Beckett's Journey 16-20 Weeks
Thoughts and Reflections on Training and All Things PUPPY
Although I have trained 3 Border Collies and a Puli, I still find myself reflecting on what is truly important during this first year of life. I found that training Myst to SIT every time she went out has held up all these years. I also was surprised to find that even though the doggie door is now open for my older dog, Myst still waits and asks to go out. There are so many things both good and not so good that are firmly established in the dogs.
I carefully thought about what some of these important things would be for Beckett and made sure that they were regularly trained, REWARDED and consistently asked for:
As this month progresses I find more areas that we are focusing on:
BUT what I am finding is that whatever behavior, trick or exercise I am teaching it must be broken down into is most tiny parts and train each part until he not only understands but does it to the level of correction/perfection I am looking for. These behaviors such as loose leash walking must be trained and reinforced with feedback REGULARLY or for me EVERY DAY.
Here are a few examples of what was shaped and continues to be trained regularly. Each day the level of perfection and understanding can be seen to grow and grown.
EXAMPLE 1 - PIVOT ON THE DISH
This was something that I felt was important since it not only teaches proprioception, body awareness and rear end awareness but in obedience it is the best way to teach the tight turns when doing a pivot for gloves or scent articles. It also helps with the about turns and all turn work. This was quite an interesting trick to teach.
EXAMPLE 2: LOOSE LEASH WALKING
Refer to our videos and work we did in weeks 12-16
EXAMPLE 3: DUMBBELL RETRIEVE
BUT I MUST PREFACE ALL OF THIS TO SAY, I WANT MY PUPPY TO BE ABLE TO BE A PUPPY FOR HIS FIRST YEAR... to have puppy fun; to learn to explore his world, introduce him to many new and exciting things, learn to be a good hiking buddy, to like other people, other dogs, but most of all to want to be with me, learn from me, focus on me and be my partner. To know that I am the source of all his FUN which might include work. I have never understood starting heel work training when puppies are so very young. So many dogs are so lack luster in the obedience ring or just burned out at very young ages. Some agility dogs that start doing so much training in year 1 end up with lamenesses many of which cannot be diagnosed. Even herding dogs (especially the open field dogs getting ready for the huge NURSERY CLASSES) get burned out.
VIDEO 1: PUPPY PRE-OBEDIENCE GAMES
Even though I am NOT training for obedience and NOT training heel work, this is where our dumbbell game, pivots and loose leash walking have taken us.
VIDEO 2: FIND IT Game and Putting Objects in a Container: The Find It game I have used with my last Border Collie as a way to do a fun game in the house when it we could not go out. It progressed to other rooms, then the outside courtyard. Then I noticed that Myst was following my scent to where I put the object she was to find. Eventually we started the Utility in obedience scent articles and she picked it up correctly each time. Great game for finding a scented article. Also like the game of putting objects in a box or container so we started the balls in the container. Beckett picked this up very quickly. My goal is to introduce something new at least once a week if not more.
VIDEO 3: PUPPY NOSEWORK FUN FOR LEARNING HOW TO SEARCH FOR SCENTS AND FIND OBEDIENCE UTILITY ARTICLES: Carolyn, Beckett's breeder introduced the very young puppies to many different scents. When I got Beckett at 8 weeks old I introduced him to BIRCH scent in a tin with the It's Yer Choice game that Stacy Barnett taught us in beginning NW class. He seemed to understand choosing the scent over the treats in my hand. I progressed this very slowly to then see if he could discriminate between a tin without scent and the tin with birch. He did this well and I decided to progress to containers. The large plastic container he thought he was suppose to perch on so I went to the very small container and from my hand shaped him to touch his nose to the container. He knows the nose touch. Over the last 2 months he has progressed to what you see in this video. All the dogs LOVE nose work. In the 3rd video you will see how he is now using his nose to find the easily hidden dumbbell in the "FIND IT" game.
VIDEO 4: BECKETT'S BALLS IN SMALL CONTAINER GAME. Beckett has been learning over the last few weeks to put balls in a container. You will see us start this in the 2nd video below. This is where he is at today a few weeks later. Fun game.
