Creative Dog Training

A Morning in the Life of Chaos - A Puppy’s Life

I would like to take you guys through a typical day in my life. My wife (Brandy, a teacher) and I h ave three kids: Cooper (8), Lily (6), and Charley (2). We recently decided to get a puppy. Enter Turbo – a bright, playful, and energetic twelve-week-old Havanese.

We start our morning routine around 6:00am with Turbo’s first bathroom walk of the day, followed by a quick sit & ; wait for his breakfast in the kitchen (More Info: Mealtimes, Yours and Your Dogs Podcast). Following the 3 Rules of Housetraining (More Info: Housetraining Podcast) - with me indoors, with me outdoors, or by himself in confinement (i.e.: his kennel) - he rarely is out of our line of sight. So with that in mind, he is on a 12-foot leash tethered to the kitchen table leg with enough slack to make it to his food and water bowls. Brandy and myself are busy making lunches and water bottles to send off to school with our little tornados that haven’t woken yet.

Soon, Cooper pops his head around the corner, with his typical style and flair (much like Kramer from Seinfeld). Turbo goes into his usual routine of, “I love you and haven’t seen you for years!” Cooper gives him a quick petting and sits down for his own breakfast. Meanwhile, Turbo has eaten half of his breakfast and has started to want another walk. Fortunately, Turbo has had only one accident in the house in the three weeks he’s been with us. For now, I head down the hallway to wake up Lily, as she rarely gets up on her own. Then, I head back to the kitchen for some coffee. Cooper has inhaled his breakfast and is now headed out to walk Turbo. Cooper is great at making the puppy forget all the training he has had in his short life. So, I remind him to make Turbo wait at the door instead of bolting out. Turbo and Cooper are outside for maybe 27 seconds before they are back inside.
“Did he poop and pee?” Brandy asks.
“No, just peed,” Cooper replies.
“Take him back out until he goes poop,” Brandy says.
“But mom!!” Cooper exclaims.
Brandy stops him short by saying, “No ‘buts’. Get him back out in the yard before he goes in the house.”

Lily makes her debut to the kitchen just in time to run into them before they make it out the door. It’s just enough time for Turbo to repeat his act of amazement that she still exists.

“Off! Turbo, leave it!” Lily cries as the puppy jumps on her legs and nibbles her toes. (“Off” is the command for paws, “Leave it” is the command for mouth) (More Info: Starting Training With Your New Puppy Podcast)
Cooper and Turbo head back outside.

I go off to wake up the last one, little princess Charley, and return to the madness with her. Cooper returns with Turbo, reattaches the leash to the table, and heads off to brush his teeth and get dressed. “Tuurboo!” Charley screams in her English/Yiddish dialect. She sits at her own little table, just out of Turbo’s reach, enjoying a bowl of Cheerios. We are all busy doing our morning routine when that one certain little laugh comes from Charley. We look over just in time to see Cheerios fall from her hand to the puppy.“Charley, we don’t feed the puppy our food. He has his own food in his bowl.” I remind her.

As I point over to his bowl, I notice it has been knocked over and the food is spread all over the floor. We put the food back in the bowl and shorten Turbo’s leash so he can’t reach Cheerios anymore.

Breakfast is done, so I take Turbo and Charley into the living room to get Charley dressed and brush her hair. Turbo’s leash is under my foot doing a Settle Down, which frees both my hands to deal with a squirmy 2 year old. Settle Down is particularly useful during this time for many reasons, including: teaching the puppy to respect Charley, to learn he is not always the center of attention, and it keeps him from wandering off and getting in trouble.

The kids are now finishing up their morning routine. I hand the leash off to Lily for another quick walk outside. They walk for a while and then head back in.
“Did he go?” Brandy asks.
“Yes, mommy, he pooped and peed,” Lily replied.
Knowing its almost time for everyone to load into the car, I ask Lily to go ahead and put Turbo into his crate so that he isn’t running around all willy-nilly. We get everyone packed and on their way. Turbo watches and barks his goodbyes. After they drive away, I pack Turbo’s lunch and take him in for a day of playing and learning in Intensive Daycare.

Now, what did we use training-wise in those two crazy hours this morning? House training rules were used through out the morning. Turbo was never left alone to roam the house because he would have gotten himself into trouble. We kept taking him outside to reinforce his clean instinct. Respect was sprinkled through the morning with his Settle Down, waiting to go in and out of doors, and walking on leash with the kids. What you have to remember with a puppy is that you don’t have to set time aside to train (especially if they go to daycare with training during the day) you just have to integrate good behavior into your daily routine. As long as my puppy knows a handful of commands - which would include “off”, “leave it”, “settle down”, and “wait” - we can have a very successful life.

I hope this will help everyone have successful interactions between their children and new puppies! My next installment of “Life with Turbo” will look at his day during intensive daycare.

And Check Out These Additional Resources:

Podcasts
Mealtimes, Yours and Your Dogs
Housetraining
Starting Training With Your New Puppy

Online Classes
Puppy Jump Start and Puppy Kindergarten Coming Soon!

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