April Visit -- Day 2

We worked hard to day on distinctions. Zoltie gets so excited to see people that he sometimes jumps up on them. We are still focusing a lot on teaching him the alternate behavior of sitting for greetings so lots and lots of praise and pets when he offers that behavior. If he forgets and jumps, just a quick turn away from him while I'm saying "ah!" I want to make sure he knows I don't care for that behavior but the sitting, I love the sitting.

Continuing with the "say please" exercises help a lot too. Want outside? Sit please. Want your food? Sit please. Want the water bowl filled? Sit please. Want your leash on? Sit please. Want attention from me? Sit please. With lots of reinforcement he'll soon learn that sitting is a great way to get what he wants.

Another distinction we are working on is the distinction of the threshold. I like to have a physical cue for the dog to know which line to stay behind when I am first teaching "wait." In this case, I can use the bottom of the dog gate so he has a clear idea of the boundaries. I teach him by using my body to block him from going through the threshold and rewarding him when he remains on the other side. He can sit, lay down, or walk around, he just can't cross the threshold. It's a little bit different from a "stay" where he should stay in his position (sit or down).

It's a good thing Zoltie doesn't mind sharing. As I'm typing this, I look at the dog bed behind my desk and he's laying on top of Rosario. Silly boy...certainly no distinction of personal space. Rosario seems quite content having a Zoltie blanket on her and Rhett was perfecting comfortable sharing the water bowl with him. Good boys!

We have definitely worn Zoltie out this weekend! So much to do here...

Looks like he's ready to go home and rest up from his mini-vacation.

April Visit -- Day 1

Oh my goodness, he's grown! It's always fun seeing puppies again to see how much they've grown and to see how well they are doing. Zoltie is definitely going to be bigger than expected.

It's clear he's kept up with his socialization because he had no trouble at all adjusting to the environment and new dogs.

Of course there were old friends in addition to the new friends. Rosario and Zoltie were very happy to see one another. But look how much bigger Zoltie is than Rosario!

And the new friends? Just his speed! Really nice, even playing. Lots of give and take. Little bit of humping but, you know, it's exciting to play all your friends. So just a quick redirection is all that is needed.

Certainly a great way to get some energy out so we can be a little more focused for our lessons.

Now that we are right in the middle of adolescence, we need all the help we can get. It's common to to get "the look" at this stage. You know the one, the one that says he's contemplating if he wants to comply with a request or not. So keeping his training fun and following through with him are going help quite a bit right now. The first time we did a session of "stay" today, he walked away from me like he had never heard that word before in his life. Quickly retrieving him and leading him back to the spot of the original request got his brain engaged again. After that he was happy to work on "stay" and we made much better progress with super short, fun sessions.

Enough with that "stay" stuff! We mixed it up throughout the day to help him stay engaged.

Don't tell Zoltie, but, as always, his play sessions are a time to learn too. He's still doing really well with his name recognition and coming when called. Good boy!

Now time to rest. The Three Musketeers have a lot on their agenda for tomorrow.

Second Visit Day 2 -- The End Already?

This visit was even shorter than the last. Too short for us...we're all going to miss Zoltie.

He's been having a great time with his friends and learning to play appropriately. No pinning another dog for more than a few seconds. Not too much vocalization. Lots of good give and take. So many rules to learn...

The play gives us excellent opportunities to practice his recall. He had a hard time "checking in" with me when he first got here and needed some reminders about recalls but not he's doing it just great. I can hide in the house while he's playing with the other dogs and call him to come. He's lightening fast!

But sometimes having his friends around, even when they are not in the same room, can prove to be a challenge. Something dog trainers hear frequently is "But he does that so well at home." Simply being away from home can be more distracting for dogs. They also do not generalize what they have learned very well so practice in a variety of locations is very important. It teaches the dog that "stay" means "stay" at home and "stay" away from home.

One little trick to stays is teaching the dog to lie in a relaxed position with his hip out (instead of square up on the hips). This teaches him to settle into the position. It's also helpful to catch him naturally in the position and reward him by praising him and slowly stroking him all the way down his back.

