365 Days of Dog Training Days 4-7

Lulu and I have continued to work on shush with distraction for the past week.  She has made major progress.  She is now very responsive to me asking her to shush the very first time.  We have used a variety of rewards for her training - food during meal times, high level treats when distracted but her favorite reward believe it or not has been the ball.  She will do anything for a ball.  Great to see her starting to become the dog I have wanted and not nearly as bothersome or impulsive any more.  It's amazing what one week of training will do.

On another note I have decided that the 365 days of dog training needs a bit of structure.  So it will go as follows - each week I will choose to focus on training a single behavior.  My goal at the end of this year is to have a polite dog that can do a few tricks.  I have a proposed training schedule below but we will also continue to work on bark and shush because practice makes perfect.  Each week will begin with a demonstration of how to get your dog to perform the behavior we are training and then how to proof these behaviors (make them stick)

Week 1 - Teaching your dog to bark and hush on command (this was last week but I will add a brief video of how to teach a dog to bark on command using Sophie who has never done this)

Week 2 - Teaching Down Stay on a Mat

Week 3 - Coming When Called

Week 4 - Loose Leash Walking

Week 5 - Sitting for Grooming

Week 6 - Nail Trimming

Week 7 - Accepting a Friendly Stranger

Week 8 - Sitting Politely for Petting

Week 9 - Barking at the Right Time

Week 10 - On / Off and In / Out

We will also add in some tricks to keep life fun and interesting.  If there is something you would like Lulu to learn to do send me a message and we will give it a shot!

Thanks for reading!

365 Days of Dog Training Day 3

Yesterday life was hectic as it is for most pet owners at times.  We didn't have a chance to shoot a video but we continued to work on hush this time with more excitement and distraction.

Lulu loves to play fetch in the front yard.  Her ball and a game of fetch is about the biggest reward she could ever have.  Which brings up a good point - when training your dog it is important to know what truly motivates them and then use that to teach, shape, perfect or proof the behaviors they have learned.

As I said before when Lulu is excited she barks and when we play fetch she is VERY excited.  So today we changed up the game.  It went a little something like this.

Lulu sit.  Lulu shush (wait for her to shush).  Lulu good dog.  Throw the ball.  Release her by saying Lulu go get it.  Lulu brings the ball back but I won't throw it until she drops it at my feet then sits quietly waiting for another chance.

This game went GREAT today!  She even had a few visitors watching her - she was totally focused and only barked a few times.  I will try to get the sequence on video in the next few days so you can all see it!

It is amazing to me what a change in her I have noticed already - she is calmer, barking less and settles down much more quickly!  5 minutes a day really can change your dog and change your life!