Pup pup - video at 7 weeks - July 2013

Fluffy fur ball pup pup - age 7 weeks July 2013

Adventures at the dog park!

So I took the puppies out to 1000 acres last night. I didn't want to do another boring training session and just wanted to have some fun with the puppies.

Both dogs were really good. The only thing I want to discourage is them running up to dogs/people without my permission. At the same time I kind of want to encourage this behavior for socialization reasons. SO I have to think about that.

Lucy is really good and seems to understand that most of the time she should be by my side walking. I'm actually really surprised about how much she seems to understand that this is what she's supposed to do. So I'd say she has a good basic concept of loose leash walking :) Enough so that soon we should be working on heel. It's like overnight she is no longer darting in every distraction, staying by my side, and occasionally investigating X. So good foundation to build on. Especially as she grows, gets bigger, gets more adventurous, gets braver, gets more rebellious. Stay tuned. :)

Honestly, I have to say that teaching loose leash walking is one of the most boring/time consuming training things. But we'll practice a few more times C&T around the pond so she really gets it.

I guess really I should be working on distractions to. Like when dogs dart off at the dog park. Or start pulling on the least all of a sudden because of a distraction. Like it would be really great if pup pup would give me a look asking for permission to go engage in said distraction before taking off. Not sure how to teach this exactly but I have an idea...

Mostly this is what this blog is about. Raising puppy, realizing I need to teach certain things, and then through trial and error figuring how in the world to get puppy to realize to do X is the best thing ever.

Loose leash walking

Okay, so I have always taught a dog to not pull on the leash either by pulling on the leash a million times or using a a halti leader. Halti leader I have found was a miracle!

But here I am experimenting with using a clicker. Last night I followed the instructions using this article:

http://www.clickerlessons.com/looseleash.htm

We took a walk around the pond and I clicked and treated a lot for her walking beside me. I tried to treat while in motion. Previously on taking her on walks, I haven't focused on loose leash walking just exercise with one of those long retractable leashes. She only got her shots 2.5 weeks ago so she hasn't been walked much up to this point.

I was surprised by how well she did. Granted, I felt really awkward and silly training this way. There were a few times she would run and sniff stuff (retractable leash) and I would just practice the come command when she did that. 

Overall she did really well. It was nighttime and minimal distractions. So I guess ill just practice this a few times even though its kind of awkward.

The only thing I don't like is I would just prefer to go out and take puppy to the park and run around and exercise and have fun with her. This training exercise took up a lot of time. So I hope it actually works. But I do realize I need to put focused attention into training her.

Anyone have any suggestions? I feel like puppy will get the general idea of I follow this through but just curious what everyone else's thoughts are on training loose leash walking.

Tiny Itty Bitty Lucy - pics taken 6/30/13

Below are pictures of the first day I met the puppy that would eventually come home with us! Here's Lucy is maybe 3 pounds or so. She was the runt of the litter for sure!! Keep in mind she was only 5.9 pounds on gotcha day at 11 weeks.

More on that later :p

Lucy's Dad

Lucy's mom

Lucy at 5 weeks 

Training goals

Absolute top priority is to eventually have a solid recall!! Lucy knows (with minimal distractions) come, sit, stay, down... and as of last night... Shake!

This week I want to start working on:
• Building up to out of sight stays. Right now she can stay for several minutes as long as she can see me
• Practice come on walks when using long leash (minimal/low medium distractions)
• Loose leash walking (right now zero concept)
• Heel (right now zero concept)
• Shake (more practice, get her to do it with both paws)

Eventually I want to work on the below as well. This list is more of a reminder for me to teach her. Because I always think oh-duh I haven't taught her that yet. But then comes training time and I forget what I wanted to work on,

• Off
• Wait
• Touch
• Up up (lol - eventually have her be able to turn off the lights for when I'm really lazy!!)
• Jump
• Drop-it
• Put it away
• Pick it up

Training Lucy is really fun. More than anything I want a dog that I can take up to the dog park and she will come no matter what. I'm going to try really hard to work on this one the most. I don't plan on taking any fancy dog courses (maybe a recall class if it seemed really amazing)

Lucy learns to shake!

So I taught my puppy to shake last night! Using a clicker for the first time. Seems like she got the hang of it pretty quick :).