PUPPY TRAIN BLOG

Last Saturday Candy did much better at training, she is starting to settle in.  On the way to training, I needed to make a stop at Pets Mart for dog food.  I decided even though it would make me a bit late, it was worth it for Candy to be taken inside the store.  Pets Mart is a great place to take a dog with you for extra socialization.  I normally do this with pups and would recommend people expose your pups to this.  I will normally expose them at about 4 to 6 months of age.  Candy did have her hair up about 50% of the time while we were in the store, with tiny breeds pulling out on leash yapping and excited, she wasn’t quite sure what to think of this place.  She was good and stayed with me, not pulling to get away from the area.  She did settle down as I totally ignored her and made her walk with me and the cart, as I ignored the yapping of the little dogs.

Pets Mart can be a good training place to help social behavior.  Remember to not praise or pet your pup/dog unless they are in a calm state, under control, and to keep them moving until you see the calm state.

Once her hair was down and calm we headed towards the checkout.  By the time we were waiting in line, there were people in front and back of us and she did well, so much so that the people behind us made a comment about how well behaved she was.    Well they hadn’t seen her at the beginning, but I was watchfull even though ignoring her insecurities.  I was not about to head to the checkout till the hair went down, so continued moving through isles keeping her on the side away from others for the time being, not allowing her to get close to any dog or person till she did.  She needed to pay attention to me, not others in the store, I kept the leash short having her heel beside me.  The people in line ask if they could pet her, I said yes because she was in a calm state, or I would have told them NO and explained that it would be praising a bad state of mind.  Once I had even noticed Candy had calmed down (hair down) I did say to her, “that’s it” and pet her in the store.  Candy needs more of this and I will take her with me when I shop there again.

As I have worked with Candy, I have noticed even with her running to get something I have thrown, she just is not very fast about doing it.  I know this dog has some speed, as Parker tests her running out in front of her just to see if she can catch him.  At this point Parker’s speed bursts are much much faster than Candy, he will slow down for her to catch up, plus Parker can overtake her very quickly if she is the one that takes off first.  I feel this will change more as she gets used to playing with Parker more, you can tell she is not totally confident, I am guessing this may be to the size difference, I am not sure.  Time will tell with them out playing for short peroids during the day to run in the yard.

I plan to get Candy used to my ball launch, to try to help her in this area.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7965201

Why do I use a ball launch?  Cause I am just to old, and my arm gives out fast, plus I can shoot it farther with this ball launch.  Once I have Candy used to this ball launch, my plan is to bring Parker out and they will compete running to get the ball.  I am hoping this helps Candy’s desire to run faster to get something, plus I know Parker will win… he brings the ball back before another one is launched, also a good thing to learn on retrieving.

Will it work?  Again who knows, it did seem to work with pups, I will test it and see.  I sure hope it works, I really don’t want to try to come up with another idea to try to build this drive to race to get something before anyone else does.  Before I even try putting them to that challenge, Candy needs training to understand it.   This is training I usually start with my pups at a young age.. I did a video of beginning training, combined with group challenge with another pup I had trained.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTKRu_yFiMk

I am hoping for the same end result with Candy.  We will see if it works with older dogs.

Candy doesn’t want to hang onto anything with a firm deep grip.  She does constant bites more towards the front of her mouth and often drops something right away.  I have gotten her to start bringing me things in the house.  I am trying to move our training more outside.  I am also introducing the dumbbell to Candy.  Candy is good about taking something when I ask her to.  This is another very very short exercise I am trying with Candy to try to get her to hold on to something, calmly and firmly.  I support the bottom of her mouth, along with gently putting some steady pressure on the top of her nose, asking her to stop the bite bite bite on something in her mouth.  Once she is pretty calm with this I stroke her nose telling her good.

