3/26/2010

Last night was Padre's first night sleeping in a crate in our bedroom.  Until now he has spent his nights in the old puppy pen in the dog room, which is his comfort zone since that is all he has ever known.  He fussed for a short time and then settled down.  A little while later I had to get up to let the cats in and he fussed, but settled down when I returned.  He slept thru the night and I took him out early to pee.  Then back to bed for another 1 1/2 hours.  Took him out when I got up and he did all his business.  Then I fed him breakfast and took him out again.  Right now I have him loose in the kitchen while I have a cup of coffee and check emails, but he'll be back in his crate shortly while I get ready.  Considering this is his first 24 hours of my total control over his environment, he is doing very well.  It is not as easy as it might seem to keep 100% focus on a puppy, but I am trying my best!

3/25/2010

I work with Padre a little bit each day, several sessions lasting no longer than 5 minutes.  We've worked on hand/nose touches, sit, down, wait for dinner.  He understands sit really well, and will now do it with a verbal command.  I've started using a hand signal as well.  Padre gets ultra excited during his mini training sessions.  I usually sit on the step from our mud room into the sun room when we train, and he'll jump and bounce off of me, barking like crazy.  Yesterday I got mad at him because he was carrying on like a crazy dog.  I kinda yelled and grabbed at his collar, and it freaked him out a little.  Won't do that again, because it set us back a bit.  He didn't want to get close enough for me to reach him, and I don't blame him!  Last night I pulled out my copy of Susan Garrett's "Ruff Love".  Great little book, but I'd forgotten most of what I'd read in the past.  So this morning I implemented mini time-outs when Padre started carrying on with his excitement, and jumping and barking at me like a lunatic.  All I did was look away and stop any activity, just for a minute.  It worked like a charm.  It took the edge off of his excitement just enough to get his head back, and he worked eagerly.  We mainly worked on hand touches this morning, as well as waiting for dinner.  He does that really well now.  In a little while I'll head down to the barn to grab another crate so he can be crated when I can't have 100% attention on him.  I also have to pick up all his toys so I can control his access to them.  Puppy boot camp is starting in earnest!

I have also been working on house training Padre.  As long as I take him out immediately after he eats and then about once an hour he does really well.  The other day it was really rainy, and although he doesn't mind going out in the rain, he doesn't seem to want to do his business in it.  So he waits until he gets back inside.  Using the crate will help immensely!  Now I have to find our long lead so we can do outside work.  He has some very bad habits that I intend to finally control.  He likes to eat poop - dogs and cats.  He doesn't seem to mind whose it is.  Of course I go berserk when he does it, giving him a reaction that he interprets as attention.  Using the lead and having control will work well.  By the way, I regularly pick up dog litter in the dog yard, but can't always get it all.  And I can never tell where the cats go!  I do the best I can, but Padre has a hell of a nose!

First lessons

Technically, Padre's first lesson was the day I took him to Petco to leash train him.  That was about 2 weeks ago.  Armed with yummy treats and an unsure puppy I entered the store, put him down on the floor and stuffed his face full of treats.  He immediately understood that he was supposed to follow me.  We had very few stubborn episodes, which I like to call "doing the donkey".  Handler pulling on leash; puppy refusing to move.  It helped that I had great treats.  We did about 2 laps around the store with no problem, and stopped to socialize with staff and customers.  The manager kept coming over and handing me more treats.  Padre is a chow hound, so he was happy!
Padre's next official training session was yesterday, when I introduced him to the clicker.  He is incredibly food motivated, so once he figured out that a click meant good things he became an eager student.  He now sits and speaks, and I am working on shaping the behaviors.  Figured I would teach him to speak so that I can then teach him NOT to speak!  Invaluable skill for a sheltie.  We worked a little with the clicker today, but his head was totally into the food.  Next lesson will be "don't bite the mama when she gives you treats"!  I fear I have another Tia on my hands!