Ok, so I have a foster pup, named Nilla, I think I have decided to take her in for good but I have never had a puppy as young as she is. Due to circumstances she is only 5 weeks old, I have had her since 4 days old and she been calling her Nilla since then (even though I am aware her ears were not open at 4 days old! lol) so to make my long story short I was wondering if anyone knew about how long it might take for her to start recognizing her name. I am just unsure if since she is so young whether or not it should be quick to learn or take just as long, if that makes sense lol sooo any advice on this would be just great! thanks! :-)
oh and any other advice on training would be great...like should I wait until she gets around like 8 weeks (when I would have gotten her) to start the training, or would it be fine to start now?
Update:thanks for the advice so far guys! i appreciate it! and not to worry, she has been well socialized with other dogs (well...small ones for now lol) and she gets regular vet check ups and everything! i am making sure i take good care of this lil darlin! lol I met her mother and she will be a small breed, maybe 10 or 15 pounds max, so thats good for me! lol i love dogs but I much prefer smaller ones, thanks to my hubbys pit/lab my legs are covered with bruises lol
http://i37.tinypic.com/w212t1.jpg
that is Nilla earlier this month! so tiny still lol
http://i35.tinypic.com/iggei9.jpg
and that is Nillas wanna be daddy CowBoy! lol
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
The best thing you can do for training your dog for anything is to reward her. Call her to come over to you using her name, and give her a treat when she does. A small tap on the bottom works well if she has a habit of wandering into the street. It would be better for her to have that one moment of hurt to prevent her from being hit by a car. You can start teaching her tricks as soon as you see she has control of her motor skills. I recommend beef jerky for the treat. Nilla is a beautiful name BTW =)
first the name, She may not like it or even know that you're talking to her. To solve the problem fairly easily call her name and give her a treat or positive re enforcement (good girl and a rub). start training now the more train as a pup the less work as an adult dog.
Nilla's such a cute name!
just always call her that while you're petting her, playing with her, etc. she'll catch on. or when you give her food, say nilla! nilla!
for the training thing, don't say "no". it sounds too much like "Nilla" to the dog. Say "uh-uh" or something like that. or "ah!"
i would say just keep using her name... and she'll get it... dogs are pretty quick...especially if it's used continuously... but i would say to make sure to use things to give her as closely to a real 'dog' upbringing for these first few weeks as possible... 1. because, the mothers do things for them, they can't do and know when to stop helping them.... because they're their mothers, and 2. because if you baby her too much, she will become a big baby... my mom got her dog at 6 weeks, and we all carried him around and babied him and up until he was probably two he still tried to reach up on us, like little babies do to say 'pick me up' he's a keeshond - 65lbs all grown - he literally leaves lines of bruises, from the pressure of his big paws scraping down our legs!
i mean, if you're fostering pets you prolly know enough, but just make sure you're giving her lots of love, but also not setting her up to be dissapointed when she can't do things when she's bigger/older.... they can't rationalize so it's not so easily understoof :P
and i would say to try to train her NOW and keep it up for ever, until she learns the command; sit stay come etc... not be too aggressive, but everyone learns best when they are young, so may as well teach her now!
ps - good for you takin in a poor lil stray pup!
She'll catch onto her name fairly quickly.
As for training, start now, its never to early. Just keep sessions short and fun. Puppies generally take to clicker training quite well. :)
i recon it takes them up until there around 10 weeks to know when they hear there name it means them!!!
just say it heaps they will soon enough know u mean them...
and training she's still a new born..i had my baby since she was 3 weeks and i started her around 8ish weeks to...
good luck time goes so quick..pippi is 2 and a bit now it feels like i got her yesterday
As long as you keep on calling her and rewarding her for answering her name when you call her then she should learn it very quickly!
it depends on how much u say it to her like whenever u talk to her make sure u say her name and she should catch on quickly :) hope i helped