Like most people with new pups I sometimes wonder if I am doing the right puppy training or enough puppy training. You cannot help but compare to other "wonder pups" especially on some of the other blogs out there. There is nothing to make you feel more inadequate than watching some of these videos on You tube! Tell me please...how come all of these fab trainers are 25 years old, gorgeous Europeans and have super wonder pups that are usually border collies? Sigh....
I just have to go back to what I know and try to do what comes naturally. I find if I over-analyze or over-plan,I just start procrastinating! I recently saw a good motto which said something along the lines of "perfection is the purest form of procrastination". Boy oh Boy does that fit me to a tee! So I am trying to not over perfect my puppies!
Zaz and Itzy are just two totally different characters. Each have their strong points and weaknesses; I just try and tailor their training to their individual needs. In order to have enough time to train each pup I have started to use their meal times as their training sessions. I do not normally do this although I know "hand feeding" is often a recommended training tool. I am doing it with these two pups just to be able to plan their training sessions, play sessions, sleep sessions and socialization sessions without running out of daylight!
We start a little puppy basic obedience class next week. And the breaking news is that Dennis has agreed to come and train Itzy while I train Zaz in the same class! Hurrah!It should be interesting to see if each pup can concentrate while the other pup is working AND concentrate on one of us at a time!
Along with their short clicker training session; I try and do restrained recalls and running with each pups whenever I can find someone to hold the pup. I try to do the running and chasing with a toy so I keep the toy drive alive in each pup. This is the hardest part as using the food is so much easier/quicker but I know I need to keep playing with the pups to try and get more enthusiasm out of their training.
I try and get little training sessions done where ever we go. So, for example, if we do some walking though town for socialization I will bring treats and do some downs or rights/lefts. When I take Zen to agility class I go early and bring each pup out for 5 minutes to watch and get rewarded for not barking and lunging. (easier said than done!) Nancy kindly leaves out some "props" like wobble boards and cones and I do little sessions with each pups. Rights and lefts on the wobble boards and little sends around cones; all easy and fun but with the distraction of other well-behaved/trustworthy adult dogs working near them.
Here is a little video of Itzy training. Ahhh she is so cute. I will try and get video of Zaz up during the week.
13 comments:
What a great training video! I'm impressed that she's doing that at 11 weeks! She's so darn cute.
I agree with Sara, she is so cute, and I am pleased that Dennis is going to take Itsy to obedience classes, well done Dennis.
Both Zaz and Itzy are so cute. I like little Itzy doing the "kick"! She is a very clever little girlie.
I am seriously impressed with your photographer!!
And what gorgeous girls you have got there!
Remember to just enjoy them among all that planning, eh?! ;-)
Hello !
Do not bother you, you do real great training job. I even recommended your blog to breeder I know and to our puppy trainer of our dog club.
Have I already mentioned that I fall in love with your little girl.
If you go to World Championchip in some years with her your depts will be vanished.
greetings
Margit
Fantastic photos!
I love the kick trick too!
ahh...brings back memories of what my little girl looked like when she was that little. Watched the video and laughed out loud at the circle training. I thought Shelties just did the circle thing naturally! :) They are soooo adorable!
Mom was in love with your puppies before but now after seeing Itzy's training video, she wants a puppy so bad!!!!
Looks like you do a fantastic job of training pups and dogs! No reason to worry about the 25-year-old-european-border-collie dog trainers! (We've noticed that too, though).
What beewootiful babies!!!
Mya Boo Boo
oh it cute. how do u train the kick??
If watching 25 year old european handlers with their flawless BC pups has you down, go back and watch early training videos of me with Boing!
I don't even get my pups until their close to five months old, and coming from show breeders, they're completely uneducated heathens when they come live with me. Not that that really changes much once they've come to live with me ;-)
sassie
Margit, what a brilliant way to put it :-)
Wow! No worries about wonder pups judging by that video! They are incredibly cute and growing up so well. Gosh, was Ludo ever that little?
~Dee (Ludo's mum)
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