Having read other people's training log, I thought what a brilliant idea. I do keep a little note book but it would be so nice to see the progress in a more orderly fashion than scribble. If anyone would like to comment any tips would be very much appreciated. We have always had dogs in our family but this is my very first puppy. I was in shock for the first couple of weeks never expected to feel so exhausted. The Happy Puppy Handbook was my bible now Mabel is 20 weeks my new bible is Totall Recall. Mabel's walks are very structured in various locations so she gets a good mixture of different sights and smells. This morning off to the big park. I started off trying to get some kind of focus on me. Sit/ watch me on the lead. Always takes a little while but getting much better. We have eliminated the out the car and pull like a mad dog to sniff and self reward. We then played a little game of football. She will retrieve the ball much better when it's kicked than throw. I saw a couple of dogs that are unfriendly so I got her to focus and sit/ down little game. They passed safety at a distance but she had no intention of running to them. Pleased. We were then joined by another puppy and two year old Labrador so she was allowed to play for 10-15 mins. She has no recall to the whistle in this situation so as soon as their was a gap in play I gently slip the lead on. We then spent sometime doing recall work. I walked to about 20 yards and when there was a gap in activity 3 pips on the whistle. She was successful each time all be it a little slow. She is a plodder. I've only just began recall on location I'm so impatient and would love her to have perfect recall just got to be patient I know. I'm giving high rewards at the moment until next week and then I'll mix up the rewards but not eliminate any just yet. We then did a little heal work to the car. By this time all she wanted to do was sit down. This afternoon we popped to the small park which was full of children of all ages with, bikes,footballs,skateboards you name it they had it. She sat and watched for ages taking it all in and only bounced at people twice. Really thrilled with her. Didn't walk very far but I wasn't concerned more interested in her seeing children play. We then did some recall away from everyone. On the way back recall at no more than 5-10 yards next to the children on the swings,slides. She did really well. It then became a bit of an effort to persuade her to walk to the car. She does like people watching. We start a four week clicker training course next week can't wait. Sunday we begin training for our Bronze having got a certificate for the Kennel Club Puppy Foundation Course. Ended the day with a visit to the pub. Very well behaved probably too tired for anything else. Tomorrow we will go to somewhere completely unfamiliar for a change as it's the weekend. Must focus next week on leave it. She just can't grasp the concept at all. Her heal work varies but tends to begood when we are at the shops, in the street general busy situations. Played a few games with her toys in the garden as she was just superb today. Very proud of her I know she's never going to be brilliantly intelligent and I don't compare her to other dogs just want her to be happy and progress slowly and steadily it's just funny how people have opinions on puppies that are so unrealistic. Maybe I'm mistaken but I wouldn't have expected a 20 week old puppy to have a sound recall in a park on a sunny day which is full of exciting sounds and smells of spring. I'm going to treat myself to a nice glass of wine. Well chilled.
Re: Mabel's training log Well that all sounds VERY impressive! Uummmm there are many much older dogs (including mine!) whose recall wouldn't stand up to a park full of excited children playing games and running around! I might be tempted not to work until she's quite so tired she's still pretty young I'd say you've deserved your wine, looking forward to your next instalment.
Re: Mabel's training log Yes indeed, it sounds like you're doing fantastically, and well done for keeping realistic expectations For recalls, it's always worth keeping up your sleeve the 'run away from the dog squeaking madly' manoeuvre in case of emergencies. Of course, everyone in a half mile radius will think you've gone loopy, but it's pretty effective in attracting a pup's attention ;D ;D
Re: Mabel's training log Now you mention it! It crossed my mind, oh no she's a baby I've over done it. She has spent a good hour curled up on my lap. I know she's a bit big now but it's so lovely. I've used the run away squeaking manoeuvre my neighbours had seen me. Very funny they said. They have also commented on how well she is doing. She has now gone to bed after popping in the garden for a quick pruning and digging session. Just finishing some plants she started on this afternoon
Re: Mabel's training log ;D ;D 'Congratulations, you're a Labrador puppy owner. Leave your dignity at the door!'
