This is Ziva, a 12 week old Australian Cattle Dog.
Here are a few clips from her first lesson. She is learning how to stand on a platform, how to retrieve a dumbbell and how to play with a toy (plus give it back!). These are all foundation skills that will serve her well down the road.
In a thirty minute lesson, we go back and forth between these three concepts. Rotating keeps the attention of a puppy, and I believe it helps them learn faster.
Another very promising baby!
Don’t know if you’ve seen it, but Michele Pouliot has a nice DVD on platform training.
I love watching puppies work.
What a cutie! Out of curiosity do you ever throw treats to reset the dogs instead of using your body?
Yes Laura; that would have worked as well. This puppy isn’t terribly food motivated, so throwing food would likely have her cruising around the room doing anything but work. For a food motivated dog, throwing light colored food on the dark floor and then bringing them back works quite well. I was actually surprised that she worked for treats; I had expected we would be working for a toy.
What a lovely lesson! I love how thriled the mom was when the puppy put her mouth on the dumbbell — I’ve felt that, too. 🙂
Denise, I can’t wait until your seminar this weekend! The help you gave us with heeling last month has worked wonders. Dragon did his first rally course today! I rewarded him with a tug every 2-3 signs — we still need to build his stamina for heeling for longer periods — but he was right there with me, so beautifully. 🙂 I could hardly believe it; with my previous dog we trained twice as long to get to this point!
awesome fun!
i love puppies cattle dogs and watching people train well – great timing!
Fantastic training session Denise!!! Loved watching an owner that can follow good directions as well and seeing how thrilled she was at their accomplishments:o)
By the way, my handicapped GSD Kash goes absolutely nuts when he hears your voice on these videos…he gets soooo excited and runs to the computer room to find out “Where is that fun sounding lady?” hahaha
I love being able to see you working with a young puppy at the start-thanks so much for letting us share, that looked like it worked so nicely the moving from one thing to another and keeping the energy/excitement level high so both the handler and puppy stayed happy and engaged-just how it should be.
Wow, thanks for sharing that! That puppy is off to a good start.
Ohmahgah! I want a puppy! Such fun to have a lump of virgin clay like that. What do you use being *fully* on the platform for? Is it eventually for turn-and-sits?
yes, plus whatever it comes in handy for. Or nothing at all…it’s a nice beginning skill.