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Yes! You read the
title correctly. It seems we are in a era of trying to create a "whatever proof" entire world. Maybe,
one day, the "Pendulum" of all this "protect everyone from everything" will begin to swing back toward
teaching the ones we love what is proper and acceptable to do and what is not, instead of trying to remove every danger
that possibly could befall them and make unavailable to them everything that we don't wish them to have contact with instead
of teaching them right from wrong. The lack of these qualities, throughout our society, is the reason we are where we
are today.
I realize you probably have heard much verbalization and may have read reams on the subject of puppy-proofing
your home prior to one of the happiest of days when your new puppy arrives. If you are totally convinced your little
one should NOT be taught to respect your things, then it probably would be best if you stop right here and close out
this page BUT, if you would enjoy having you puppy/dog have full run of your home and never have to worry about your possessions
being chewed up or otherwise destroyed while your not watching or while you are away from home, you may want to continue reading.
OK! If you are reading this line I will have to assume you are in the latter category sooooo, we will
proceed.
A little background so you know where I'm coming from.
I'm 65 years young and
back in the days when I and my peers were slowly making our way up that long, long ladder toward adulthood,
most of the children were taught many Strong qualities such as: You never touch anything that doesn't belong to
you; when we went to the store with our mother, we were expected to walk by her side or directly behind her with our hands
in our pockets. You did not run around the store carrying-on and pulling things off the shelves; If you were at
someone's home you NEVER were to touch anything that wasn't yours. The toys belonging to their kids,
if we were playing with their kids, of course were fine, if not we were to sit quietly and wait. Now this may sound
very strict but you know what, it wasn't a big thing. Teaching values such as these are teaching RESPECT for
ourselves, others and the property of others. RESPECT, in the world we live in today, means NOTHING. It seem a
hefty percentage of our population (I just heard a report on T.V. 3/2/08) 1 out of every 100 people, in large populated
areas have been or is in jail for something. That's terrible! Think about this. I'd be will
to bet 95% of all those in prison are under the age of 50. It was during the 1950's when all this "don't
spank your kids" stuff began and that has led to today's situations. The reason surely emanate
from the HUGElack of respect for other's rights and property. You may say drugs play a large part.
Well, if kids were taught to respect their brain and body they wouldn't grow up to do drugs and drugs push them to steal
which is surely a disrespect of other's rights and property. See where I coming from? It all boils down
to RESPECT and healthy respect is what we are after in this article. Teaching respect is hard work. You must
put forth the effort to reap the rewards and those rewards are FANTASTIC. I am the main disciplinarian concerning our
little "Pack" of Westies. Joyce is always shaking her head and saying "your the one that gets on their
case but they ALL seem to love you more then me." It's because they see me as the stronger "ALPHA"
and therefore their much admired leader. I'm not trying to say "look at me" or anything even close.
I'm just trying to show you a case of very happy Westie children who feel loved, secure and happy in a situation with
a strong "ALPHA" presents.
Here, at La Terra Dios Ranch, as you probably know, none of our puppies leave
for their new homes until they are at least 10 weeks of age. One of the most important periods in a puppy's
life is the first 18 weeks. This is his/her primary learning stage and experiences that happen during this time play
a huge part in setting the personality and domineer of the adult that will evolve from this cute, little, white, (Westie)
ball of joy. During the 10 weeks that we care for and work with the puppies we expose them to every noise and action
that normally would or even could accur within a variety of households. From the instant they enter this world,
leaving the blissfulness of their mother's warm tummy, they are within our home and begin their journey through life's
ups and downs. The same is true with animals as is with humans. Those who experience, in a reasonable and
decent manor, many different situations and are allowed and urged to take on challenges and explore new possibilities most
likely will have a much broader view of the world around them and be considerably better prepared to accept and adjust
to situations that surely will encroach on their everyday world. Within this writing you will NOT find anyplace where
I will say, "put this or that out of reach" or anything like that. Here at the Ranch, we don't and
never have during 20 + years, removed, put out of reach or closed off anything nor any area to "protect"
our dogs (accept when they were/are less than 10 weeks old) from any condition, items or situations. This is not to
say we allow our two prized "stud dogs to mingle. That would be a fight for sure. No stud dog will be friendly
to another stud. That's asking a little too much.
