# Spoo questions



## Raindrops (Mar 24, 2019)

spoomommy said:


> I will be bringing home a spoo soon who was born on 2-12-12. He won't be coming directly from the breeder, he will be coming from a girl who bought him from the breeder when he was 8 weeks old. She hasn't had a lot of time for him and will have less time because of a job change hence the reason she has decided to rehome Roscoe. She has been running with him about a couple miles often and I won't be able to. I will be able to walk him a couple of times each day for an hour or two. Will that be sufficient? Also, when my 9 year old son & I met him yesterday he did a lot of biting as he was playing with my son, is it normal? How do you stop it? Thx everyone, glad I found this forum.


Hello, I just want to clarify age. If born in 2012 he is 8 years old now?


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

Just to confirm I understand the question...this is an 8 year old dog accustomed to jogging for exercise. You are concerned about whether you can meet his exercise requirements. You are also concerned about the mouthiness he exhibits with your young son. Do I have it?


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## spoomommy (Jul 2, 2020)

Raindrops said:


> Hello, I just want to clarify age. If born in 2012 he is 8 years old now?


Oops, no, he was born 2-12-20, sorry.


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## For Want of Poodle (Feb 25, 2019)

Most people now recommend not over exercising puppies or running with them or doing other repetitive high Impact activities before 1.5 years of age or so, for fear of joint problems and due to unclosed growth plates. The rule of thumb I read was 5 min of exercise per month of age, once or twice per day, max.

If the puppy is accustomed to crazy amounts of exercise, you may have some issues initially. I would suggest looking up deliberately teaching calm and focus- lots of people here recommend the game "Look at that" and I found "Relax on a Mat" very very useful for teaching my energetic spoo to settle. Both games have great instructions you can find with a quick google. These are also impulse control, and will help the dog learn the skills needed to control mouthiness.

For mouthiness, I personally only had success when I started leaving the dog alone, going into another room, and shutting her out when she was mouthy. For mine, even a squeak or shout was fun, as it was attention, and rewarding to her. Other dogs may be different.

For exercise - spoons have a lot of energy, but seem to have two kinds - mental and physical. You can tire a dog out by doing either brain work (sniffing, training, willpower exercises like stays) or lots of exercise. A mix of the two seems to be a good compromise to get a dog that is nice to live with and dogs tend to build stamina and get better at doing whatever they do more of. You can teach a dog to be good at long periods of calm focused attention, long jogging or fetch sessions, or both depending on what you focus on. For my sanity, I try and make sure my spoo and I work on focused attention, as crazy physical energy comes very naturally to her.


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## Raindrops (Mar 24, 2019)

I agree with FWoP. For a five month old spoo the mouthing is very normal and will probably continue until 6-9 months of age. Consistent training will help to teach him not to bite. Your son will need to be an active part of training so that he can learn to play with the puppy in ways that won't make things worse. I would strongly advise finding a good training club or facility and getting him into a group class. He may still be able to be in a puppy class, but if not that then an adolescent or normal class will do. It will help to have a trainer to guide you with all your puppy worries, and to set him on the right course for training.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Mouthing is perfectly normal and as long as his bites are inhibited (don't break skin) that behavior will fade. You can encourage moving past this by being very boring and perhaps even quietly just leaving for a little time out. I know some people will advise yelping to indicate he hurt you, but for my spoos that just got them more over the top rather than making them feel sad they hurt you (which they don't understand too well). He could start dropping deciduous teeth any day now and that is a contributor to mouthiness fading.

No running with this dog. He is still too young and skeletally immature for it to be good for him. I would take him for 2 or 3 15 to 20 minute walks. Make them thinking walks. I train my dogs on walks. I stop at stop signs. I expect the dog to sit when I stop. I do direction changes and pace changes. If I meet someone to talk to (not so much these days) I expect the dog to lie down for the duration. If they hold the down then I will move them to a sit and let the person say hello if they want to so long as the dog remains at sit.

Have several short 5 to 10 minute training sessions for basic essential manners every day. He will get more exercise out of brain work than physical exercise. The brain consumes huge amounts of glucose and fatigue will be the result. A tired dog really is a good dog and will learn to settle when needed and will sleep well on his own much more easily from thinking than running around like an idiot.

INCLUDE YOUR SON IN ALL OF THE TRAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

I have a socialization game I'm playing with Galen and some of the neighborhood kids. First, I made sure the kids had a way to discourage mouthing. I taught them to fold their arms against their chest, rest their hands in tight little fists against their collar bones, and turn their back to the puppy whenever he jumped or nibbled. People have a natural tendency to flap their hands when they are nervous about getting nibbled. Getting the flapping hands quiet instantly solves a lot of problems. (Notice I'm socializing the kids more than the puppy with this part .)

Then I give each kid a handful of treats and send them in different directions, so they are standing between 30 and 50 feet apart. ( I distribute the treats by putting them in piles on my steps and backing away to maintain proper social spacing.) I then have the kids take turns calling Galen. If he runs to the wrong kid, no treat. If he jumps on the kid, no treat; the kid puts hands on shoulders and turns away.

It gets the puppy nicely tired while giving all the youngsters a discipline task with a low bar for success.


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

Such a good training game, cowpony! Wish we had some neighbourhood kids to play it with.

Part of our solution to the flappy hand problem was to teach Peggy that hands coming up in an "Eek!" gesture is a command to sit. This was a necessity, as some people we know are a _little_ harder to train than those sweet kids.


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## LadyLucy (Jan 8, 2021)

I followed Zak Georges advice and a loud ouch and pull away! Brodie is 18 weeks now and has gotten a lot better. Lots of chew toys, walks and attention. Great breed


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

LadyLucy said:


> I followed Zak Georges advice and a loud ouch and pull away! Brodie is 18 weeks now and has gotten a lot better. Lots of chew toys, walks and attention. Great breed


Oops! The Recommended Reading List strikes again.  These are some pretty old threads, but it would be great to get an update from @spoomommy on how her puppy is doing!


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