I also am trying to get Candy to get used to possitioning of being close in front of me holding the dumbbell with her head up, as this should be her position after a retrieve.  This clip isn’t very good, but it does demonstrate the type of things I am trying with her, this is the first time we did this move.  Again, my work with her in this area was super short and only once, the length of this clip is less than a minute, and we are done.   I plan on doing this move several times a day with her.  Will it work?  Who knows… but again, it can’t hurt, as long as she is a willing player, and she is.  I am just trying to give Candy an understanding of certain training items she will be dealing with in the future.  I don’t want to over work anything.  I feel if I keep things super short with her, and more play, her understanding will grow, and hopefully she won’t develope a bad taste for any of what I am doing.  She is cooperating with me in all areas so far, and I feel doing well with what I am asking of her.  We will see if it helps or not in her progress.

Video:  http://vonjacobs.com/dumbbell

Since Candy has been off leash on the farm a few days, I decided to step up her training in some areas.  I had been making her jump over a very low jump and walk over an A frame laying flat on the ground during our leash walks.  After she was off leash, I also had her do these things just with me telling her, and she did.  I have now put the A frame up in the yard, and also have raised the height of the jump.  Since I did this, I will now go back to, first on leash, the reason I am going back to leash, is because things have changed, I want to make sure Candy does what I am asking I don’t want her to fail, the leash helps give me control to make sure it happens.  My training with Candy consists of 1 to 5 minutes each time I work with her.  Very short periods of time, done several times a day.  The rest of the time I spend with Candy playing, trying to build her desire to play with me, so that I can eventually combine the play and work together, that she will have fun after she has an understanding.  The short exercises I am working, to try to get her to understand certain things is:

1.  When we jump one direction, we always turn around and jump the other direction.

I feel if I am consistant requiring both directions only once on each item then we are done, she just might understand if she jumps one way, she must return and jump the other way, that is the goal.  I am not sure if it will work, but it can’t hurt, and hopefully she will just automatically do it on her own that is the goal.  If and when I see that, then I know it worked.  I was glad I had the leash on.

video:  http://vonjacobs.com/JumpsCandy

I did this short video clip calling Candy to come around from the lower level to the deck area.  This gal takes shortcuts!  I think we should be OK in the jumps she will need to clear for Schutzhund.

Video: Wall Jump

It was a big day yesterday, as we met for tracking and training.  This made Candy-Candu’s 3rd time to be there.  We again laid her a short track, she did well, however the thing that impressed me this time, was that she is starting to understand the toy at the end of the track (play reward)  She actually played just a bit with me hanging onto the toy tugging.  Again, Ron spent time going up to her and messing with her here and there throughout training.  Ron and I both track our males, his dog Johann and my male Sir Parker.  Tracking was good for everyone.

Candy-Candu got tied out to a tree once again to watch as Johann and Parker worked protection.  She was really showing interest, so at one point, David went over to her to tease her.  I couldn’t believe it, he got her barking at him and everything.  David mentioned he saw in her last Saturday at training just for a moment, she had,  I think he called it a “defensive edge” to her that he saw it in her eyes.  It always amazes me, what top trainers are able to see compared to just the things I notice.  It is not just recognizing it, but then they are able to use what they notice to get the desired effect.  Now that is impressive, haha and that is what I love to watch.  I really don’t think I would ever be able to see what they see, but I am smart enough to find the trainers that can, so I do give myself credit for that.

I have been trying to stick to somewhat of a routine, with our walks, making her jump the Aframe laying flat… also a short jump. Candu will now jump these things without me stepping over them with her now… just by telling her to jump. I have her bringing me her toys to play working on retrieve inside… she is doing well, we are at about 75% of the time now will she bring me what I toss, so each day she improves. When she stops bringing it to me, I stop playing. I notice with doing that, now the time gets more and more extended that she will retrieve. I want her to know I will play but she must listen also. So far that is working, so will continue.

She is starting to relax a bit more now inside and not spook at as much, so she is starting to feel a bit more comfortable in her surroundings. She still wants to get the remote controls, grab things off the tables… I am still using my verbal “AT AT” and giving her, her toys. I will be glad to get her on an ecollar, but it is important first she understand my tones of disapproval as well as my tones of praise and doing something right. So will continue for now as we are, and just really keep my eye on her as I have been