6 Month Old Toy Poodle Unruly

[taraleesa]

Hi
I have a 6 month old toy poodle whose behaviour is getting out of hand . I have been mainly using positive reinforcement but am having trouble with conveying to her bad behaviour as I don't want to physically punish her but she just won't listen to no and keeps repeating unwanted behaviour . (Such as jumping up on the lounge , jumping up and nipping at our clothes and chewing where the carpet meets the tiles )
Does anyone have any suggestions

 

[running_dog]

The concept of positive reinforcement is not to convey "bad" behaviour but to convey "good" behaviour (bearing in mind that both good and bad are artificial when applied to dogs as they are not moral beings).

The application of this is that you need to teach your poodle to behave how you want her to behave. Don't think in terms of what you don't want her to do (eg/not jumping up) but think instead of what you do want her to do (eg/ four paws on the ground when greeting people). Then you make the behaviour that you do want very very reinforcing (praise/treats/game) and the behaviour that you don't want very un-reinforcing (eg/put dog out of the room).

If you describe an incident clearly I am happy to talk you though exactly how I would tackle that particular situation so you can see the application of the principle.