That sounds really adorable! He seems to be wonderfully integrated in his new family.Under such circumstances I bet he'll make rapid progress.

He has with liver treats, he now goes into the crate without force, and seeks it out when he is ready for a nap, as I have been popping him in there everytime he is falling asleep. He only gets up 2 times a night, approx every 3-4 hours. Last night was a long sleep, 10-1, and than 1-4.
Jim takes him in the porch if he hears him after 5, and they hang out til 7 or 8, he puts him in the crate after some couch cuddle/playtime, and he sleeps til I get (spoiled) up at 8am
He gets bitey when he has to poo, and is great at holding his bladder for almost 2-3 hours, when out with me. I take him out everytime he goes near the door, or when he gets restless.
He passed the snowmobile test. I have already had him on it, and now when we pass it on our potty walks in the yard, he tries to hop up on the seat
Crate training was a nightmare until I pulled the treats out.
Grooming has gone well, I pop him up on the table 2x's a day, and we brush for about 2-3 minutes while he chews on a milkbone.
And to top it all off, he loves snow so much, that he has to poop in the deep stuff next week we start marker training. I have the clicker out and ready to go. Just need to find a yummy treat to join it !

And all this within such a short time?!!! Wow! Congrats, that's fantastic. When my dogs were puppies this needed much more time. I was completely inexperienced and had an instructor 5 times an hour per week for 3 months.

But he didn't teach me to train such things with them. He began directly with clicker training, sit, then down, then a bit of sit-and downstay and a bit of walking.
Everything else they learned later thanks to LB DVDs and courses and advices from the Webboard members.

Many trainers, clicker or correction rarely address the connection/leadership needed to truly train our dogs and it's much more then forcing or rewarding for behaviors.

Absolutely!!! My training ibegan to mproved once I had understood how important a strong bond is., which means for me fun, fun, fun. This of course always together with the necessary rules a dog has to be taught with each game and exercise. Of course also a strict management but which can also be done with fun.

My dogs had from the very beginning understood very quickly ONE SINGLE house rule = not to enter the house even if the doors are open. How they learned it? It was like a miracle for me.

I can today only see one reason: This rule was for us important enough to be very consistent. Of couse we didn't begin with open doors. We left them only ajar, only a gap too small for them to enter. But now it is simply a fact for them.

Other yard rules they learned much later. Meanwhile, when I say "kennel" they go directly into their own kennel. Except Slippie, whom I first have to take on the leash and walk with her to the kennel. I don't need to pull her in the least and once we're there, she goes in, recieves her "ok" and reward and goes to her bed in the background.

A still weak rule is the recall. They normally come when I call or whistle. But when they hear something outside the yard or neighbou'rs dog on the other side. then they run away. When this happens while we're training, they come back quite quickly when I call "Here, lets work!". They actually don't want to miss anything too long. Nevertheless this isn't consistent enough in mye eyes.

I think I have used the recall "Here" to early without long-line. During training I can't always work with them on-leash, depending on the exercise, and the spot, where we train, can't be sealed of.

Following the DVDs I guess I should much more frequently train exclusively the recall with them on-line.

I also thought on chosing another word than "Here", because I guess I've spoilt it. It has become a word for them which leaves them choices, if or when to obey it.

Any inobedience is not punished nor combined by any other disagreable result. Corrections i do give in other situations (e.g. pulling on a walk) but here not yet, because i see they haven't understood it fully yet.

Are those thoughts right or would you change something or recommend something else additionally?

(Believe me, Random Rewards are always included!, when deserved )

Never to late to go back to a long line for the "here" but it will take a bit more work because they have learned it's not critical.

I am just re-inforcing behaviour Christina
Not hardcore here. He has the attention span of a flea, so we do short bouts of small things. Majors for him is waiting at the bowl, or else it won't fill, as he blocks it, the sit does very well with that!
I am starting marker training only with small things, but am planning on re watching my dvds first. I find , you think you know it all, til they come home we already use the training with the crate, and thanks to it, he goes in, and only gets up once now, sleeps til 6am! He rushes to the crate when he knows its naptime or bedtime.
Small steps. He is doing very well for a pup his age, I am very proud of him. I do know the worst is yet to come! But I will have to say, this is the fastest I have ever seen crate training, potty training, and understanding of tone. (One oy stops him from potential chewing of non chewable things!)
Hijack all you want I learn too

On a high note, our first walk never went far, second walk he had more courage, third he was right behind me, today, (we only do small 10 min ones, too cold for longer) he was trotting beside me. We just go from the back to front, and a little down the road, a few more steps each walk. Thank god he loves snow!
He has had a few fits on the lead, but I stop and ignore til he comes to me, and praise the heck out of him when he does. That on its own made walks even around the yard better, as we do have spots he cannot go.
He is such a sweet boy, that when its potty time he walks to the door and sits at it, waiting to get his outside leash on. I have diff ones so he gets used to getting them on and off, worked like a charm!
Only thing I have issues with is him chewing the leash as he chews the toys. He doesn't know the difference, so I have to keep eyes on him constantly inside.

Excellent! You've got a very smart guy and he a very smart mom. He'll become soon a famous heeler!

BTW. my Lab-Mix also had issues with the lead. When she realised we were going to walk, she snapped it a few times out of my hand, ran with it like crazy in circles out of excitement and finally to the door and waited there for me. Then I became more careful, I allowed her to run for a while to waste some of her energy, then put the lead on quickly,. Even then she used to shap and chew it.

In between she's learned to control this much better. She snaps it much less, but when she succeeds to catch it, she let's it go immediately when I say "drop it". Though it took quite a long time until we reached this point. as she was already about 1 1/2 years old, when I found her.

At the time when we went on a walk with our "instructor", he trained the stays off-leash, right from the beginning! Well, it is a more or less quiet area on the whole, but often there turn up roaming dogs and this was too big a distraction. I had no good feeling. When he even tried the stays on the sidewalk of a busy street, I forbid him to do this ever again and insisted to train the stays first within our yard.

Meanwhile they keep them wonderfully also outside on walks, e.g. before crossing a street even when big buses pass by, producing strong gusts of wind. But of course I have them without exception on-leash and I increase the distraction level slowly, depending on the reaction of the indiviual dog. Now I'll restart the stays and the recall also with the long-line, for the time being only within our yard.

Bob I'm aware, this will need much more time now, yet I'm sure this will be worth the effort. Off-leash outside the yard I'll never dare, because of the other dogs and other distractions.

 Quote: Becky Niedbalka

He has with liver treats, he now goes into the crate without force, and seeks it out when he is ready for a nap, as I have been popping him in there everytime he is falling asleep. He only gets up 2 times a night, approx every 3-4 hours. Last night was a long sleep, 10-1, and than 1-4.
Jim takes him in the porch if he hears him after 5, and they hang out til 7 or 8, he puts him in the crate after some couch cuddle/playtime, and he sleeps til I get (spoiled) up at 8am
He gets bitey when he has to poo, and is great at holding his bladder for almost 2-3 hours, when out with me. I take him out everytime he goes near the door, or when he gets restless.
He passed the snowmobile test. I have already had him on it, and now when we pass it on our potty walks in the yard, he tries to hop up on the seat
Crate training was a nightmare until I pulled the treats out.
Grooming has gone well, I pop him up on the table 2x's a day, and we brush for about 2-3 minutes while he chews on a milkbone.
And to top it all off, he loves snow so much, that he has to poop in the deep stuff next week we start marker training. I have the clicker out and ready to go. Just need to find a yummy treat to join it !

GREAT pup in a great HOME