VIDEO 5: BECKETT'S TRICKS FOR BODY AWARENESS, PROPRIOCEPTION, AND FUN: These are games/tricks we do to help with Beckett's body awareness especially his rear end awareness -- and PROPRIOCEPTION. The first trick of putting all 4 feet on a different paw pod took awhile to do but now he can just hop on. The second on with his 4 feet in a dish started when we was very young getting into a box that got progressively smaller over the last few weeks. He always loved getting into that box. Then the final one is his progression of rotating on the pivot/perch and learning to come to each side of me. All fun that you will see he really enjoys and engages with me.
I carefully thought about what some of these important things would be for Beckett and made sure that they were regularly trained, REWARDED and consistently asked for:
- sitting at the door before going out
- sitting for his dinner and making eye contact with me before he is released to his food
- going to his crate or x-pen HAPPILY whenever we say "house."
- greeting people happily and without fear when they come into the house
- greeting people when he goes to other places
- LOOSE LEASH WALKING... which will continue to be used as we start to do more and little longer leash walks on trails.. NEVER PULLING... The leash can never be tight. NO FLEXI
- REINFORCEMENT ZONE for rewards
- RECALLS in more and more distracting places... THE VALUE OF RECALLS MUST NEVER BE FORGOTTEN
- It's YER choice continuing to newer things
- THIS MONTH: beginning of a SIT STAY.. so important for the new games we are doing especially with nose work.
- CRATE GAMES is such a great tool for so much of this work.
- Nail trimming myself with Dremmel ---- Yes... he lets me do it with a little peanut butter in a spoon. We do this with daily brushing. He is loosing his puppy coat.
As this month progresses I find more areas that we are focusing on:
- Working and playing on grass. There are so many smells that puppies love to explore, if they have never grown up on grass this can be a major distraction when taking them anywhere. All the things we worked on for loose leash walking and other games easily get forgotten. So we are going to places with grass and starting slowing with new and very HIGH VALUE TREATS and the clicker to mark the focus, attention and interaction.
- SIT STAY before an activity: I am finding that many of the things I do require the dog to sit and wait until released. Like a dog needs to learn to do at the start line in agility. This is true for so many activities. We are using crate games for this and also working with a camping dog bed to sit on and wait until released.
- Taking the excellent DOGMANTICS online course on MANNERS. Read about this in my Blog called Progressive Reinforcement. Several of the areas I have looked at are high on our daily schedule. Having an "interrupter" noise for behavior you do not want such as biting in play with me, biting my toes in sandals, barking to get other dogs in the family to play. Excellent, excellent way to help change a behavior.
- In DOGMANTICS we are also learning how to teach the puppy to greet people without jumping up on them.
- FIND IT GAME: I played this game with Myst when she was a little older where she was in the crate in one room and I hid her ball in another room. Since Beckett loves the dumbbell and retrieving it I started the FIND IT game with a dumbbell. First put it in the next room easy to find and now have progressed to several rooms away, harder to find and a little elevated on something sometimes. Excellent game for utility scent articles. Myst moved so easily into scent articles when I started this work with her. I can see Beckett using his nose to find the hidden DB. Now that I see him doing this I am starting to scent it. See video below.
- Short walks in the forest or near our house (15-20 minutes) where he has to stay on a loose leash and NOT CHASE deer or other animals.
BUT what I am finding is that whatever behavior, trick or exercise I am teaching it must be broken down into is most tiny parts and train each part until he not only understands but does it to the level of correction/perfection I am looking for. These behaviors such as loose leash walking must be trained and reinforced with feedback REGULARLY or for me EVERY DAY.
Here are a few examples of what was shaped and continues to be trained regularly. Each day the level of perfection and understanding can be seen to grow and grown.
EXAMPLE 1 - PIVOT ON THE DISH
This was something that I felt was important since it not only teaches proprioception, body awareness and rear end awareness but in obedience it is the best way to teach the tight turns when doing a pivot for gloves or scent articles. It also helps with the about turns and all turn work. This was quite an interesting trick to teach.