There are certain times, when a puppy is
young, let's say under under a year old, that he/she should not have free range of your home and you should surely have
a wire type "crate" of adequate size (for a Westie that would be 21" X 30" X 24"). One of these
times is bed time. Another may be eating time. Another, and this surely should be the case, is when you are
leaving home for a while and your puppy/dog will be awaiting your return. At bed time, at least until you are sure
he will be able to wait until morning "potty stop", he should be secured within his crate that is fitted
with a nice, soft doggy bed. The chances of you puppy making a "potty mess" in his crate is next to zero.
Westies especially, do not like to dirty up the area in which they sleep. You will find that they like to be clean.
Breakfast or dinner time can be another of those times the crate can be used. If you feed him in the crate every time
and he also sleeps in it, you'll notice that when you give the command to "kennel-up" he will happily
go in and await your return when you have to leave home for awhile. Putting him/her into the grate with a toy or
two, when you leave is a very smart thing to do until the puppy is at least one year old. By that time, you
have taught all the lessons concerning what he may and may not do.
We have six adult westies and only one
is still placed in a crate when we leave and that would be one of the "stud dogs". Most of the time
when we go shopping or such we take 2-3 of our dogs with us. About 1/2-2/3 of the time we'll take one of the "stud
dogs" along so in that case the one left home will not need to be in his crate. Never, ever feel that the
crate is a bad thing for you dog. Some people seem to see it as a "prison" of sorts. If used to punish,
I can see where this could be the case but we never use it for that. Our dogs love their crates. They see it as
a "safe place". A place that feels good . Their place to sleep. Many times we will look around
and say "where is Sky or Vi or Brinka or Rio or Friday, or Poppy and where do we find him or her? In his/her crate.
He or she just go to the crate and if the door is pushed closed and not latched, they use their nose to open it,
go inside to take a nap. This happens very often. Now, think about it. If they were to see the
crate as a "prison" why would they go there on their own. Once you feel your puppy is being able to wait for
morning "potty time", you can start allowing him/her to spend a night out of the crate. Perhaps one
night out, one night in and if that goes well try two nights out and one night in. If that works well, maybe no
more sleeping in the crate but keep it because you will need it for other times (click on our page: SO YOUR THINKING
WESTIE in the navigation bar of this site).
Now, I stated in the beginning of this article,
there is no need to "puppy proof" your home. We never have put one thing up out of reach but, you have to
be willing to be firm and teach you puppy what is not acceptable. If your dog decides to start chewing on one of
your shoes, go to him, take the shoe away, scold him firmly with a masterful voice (see our page on this site: LEAD TRAINING
YOUR WESTIE), use one (1) finger to apply a sharp slap or two on the nose while keeping that masterful voice going for
a total time of about 6-8 seconds. Westies do not like to be corrected in a strong, harsh voice so this really gets
their attention and yes, it hurts their feelings BUT, it works and your little Westie will love you more when you are
his STRONG LEADED. You will find much more on being a strong "ALPHA" leader on the Lead Training Your
Westie Page on this site. Please read it. It is very important for both you and your puppy. After the scolding
, give the pup one of his toys to play with but do NOT be overly nice to him. That must wait for at least five
to ten minutes. The pup needs to understand you were very very upset at what he was doing. After those
few minutes get down on the floor and play with him. This will reassure him that you love him but, (he is thinking)
for some reason you sure didn't like me chewing on that shoe!" You will do this same procedure with
each item he chews on that he shouldn't.
PUPPY GETTING INTO THE TRASH?
