Delighted to have you here Alicia.
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
Welcome Alicia and Poppy
I always appreciate having a new student that has gotten one of the puppy's I have done the PATT (Puppy Aptitude Temperament Test). I know this puppy well, she is EXTREMELY well balanced, social, has a great Retrieve Drive and has very good conformation. You have a VERY good puppy.
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I have read through the material for the 7-10 week. We have been working on quiet time with her in our home. She is doing well in her kennel and with potty training and is easy to groom. I am having a hard time figuring out how to follow the training on the blog and how to proceed with the training.
ReplyDeleteVery good.
ReplyDeleteHave you taught "Touch"? Is she wearing a Learning String? How is the puppy Sit going? Please post a video so I know you are ready to go forward. How goes introducing the Puppy Play Retrieve? Has she been on fowl? Puppy bumpers? The "Give" mechanics"? How goes back tying her and the Stations you have set up in the house? She is old enough for "The Walk" outdoors which should be done 2-5 times a day. Have you introduced the Walk?
Roxanne
We have not taught touch. There is no video that I can find that shows how to do it. The section with introducing bumpers, birds, and touch is a slideshow of dogs doing it but no explanations. We introduced the bumper yesterday. She show interest and will bring it back some of the time with the string. We are waiting on wings to come in the mail. Hopefully this week. Puppy sit goes well if she is not distracted by our other dog. I can work on getting a video for you. I am also unable to find the video of the puppy play retrieve. We do throw things for her and she will bring them back to us and then we work on give. She does pretty good with give. Sometime I think the toy gets stuck on her teeth. We haven't back tied her much. We do have baby gates set up in our main living space of the house. She can move freely in that area where she plays with toys and has access to the back yard through a dog door. We play with her for an hour or so and then she goes back to her kennel when she can not be watched. I would love to work on walk with her but our vet has advised us not to let her in the front yard or take her around the neighborhood. We live in California so we have a small backyard.
ReplyDeleteAlicia,
ReplyDeleteI have reloaded the "Touch" video as well as the Puppy Play Retrieve. I also uploaded a Page on teaching "Step-Hup", "Step-Off" which is something you can do inside the home.
As far as the Stations, if you don't back tie her she won't learn to respect the feel of the 'pressure' restraining her. That respect becomes critical when you start formal obedience work. Without it, when it does become time for the formal obedience, she isn't going to respond well to the feel of the collar 'pressure'. Back tie her now, while she's young and she'll learn that life lesson now. Easier on her and way easier on you.
I don't know what to tell you about your vet as at 10 weeks, and with her shots she CAN certainly safely go outside. I have students in the bay area that had to do some scouting to find safe areas to do 'The Walk' with their puppy, during 2020, and they succeeded. The issue with keeping her only in your backyard is she never learns the life lessons of paying attention to your body mechanics, never learns to 'check-in', never learns how to do an Informal Recall, nor does she learn how to move with the ck cord around her body. ALL of those lessons are what Poppy will need to do any field work.
And it's a false illusion to keep a dog/puppy only in your backyard. That dog/puppy never learns how to handle the real world, how to maneuver in/out of doors, gates, cars, etc. and won't be able to handle the sensory overload of a Therapy Dog. For that matter, a dog/puppy kept only in a backyard is stunted mentally in its development. Find safe spaces and take her out for 'The Walk' just you and Poppy, not the other dog, if you want her to bond with you, learn to read your body mechanics, and learn how to handle real life reality situations.
Food for thought.
Roxanne
Thanks for the food for thought. We will beginning working on all of this. I will work on finding a safe place to do walk with Poppy. Can "The walk" be done on concrete/asphalt or does it only need to be done on grass?
ReplyDeleteAlicia,
ReplyDeleteYou can do The Walk anywhere. Better on grass or in the woods but that may be a challenge in CA right now. Are there any schools where you can do The Walk a possibility?
Roxanne
All the school where we live are behind fences and locked. We have a field at our church but it is used by lots of dogs. I could maybe take there to an almond orchard and practice there. We will keep brainstorming.
ReplyDeleteThe almond orchard sounds promising, the only issue is you don't want Poppy finding and eating old almonds as that would create havoc on her digestive system.
ReplyDeleteReally, the school fields are locked? We lived in MD for 16 years and the last 5 years we were there, from 2015-2020, it was a genuine struggle to find anywhere to run dogs. The Park Police went into the forests with a fog on leash to catch anyone with a fog off leash and it was $50 fine, per dog, per incident. The cops patrolled the school grounds and you were not allowed, nor could you go on a public soccer or baseball field. So, I know your challenges well, but there are always solutions. In MD, there was a field, privately owned.almost 5 acres I had permission to use. I had students who had several acres I was able to use. And as a serious competitor in the hunt test world (I am an AKC Hunt Test Judge), I would drive 1.5 to 3 hours, one way, to get to places where I could train my dogs for the field work.
Keep looking as you want several places you can safely take her. Did you order her check cord as you will need that for The Walk.
Roxanne