PRIVATE PUPPY PACKAGE - Week 3

What have we done in class? Again, some very important exercises. Getting the pups used to being handled is a must in order to prevent drama at the vets, around nail trimming and grooming. You will regret not having done it while your pup was still young, so please don't let it get to that.

It is important you start your leash walking training early as anytime your pup pulls on the lead it will get harder to train them not to.

And of course the Touch cue was so easy already. It’ll become your best trick! It helps them refocus on you, you can use it to move them to a certain point, like on the scale or out of the way and pups usually find the cue itself quite fun.

Enjoy the videos and explanations of week 3.

LOOSE LEASH WALKING

The number 1 rule with lead walking is DO NOT REWARD THE PULLING. If your puppy gets to where they want to go by pulling you are strongly reinforcing this behaviour. That's a frustrating thought, I know, because you sometimes have to get places, but lead walking isn't sorted yet, so what should you do? I personally put a lot of effort into getting my pup keen on her toy the second I got her. That meant for me that if I quickly had to get somewhere I could just play with her on my side and she wasn't pulling while I didn't do lead training. This won't work everywhere, always and with all puppies though. So, you need to find what works for you. While you spend multiple sessions a day doing lead training you should still be able to go to the park. There are different options to do this. If your puppy is happy being carried and the park is close you could do this and then just pop them on a harness and a long line. Alternatively you can have them in a buggy or drive them with your car to the park. The same counts for coming into the training location, don't let them pull. You have learned a valuable approach to lead walking in our last session. As long as you put the time into doing the training, you will see great progress. Remember you start with 1 step and then go to 2 and then to 3 and so on in your living room. Once you have reached 10 steps with your pup on a lose lead and stopping as soon as you stop to look at you, you can now go to a harder environment, like your backyard. Start at 1 step again and work your way up to 10. Then front yard, driveway and so on. Make it a game to get to more steps and soon you can make it to the park. :)

Walks with your dog are much more enjoyable when your dog is beside you on a loose leash instead of pulling ahead of you! Loose leash walking is a skill that takes patience, consistency and practice. It’s much easier if you start this from puppyhood.
Equipment - The best equipment to use is a good fitting harness. Check the leash and harness clips to ensure they won’t break. A harness does not encourage the dog to pull unless they already have a prior association of pulling with it and if they do have an association with it, find a different harness to create a new no-pulling association. While loose-leash-walking-training is in progress, drive to the park and use a long line (10 metres) to give your dog sniffing opportunities without pulling on the lead. Watch here how a nice mooch-walk could look like, note: the dog is leading the walk, but can be invited to change direction if necessary. It's a really nice video that hopefully makes you consider a different approach to your outings that are there for your dog. A 20 minute walk where your dog actively uses its nose is as valuable as a 50 minute run.

Follow Me! The principles of loose leash walking are essentially teaching your dog to follow you, not the other way around, and praising your dog for being beside you and focussed on you. They get rewarded for stopping when you stop. Beside you is the best place for your dog to be because that’s where they love to hang out and all the good stuff happens. When dogs pull on the lead they are rewarded by getting where they want to go and we get pulled along behind them. Instead, you want to reprogram your dog’s thought process so that they think having a loose leash is what enables them to move forward.
Happy loose leash walking!

These are some random puppies from class showing their lead walking training in week 6. They walk with their mums and dads on a loose lead and when the owners stop, the pup stops and looks at them. Please note, that technically the pups could be sniffing around while walking. There is no need for them to look up whole time, only when the walker stops.

Stay Training Protocol

Go through those 5 days with your pup for Stay Training. If an exercise doesn't work, repeat it. You can repeat days and don't need to do a day per day. In Level 2 Class we will work on Days 6-15. :)

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.

Looking forward to seeing you in week 4! :)