How Do You Train A Cockapoo Puppy?
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
My husband and I just adopted a 2 1/2 month old female cockapoo puppy and I think she is teething and she has been using my hand as a chew toy and when I say no she goes for my face. We have chew toys and she does use them but if she gets a chance to chew my hand instead..she goes for it. is there any thing I can do to help her through the teething.
How do I teach her to sit stay come lay down commands. is she too young for puppy training and treats? She is being crate trained and every time I put her in at night she cries and barks. Is it not a good thing to have her in there all night? I have no experience with this and as you can see we need some advise!
hanks in advance,
Lauren
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This behavior is called “mouthing”. A lot of pups do it, as do some adult dogs. It’s something I still have to work on with my 4 year old dog. I rescued him when he was a year old, so I have no clue how he was previously trained or what age he was taken from his mother and litter mates. Bite inhibition is something that is usually learned when the pup is still with it’s family, as the other pups let each other know when they bite too hard by squealing at them. That’s a good way for you to teach your pup when she bites too hard. If she starts biting your body or clothes, let out a high pitched squeal, and she will realize that she is hurting you.
No dog is too young to begin command training, and she is certainly old enough to start house training. Her breeder should have begun that. It’s all about routine and repetition. When she begins to cry when you crate her, you must not show her any attention, and she will learn that crying will not get her anywhere. Do not expect her to go all night without a bathroom break, or she will eliminate in her crate.
I only have a Lab, but I taught him to sit by holding a treat on front of his nose and when he looks up at it, I pushed on him right above his tail while repeating “sit”. The dog’s natural instinct is to sit so the dog can reach his nose up higher to reach the treat. After a while, I didn’t have to use a treat anymore and later the dog would come to me and I could say “sit” and he would just sit.
Well i have only owned a black lab but i would take it to a couple of obedience classes or buy a book on training that breed and if that does not work use the internet.
good luck
I have a cockapoo who turned one today. Big problems with biting- here is what worked.
You have to be strict every time she bites, cockapoos are extremely smart and are like teenagers, they do what they feel like. They are not necessarily “pleasers” like other breeds. The only thing that worked was putting his head the ground (not rough just holding the head down) and growling “no bite!”.
I would recommmend puppy training at 6 months, you start earlier if you would like, there are classes called puppy kindergarten 3 month olds. The training is invaluable and will work a great deal in letting you know you are the master.
To show dominance, hold you dog down (not roughly but enough so she cannot get up) and feel her paws and ears and rub her tummy. This is recommended by trainers and vets so she knows you are dominant. Do this twice a day.
Do not introduce too many toys and once, she may get overwhelmed and play with none of them, or lose interest quickly. I do one at a time for a week then introduce another.
Final word- cockapoos are amazing pets, but they need strict training or they wiil be harder to control than other breeds. Luckily they are very intelligent and learn quickly and retain the information forever if you practice daily for several days.
I’ll try to address everything you asked so I apologize if this gets long.
As far as the teething and mouthiness goes, puppies use their mouths to communicate and play with their litter mates. If your dog was playing with another dog and if she bit too hard, the other dog would yelp/cry out as if to say “too hard! that hurt!” Whenever she chews on your hand or body, you should do the same thing – make a high pitched yelp/ouch sound. You also do not want to take your hand away when you do this. She should be the one to back off. An apologetic lick is a very good sign too. If she does back off, praise her and give her something else to chew on instead. When training her to not be mouthy with you, you don’t want to do it just when she hurts you. You want to do this whenever you feel her teeth on your skin so that she learns any sort of teeth/skin contact is not appropriate, even if she isn’t biting hard.
It’s never too early for training and treats. Just make sure that the treats that you use are nice and small so that she isn’t getting TOO many. I highly recommend doing some sort of puppy training with her. We did a couple courses just at Pets Smart with our dog (puppy and intermediate). I felt like the puppy class was extremely worth it, even for just being at PetSmart. It was great socialization for our dog to expose him to other dogs (and 3 of the dogs that were in his puppy class are 3 of his best doggy friends who he still sees and plays with), and the class is as much geared towards training your dog as it is towards training you, the owner. It sounds like this is your first dog so I think it would really help. They teach you so much more than just the basic commands in that they talk to you about treats and toys that are and aren’t so good for your dog, you have someone to talk to about any issues you are having at home whether it be training or house training, they teach you how to clip their nails, etc. I’m not going to go into detail on how to teach her to sit, stay, come, lay down etc, but feel free to message me and I’d be happy to explain them further. I definitely recommend some sort of puppy class though. PetSmart is like 100 bucks for 8 weeks and it is well worth the money.
As far as crate training, our dog (who is also a cockapoo) was crate trained and the first few nights are rough. While the crate eventually becomes a safe and cherished place for your dog, it is new and scary at first and she is going to cry. What is most important is to not give her any attention for it. That was tough for us since we live in a condo and have neighbors above and below us so we couldn’t have him barking, but if you live in your own house, let her cry and bark. She will eventually realize that that is not going to get her attention or let her out. It is fine to have her sleep in there all night, although being so young you will most likely have to let her out once (or maybe even twice) in the middle of the night to go bathroom. Our dog was 4 and a half months old when we first got him and he was actually amazing at holding his bladder in the night, so it is different for every dog. Definitely plan to have to take her out in the middle of the night. Crate training will help her learn to control her bladder though and hold it, but at such a young age you don’t want to make her hold it too long.
Some other house training advice that I would give to you is to train her to ring a bell when she needs to go out. The bell technique really sped up the house training for us and our dog was house trained in less than a week after introducing the bell to him. Simply hang a bell (we bought a cow bell from a craft store) next to the door. Whenever you take her out to go bathroom, take her paw and have her hit the bell. Give her a treat and take her outside. When she goes, treat and praise some more. Soon she will associate ringing the bell with going outside to go potty. If she hits the bell on her own, take her outside. Treat and praise if she goes potty. Don’t give her a treat when she rings the bell on her own. Only when she goes bathroom. (or else she will just ring it for treats). Our dog is just over a year now and we don’t even use the bell anymore (he will just hold it inside until we take him outside), however it was a great training aid in the beginning.
Good luck with your new puppy and if you have any questions, feel free to email me.
if she chewing on thing buy her some pig ear or some chew sticks
for the training start with sit
you got to get a treat that she like
1. show her the treat then slow move it to your eye ( you get to make eye contact)
2.then say sit (don’t keep saying over & over… wait a few sec. then say itt again)( dog fast good learning.. make her work for that treat.. she will bark & do everything she can for that treat)… after a while she will sit
3. say good girl & then you can give her the treat
( do that till she gets it)
now for lay down
1. get her to sit, make eye contact
move the treat from your eye to the floor between her leg & say lay down (again she will bark & do everything she can for that treat)… after a while she will lay down.
3. say good girl & then you can give her the treat
( do that till she gets it)
next is stay( this will be hard)
1.get her to sit, make eye contact
2. with your other hand, hold it out & say stay
slow put the treat 1 feet away from her
keep saying stay
3. slow put your hand down then count to 5 slowly
if she didn’t move then say good Girl & let her go get the treat.
4.( do that till she gets it)