Re: Mabel's training log Bit of a nightmare this morning pretty certain it was the weather very blustery and a beautiful dog chasing a stick but wasn't interested in playing with other dogs. Must continue to work on Mabel's focus on me, which seems to have deteriorated today, she was jumping about like a mad thing to get to the other dog. After a couple of minutes trying to get her to focus we had a lovely game of football. Then did a few sit stay and recall just a couple and then decided to walk back home practicing heal. No distance at all as we had been in full view of my house the whole time as it looks onto a green. She wouldn't move onto the footpath but lay on the grass as if she was about to have a sleep. Managed to jolly her along eventually and we ended up doing about 100 yards heal work. We had only been out 20 mins as she has her training class at 11.30 just one of those days. Fingers crossed it improves later, although just looked in her mouth and her new teeth are definitely coming through so she's allowed to be a bit crankie
Re: Mabel's training log So proud Mabel did so well today at her first new training class, need to work on not to be distracted by other dogs while walking in a circle surrounded by rest of the class. If she had ignored the spaniels I'd have been speechless that's just not going to happen for a long time.
Re: Mabel's training log Sounds like she's making a good start though, you just don't jump from 1 to 10 on the distraction scale and new venue plus new dogs us a big jump
Re: Mabel's training log Good work, well done. [quote author=Pilatelover link=topic=10518.msg156023#msg156023 date=1428841768] If she had ignored the spaniels I'd have been speechless that's just not going to happen for a long time. [/quote] Welcome to my world ;D ;D (and mine is 2 next month!!)
Re: Mabel's training log [quote author=Merla link=topic=10518.msg156145#msg156145 date=1428864000] [quote author=Pilatelover link=topic=10518.msg156023#msg156023 date=1428841768] If she had ignored the spaniels I'd have been speechless that's just not going to happen for a long time. [/quote] Welcome to my world ;D ;D (and mine is 2 next month!!) [/quote] I keep telling Charlie: "you are two now, you know". It doesn't make a blind bit of difference! ;D
Re: Mabel's training log Sounds like you and Mabel are doing really well. You said that she's a bit of a plodder and does things slowly. I wouldn't worry too much about that; my Willow used to be pretty slow to respond to things. I've learnt that I have to increase her arousal level with games or something she finds fun like targeting before she will do less fun things anything like sharply. Shadow, on the other hand, gets over-excited in his training sessions sometimes and just starts chucking behaviours - any behaviours - at me, fast as lightning, so I have to calm him down. They are funny, our little bundles of joy.
Re: Mabel's training log Welcome to my world ;D ;D (and mine is 2 next month!!) [/quote] Thank you that makes me feel much better
Re: Mabel's training log Just realised don't know how to quote from another post and turn it a different colour. Any tips please
Re: Mabel's training log [quote author=Pilatelover link=topic=10518.msg156478#msg156478 date=1429008140] Just realised don't know how to quote from another post and turn it a different colour. Any tips please [/quote] When you click the "Insert Quote" button, you'll get something that looks like this: [ quote author=Pilatelover link=topic=10518.msg156478#msg156478 date=1429008140] Just realised don't know how to quote from another post and turn it a different colour. Any tips please [/ quote] That will make it the blueish background with the "Quote from: Pilatelover on Today at 11:42:20 am" text above. If there is already a quote on the comment, you'll end up with embedded [ quote] tags, like this: [ quote author=Merla link=topic=10518.msg156145#msg156145 date=1428864000] Good work, well done. [ quote author=Pilatelover link=topic=10518.msg156023#msg156023 date=1428841768] If she had ignored the spaniels I'd have been speechless that's just not going to happen for a long time. [/ quote] Welcome to my world ;D ;D (and mine is 2 next month!!) [/ quote] You need to make sure you only delete the bits you want, so to leave it just saying "Welcome to my world...", but still attributed to Merla, you need to delete the Everything from "Good work..." to just before "Welcome...", but ensure you keep the opening [ quote] and closing [/ quote] tags.... so it would look like this: [ quote author=Merla link=topic=10518.msg156145#msg156145 date=1428864000] Welcome to my world ;D ;D (and mine is 2 next month!!) [/ quote] [quote author=Merla link=topic=10518.msg156145#msg156145 date=1428864000] Welcome to my world ;D ;D (and mine is 2 next month!!) [/quote] NB I have added a space in each tag above (ie [<space>quote] ... [/<space>quote]) because otherwise it would get rendered instead of putting the text in so you could see it
