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Training a Saluki x Greyhound pup


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I've had my pup for 3 weeks now and I'm after some opinions from the experienced dog men on here about training. At the moment it feels like if I ask five different people I get five completely different answers and then I'm tearing my hair out working out what to actually do!

He's a 12 week old Lurcher (Saluki x Greyhound and Whippet x Greyhound) and he's the first dog I've actually owned myself although we always had dogs at home when I was growing up. I keep reading things (Jackie Drakeford's 'The House Lurcher' and 'Understanding the Working Lurcher') about how hard it is to train Saluki crosses and about how sensitive they can be to any kind of rough treatment so I'm trying to only use positive reinforcement (rewarding when he stops doing a bad thing and starts doing something good instead) but I'm having doubts about whether I am actually correcting the bad behaviour at all? It feels a bit like he just does what he wants (chews the sofa arms for example) then when he stops and is doing something else I reward him but he then carries on doing the wrong thing again a couple of minutes later! Should I be scruffing him when he does something wrong? Or pinning him down until he calms down? (alpha rolling) or something else? 

Positives with him so far: 

  • Sleeps through the night and has done since day 2 with us. His bed is on the floor in our bedroom and as soon as we turn the lights off he settles down and sleeps for 7.5 or 8 hours. Sometimes he'll get up at 06:30, bet let outside to relieve himself and then settle down again for another hour before we get up.
  • Is 90% house trained and has only ever shat in the house once on the first day we brought him home. He occasionally does a wee on the floor by accident still but very rarely now. He goes to the back door and whines a little bit when he needs out usually. 
  • Food motivated so I have been able to teach him sit, lie down and stay (we're still working on that one) fairly easily. 
  • Me and the Mrs love him and love having him around. I think he's bonded with us both strongly already, especially me. When I took him to meet other puppies he was very shy and just kept hiding behind me/getting close to me for reassurance. 
     

Negatives:

  • Very patchy recall when he's out in the garden and finds a stick to play with he'd rather prance about with that than come back to me. When he does eventually come to me I never bollock him, I give him loads of praise for coming back and a treat as I don't want him to associate coming back to me with negativity. 
  • Barks at me and the Mrs sometimes when he wants attention. It's just a single bark and we respond by leaving the room he's in and ignoring him for 30 seconds to a minute, on the advice of a dog behaviourist from the puppy socialisation class we went to. He barks at my Mrs when she is eating even though we have never given him food from out plates (and we never will). 
  • Digs at the sofa (he is allowed on it) and starts biting cushions and doesn't seem to listen to a firm 'No' once he's got his mind set on doing it. Sometimes he'll bark back at me when I tell him no which concerns me... Does he think I'm not the one in charge? 
  • Whines like mad when I put him in the puppy pen in the living room. I've been trying to make that a positive place for him by leaving treats in there for him to find and hand feeding all of his meals in there with him but when we're sat on the sofa and he's in there he whines and whines because he wants to be with us. I've not been letting him out when he whines though, just waiting for a few seconds of silence before I open the door. 

I'm taking him to some proper training classes from next Sunday onwards with some bloke who is an ex-police dog handler/trainer so I'm hoping that will help. I know the puppy stage is hard and there's a certain amount of just riding it out involved but I want to make sure I'm doing as much right as possible.

Any advice anyone can give me will be massively appreciated lads, cheers! 

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This lad is saluki saturated,and the most biddable dog ever,until he's on the chase then it's futile calling him lol...I've had a few saluki X ,and the only one that busted my balls is the pure bred I

youll be lucky to get good recall when its 12 years old , never mind 12 weeks  , its got sal in it  , selective hearing is in there dna ....

In my experience if you treat them well and fairly, and spend lots of time with them, they'll do as you say. Probably test you a bit, and you need  to pass lol. Some aren't very trainable though.

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Jesus buddy,he's 12 weeks old....he's too young in MY OPINION to be doing any of that yet,I own 3 saluki bred dogs,....the only thing I'd be doing is getting him to sit when your feeding him....let him grow a bit,play and bond with him...you do know your his surrogate mum,and best mate,and all he wants is to be curled up along side you and the family....and no rough treatment to a 3 month old pup .....you'll wreck his future career and confidence , assuming that is what you have in mind for him.....best of luck ,and a lot more knowledgeable folk will contribute soon..

 

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24 minutes ago, jigsaw said:

Jesus buddy,he's 12 weeks old....he's too young in MY OPINION to be doing any of that yet,I own 3 saluki bred dogs,....the only thing I'd be doing is getting him to sit when your feeding him....let him grow a bit,play and bond with him...you do know your his surrogate mum,and best mate,and all he wants is to be curled up along side you and the family....and no rough treatment to a 3 month old pup .....you'll wreck his future career and confidence , assuming that is what you have in mind for him.....best of luck ,and a lot more knowledgeable folk will contribute soon..

 

Cheers mate, I am trying to just let him be a pup too within reason. I think I've got quite high expectations of him and what I want him to be like in the future, maybe I'm putting to much pressure on myself and the dog at the moment. I probably do just need to chill out a bit mate haha!

I haven't been giving him any rough treatment at all, and ideally don't want to. I want him to bond with me and work for me because he wants to please me, not out of fear. I'm just gently trying to stop him chewing stuff by giving him something he's allowed to chew on in place of the sofa arm or a cushion right now but often those things are less interesting it seems! 

 

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2 minutes ago, sandymere said:

Keep it short,  keep it light, keep it fun, keep it positive reward based. Google tug training to get good recall. 

Thanks bud, really appreciate the advice.

With the tug training - is there a risk that could make him a bit hard mouthed and less likely to let me have rabbits off him that he's caught in the future? 

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29 minutes ago, oblivious said:

Cheers mate, all of the replies so far seem to be along the same lines. Maybe I just need to stop being so stressy ?

 

In my experience if you treat them well and fairly, and spend lots of time with them, they'll do as you say. Probably test you a bit, and you need  to pass lol.

Some aren't very trainable though. Recall and stock training I'd be thinking about

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19 minutes ago, Gilbey said:

In my experience if you treat them well and fairly, and spend lots of time with them, they'll do as you say. Probably test you a bit, and you need  to pass lol.

Some aren't very trainable though. Recall and stock training I'd be thinking about

At the moment he's with me all the time which i'm hoping will help in the long run. 

 

Have you got any advice on stock training? I'm planning to take him somewhere where there are sheep and give a tug on the lead and a 'No' if he shows interest. And just keep doing that until he shows no interest in them. I know I need to get this cracked early to prevent problems in the future.

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Best training is getting him out into the bush, he will learn to stick by you when he gets lost for a minute and shits himself. I wouldn't take a running dog to puppy classes. All the other stuff is just normal pup behavior so reprimand him for chewing the furniture or whatever. Just remember who's boss in a loving way.

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27 minutes ago, oblivious said:

At the moment he's with me all the time which i'm hoping will help in the long run. 

 

Have you got any advice on stock training? I'm planning to take him somewhere where there are sheep and give a tug on the lead and a 'No' if he shows interest. And just keep doing that until he shows no interest in them. I know I need to get this cracked early to prevent problems in the future.

That's what I do with stock. Yeah bond, bond, bond imo.

Rather than tell him off for chewing, give him something he can chew. I've used that stuff for stopping humans chewing their nails in the past

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