Today it was another freezing morning but sunny.
07:30am – He was very noisy but that as always it is a full bladder issue. Keep in mind he will be 9 weeks old tomorrow; sleeping in a crate for 9 hours is a HUGE accomplishment. The key is to not respond when he is yelping – I wait for even a 5 second span of silence and then he’s out doing his thing.
Then we walked, he pooped, we came back, he drank some water and came with me to get his breakfast. We walked to the kennel, I gave him his breakfast.
11:00am – Session 1 we worked place, house, whistle recall, kennel and ultimate workout. He was incredible!! He ate his full cup of the dry kibble.
We worked crate and place in the back porch – just like yesterday. I asked him to go into random crates in random positions and he was successful. Each behavior we train has it’s own trajectory – meaning the house behavior will progress as time goes on. From saying the command and leading him through success to giving the verbal command and him having to find the crate and then get in.
He then got interested in “his” pine cone – not sure why but he loves it. It’s in the training field, he gets it and carrys it around and then leaves it in the field.
We a recall as a walker walked by. As the walker came into our field of vision Babe stopped paying attention to me and started paying attention to the walker. His ears were up and he walked a few steps toward the walker and was watching. Before he split I hit him with the recall – he had reflex response and got rewarded. It’s very important not to “test” your puppy – you have to be alert and set them up for success. When they’re older you can test them but at this age, you have to do everything in your power to make sure the puppy wins. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
We then did ultimate workout with multiple balls – he killed it. His 2 favorite balls are the full size kong ball with the broken squeeker (it bounces around inside) and the soft plastic ball.
4:00pm – Session 2. Babe was waiting when I went to get him out of the kennel. That is always a good sign because it shows he now knows a schedule and they are ready to get to work.
Again I started off the first few behaviors with ones Z had worked with him, and that they were a strong rate of success. After we were done I took him over to the training field. Here I really wanted to work 2 behaviors. Down and Stay. He did excellent in both and by the end he would go into a down (with prompting) and then stay in that position for 5 seconds which was really good for a puppy so young and only working the behavior a few times.
I then spent some time with him walking. As puppies do he would nip at my boots. This is normal behavior for them as they are used to being in a litter with other puppies and this is just what they do and how they play. We worked on him understanding that nipping my boots was not allowed and was reinforced for simply walking next to me. He did well with this but will definitely need more work.
Babe is very smart. He is stimulated by learning new things and being in new environments. Great session today.
5:30pm – play time and dinner.
8:00pm – play time and walk.
10:00pm – play time and walk.