Re: Mabel's training log [quote author=snowbunny link=topic=10518.msg156500#msg156500 date=1429012755] [quote author=Pilatelover link=topic=10518.msg156478#msg156478 date=1429008140] Just realised don't know how to quote from another post and turn it a different colour. Any tips please [/quote] When you click the "Insert Quote" button, you'll get something that looks like this: [ quote author=Pilatelover link=topic=10518.msg156478#msg156478 date=1429008140] Just realised don't know how to quote from another post and turn it a different colour. Any tips please [/ quote] That will make it the blueish background with the "Quote from: Pilatelover on Today at 11:42:20 am" text above.[/quote] Looks like it's worked, phew far more difficult than training a puppy thanks for the help x
Re: Mabel's training log Second training class today. Went fairly well Mabel was very excited at the prospect of walking quickly to heal. More like a chance to play. So exciting from a puppy point of view. She has decided that huge bounces at people are the way forward this week. Luckily how to stop this was something we worked on in class. This will definitely be something I'll be concentrating on this week. It's not a problem at the moment as she's still fairly small and cute but I can see if becoming an issue as she grows. Still working on recall. It always is my main focus. Still only completely reliable without distractions although making progress. I have highlighted the danger spots, and have come up with alternative behaviours. I learnt this week that I am no where as exciting as a a play in the brook then up over onto the field. Luckily she hasn't strayed far and I managed to put her on the lead, but I didn't really appreciate trudging through mud and crawling along under a hedge lol. Way to combat this throw tiny pieces of treat along the footpath and playing "Mabel find it". Tried proofing recall in new locations this week,. One went really well other not so good. I realised the one that the proofing that didn't go so well was because I actually don't like that park. Felt generally out of sorts during whole walk. This training malarkey is certainly hard work, I'm actually learning as much about myself as training my gorgeous girl.
Re: Mabel's training log [quote author=Pilatelover link=topic=10518.msg157511#msg157511 date=1429450504] I'm actually learning as much about myself as training my gorgeous girl. [/quote] Ah, yes, it does that to you! Keep at it and well done! Good work with the treat dropping too, great idea
Re: Mabel's training log Thank you Kath, just found out no recall from water . Another thing on my list also Mabel has developed a taste for zips. Should never have left my Welly bag in the hall. New one on order today. Will try to be tidy.
Re: Mabel's training log I can honestly say I have had a horrible day. This mornings walked started well, practice recall, sit,stay. A little free time sniffing etc. a game of fetch. We then came across the dog walking lady with 6 dogs. Quickly popped her on the lead. My girl was bouncing all over the place. The Rotti and a couple of big dogs barked at her. That's fine a puppy learning curve. She became submissive and lay down. To my horror one of the very small dogs actually came up to Mabel and barked in her ear. Almost like kicking a man when he is down. I was really upset. The lady said it's good for them to learn. Yes I thought I've learnt to avoid you. We then continued fine, popping her back on the lead so she doesn't bounce all over older dogs, letting her off to play with suitable ones. Finally on the way back from no where appears a standard poodle totally out of control no recall. His owner said he was 6. He chased Mabel and kept biting the back of her neck. The guy shouts come on Pixie don't bully. I grab Mabel and off we go. When They are far enough away or so I think, I let Mabel off the lead. She stops and then chases this dog, I was mortified as the distance was greater than I expected her to go. She has never done this before unfortunately the recall whistle didn't work nor me calling only once. So I walked along to where they were racing round with a lump of cheese. Give it to the other dog and grab Mabel. Did some sits and watch me to calm her, as by now she is in a frenzy with the running round. This afternoon she was hit and miss came back on the whistle when she was 50 feet from 2 dogs but then ignored me 10 minutes later. Gave up and put it down to the heat. I'm such a novice just worried I'm doing it all wrong. I've got Pippa's Happy Puppy and Total Recall they are just fab. So helpful I also read loads of articles. Mabel has good recall at a distance from distractions. We are getting closer to the distractions and proofing in new locations. It's slow going. I feel it is right to pop her on the lead when we meet strange dogs and if she won't come back I tend to quietly with no fuss walk up to her and pop the lead on. Any tips and advice would be welcome. I really don't want to be one of those people with absolutely no recall when my dog is with other dogs. I was chatting to a lady the other day who has a one year old stud dog for guide dogs for the blind. She said she had watched me and thought I was doing very well. And there are plenty of off days. It takes longer than anyone realises. Just felt like I'd let her down today.
Re: Mabel's training log You are doing a fab job . Training is always ongoing. Until Harley was about 12 months old she could be hit and miss some days, especially with distractions. It took a lot of training and a lot of patience (actually, I'm still proofing it on a regular basis). Keep going x
