Puppies And Children Learning Together: Milo's Story

When Milo’s owner contacted me, he was nearly in tears. He had bought Milo, a Springer Spaniel puppy, as a pet for his daughter and within days she was refusing to come into the same room and the parents were sporting torn clothing and bleeding arms. When Milo came into the room, he bounded straight onto the furniture, off again then sprang at the owner and tore his trousers before running around the room and literally bouncing off the walls!

Firstly we had to contain the problem behaviour and then redirect the puppy’s energy into activities that satisfied the puppy’s need to do something/anything. I attached the Puppy House Training Line to prevent him from jumping at me or biting me, and at the moment that the puppy glanced at me I rewarded this behaviour by saying “yes!” in a high pitched voice and tossing a smelly treat at the puppy. This stopped Milo in his tracks. He looked startled and interested and glanced at me again so I repeated “yes! and tossed food at him.

Within five minutes the puppy was following me around on a loose lead, gazing up at me, so I held up my hand for him to look at. He needed to sit to watch it properly so I said “Sit! Good Sit! Yes” and tossed the food at his head. Within another few minutes he was offering a sit anytime I stopped walking, and kept looking up at me intently. No jumping, no biting, no barking. Just calm and attentive behaviour. My client was amazed, especially when I got the daughter to practice the same thing and she was able to walk the puppy on a loose lead and ask Milo to sit.

“The problem is that we have a puppy (a working Springer Spaniel) that wants to do a job all day at full energy, but he’s not getting any information or feedback about his behaviour that helps him to learn what you WANT him to do rather than you just being angry at what you don’t want him to do”.

Milo learns the Superpuppy basics

Puppies crave information about the world. They are desperate to know what you are talking about (because dogs are non-verbal), and to know what to do to fit in with your family. By giving owners the tools and information to help them convert what is wanted and also what is a poor choice by the puppy, I help puppies adapt to their new families as quickly as possible in a positive and mutually acceptable way.