1. muzzle training - i've heard it's best to start the dogs young. would you recommend starting as a puppy with a cheap muzzle and keeping things upbeat and fun (as all our training currently is)?

2. i'm going to speak to our trainer about this - we had been training in the evenings, so i arranged some trips and vacations throughout august/september for the weekends. then we just switched over to sundays, and i am going to be away for the next 5-6 weekends (i can go to training on the 6th weekend but i will have come back the night before from a 'pet-free' vacation i promised the bf, so i'm not sure how great we'll be, but i'll probably go just to get back out there). yikes, i know.

during this time (3 weekends (and one week) i'll be backpacking, and the dogs are of course coming. neb has a midget backpack that the pooh bags can go in), i'm thinking to work on:

-tugging - i am planning to not only continue w/the tug, but introduce a rag b/c he had a great time w/the rag on the stick sunday at the field. and reinforce the 'attaque' command.

-assis - neb is decent at this, continue to work and to work at him holding it for longer (i know him maturing and growing a longer attention span will help w/this)

-focus work - currently he sits at my side and we do focus from a heel position while i introduce 'au pied' as the 'you're at my side' command. i have started doing some actually heeling while walking, but i think i moved too fast there and am taking a step back.

-that said, i am planning on starting some basic heeling during this time once his focus is consistently at 30 seconds (currently spotty, he can hit that, but not consistently)

-come - this needs proofing under distractions. i have moved from 'come' to a whistle as the command. we proved last week that a cat outdoors is more exciting than the come command, so more practice and proofing.

-coucher....so far, he backs up when i move the treat under him, so i'm going to try it against a wall. i'd like to get some of the other commands a bit stronger before i really worry about this.

-aboie - i have started praising him w/'good aboie' when he barks. will keep working on this.

is there anything else i'm missing for this time? like i said, i'm going to speak to our trainer, but figure it doesn't hurt to ask here as well.

Slow down.
He's a baby.

Just play with him!
Let him enjoy puppyhood; he has the rest of his life to learn this stuff.

When I work my 6mos old, I work on focus, drive and grip.
That's more or less it.

She knows sitz, has a crooked as hell plotz, an almost infallible recall with a lousy finish, and does very well with bring.

But I rarely work on OB with her. You can't overdo the foundation, drive focus and grip.
Everything comes from here, and you can't possibly build too much.

okay....i have wondered about that, but our trainer has me doing the basic stuff with him now (assis, focus, plus 'attaque' when we're tugging, and 'aboie' when he barks). everything i'm doing is fun and positive, so i figured adding in stuff for fun would be okay?

the majority of what we do - the vast majority - is tugging/drive stuff, or just running around smelling stuff or chasing luc playing spastic dog tag. i probably do 2 short obed. training sessions a day with him, and he gets food and tugs throughout - he doesn't do anything he's not rewarded for.

i don't expect him to be like an older dog - like i said, i'm very happy w/his assis, but does he hold it? nope, but i don't expect him to.

i'd done some reading that said as long as you do obed. that's motivational and fun, it doesn't affect drive.

ETA: and when i talk about proofing the come....he's been taught that very casually, but is pretty good about coming when i call his name or say 'neb, come!....unless there's a cat in the yard. so i've been adding the whistle to just prepare him for that when we do it more seriously, if that makes sense.

I'm not sure how old your dog is. I don't wait till a year old (or whatever older age) to introduce reward-based obedience to a dog, reason being I want to take advantage of the puppy's mind being like a sponge in their developmental periods. Of course they have the short attention span, so it's short training time.

Have you gotten the pup used to pulling in a harness? Do you do anything with the clatter stick?

I don't teach come, unless it's an informal "come here" type thing. I just call them "au pied" to get them in heeling position from any place. Using a treat, luring. Au Pied (used for come in my case) is easy to teach when I always have everything the dog wants- food, petting, or prey objects, I want the dog to think nothing out there can be better than coming to me. Then I release them right away after they come. For the motion heeling, I would probably do a lot of turns and pivots right and left so the dog understands the position of following the leg, doing it on leash. You can teach the watching (dog heeling looking up at you) as a separate command, using your tug work. Dog is in heeling position, dog looks up at you, dog wins a short game of tug. I don't put objects like food or tugs up by my face. If you have a 30-second heel, that sounds pretty good for a puppy! You can try using the wall, it may or may not work though.

For the rag, don't use an actual rag, but use a leather scrap. With a fabric rag their teeth pierce it, and their baby teeth can get stuck on it and cause pain, don't want that association with biting. I use a pretty flat tug for a puppy, not the regular thick ob tug, I don't like the bite they have on the regular thick tugs. The pup I have right now keeps biting my pants, which is becoming a problem b/c she can never "win" with my pants. I have to keep re-directing her to something else and letting her win easily.

