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Puppy Lesson 1

School time for our puppies! Here is your first to-do list. The first task might sound a little silly for those with adult dogs, but in fact, it's never silly to make a recall even better!

1. call your dog at least 10 times a day to do something fun together: to play, to go out, to get a treat, something to chew on or a new exciting toy

2. put a plate (or another object, but I like to start with a plate as puppies can't chew on those too easily) on a floor and shape a puppy to touch it with a front paw: you can first click for head movement in the right direction, then one/two/three steps, then stepping over it or close to it and finally for stepping on it

3. sit on a floor and put a fist full of treats or dog's favourite toy right in front of their nose, wait till they stop sniffing and click for anything they try other than getting directly to the food/toy or staring at it. It's very important the dog understands staring at food/toy doesn't get him anywhere as it will later on allow you to work with food/toys in your hand without distracting the dog's focus from the job at hand.

4. find a box or a drawer that is as long as your dog and not too high and shape a dog to put 1-2-3-4 legs into it. Then try with smaller&smaller objects, final goal is the dog can stand in a small bowl.

5. observe your puppy and see if he sometimes stretches his legs out when in down position, puppies often do that when relaxed or playing. Name it (I call it "frog":) and reward. It's a nice stretching exercise and very easy to get it on cue if the dog does it naturally (some dogs do it as adults too, but mine didn't and it was much harder to train it as with puppy Le who was doing that naturally). If not, put a dog in a down position and reward from the floor and so far ahead that the dog needs to stretch out to get it - but not so far that he would crawl ahead. Watch the hind legs and click for moving them back OR out, but NOT for crawling step forward.

Looking forward to see your videos!


262 Comments

  1. Emillan February 24, 2011 at 12:39 Log in to Reply

    It didnt work :(. I try again, sorry for my ignorance!

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    • LoLaBu February 24, 2011 at 18:39 Log in to Reply

      Hm, do I hear clicks and not see you rewarding? After every click, there should be a reward!!! I think you should make your sessions drastically shorter -- set alarm clock and allow you 1.5 min to start with and in that time, try to click&deliver as many treats as you can! That would be the best exercise for his focus, his focus&motivation is not there yet. Also, stop helping. You’re asking him to do that and another thing, you will get wrong attitude towards work that way. HE should ask you to do that or another thing. For now, I wouldn’t focus on that or another trick at all, just keep your hands at the back and don’t say a word, just sit and observe, click anything he does and throw a treat for each click.

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  2. susanne February 24, 2011 at 15:11 Log in to Reply

    hi Emillan,

    in your first video, you click in a very confusing way. If I were your dog, I would have no idea what the task is. You click for turning the head, for sitting, for leaving the plate, for something on the floor, for one hindleg in the air and so on, but at first, when he had both frontpaws on the plate, he didn’t get a click.

    susanne

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  3. Emillan February 24, 2011 at 15:38 Log in to Reply

    Hi Susanne,

    Yes, you are totally right I thought the same when I watched the video again, I am too slow clicking and not very precise marking the right behavior.

    you dont realize till you see the videos.
    I will try again today when I get home :0).

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  4. Valori February 24, 2011 at 22:35 Log in to Reply

    Playin long box 002

    Play knows the long box but again is having difficulty with getting front and back feet into “this” narrow box. I switched to the larger one and as you see he has no issues doing that.
    I will post the small square box next
    Valori

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  5. Valori February 24, 2011 at 22:37 Log in to Reply

    PlayBox 003

    Here is Play in a normal small box as you can see he has no issues getting this behavior.
    Valori

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    • LoLaBu February 24, 2011 at 23:23 Log in to Reply

      Time for even smaller box! 🙂

      0
  6. Valori February 24, 2011 at 22:38 Log in to Reply

    PlaySpidey 004

    This one is just for fun..Its Plays Spiderman inpersonation 😉

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    • LoLaBu February 24, 2011 at 23:23 Log in to Reply

      Impressive, but I wouldn’t do too much of that at that age, though!

      0
      • Valori February 25, 2011 at 11:42 Log in to Reply

        No I do not do this very often at this point. I may stop and simply get him to “be a boy” by just lifting a leg against something 😉

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  7. élizabeth February 24, 2011 at 23:42 Log in to Reply

    Felix is really starting against other puppies videos!
    we’ll work twice as hard to catch up. our first video to see if we work in the right direction.

    Félix1

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    • LoLaBu February 25, 2011 at 00:17 Log in to Reply

      Well, he sure wins the wagging tail competition! 🙂 Looks good, just don’t go into the helping trap (on a first session with a plate, you help too much with the position of the hand -- other sessions look good) and instead click&reward even more generously -- not that he seems to mind 🙂 but I really like to give puppies lots of feedback on how they’re doing.

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  8. Emillan February 25, 2011 at 13:30 Log in to Reply

    Hi Silvia,

    Thank you very much for your feedback.
    Certainly I have problems with him focusing. I will start from scratch with him clicking as you pointed me out so I won´t be posting a video till the last day for the first lesson ( I will be doing nothing but clicking him for everything he does). Thank you very much I am already learning a lot. :).

    0
    • LoLaBu February 25, 2011 at 20:49 Log in to Reply

      Don’t worry about teaching all the tricks listed in 2 weeks, there are more important things than this 🙂 Just focus on an attitude, spend his whole dinner just clicking&trowing treats. Remember, every click needs to be followed by a treat. Spending his whole dinner like this will force you be very generous with your rewards and that’s really very important. You can also post a video of that (you, being more generous and him, staying more focused), that will be even nicer to see as any trick!

      0
  9. Nancy February 25, 2011 at 16:29 Log in to Reply

    Here’s Nero with come, plate, box and frog. With the box I’m trying to reward him for standing and not sitting. I notice that in other videos folks toss their food to the side instead instead of calling them. Should I be doing that? Looking forward to feedback.

    Nancy Creel
    Bozeman, MT

    Nero 4 Tasks

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    • LoLaBu February 25, 2011 at 20:44 Log in to Reply

      For come, it’s even better to always reward with something else, so the dog never knows what he is getting. Picking up sticks or making a snow ball is a very good idea that many dogs love more as treats. Plate trick is already great, for box trick you can already switch to a smaller one (at one point, he won’t be able to sit in anymore) and yes, for tricks like this, I usually reward by tossing a treat as if you always reward from the hand, the behaviours don’t look as independent and you might have problems with behaviours that require him to be at the distance. Also, very nice beginning of the frog trick, I don’t think you need to start from dead dog position, just continue from down and click for him stretching out hind legs more&more. Great job so far!

      0
  10. Valori February 26, 2011 at 03:27 Log in to Reply

    bOX 001

    I made a smaller box. He got it quickly. Tomarrow I will make it even smaller
    Valori

    0

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sialaSilvia Trkman is known for bringing every dog, from her first dog on, to the very top of the sport. Her dogs are known for great speed, tight turns, running contacts and long and injury-free careers. Silvia is in agility since 1992 and is
– 3x World Champion (with two different dogs)
– 5x European Open winner, with 4 different dogs (Lo, La, Bu, Le)!!!
– National Championships podium and World Team member with every dog she’s ever had
– National Champion for 22-times (with 5 different dogs of 3 different breeds)

– World Team member for 19-times (mostly with at least two dogs at the time – sometimes four 🙂 )

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