Another thing to remember is that he is heading into adolescence. It may seem like he will have forgot everything you taught him or maybe he keeps testing to see how much he can get away with. I like to use mistakes as teaching opportunities. If you follow through with his lessons, it's a chance to make sure he really solidly knows what you are asking of him. So stay not only means "sit" or "down" but also means to not move out of that position. He wouldn't have a full understanding of that if he never had an opportunity to get up and have someone redirect him back into position.

Adolescence doesn't last long and pretty soon you have that bright, attentive dog back who still has all the foundations from the lessons you taught.

Until next time Zoltie...we'll see how big you are then.

Second Visit Day 1 -- He's Back!!!

Zoltie's back!!! And we are so happy to see him. He's just a sweet guy and it looks like he's been working hard since he left.

Because he gets a little car sick, we decided to stop off on the way home to get some socialization done. Poor Zoltie does not like getting in the car. He probably has an association with feeling nauseated with the car (similar to the way we feel about a certain kind of food or restaurant after we get food poisoning). I think that's why he's hesitant to get his leash on with me. At home he goes straight in the garage. But at my house, I put his leash on before he gets in the car. So, we've started to pick up the car keys and give him a treat. Soon we will move on to the leash, the front door, walking to the car, getting into the car, etc. Each time pairing it with something he really likes and moving slowly (only moving onto the next step once he starts to get excited or anticipates the previous step).

But back to the socialization:

We went to a small, neighborhood pet supply store so he could do some meet and greets with people he didn't know. He gets really uncomfortable walking on the sidewalk if there is traffic nearby. But once we got into the store, he was very happy to meet new people.

He met a wide variety of people and did an excellent job at sitting for his greetings! We met men and women. People in hats. Men with beards. People in glasses. Anything that is new and different is good to get him exposed to. It helps that they have tasty treats at this store. In new places he becomes a little more picky about what treats he will take so it's helpful to have a variety.

Back at my house he was happy to see his old friends (as old as friends can be when you are only 4 months old). Lots of play time will help us with our training sessions.

It's helpful to practice stays when a dog is a little tired. They are more likely to offer the behavior and it gives you more chances to reward the appropriate behavior.

I keep a pile of small pieces of treat on a counter nearby when we start to work on stay. It's easier sometimes, if I don't have the treats on me. Zoltie tends to follow me from place to place when he knows I have treats on me. But, if they are on the counter, he is more likely to settle. This is also good practice for when you eventually wean off of the food rewards. It makes it so much easier if your dog does what you ask regardless of whether you have treats on you or not.

After a busy day, Zoltie tried really hard to curl up with Sinbad on the smallest dog bed. He was pretty disappointed when he realized he didn't fit.

I'm not sure why he wouldn't curl up with Rosario. She was on the biggest dog bed and only using it to rest a couple of paws. Maybe he just wanted to hang out with the big kids...

Day 4 -- Last Day

It's hard to believe it's our last day here with Zoltie. The time went by so fast. He's such a sweet guy and he's really going to be missed here. We're just getting some last minute things done today.

I always stress to new puppy owners how important it is to work on attention with their dogs. It's such an easy thing to do and sometimes doesn't seem that important but no other commands or skills are going to matter if your dog blows you off when there are other things going on around him. Zoltie is doing really well responding to his name and paying attention when there are distractions all around him. With more practice he will be an ace at this!

He's still a little shy which we'll need to work on. Kravitz, who is a tall, gangly and not-so-graceful dog knocked over a chair when they were playing today. This startled Zoltie and he didn't want to go anywhere near it again. It's important to make sure people don't make a big deal out of it when something like this happens so as not to add to his worry. I just said, "Oh that silly Kravitz" in a light hearted tone and then I went and stood by the chair and touched the chair. I didn't push him into coming towards me or the chair. I just let him approach on his own terms.

Sure enough he eventually wanted to check it out. I just gave him a little bit of praise when he did this and pretty soon it was like nothing had happened.

That darn Kravitz...he's always causing trouble.

Zoltie will sometimes bark to get what he wants (demand barking). It's just not a very pleasant way to ask for things. When he does this, I turn my back on him and say "ah." I refrain from giving him what he wants at this point because I don't want him to think he can just bark to get his way.

