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Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Crate Games and puppy thoughts

I have been going through photos of Zen as a youngster to try and see if Zaz looks like her at all. I found this photo of her at 6 months old that I just loved. You can see why Zen is so athletic now when you sit back and look at her at 6 months old. I hope that Zaz and Itzy have her athleticism when they grow up. I am so glad I have kept both Zaz and Itzy; it was a decision of the heart and I do not regret it at all.

OK so I am hoping to sit down this week and work on Susan G's "Crate Games" with the pups. I am hoping it will help me with teaching good stays as both Itzy and Zaz are wiggle butts and I have done no proper stay work yet. This will be something new for me as I am into trying different training methods with these pups just to keep me excited about training again.
I keep putting it off so I need motivation! Please someone tell me that they have done it and it was worth the time and worked fab for them? And you are not allowed to respond if you are under 30, slim and scandanavian. Or if you live in Canada. ggggg
I was tempted to just teach one of them Crate Games and see if they were different when they got older but cannot be bothered to do the scientific experiment. ha!
I am going to sit down and re-watch Crate Games tomorrow as it looks like it will be a rainy day and I have a feeling I will have to cancel lessons.
Gosh I just realized I have posted 4 blog posts in less than 24 hours! Am I sad or what? :-)


5 comments:

Angela said...

....Crate games is great for your thigh muscles, especially with the small doggies!

Christine said...

Look forward to the blogging on their crate games journey, Zev said wiggle bums rule! ;-)

Teresa said...

Well I'm not under 30, slim, or Scandanavian, or Canadian. Brynley is learning crate games, and I think it is very worth it. He and my daughter's papillon are our first dogs learning crate games and Susan's program and I wish I had known of it a long time ago. It is such an easy way to play and train with puppies, and I can see so much value for what he is learning down the road. The only possible down side to it, is that once you start, you have to enforce your criteria every time, always. Brynley goes in and out of his crate many times during the day, so he gets lots of practice with out much formal training time. I love that he already knows not to try and bust out of his crate when he is in the car and it is time to come out. Go for it, you'll be glad you did!

Sassie said...

I think I fit the criteria, over 30, not slim, not Scandanavian or Canadian and I have done Crate Games, but I did it with Pistachio, Boing!s cat...

Has it improved his drive and motivation? Hard to say, he's a pretty driven and motivated fellow already.

Has it improved his stays?

Definitely.

He does not do as well as the dogs in the video, and sometimes gets confused, races across the apartment to his crate and goes on top of it instead of inside it...

I taught Boing! something similar to crate games but before I heard of SG's crate games, just the stuff we used to teach dogs when I was young and worked for a breed handler. I don't know what it's done for her stays or her drive etc. but I do know that I can send her to 'box' from anywhere and she will race into her box full speed. If we're at K9 Campus she'll take whatever obstacles are in her way on the way to her box, it's pretty funny.

Hudsondoglets said...

Look forward to hearing about your experience with this. I think it's a great idea and I loved the dvd. I'm not sure I could see it through but I do think the concept is brilliant.