Zaz Tricks 12 weeks

I am posting these videos to cheer up Johanna who cannot come to Crufts this year because Spooky hurt his eye and needs surgery tomorrow. Poor Spooky and poor Johanna. Plus I am so disappointed because I wanted her to see Tazzy's babies and come with me to Crufts. We will miss you!

Zaz and Itzy are fun to train. The goal for us right now is just to keep them enjoying learning and working with me. It does not really matter what I teach them; I just want to see the little brains working and thinking. We also do alot of running around the garden and playing with toys but that doesn't make interesting video. Not interesting but would be funny watching me try and outrun these puppies; they can run fast when they want their toys!

Here is Zaz at 12 weeks old working on her "elephant trick". I have to laugh when I see the number of blogs now that have videos of their pups doing the "elephant trick"! I had named this trick back when Zen was a puppy and it seemed to have stuck. I had read about "perch" work in the clean run magazine and just decided to make it fun and name it something cute for our puppy class. I am taking credit for it so that I can add it to my training DVD which will cost lots of money OK? So everytime the word "elephant trick" appears on a blog you have to send me money (for harnesses and dog toys). And Johanna need to give me royalties everytime she teaches it to her puppy classes. Or, at least, come here and do us some good puppy classes!

Zaz takes her elephant trick very seriously!




Zaz learning right and left.




We also started her "bang" trick. I love that she added her own little twist by kicking her feet when she goes "bang".



Now that Zaz has a little repertoire of tricks; I need to take them "on the road" and do them with distractions in new environments. I think that really firms up what they have learned.

The pups started a basic puppy "obedience" class on Monday. Dennis took Itzy and I took Zaz. I was really pleased with Zaz as she is totally focused on me and could care less about the other pups. Itzy on the other hand is a social butterfly; she wanted the little shih-tzu puppy to chase her. At the end of class the instructor lets two or three similar size pups off lead to play and then we work on calling them back. It is very controlled and I feel comfortable doing this because of that. I am not a fan of "free for all" puppy play groups. There were 4 shelties, 2 border terriers, 1 shih-tzu, 1 german shepherd and 1 jack russell in the class. The border terriers and jack russels were the noisiest by far! Dennis and I split up at opposite ends of the room so that the pups could concentrate. We both went in with a baggie full of treats. Zaz finished all her treats as I was constantly rewarding her for staying on her bed (my bastard-ized version of crate games). Dennis was pleased he left the class with most of Itzy's treats still in the bag...bad Dennis and poor Itzy! No wonder I kept hearing Itzy go yip-yip-yip during the class! Zaz on her bed in puppy class. I think I need a bigger bed.





This week will will continue our socialization in town and try and do some tricks in new places. I think I may try and do "Crate Games" with the pups; this may come in handy since I will be training two pups at a time. I have never had success in being able to train one dog while another dog watched quietely; so I am interested to see if "crate games" can allow me to do this. In theory, it should but I will keep you posted.