Brito Ring Prep

I took Brito to his weekly ring prep class today.  A miracle happened. For two minutes and fifty three seconds, he stayed in the ring with me and focused on his job.  He did not run off to visit dogs outside of the ring.  He did not  leave work to look for a promising...

Brito: Balancing movement with control

The past few weeks I concentrated on a few things with Brito: Play with toys. That is coming along pretty well. Less good outside but hey, he’s  a baby. Play with me.  That also suffers outside, but still…we’ll get there. Retrieve.  Super!  Good boy...

Brito – more shaped retrieve and beginning proofing

I have introduced Brito to a few more retrieve concepts. I’m now (gently!) pushing him away before starting the retrieve – this encourages Brito to move in a forward direction after he puts his mouth on the bar.  If you don’t do this step, many dogs...

Brito home

  You can meet Brito in the following three videos.  I chopped out the 80% where he sort of wandered about and behaved much like a puppy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is0d9zZ7qnY (tug) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZOn_w2lnxk (beginning of heeling)...

Lyra 6 months – distraction training

I do not consider distraction training to be a unique stage of training; it is part of the overall process.  Distraction training starts from the day I bring a puppy home, whether I wish to work on distractions or not. Regardless, there are periods in training where I...

Lyra – 6 months

Lyra is six months old now; a lot has happened in the four months that I’ve had her. I’m delighted to see that she appears to be through her “wierd puppy” stage.  She’s consistently social with people and confident in new situations...

Lyra – 5 months – Schutzhund preparation

Along with Lyra’s adult teeth came a brain.  A very nice combination. Her worries disappeared – almost overnight.  Everywhere I’ve taken her this week she’s been a rock. With people, she’s even more social than she was as a very small...

Lyra 4.75 months: my good dog is back – today anyway

Today I took Lyra for training with a few other trainers, and she was brilliant. She wasn’t afraid of anything.  She wasn’t hyper attracted to the other people and dogs present.  She needed very little sightseeing time before asking to work.  Her interest...

Lyra 4.5 months – I Want My Good Puppy Back

Right now, Lyra has about one great session for every three mediocre ones.  There seem to be several things going on. For starters, she’s teething.  I think that makes her feel a little off. She is also in something of a fear period.  I can’t work her in...

Lyra – Working Through Fear

Today’s blog post was supposed to be a video illustration on teaching a dog to “out” (let go) of a toy. Lyra had other ideas.  She decided that my video assistant, Katie, was a potentially scary person, and playing with me and my silly toys was not as important as...

Lyra – 17 weeks

Wow; almost four months old now!  Lyra is losing her baby teeth and her soft, furry wool.  I miss the wool.  The baby teeth…not so much. When I brought Lyra home, I focused on her tug and retrieve skills.  Playing tug was easy since Lyra was born with talent in...

Lyra – 16 weeks, starting opposition reflex

Lyra is pretty good at paying attention to me, especially if I’m holding food or toys.  If I’m playing with her, I can usually get her to drive back to me with her toys for more interaction – she loves to tug and she understands that I’m a big...

Lyra – 15.5 weeks – working “out and about”

Lyra has worked away from home about ten times now.  Finding the “toy on a stick” was excellent luck, because she loves that thing. For those who have five minutes to kill and an interest in puppy training, I’ll go through this video with you, step...

Lyra – Week 2, day 5

Today’s post was supposed to include a video of my brilliant puppy.  It didn’t turn out quite as planned. For starters, I forgot to do something with the kids.  So, predictably, they showed up within a few minutes.  Since this is not unusual and I usually...

Lyra – Week 2, Day 4

Lyra has reached some important milestones in her training. About three days ago she figured out that she could “work” me.  She started climbing on her platform with the intent of getting me to start play.  Until then, it appeared she was simply happy...

Lyra – Week 1, Day 4

Sleep is improving by the hour!  I still have to get up every few hours to let her potty, but the screaming is minimal now. Today she visited my son’s school.  We went early in the morning, so there were very few kids around.  After 10 minutes I took her home....

Lyra – Week 1

Her lungs won’t stop and her bladder wont’ start. Well, that’s not exactly true.  But last night…that was a long night.  As far as pee, she goes several hours between.  I’ve never had a puppy like that, but it’s only day 2. She can...

Puppy Gaetz

I’m jealous; here’s my student’s new puppy getting started.  I still have to wait a few weeks before mine arrives.  Here’s the kind of stuff I’ll do early on in the puppy’s career: This puppy’s lesson is split between tug,...