Go ahead and admit it; you’ve never seen such a cute little dog in your entire life:). Here we are working on some heeling, fronts, and the very beginnings of sit in heel position. He is just beginning to hand me the metal scent article; separately he has...
I started Brito’s scent work a few days ago. I chose not to use the Altoids Tin method that I used with Lyra (you can see that method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj8ownH511o). Brito doesn’t like to make mistakes so I wanted to avoid having him...
Ring prep class is what I call the process of acclimating a dog to the competition ring. From my perspective, this can never start too early. Here is a video of Brito’s very first ring preparation training day. He really doesn’t have to “do”...
When I get a dog, it’s a well thought out decision. I research the breed. I research the breeders. I research the parents, pedigree and puppy. I do informal puppy testing and track the litter from birth. It’s normally a multi year process. This weekend...
Lyra is the wierdest puppy I’ve ever raised. Certainly she is helping me understand what is meant by a “fear period,” because her ups and downs are much more pronounced than what I’ve seen in my other dogs. In a two week span, she’s gone...
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...
When Lyra showed some proficiency at a series of small behaviors, I wanted to string a few together. I am starting by teaching her to pick the dumbbell up from the floor, climb on the platform, and return the dumbbell to me. Lyra has a pretty good understanding of...
I outsourced today’s lesson. You’ll understand after you see it. Here’s a video showing extremely good play skills. Four specific techniques are demonstrated; running away without holding the end of the toy (chase), “tagging” the dog...
If you take a conservative approach to raising puppies, you may not wish to read this post. You have been warned. Today Lyra was introduced to the top step of the swimming pool. I placed her on the step and helped her out. She can’t quite climb out on her own...
We’ve had an overnight transformation. Lyra decided she won’t die in her crate after all. So…we’re down to about 10 minutes of complaining when crated and then she falls asleep. As a benefit, she’s a heck of a lot better natured...
Sleep deprivation is a terrible thing. It can make a hardened trainer do things they will later regret, like placing a puppy in their bed at 1am in the morning. Then again, with the three blissful hours of sleep that followed, maybe it was a good idea after all. She...
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...
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...
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