Puppy Fun and Focus - Week 2

What have we done in class? The most important thing today was rewarding our pups for choosing to look at us. This is something you can't do enough. Naturally you will get a more focused dog that looks at you for guidance and who doesn't want that!?

We have also worked on teaching our pups the positions SIT, DOWN, STAND. For now we were just luring, I will explain how to get from luring to 'having a behaviour on cue'. Please start this as soon as possible since we don't want our pups to become reliant on the treat.

And of course we had a Socialisation Session where the pups got to practise their play styles. Keep in mind that we offer weekly Socialisation Sessions, every Tuesday where we have different groups of pups socialise with each other and the different humans around. There are 3 supervisors to ensure the pups have a happy experience. Flick us a message if you'd like to sign up for next Tuesday.

Enjoy the videos and explanations of week 2.

Popping a behaviour on Cue

There is different ways of teaching a behaviour. In the next few weeks I will show you a couple that we will teach by using 'free shaping'. Most behaviours are easiest taught with a lure. This type of training simply involves using a food reward to guide the dog into the desired position or behaviour.

We have done this in class for the Sit, Down and Stand. Now, obviously we don't want to have a dog that will only perform those behaviours if we have a treat at their nose. So, we quickly need to get rid of the lure and introduce the cue. As soon as your pup performs the behaviour reliably, you start using the same hand movements as before, but there is no treat in the hand. You then mark the right behaviour with your YES and bring a treat out to reward. Your pup will learn there doesn't need to be a lure at its nose because the reward comes anyways. Once this behaviour is reliable you add the cue, so the word 'sit' or 'down' or 'stand' in this case. You say the cue before the routine of making the hand movement and then YES and reward. You repeat this until you see that your puppy starts going into the desired position without you doing the hand movement. You can now start raising your body in order to eventually stand up completely straight. Keep the routine up of saying the cue and showing the hand movement. We want the pup to know both as a cue, the verbal and the body language.

What to know about distractions

This video shows beautifully why we need to practise in easy environments first and very gradually make it harder. We can't go from our living room into a busy park and expect our dogs to be good. That is setting them and ourselves up to fail.

We lure our pups into the position. Remember to always reward from the other hand, so we can fade the lure out quickly. Please do NOT use molding instead of luring: pushing the pup’s bum down is not okay and will also put the behaviour on the wrong cue.

If you want a dog that walks nicely on a loose lead, this is the homework you want to really nail:

Don't worry, the reading material will get less next week. :) More videos! But for the beginning some basic understanding is important. See you all for week 3. :)