As I have never trained a puppy before, I thought it would be useful to write a training log to focus my mind on what we are doing each week and record progress made. So here goes. This week we are focusing on.... On walks Walking on a loose lead. She is doing really well with this. We now need to proof when walking past people and other dogs! Recall We have gone right back to square one with this this week as I think I had totally got this wrong. So just doing lots of treating in the garden and when she comes near. So far so good with this! Sit She has the basic sit, we now need to work on proofing this. Behaviour with kids and guests We continue to work on her jumping and biting our kids. The kids are getting good at walking away if she nips or giving her a chew or toy. Things are getting better, but not 100% there yet.We had a minor victory this week when my 4 year old had 5 friends over and she did really well! We are also ask her to sit behind the stair gate before any of us enter and this has stopped her jumping at us. We now to proof this with guests as she still jumps at them! Socialisation Encourage better manners around other dogs and people. She is still very excitable,jumpy and Prone to mouthing people.
We are a week on from starting the training log. So here is progress and this week's aims! Training Walks She has continued to do really well walking on a loose lead, we can now go a fair way with her trotting at my side. She often forgets, but if I stop dead she stops pulling and we start again. She forgets herself the moment she sees another dog or person, though so this week we will continue to work on this. Sit We are continuing to work in the length of her stay at home and working with distractions whilst out. Recall Back to basics recall has worked well. She is coming regularly for treats in the garden and we have now extended this to off lead when out. People and other dogs She is an still an excitable ball of energy the minute she sees a person or dog,slow progress here. She can sometimes be distracted with food but not always. We start obedience classes on Sat, so I hope this will help with working around other dogs. I have high hopes of our training class on Saturday and hope this will start us working on some more commands.
We are now 2 weeks into puppy training classes and so far, so good. We are both really enjoying them. As far as I can tell, they are well structured with just a little puppy interaction. The main thing we are gaining is some expert help with my technique and a chance to practice in a different environment with lots of distractions ( besides the other dogs we are in a field surrounded by horses and chickens!). We are also a small group, so lots of 1:1 advice which is really helpful. This week we shall focus on.... Walking to heal. We have a training walk every day and she is doing brilliantly at this. We even made it past some other people and dogs today without her completely loosing focus, which is a bit of a triumph given how excited she is by everything! Upping my treating game has helped. I now mix higher value meat and cheese in with her kibble which has really gained her attention! Recall. Back to basics is working brilliantly. I've been treating all the time to encourage her to be near. We are doing lots of running towards me for a treat. And in our training class she will come with the distraction of the other dogs. I am yet to really test this outside the training environment though, and don't really plan to yet until we have the basics firmly embedded. Down. We have added this to our training. We have a basic down which we practice whilst the kids are eating to hopefully one day get to a point where she will get down and stay down whilst they eat Jumping up at Table and Counter tops. This is our major issue at the moment. We have a three pronged approach. Firstly keeping everything spotless and tidy to avoid self rewarding. Secondly trying to train her to be down on her bed for a while whilst we eat then giving her a kong to distract her whilst we eat. Thirdly I am trying to click and reward all 4 paws being in the floor. I am mainly trying to take it all slowly and take baby steps with everything as I am learning just as much as her and want to get it right rather than rush it!
Ooh another puppy training log! You are doing really well, sounds like your puppy classes are well organised too, I agonised about going back to puppy classes, but so pleased we did
Just a little update as it has been a while! Jessie is now 7 months old. She has recently turned into a stroppy teen, which has bought some challenges! She stayed with my mother in law for 10 days and, was fairly awful when she got home, and I really doubted my training! But after some hard work for 3 weeks I feel we are back on track again. She was spayed last week and is on lead only exercise, so a good opportunity to work on other aspects of her training! Our main issue is still walking at heal past distractions, particularly people and other dogs. However, with high quality treats, she can manage it if I can keep her under her bonkers excitement threshold. I am trying to proof with set ups. And we still attend a class. But it is slow work. Her recall is pretty good these days, apart from some recent selective hearing! We have manged to proof against a number of distractions (ducks, birds, sheep she is good with). However, other dogs are still too tempting. I have a long training line and plan to do some set up training once she has recovered from her op! Sit/stay and down stay. I am working on extending the time she will stay in both positions. She is great in the house for a short time around distractions such as my kids. But not brilliant out of the house at all. I thought if I can build up to a longer time/distance apart in the house we can gradually start from square one elsewhere. Door barging! I hadn't really bothered with this, but I am trying to be more consistent with this as it is useful for going on walks when we go through lots of gates and I can make sure it is safe! And that is it really! I feel like we had taken a step back for a while, but are making progress again now!
