Practice Crate Manners and Teaching puppies patience using “In a Minute” cue. (Elective)This week we are continuing to offer at least one pacifier-fueled duration session per day. By this week the puppies are usually able to chew long enough that I can deep clean the weaning pen while they are having chews (10 to 30 minutes), but there is no “set” duration. Obviously, if we do a learning or enrichment session prior to a duration session, our tired puppies are more likely to fall asleep after chewing, thus extending the session.Be sure you are remembering to use your Context Cues.1.Dim the room.2.Play soothing music.3.Use soothing scents.Continue to watch for any puppy who asks out. Release any puppy who is manding, and if they are standing at the gate or jumping on it, wait a moment before opening it and see if the puppy will mand or even just put “4 on the floor”, But again, don’t get into fights with your puppy, you’re not doing anyone any favors by forcing a freaked puppy to stay locked up until it gives up.We can also choose to either release the puppy who asks out or offer the choice to remain inside with a different chew that we’ve offered.Continue to respond to every request as promptly as possible; remember, we are building trust in our puppies that they are not forgotten.We do, however, need to introduce the idea of “just a minute”. The Just A Minute protocol teaches the puppy that sometimes we might be a little slow to let them out. This is an important baby step in teaching puppies the concept that they won’t always be released the moment they want out. To build confidence in waiting we need to start easy, and that’s what In A Minute is for. First, we are going to use a verbal signal to the puppy that we do hear them and have not forgotten them. Second, we are going to gradually extend the time between that signal and their actual release. Consistency is the key to this concept. Teach “In A Minute”We will do this while our puppies are crated and presented with a pacifier of some type.I tend to work on this while I’m cleaning my weaning pen, a chore I try to coordinate with my daily duration session to make an efficient use of my time.To teach “In A Minute”, you will need a few extra chewy treats for this, something that will take your puppy just a moment to eat. I use the medium soft moist “training treats” they sell at pet stores, softened kibble, a small biscuit, even Moist And Meaty, another great option is spray cheese or peanut butter because it takes a few moments for the puppy to eat. 1.While your puppies are chewing, fill your pockets or a bait bag with a few treats.2.When you notice a puppy asking out, go to the puppy.3.Tell the puppy “In A Minute” in a calm tone and drop a few treats into the crate or spray some cheese into it’s mouth.4.Walk away and attend to something for just a few seconds, not too long!5.Walk back to the puppy, praise the puppy, and either release the puppy or offer it a choice of a different chew.6.Manding: If you notice that the puppy waits patiently or mands for the few seconds you are away, be sure feed a treat upon your return.7.Jumping Around: If the puppy is jumping around when you return, for this first week of work you will feed it a treat anyway. There is time to fine tune door manners when the puppies are more mature. In the meantime try dropping more treats to encourage non jumping behavior at the gate.Over the course of the week, gradually extend how long your puppies can wait using your In A Minute cue. If you have trained a stay behavior you will recognize this protocol because it’s basically how we train dogs to stay in place too. Time Saver: You can work on this with an entire litter to! If your puppies are hanging around at their doors, use your “in a minute” cue and then walk from crate to crate dropping treats. Back away, or walk away, and say your cue again “In a minute” pause, and then walk back and treat each puppy in turn, starting with the Manders and ending with the more impulsive puppies.Using a Random Number Generator.Once your puppies are waiting calmly (some complaining is ok, but of course not actual panic) for release after being told “in a minute” you can use a Random Number Generator to ensure you don’t accidentally fall into the “just a minute longer” habit of rapidly extending duration. This can backfire in both obedience training AND crate conditioning!Here is how I do that.1.Once the puppies will wait relatively patiently for 30 seconds2.Set your RNG for 10 to 50 Seconds.3.Enter that number in your phone timer as seconds.4.THAT is the duration of your “In a Minute” work for that duration session.5.Do this every time you have a duration chew session with your puppies.6.If your puppies can wait patiently for 2 minutes, just enter your range as 60 to 120 seconds. And so on. For puppies under the age of 12 weeks we are really hoping for patience for a couple of minutes at the most. If we get more that’s a bonus but not an expectation.

Yes, this is a little stressful for some puppies

We are introducing just a tiny bit of stress, just a wee bit, think of this as an inoculation. Like a vaccine, that builds robust immunity to a disease by introducing a weakened form of the diseases. We are going to introduce this tiny bit of unpleasantness, to build resistance to greater unpleasantness later. Because there will be times when the dog wants out of the crate, but it just cannot be released immediately. We can’t change that fact, but what we can do is teach our dogs that contrary to what their instincts tell them, they are not trapped and forgotten inside the crate. To teach them that we need to first teach them they are not trapped, then teach them they can control getting out when they are trapped, and finally teach them that sometimes they will need to wait to be released. By taking the time to teach each component part, we build resistance to the stress of confinement later on.

Puppy Crate Manners: In A Minute (elective)