I want to get a dog but I have to work, how does everyone on broadway market do it ?

Very relieved to hear that you’ve been on the sofa with her – we’ve got a mattress on the kitchen floor next to the crate and have similarly relented in the face of sleep deprivation. Last night was the first (two weeks in) that she managed a few hours in the crate. Looking forward to getting back in my own bed!

Yes, I tried mattress next to the crate for a night earlier on, but she just wanted to get out and lie on me instead and i gave up after a few hours.
Was feeling really bad about the sofa thing and felt like it was going to never end, so it was a huge relief when it only took one night of very intermittent crying to get her sleeping happily in crate. I did have a couple of large whiskies to steel myself beforehand...

I assume you're doing all the stuff to make her crate a fun place to be in daytime? Ada's been finding lots of surprise bits of chicken and ham in her crate in the day.

Though she still gets unhappy if I confine her in there for very long when she wants to be out playing /destroying stuff.

She's had quite a few very manic bursts where she's ended up running round biting everything and have had to swiftly shut her away to calm down.
Not hugely different to my younger daughter in this respect, but Ada burns out a lot quicker.

I let my dog sleep on my bed when he was a puppy, now he mostly sleeps downstairs on his bed. Or on the floor next to our bed. He's good company apart from when he licks his dick passionately at 3am.

Yes, I'm a really light sleeper, so we decided we'd keep our bedroom as the one dog-free room in the flat, so was keen not to even have the crate in there.
Though this may be subject to revision in the future. Particularly if it gets colder. She's a pretty effective hot water bottle.

Look at that face! Glad to hear she's settling in so well.

Guess where Crumpet sleeps...

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Those are some pampered pooches, we don’t even let ours upstairs or on the sofa. However, it does mean I spend most evenings sat on the floor as his personal scratcher.

In this house Benny graciously lets us sleep in his beds so long as we dont take up too much room.

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Any dog runners here? Is the training just the same as training for walking close by I guess?

We just had a little trip to Anglesey.

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Yes. Don’t bother if they don’t already walk to heel.

Harness with leash clipped to the back is a must - anything else is dangerous for the dog.

Start slow and let them stop when they need to.

Use treats at least the first 10 times if you already use them on walks.

Once you’re both in sync, there’s no better way to up your running speed (if that’s what you’re into!)

Thank you! This is helpful

Whose fucking sofa?

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Anyone managed to train a successful leave it command with there dog? Nori is an older ex street dog so we've not had much success. I've stopped all but one person treating her in the park but the last time we saw him i felt i had zero control over her and shock result it kicked off this morning when he was feeding 4 dogs at the same time. My normal action would to of been to walk/drag her away as soon as another dog arrived but my partner had her and is a little less quick to respond.

Yes. With a smart but stubborn rescue dog and others.

The Zak George video
on this and lots of patience is the method we used, as taught by our trainer. The video will describe it better than I can write it.

Top 3 tips:

1) Start easy
2) Remember (at least for a longgg time and even after she’s nailed it), you always need to be rewarding with something better than the thing they’re leaving if possible
3) Reward in the instant split second they make the first move to leave it.

As ever with dogs, this is something you’ll keep needing to fine tune over the years.

Good advice ^

In this situation having a high reward with you to offer will be ace. My dog loves a stick, and playing fetch or playing with a stick works great as a distract and reward. If not some chicken will do.

Nice one thanks. Nori aces the indoor tests (i could walk out the room and she wouldn't touch it) but it's obvious i need to up my outside/real world training as it all falls apart there. Also need to have some stern chats with all the boomers that keep trying to feed her in the park

We managed to get Otto to do "leave" perfectly indoors. We can even put a piece of steak on his paw, tell him to leave, and leave the room with full confidence that it'll still be on his paw when we come back in.

However, it all goes to shit outside. I assume because we never tried to train him to leave outside.

Maybe also because we only trained him on things we actually give him rather than stuff he comes across.

The amount of people that will feed your dog without even asking is ridiculous! We've had to ask all the regulars in the park not to feed Crumpet because she's starting to get a bit snippy with other dogs if there's food around. A couple of people have just totally ignored the request and feed her anyway. Ideal really.

There’s a concept in dog training of the stages of trickiness of nailing some
of the obedience stuff:

Difficulty, Distraction, Duration and Distance.

Getting a dog to sit in a silent indoor room for 3 seconds when you are a metre away is one end of the scale.

Getting the dog to leave a treat in a noisy dog park, continuously, whilst you are 20 metres away is the other end of the scale.

As you’re training “leave it,” start at one end of the scale and work your way up - always adjust only 1 of the 4 D’s at a time.

Remember the 5 D's...

Difficulty, Distraction, Duration, Distance and Difficulty.

Difficulty, Distraction, Duration, Distance and Dog.

This depends on the type of runner your dog is.

If they pull like a train then I'd really recommend getting a running harness (for dog) and canicross belt/bungee (for you) and just letting them give it some welly. The folk at DogFit were really helpful with sizing and they've got lots of advice on their site. Same usual deal with dogs and anything new like harnesses/muzzles/etc – work slow and positive associations only.

I can't comment on the trot alongside type of runners as Vinbo is not that.

Only other advice I have is avoid looking in the mirror when you're wearing the belt.