With Yin, comes Yang! “Nothing is completely Yin or completely Yang. Each aspect contains the beginning point for the other aspect …as one aspect increases the other decreases to maintain overall balance of the whole.”
Drac has this adorable natural sit and look handsome position. After playing the impulse control games, that’s what he did – very quick to learn and very thoughtful.
When I moved to other games, he would choose to sit handsome and not offer many other behaviors. I also had a hard time luring him a bit … nope, he would sit handsome. It didn’t take long to get him to make other choices or follow a treat but it was a good reminder of not focusing on one thing too much.
This week I spent some time shaping/luring for body awareness and anything NOT sitting :)! I also noted that he defaults to being in front of me, that’s natural and has been reinforced. So I started treating at my side – with turns on the flat and in “heel position”. I also have to watch that I don’t play into a herding dog’s natural position to be “away” and instead reward in an up close and personal position :). I also see in some of our sessions I’m stepping into him when working on “heel” or “reinforcement zone”. To help with this you need to drift a little away to bring them in. Must. Drift. Always.
Here are the next rounds of videos of Drac from 11weeks to 12weeks old!
- Sit on cue and releasing with “break” (new for me as “ok” was always my word).
- Play time in new place and inside a ring.
- Practicing standing!
Some puppy agility:
- Woobly board
- Turns on the flat
- Tire
And now working on reinforcing him close on my side – have to counter his tendency to be wide and work on my tendency to step in to him!! By stepping in it makes them more wide as they anticipate you stepping in!
Additional observations …
- Drac LOVES food. Obsessed with meal time. Expects treats at certain times (I need to be less predictable). He’s just like Savvy. Won’t even go out to potty or stays in his designated feeding area if there is a chance of getting fed.
- He poops a lot!
- He has a lot of focus and is very easy to engage. Watching some of the videos you can see him focus with people and dogs moving around in the background! Awesome!
- It’s so great to video training sessions. I turn the camera on about 90% of the time. It’s a lot of work to download and catalog on the computer. You gain so much on what to change/do differently or continue doing!
- I love my clean slate, cuddly, soft, cute as a button puppy … I also appreciate my adult dog very very very much ;)!
I really like watching your training sessions!! He is doing so well.
I’m so jealous! My little guy can barely find a treat in my hand at this point. All he wants to do is chew my hands and feet! Presents with zero focus at the moment. Can’t wait till I can get past simply managing potty n poo and start playing some little games with him. May try a spoon loaded with bits of gruel for rewards till he is more adept at eating and finding treats. Crate games is are priority one. Priority two redirect the mouth! Thank God he still sleeps a lot!
I found that also Diane! Puppies don’t have as much coordination to find a treat in your hand or follow one if you toss it. Use very visible treats when tossing and start by taking the treat from their nose and toss a few inches at first. For feeding from your hand, you can start with putting a treat in a bowl and giving it to him that way a few times and then put treat in open hand and place over the bowl. Then hand next to bowl, etc. Even at 12 weeks Drac doesn’t always follow a treat or find one in my hand as they are busy little things looking to chew!! It will come. Can’t wait to meet Kid!