Puppy Fun & Focus Class - Week 2

Lead walking training

Remember to do little sessions of lead-walking and only take it as far out of your driveway as your dog can handle. If your dog isn't focused on you and drags you to the park you are reinforcing wrong behaviour. You can drive your dog to the park in the meantime or not go to the park and practise lead-walking up and down your driveway with play sessions in-between. That's just as tiring but a lot more beneficial. Don't reprimand your dog for pulling. Our goal is for your dog to CHOOSE being next to you. No-one chooses being next to someone that hurts them.

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Instant reward and "punishment" to teach not to jump

Be consistent with yourself, your visitors and strangers on the street. Don't set your pup up to fail. Strangers should completely ignore your dog and visitors need to ignore until dog is calm. Ideally we insist on a sitting dog for any attention. And make sure to not open doors to a crazy pup and use your crate or a play pen to let pup calm down first.

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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.

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Please keep socialising and use the Positive Interrupter on a regular basis (gradually in more challenging environments). See you next week.