But a sit, on the other hand, will do all sorts of things. I can reward him for this behavior by opening the gate, giving him his food, giving him a fresh bowl of water, taking him for a walk, giving him attention, etc. Anything he wants he can ask for by sitting and you can reward that sit with things in his environment (the resource that he wants).

Zoltie will definitely be missed when he goes home tomorrow but he'll be happy to see his family! He will be going home with a lot of socialization under his belt. That's hard work for a guy, I'm sure he will sleep well. 

Day 3 -- Ready to Work!

Zoltie is really starting to enjoy his new friends. With groups, he likes to stay towards the outside of the group so he can check everyone out from the perimeter. He plays great one on one with another dog but knowing that he is a little more cautious with a group of dogs allows me to structure his play so he's not overwhelmed. If I see other dogs crowding him, I can watch his body language and know when I need to intervene. Since the dogs have good recalls, I can call them to me and they will happily leave their playmates to come to me. It's also good for Zoltie see the other dogs really keyed into the humans. When everyone else runs quickly to the human, there must be something good going on.

Zoltie trying to decide whether he wants to join in on the fun.

Now that Zoltie is much more checked in and not as worried about what is going on in his environment, we can really focus in on some training. He's starting to get the hang of the automatic sit for greetings. He forgets sometimes but the more he practices, the less jumping he does.

Right now it's really important that I pay attention to his behavior. If he comes and sits in front of me and I don't notice it and reward him, he's likely to jump up to get my attention. At this point, I want to reward him every time he sits in front of me. For Zoltie, getting attention is a HUGE reward. Telling him what a fabulous dog he is while I'm slowly rubbing his ears and down his sides is very rewarding to him. Occasionally I will give him a treat, especially if it's a really distracting environment. But for the most part, just giving him a lot of praise is going to go a long way with him.

And now we can start the beginnings of stay. Stay is broken down into three components; duration, distance and distraction. In the beginning, I'm just going to work on these one at a time. I start out with duration so I give rewards at regular intervals in order to keep him in position. I step on his leash so that, if he does get up, he can't go far and I can get him back into position. I'm going to keep my sessions short in the beginning and increase the time as he gets better.

Day 2 -- Settling In

Part of the reason we socialize dogs is so that they are more comfortable going into new situations, meeting new people and being around other dogs. Zoltie is starting to settle in now and get use to the new things around him. It's taken a bit of time though. He's just now starting to take treats from me which shows me that he's starting to gain some confidence. He's much more comfortable meeting new dogs and he's eager to play with them.

We've worked on building his confidence while in a new environment. He may show confidence at home but in a new situation it's a whole different ball game. He was nervous about the stairs at first but we slowly worked through that and had big celebrations at the top of the stairs when he made it all the way up. He probably goes up and down the stairs just fine at his house but these are different stairs. Dogs don't naturally generalize things. So, if he's met one breed of dog and plays well with that breed, he may not be comfortable with a different breed. If he's comfortable on carpeted stairs, he may not initially be comfortable on wooden stairs. If we expose them to different things, smells, sounds, surfaces, people and animals in a way that is not overwhelming to the dog, they can usually transition to new situations much easier.

And once he is more comfortable, taking treats, and playing with toys, we can start to work on things like his recall (coming when called). He responds well to praise and pets which works well for some things (like sit) but, in order to get a nice speedy recall, he needs something a little more enticing. I still use a lot of praise, especially as he is running towards me and once he gets to me, but he also gets some tasty treats when he arrives. Because a recall can be so important, we really want it to pay off for the dog.

Since he is relaxed enough to play with toys now, we can also start teaching him to drop things. I like to practice this a lot with his toys before I move onto really hard things like stinky socks.

I start off by saying "drop" and putting a treat to his nose and give him the treat with lots of praise when he drops the toy.

Then I'm going to give him the toy back right away. I want him to start thinking that dropping things is REALLY going to pay off for him. Not only does he get a treat and praise but he also gets the toy back. If we practice a lot with him, giving up something that is really valuable and exciting to him (like stinky socks) is really worth it to him.