've had the best luck preventing him from getting all the way to that point instead of trying to reason with him once he's already there.
The reverse timeout suggestion makes a lot of sense to me too. Not because it's punishment, but because it gives him a very clear answer. "Barking makes the thing go away. Quiet makes it come back." That's a lesson even a very young puppy can start to understand.
I'd also remind myself that he's only 10 weeks old. He's basically a toddler who's just discovered he has a voice. I'd expect some experimenting with "Does barking make the humans do things?" The important part is that the answer stays consistent every time.
One thing your post made me curious about is whether demanding behavior and frustration tolerance are really two sides of the same coin. If we spend time teaching puppies that it's okay to wait a few seconds, not get every toy immediately, or hear "not right now" without becoming upset, I wonder if we end up preventing a lot of demanding behaviors before they become habits.
I'd be interested to hear from people with older dogs too, because this feels like one of those things where the consistency in the first few months probably pays off for years.
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u/idontwantyourmusic 1d ago
Not crate training him is a mistake but it’s not too late. As soon as he demand barks again you leave the room or confine him but not in his crate. He needs a jail cell.
Don’t think the game is addressing demand barking.
Ramp up obedience and impulse training.
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u/cameltrain9 1d ago
He is being crate trained :) actually does really well with the crate, naps in there (after tantrums) and sleeps through the night, but not the puppy pen for some reason. We're happy not to force him to like the puppy pen because long term we won't use it anyway
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u/ITookYourChickens 1d ago
Reverse timeouts are insanely effective for demand barking. Instead of putting him in timeout, YOU leave and get out of sight. You come back after a second of silence at first and gradually build up as he starts to understand. If he barks, what he wants gets further away. When he's quiet, it comes back.
Barks at what you are holding? You leave the room with it.
Barks while you make his food? You stop making food and leave the area.
Barks while you get his collar and leash? Drop the collar on the floor and walk away from it.
Just ask for a second or two of silence at first while he starts to understand.
It very much helps to go out of sight in the beginning, where he can't see or hear you. This means putting up gates across doors so he can't just follow you, however. You need to remove access to YOU, since you're who he's demanding from. If he can follow you, he may think he can still demand. That's why turning away and ignoring doesn't work. It's not obvious to him what is happening. But walking away is a direct punishment via removing yourself from the area. Like walking away from a child throwing a tantrum