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PUPPY FUN AND FOCUS - WEEK 5

Please remember to work on your Long Line Lead Handling which is a skill to practise. Too often we hear "The long line didn't work for us" which tells us that the handler should've practised the lead handling more. It's a great tool and recommended by all recognised trainers all over the world, so please give it a proper shot. It's your secret weapon for a reliable recall. Especially at the very beginning when you start taking your pups out and then again later when they hit adolescent phase. The last thing you want to teach your teenage dog is that ignoring your recall is fine. So, please get a long line (8-10 meters).

We had mentioned the 'Leave it' cue in relation to the Resource Guarding Prevention before. Don't get into a frustrating fight with your puppy that nobody can win. Just teach them this cue and they will find it rewarding to respond to it. It's one of those that you don't want to be stingy with your rewards for. After all they're giving up on something highly rewarding just because you asked them to.

Enjoy the videos and explanations of week 5.

If you pay detailed attention to this video you might notice a "mistake". I recall Mousy, say YES when she is with me, but only reward after the OKAY. I do that because I want her to sit calmly in front of me for a moment and then I usually reward her with the toy (unless she is being distracted with the toy behind the camera). I have build this system up gradually in order to make sure not to break the YES-Marker Contract. I still reward, but have a slowly build up delay in it. You don't have to do this since it kind of complicates matters. I just wanted to point it out to avoid confusion.

Once you have done 10-12 short sessions of teaching this behaviour, you can then start to use the cue in real life scenarios. When your dog is doing something you don’t like - like jumping on the kitchen counter, it’s important to not reinforce the dog with a treat after they listen to you to back up.  Instead, redirect the dog to doing a behaviour you DO want your dog to do. Like go to his bed or play with his toys on his own.  Then at other points in the day, make a habit of reinforcing a few repetitions of the cue.  If you reinforce your dog with a treat right after they back up from jumping on the counter, you can inadvertently reinforce a chain of behaviours which includes the one you didn’t like.  If your cue doesn’t work in real life scenarios it will need more conditioning by repetition in training sessions where the dog is calm and relaxed.