Good morning everybody - hope you're all well!! What a storm that was last night in the UK! Ziggy didn't flinch though so I'm hoping that because he's been lucky enough to experience a full on storm, with tons of thunder and lightning, at an early age it'll mean he won't be scared when he's older. I have a training question today. I think I may have got a bit ahead of myself! Ziggy now sits nicely to ask for his food and will sit virtually every time I look at him. I've been trying to use a clicker to "event mark' his sit but he does it so often that I can't event mark it every time! Today I thought we'd have a look at learning ' down ' then it occurred to me that he'll be going to puppy training classes in September and what if they do things differently? Am I going to set him up for lots of confusion? He's 9 weeks now and I'm not sure just what to train and how quickly to proceed. We've looked at sit and started recall and 'touch my hand ' but I think I may have done too much too soon and spoilt it by not doing it properly! He just seems so willing! Oh the confusion!! What do you guys train at this age? We've had him for a week - what would you expect him to be able to do now? What do you guys reach as a matter of priority? And how fast do you go? He's such a clever little sausage but I don't want to rush in and ruin everything! Also - should I train one thing at a time or is it ok to train different things during different sessions on the same day? I'm finding the training pages on the website really helpful but what I need is a training program almost!! I'm so new to all this - I don't want to mess it up!!
Ask ten people and you'll get ten different answers. With my first puppy, I taught all the regular stuff - sit, down etc. With my latest one, I decided that could all come later, and I focussed more on "real world" stuff, so things like waiting to be invited through doors, claw trimming, eye drops, looking at teeth, general handling, chin rest, hand target (very useful for moving your puppy around). Of course, bite inhibition, which I proactively train, rather than just reacting when it happens. And, obviously, lots of games with training elements, like starting to teach a release in tug, encouraging pup to bring the toy to me for a game, a little bit of steadiness by just gently restraining the pup, throwing the toy and waiting a second before releasing with the cue to get it. Recall is an important one to start on as early as possible, so I'm glad to see that on your list. Because Luna is a show pup, and I actually wanted to show her, I also worked on teaching her a default stand, in much the same say as you are teaching a default sit. The important thing at this age is to keep everything fun, and training sessions very short (1-2 minutes). If you're new to training, probably avoid the more "important" behaviours and focus on things that don't really matter until you've honed your skills a little bit. It sounds to me from your post that you're a little confused about using the clicker, so I'd probably put that away until you've got your head around it a bit more. I think you're trying to do what's called "capturing" (marking the behaviour you like whenever you see him doing it, even outside of training sessions), but most of the top trainers actually seem to be moving away from that more towards luring for the first parts of learning a new behaviour, as it starts off with precision, whereas with capturing, it is all a little more "flaky" and takes longer to come together, just by its very nature. I'd recommend looking up Kikopup on YouTube - she has loads of great videos for puppies. Watch carefully how she is using the clicker and you'll see how it works a bit more clearly.
Hello! I think the most important thing to teach your puppy at this very early stage is that you are the most wonderful and exciting thing in the world, that all good things come from you! So take him into the garden or a safe area, and let him run around and follow you and play with you. Play tug and fetch with him, give him treats, practice short bursts of walking to heel on and off the lead, and get him to understand that the recall whistle (or your verbal recall) means he gets lovely yummy treats and lots of praise when he comes running to you! If you have a puppy who comes when you call, sits and waits for a couple of seconds when you ask him to, and who will walk at your heel for a few paces, then you are doing very well and building the basis for a well-behaved dog who will be a pleasure to have as a companion. And above all, if you put time and effort into building a solid relationship with your puppy, then you will have a wonderful bond and you will both enjoy training classes when you start there. And I second Fiona (snowbunny) - keep the training sessions really short, and above all, fun.
