I really value this forum and the advice I've gotten here. I'm posting an update to make sure I'm still on the right track. I knew raising a puppy was going to be work, but I constantly worry that I'm not "doing it right". I'm looking for affirmation and corrections from you guys. I need to figure out how to get past the worry. I don't want the pup to pick up on that too much.

As a quick recap, I "rescued" this pup from a friend who had a 9-mo lhasa apso who was being aggressive towards my pup. I've had her for a full week now. I have 4 kids and a mild mannered Shi Tzu. I'm crate traning and Suzzie, my Australian Sheperd, has taken to it pretty well. Sometimes she cries for a few minutes when I put her in, but she settles down quickly. Her crate is in my office and I talk to her throughout the day and take her out every couple of hours. No accidents in the home and she's going potty very well on command.

I've backed off on my walks a lot. I know this breed has a lot of energy and I was worried/anxious to get her good exercise. Now I'm only walking her around 1/4 mile daily. Yesterday I took her on a longer walk in the woods near our house; maybe a mile. She's not showing signs of tiring, but she definitely gets distracted by smells (particularly at other houses with dogs).

I've taken to squatting down whenever she's not paying attention to me with a treat in my open hand. Late last week she was on that pretty quick. I was using some junk treats "pupperonies" cut up pretty small and cut up hot dogs. I could coax her to follow me pretty well (although my legs were getting sore from all the squatting down and waiting).

I did two things this weekend that probably couldn't have been helped, but didn't help with the puppy training. First, we had a scheduled trip with a booked hotel that didn't allow dogs. So, I left my puppy with a friend for Friday night and Saturday night. They took as good as care as I could have hoped for, but I'm sure they didn't follow the groundwork training I've been doing. For starters, the 6' 3/8" nylon lead line was chewed up into little pieces! I'm also pretty sure they didn't crate her as much as I do and let her roam around. So all day Friday and all day Saturday she was with them.

Sunday I decided to take her for a longer walk through the woods. I offered for my boys to go with me and had my 8 year old take me up on it. Here's the thing. Suzzie is highly distracted by the kids and my wife. Whenever she sees them she pulls at the lead and jumps up on them when she's near.

I've said before that I can't isolate her from the rest of the family. I just don't think that's right for the kids to have a new dog and not be able to play. Suzzie sees the kids/family often (like a couple times a day) when I take her outside to go potty and exercise. I let the kids pet on her and play fetch in the yard and such closely supervised. I give a correction on the leash when she jumps on the kids with the "off" command. I'm not sure I'm making much progress on that front.

Anyway, back to the walk. With my son there she was constantly pulling on the leash. I would squat down with a treat and have my son keep walking, but she was just too distracted. I'm only using a flat, buckle collar and I really don't want to pull on her to come back to me or to get her to follow me. But I don't feel like I can always coax her to obey me. Sometimes she'll be at the end of her leash and just sit and look at me and my open hand. Sometimes she'll come sniff my hand and then walk away without the treat and go back to whatever was distracting her. Should I _never_ pull on her leash/collar? Should I be using a different kind of collar? Am I expecting too much out of my puppy? One of the things I'm looking forward too most is taking walks with her and eventually running, but I don't feel like I'm making good progress training her for this.

However, I can do marker training with her on a few commands and she does very well. She can do "sit" and "down" and to some extent "look at me". Even with the exact same treats that she ignores on walks, she's very excited about it and pays close attention. She sits quite readily when we're at doors and stairs and even when she's excited about seeing new people she can often be made to sit. In fact, I really think the "sit" is one of her natural poses that is very comfortable for her. My friends who puppy-sat for me commented what a good dog she was and they enjoyed having her.

I've watched and re-watched the "establishing pack structure with the family dog" and "your puppy 8 weeks to 8 months", but I'm still not sure I'm on the right track. Ed makes it look so easy!

Doug,
Have you gotten turned on to clicker training yet?

Aussies are also as active mentally as they are physically. I met a few I swear could count, subtract, and run addition, some exaggeration there, but you get the idea. Very intelligent dogs.
If you can't get the physical workouts consistantly, give him a good mental one every day.

3 months is still very young to be expecting alot of ob on walks. Patience.

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

Doug, ditto what Randy says; remember, she's a baby and will be very easily distracted.

When you have her out with one of the kids, instruct your child to cross his arms and turn to the side when the pup jumps. No eye contact w/ the pup and no talking to the pup until the she calms down. A few repetitions of this and your smart puppy will probably figure out that if she jumps, she gets no attention.

If you combine that technique w/ marking and treating when she is calm around the child, I bet she will figure this out quickly.
(ps, dogs jump because they want to greet you, and in particluar they want to reach your face. If she(puppy) is calm enough, have your child squat down for a moment so the pup can greet him...pup must be fairly calm to do this though!)

Also, try using cooked, diced chicken breast for treats, or tiny slices of cheese sticks (w/ 4 kids, you must have cheese sticks, right!?) Keep the treats very small...

Sounds like you are doing great!

Where are the pictures?

I haven't done clicker training yet. I have Ed's video on marker training, but haven't watched it yet. I did the petsmart obedience school a few years ago with another dog. That's why I started with "look at me", "sit", and "down". I've been using very small treats as markers (like thinly sliced hot dogs cut into fourths). Even the "Paws Gourmet soft training treats" I'm breaking them in half before using them.

I know that mental exercise is required and good. Since she's just a pup and I'm not walking her _that much_ (like maybe 30 minutes a day), I'm trying to get like 20 minutes of marker training in to increase her activity level. I haven't figured out yet how to do some of the training on the amazing things I see aussies do on youtube. She's just a pup though and I have time to figure all that out :-)

BTW, good advice on the kids greeting the pup. I'll work on that.

Remember to keep your marker training session short (like 5 minutes). This will ensure that your pup is enthusiastic for each session...

She sounds like a wonderful little girl, and you seem to be doing really well with her.

When Yote was that age we would spend an hour or more out walking but only make it 4 or 5 blocks. We would stop and watch people out working or walking, sniff everything and take our time.

I looked at the walks as mental stimulation and socialization with the world around us, and took care of his physical exercise in the backyard with a ball or other toys.

We also worked a lot on leash manners and teaching him both "let's go" and "easy" (to stop pulling) in the house and yard so that I had some words to communicate with him on our walks which are so full of distractions.

And an addendum regarding letting the pup greet the child from a squatting position (before I get blasted for that one )

I would only do this if the pup is very calm; obviously you do not want to take any chance that the pup might nip your child's face...

@Jennifer, what I hear you saying is to not pull on her leash at all when out on a walk. Instead, just let the pup go where she wants and stop to smell what she wants for as long as she wants? There's probably some limits on this. I've found some unsavory things lying around in people's yard (trash and stuff) that I don't want her to mess with and I have to pull her off of those and keep her from going back.

Can you give more detail on how you train the "let's go" and "easy" without "yank and crank"? How can I do this without teaching Suzzie to pull on the lead, breaking her spirit, and maintaining her respect?

Doug, I think you are doing the right thing by stopping and waiting for the pup to come back to you to mark and reward. This is reinforcing that good things come from being close to her handler.

If you do not allow forward movement when she's pulling, she should figure out pretty quickly that pulling is not the way to get where she wants to go.

It sounds to me like you are doing the right things thing; be consistent and she will get it!