Saturday, July 7, 2012

Day Two -- I'm Down With That

Oh man, it's been another busy day. Luna is one smart cookie and picks up on things pretty fast.

We continued to work on down. One way to teach it is to start out luring them into the position with a treat. Once she gets the hang of that I switch to a hand signal followed by marking the correct behavior with a "yes" and giving her a treat. When she is doing well with the hand signal (with no treat in my hand), I can start to transition her to a verbal cue.

I always start out giving the verbal cue first before making any motions to her. If I move or produce a treat, she's not going to hear what I am saying. I also want to give her time to process what I am asking. She's just a baby and it takes a bit for her to think through what I am asking of her. So I say, "Luna, down" and then pause. If she looks like she is thinking hard about it, I'll give her a little bit of time. If I get the blank stare, I'll go right into the hand signal.

Yeah, well, no blank stare from her. She started doing it on a verbal cue today. If it's a distracting environment or she gets a little confused, I might follow up with a hand signal to help her out. But I'm not going to go back to luring her into the down...ever. If you can't get a dog to comply and you whip out a treat to help them, they will quickly learn to wait you out for that treat. Then you are stuck depending on having treats with you at all times to get her to comply. If she is struggling and you can't get her to do something, look around at your environment to see what might be wrong. Is it too distracting? Have you gone too far too fast? Is it in a place where she has not done it before? You might need to step away and re approach.

When puppies play, they use their feet a lot.


They don't always understand that it's not appropriate to do that with humans. It's natural for them to want to get closer to us as they are trying to gain attention or you have something they want. I try really hard, though, to not use my hands or legs to push them off. Using our hands and legs is not that different from when they play with each other and, if a dog is trying to get attention, touching them gives them that attention and reinforces the behavior. I can either stand up and turn away from her, lean in towards her, or walk away from her if she jumps on me. All fun and play should stop if she is jumping. She'll repeat behavior that works for her and, if she doesn't get the attention she wants, she'll stop the behavior.

I also like to teach puppies to automatically sit when they approach people. If people repeatedly lure her into a sit when she approaches them, that will be a behavior she will repeat because it pays off well for her.

Using their mouth in play is also a very normal puppy behavior. But they also use this to communicate with others. Puppies will bite if you are doing something they don't care for, like picking them up, grooming them, restraining them, etc. When they do this, I still say "ouch" but I do not stop what I am doing. I do not want the puppy to learn that biting works for her. So, if I pick her up while she's playing and she doesn't like it and bites me, I say "ouch" and wait for her to stop. When she is calm and no longer has her mouth on me, I will put her down. That gives me a clue that I need to work a little more on handling with her in that particular area. So I might practice picking her up and giving her a treat so she starts to associate that with a happy thing. Note: This is for adults only! Children should not be picking up the puppy or restraining her. The adults are the only ones who should be doing handling exercises with the puppy.

Another adult only activity is playing tug and trading treats for toys. When we play tug, I start and end the game. She also needs to drop when I ask or the game is over. To teach her, I say "Luna, drop" and put a treat to her nose. When she drops, I say "yes" and give her the treat and put the toy behind my back. Then I give her toy back and tell her to get it. I can do this periodically with her other toys as well. Instead of her thinking, "These people always come and take my good stuff away," I want her to think "I love when these people take things away because it really pays off for me." These exercises will help her to share her things and it will make it so much easier to retrieve stolen things from her.

We also got some good socializing in today. It's important that she meet a wide variety of people and other animals in a safe and healthy manner. Be careful about which animals you introduce her to and make sure they are good with puppies. Some older dogs can over correct a puppy for their puppy behavior and traumatize the puppy. A good older dog will correct a puppy for their behavior by being vocal but not using their teeth. This girl is just a puppy herself and very good with other dogs. And she looks different. It's good for Luna to realize they don't all look like cute little labs.

Another exhausting day here at summer camp. I don't think she had any idea it was going to be this much work!

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