- First he had to learn to put his feet on something like a dish; flat dish became elevated
- Next learn to move his back feet in either direction
- Then to move more and more around the dish until he was doing a complete circle.
- Now we are working on coming around to my side into correct position for heel work and all beginning exercises. Initially I was not apart of this but only luring him to help him better understand.
- THIS HAS TAKEN A LONG TIME TO TEACH TO GET TO WHERE WE ARE AT IN THE VIDEO BELOW, but we worked on it once a day.
EXAMPLE 2: LOOSE LEASH WALKING
Refer to our videos and work we did in weeks 12-16
EXAMPLE 3: DUMBBELL RETRIEVE
- This started as a game to get Beckett to chase the dumbbell in a small room.
- I offered all 3 types of dumbbells: wood, metal and leather right from the beginning
- I started clicking for when he brought it closer and closer
- Now I am asking for him to put it in my hand
- Again, something we practice almost daily
BUT I MUST PREFACE ALL OF THIS TO SAY, I WANT MY PUPPY TO BE ABLE TO BE A PUPPY FOR HIS FIRST YEAR... to have puppy fun; to learn to explore his world, introduce him to many new and exciting things, learn to be a good hiking buddy, to like other people, other dogs, but most of all to want to be with me, learn from me, focus on me and be my partner. To know that I am the source of all his FUN which might include work. I have never understood starting heel work training when puppies are so very young. So many dogs are so lack luster in the obedience ring or just burned out at very young ages. Some agility dogs that start doing so much training in year 1 end up with lamenesses many of which cannot be diagnosed. Even herding dogs (especially the open field dogs getting ready for the huge NURSERY CLASSES) get burned out.
VIDEO 1: PUPPY PRE-OBEDIENCE GAMES
Even though I am NOT training for obedience and NOT training heel work, this is where our dumbbell game, pivots and loose leash walking have taken us.
VIDEO 2: FIND IT Game and Putting Objects in a Container: The Find It game I have used with my last Border Collie as a way to do a fun game in the house when it we could not go out. It progressed to other rooms, then the outside courtyard. Then I noticed that Myst was following my scent to where I put the object she was to find. Eventually we started the Utility in obedience scent articles and she picked it up correctly each time. Great game for finding a scented article. Also like the game of putting objects in a box or container so we started the balls in the container. Beckett picked this up very quickly. My goal is to introduce something new at least once a week if not more.
VIDEO 3: PUPPY NOSEWORK FUN FOR LEARNING HOW TO SEARCH FOR SCENTS AND FIND OBEDIENCE UTILITY ARTICLES: Carolyn, Beckett's breeder introduced the very young puppies to many different scents. When I got Beckett at 8 weeks old I introduced him to BIRCH scent in a tin with the It's Yer Choice game that Stacy Barnett taught us in beginning NW class. He seemed to understand choosing the scent over the treats in my hand. I progressed this very slowly to then see if he could discriminate between a tin without scent and the tin with birch. He did this well and I decided to progress to containers. The large plastic container he thought he was suppose to perch on so I went to the very small container and from my hand shaped him to touch his nose to the container. He knows the nose touch. Over the last 2 months he has progressed to what you see in this video. All the dogs LOVE nose work. In the 3rd video you will see how he is now using his nose to find the easily hidden dumbbell in the "FIND IT" game.
VIDEO 4: BECKETT'S BALLS IN SMALL CONTAINER GAME. Beckett has been learning over the last few weeks to put balls in a container. You will see us start this in the 2nd video below. This is where he is at today a few weeks later. Fun game.
VIDEO 5: BECKETT'S TRICKS FOR BODY AWARENESS, PROPRIOCEPTION, AND FUN: These are games/tricks we do to help with Beckett's body awareness especially his rear end awareness -- and PROPRIOCEPTION. The first trick of putting all 4 feet on a different paw pod took awhile to do but now he can just hop on. The second on with his 4 feet in a dish started when we was very young getting into a box that got progressively smaller over the last few weeks. He always loved getting into that box. Then the final one is his progression of rotating on the pivot/perch and learning to come to each side of me. All fun that you will see he really enjoys and engages with me.
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