We live a very simple life here on the ranch. For our household trash, we simply use a paper shopping bag. This
bag simply sits on the floor in our kitchen area. Now a shopping bag is only 14" tall, a full grown Westie's
head can easily peek over to top of it and I know there has to be many alluring aromas spilling forth over that crest.
We make it a habit not to place wet items in the bag because this would create a problem but, we do place empty food cans
and wrappers in there which to the dog's heightened sense of smell must be quite inviting but, we never have a problem
with ANY of our dogs messing with it, even when they are left alone, at home, for several hours while we go 26 miles (one
way) into Sandpoint shopping. This usually expends 4-6 hours away.
When we have a new puppy in the house
that we are keeping for our "pack", his/her training concerning the trash goes as such:
Puppy smells what is in the bag and that spells FOOD and food is everything to a puppy. He goes to the bag and starts
sniffing the air flowing over the brim and soon he's attempting to climb the paper side. We have expected this
to happen so I have been watching from about three feet away in a chair. Now, don't get all bent out on me
for what I going to say. Read this entire article before drawing any conclusions. For this lesson
it would be great if you can find one of those THIN, wooden yardsticks that some places still hand out with advertising
on them. They are about 1/8" thick X 1 1/8" wide and 36" long. If you can't
find one of these a THIN switch from a tree or scrub will also work. Now, sitting in the chair, with yardstick
in hand, I'm purposely waiting for the puppy to attempt to clime the bag. The instant he does, I
give him a swat on his butt and a sharp, strong voiced, "get out of there!" The swat is really nothing
more that a "shock" inciter. With that thin yard stick you would break it long before you could ever hurt
the pup. It's meant to give him a "wake-up call" as I term it. The instant all this happens, the
puppy will jump somewhat and quickly move away from the bag and then probably look back to try to figure out what the heck
got him on the butt and why I sounded so fierce. "What did I do" he'll be thinking. That's
fine. Three to ten more times with him trying to mess with the bag and finding that swat and hostile sound awaiting
him and he'll have it all figured out. "GET IN TRASH BAG AND I GET SWATTED AND YELLED AT. I DON'T
LIKE TO BE SWATTED AND I SURELY DON'T LIKE THAT HARSH TONE OF VOICE SO, GUESS I'D BETTER STAY OUT OF THAT BAG, NO
MATTER HOW GOOD IT SMELLS". Many times this lesson can be learned in a single day with three to four attempts but,
sometimes it may take three to four attempts (in one session day) repeated over several days to receive the desired result.
Don't give in. You must win in your effort. One thing you must ALWAYS REMEMBER is you can NEVER lose your
temper. If you lose your temper, you lose control. You lose control, the puppy has moved up the AlPHA scale and
you have moved down. If you find your patients growing thin anytime during any training, STOP ALL ATTEMPTS and go mow
the lawn or do something else. No learning can be accomplished if you are not in control of YOURSELF
and the situation.
The two situations outlined above and the way to correct them can be applied to
just about every thing your puppy can find a way to get into. Most all of this is common sense and your realizing
you must be "ALPHA" (Top dog). The bad thing about having someone else train your dog for you, at
least as far as manors are concerned, is that the puppy learns the "trainer" surely is "ALPHA" but that's
the trainer you hired not you. The puppy will live with you, not the trainer. This, even if you become that strong
leader later on, will somewhat confuse the pup (for awhile at least) as to "where did my "ALPHA GO" (the
trainer). That position belongs to you and should be you.
I hope this piece helps you with aiding you puppy
to grow into that well trained, lovable companion that he or she can be. If you have not read all the pages on our our
website, we surely urge you to do so and if there are any questions we may be able to help with please, drop us an email or
pick up the phone and call. This offer is always open to any dog lover, not just Westie parents and prospective
parents.
Thank you for visiting our website,
Rodger & Joyce Morales
La Terra Dios
Ranch
Copyright March, 2008
by Rodger Morales
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| Friday taking a nap in his favorite place |
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