Casey Puppy Training Week 3

Ok, so I was a little optimistic about Casey Puppy’s training plan for last week.  He’s still doing fabulously given the whole new exciting world he’s found himself in, but I need to take another week to let him get even better about a few basics such leash pulling and not exploding the instant he sees something exciting to a dog.

He’s come a l-o-n-g way in just 2 short weeks.  He’s about 80% of where I want him to be before we start working on serious basic obedience commands. Here’s what he’s learned and a few notes about how we’re working on that:

• He can’t jump out of the back of the car until I say so
  • He has to wait for a minute or two until I can see that he’s just watching and not getting ready to lunge at the first exciting thing he sees
• He can’t explode with excited joy whenever he sees a person, dog, squirrel! (ala Doug in the movie “Up”)
  • I bring him close and then slowly and calmly stroke his chest, ears, shoulders, or back until he settles down. Depending on the level of excitement, this can take a minute or two.  Patience matters here – he can’t move again until he’s settled down.
• He can’t go through any door before me.  I can’t take credit for that one – it’s either a natural behavior on his part or his previous people worked with him on that.
  • This is a matter of simply reinforcing a behavior he already knows
• He needs to consistently come to me when he hears, “Casey come!” This is a basic obedience command that must be obeyed always!
  • When he returns as commanded, he gets a “good boy” and some nice petting
  • When he ignores me, he gets a pop on the leash until his stubborn little butt is standing in front me. Then, after a moment’s pause, he gets his petting.
• He’s not allowed to yip or otherwise pester me and demand play time whenever he wants it
  • If he’s nosing me, I push him away and ignore him until he settles down
  • If he yips (and he does have the Husky yip!), he is firmly told no with a palm’s up gesture towards him that says “forget it buddy.”  If he continues to yip, I slowly stand up and make myself big and just stare at him until he settles down. This usually involves him rolling over on his back and trying to get me to play.  This is completely ignored.

There’s more that we’re working with — occasionally and randomly having him sit or lay down, and a few other basics like that.  So far, though, it hasn’t been in a formal training session.  I’m just occasionally introducing him to a new thing that we’ll work on more later once he’s just a little bit more consistent with impulse control and the things we’re already working on.

Hopefully, the ideas and approach given here will help you with your pup(s) too, and give you some ideas of things you can do or adjust to get the well behaved and happy buddy you’re wanting.

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Casey Puppy Training Week 2

In one short week, Casey has come an amazing distance.  The dog training plan is coming along nicely. Focusing on creating a calm dog and on name recognition this past week has made all the difference in the world.  He’s much better about not leash pulling, and he’s reached a point where he is responding to his name and returning to me when called.  So, now that I have his attention more reliably, what’s the next step?

This week’s dog training plan will focus on refining what he already knows and on hand targeting and the basic commands of sit, stay, down, and leave it.

You may be asking what dog hand targeting is.  Dogs are the only beings other than humans (found so far, anyway) that understand a human gesture. They instinctively watch our hand and arm motions and respond to them much as people do.  Hand targeting is a way of telling your dog where you want them to be without having to say anything.  You need this whenever your dog is off leash – whether he’s in a different room in your house or off leash outside somewhere.

Here is a video that demonstrates the first steps in training your dog in hand targeting. While she is a clicker trainer, you don’t need to use a clicker to make this work.  Every time the dog touches your hand, you can quietly say “good” or make a clucking sound – whatever works for you.  You just need a quiet sound that indicates approval made the instant your dog’s face touches your hand. Enjoy!

Casey Puppy Training Week 1

If you read my previous post about my new puppy Casey, you’ll know that he is starting from ground zero in terms of knowing anything.  So, where do you start?  From my perspective, he can’t learn anything at all until he learns to relax instead of instantly reacting to something new, and begins to focus on me when asked.  Dogs needs to be calm before they can learn anything. That’s where we’re starting with him.  And adding in tiny introductions to a bit of this and a bit of that as we go along.

So how do you begin to teach an excited 10-month old high energy dog to calm down, relax, and focus on you when their entire world is brand new and exciting?  How do you even begin to get their attention?  Casey does exactly what the dog in this picture does when he sees a person, a bird, a squirrel, or anything that moves.  It’s an instantaneous leap straight into the air with squeals of delight.

It’s easier to demonstrate than explain, but here’s how I’m doing it with Casey.

• He’s on an adjustable 4-6 foot leash with a martingale collar. We start with the 4 foot length so he’s within easy reach.
• He can’t get out of the car until he’s calm. We just stand there with him in the car until he relaxes. Doing this sets him up to be less instantly reactive when he sees that next new thing
• We start walking slowly.
• The instant he starts to pull, I get his attention and bring him close, and then slowly and calmly stroke his chest, ears, chin, or back with slow strokes until he relaxes. I repeat the word “settle” to him so that he begins to learn that settle means relax. Eventually, I’ll be able to just say “settle” to him and he’ll calm down.
• Then we move again and repeat as needed (which is very, very often at first)

It can take a long time to go for a walk doing it this way for the first few days, but it’s important to take the time right out of the gate.  Already, in two days, there is far less leash pulling and we can go a little bit farther every walk before something triggers for him.

To illustrate how well this works, consider this:  He knew nothing about being on a leash, has never been in an urban environment, and is puppy excited about everything new.  On the first day, he was lunging, leaping, running in circles, and had the attention span of a flea.  By today, a mere 3 days later, he is much calmer, less reactive, and is spending less time frustrated because he can’t go explore that shiny new thing. He is slowly learning to calmly observe something without the need to race towards it.

We’re a long way from where he needs to be, but he has already come a long way.