Get to a Michael Ellis seminar, yes I know I sound like a broken record...

Really, though I don't do FR but Mondio and the foundation is the same. Absolutely get the dog used to COME..the whistle for my young dog is WAY more fun than cats or anything. Make the whistle mean something really great in a calm quiet environment first.

Your puppy can do all the positions (sit, down, stand,) fronts, heel position and you can start conditioning (marker training) for the retrieve and touch pads for the jumps.

My dog is now 10 months, he knows HEEL with focus, WALK heel position next to me without focus, HOLD (of the retrieve object), send away (short distances), touch pads and jump (no height on the jump yet.

he plays tug well with me and knows the out...

I've been working on all these concepts since he was 10 weeks. He's ready to start food refusal and to actually hold other objects in the retrieve, so far I have been using a pvc dowel.

here he is at 4 months.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOue4nJEQmw

rush is lovely

i would love to go to a michael ellis seminar....he needs to come up to canada :ahem:

neb is almost 18 weeks old - he'll turn 18 weeks on thursday. i'm waiting for him to start teething but nothing yet, i thought for a while he was being a bit weird w/his grip but it's normal again and no signs of teething, i check his mouth daily.

he's good with the cats indoors, but that was our first outdoor cat. oops!

he's getting used to the equipment at training. we have a raised square to work obedience in so he gets used to doing in staying in one spot, and he's good up on there.

he's decent w/sit. he holds it well when we're doing focus, and he's really improved at focusing, though sunday at training i kept dropping food (a chance to practice food refusal, yikes) and that interfered with his focus when i did the light heeling with him, he did well, but i can see that it makes sense to make sure his focus is strong with the stationary au pied first. i think we're close but i'd like to make sure the good foundation is there.

one thing i'd like to improve is tugging after obedience....as a reward at the end (though he also gets food during a focus session, and then i break out the tug). right now he stays a bit focused on the food....it's improving, i might start adding food to our tugging sessions to see if he'll make the connection, don't know if that's a good idea or not. (ETA: otherwise, he's a good tugger, and he's good about tugging in a variety of situations - at the field, at home, outside, in the waiting room at the vet's, at the bf's inside/outside)

i just want to make sure he keeps getting a good foundation while we're off on our trips etc.

everything we do is positive - obviously, at that age - but yup, like cindy said - trying to introduce concepts and foundations.

i will keep working on stuff then - like i said, right now tugging is still the majority of what we do - i use rope tugs cause his mouth isn't that big, and somebody (teagan) broke the nice leerburg puppy tug (okay, okay, she's not a puppy, and is a confirmed destructobot). i need to break out my sewing kit, neb's mouth should be big enough now for it.

(he's 15.6lbs! woo! he's not big, but we are having SO much fun doing the training - tugging and the fun obedience - i'm learning tonnes and it's just a blast! already i've seen improvements for me in what i do w/luc and teagan, and it makes me more excited to work with them as well.)

oh, and neb has some experience pulling in a harness

Hi Jennifer,

RE the muzzle, you can start it now with a cheap cloth muzzle, or even a halti/gentle leader. Just get Neb used to having something on his face. Lots of treats, use them to teach him to put his face into the item, vs you having to put it on him. I hold the muzzle/halti open with food in the end so they have to stick their face into it to get the food. Don't put it on, just get them diving into the muzzle/halti to get the food. Once they are doing that, then you can slip it over their head while they are grabbing the food, leave it for a few seconds while you continue to treat, then take it off. And slowly build up the time it's on. If they try to take it off, stop them with treats or just physically (not a correction, just gentle restraint), you don't want them learning they can pull it off or that can become a life long issue. I've also just used a halti and done it like putting a collar on a pup. Put it on small enough they can't get it off, and let them just wear it. Like a pup with a new collar they may scratch at it, but eventually they get used to it and just ignore it.

At this point you could also be working on a play retrieve, send away, "place" (go to a place marker), "object" (similar to place marker training, but with a basket or box) and even scent discrimination. All done as games, for a food or toy reward. I also like to start teaching my pups how to walk backwards, helps with the rear end awareness and is a skill they will need later on for the defense of handler and escort.

kadi, thanks, those are great suggestions a little nylon muzzle would be perfect for now.

a fun retrieve is a great idea. i admit i don't have a clue how to teach scent discrimination ....any thoughts? i will also ask my trainer.

but i have some more ideas now! i might be all organized (gasp!) and draw up some sort of chart - still doing everything fun, but just to keep in mind what we're doing now, and what to introduce.

i had to emergency order some THK for our backpacking trips (errr stupid local supplier, don't ask....but can i just say that stephanie at leerburg rocks!!!!), so i've gotten a leather rag for neb to use in drive/prey/tugging work (my bf said 'you bought a rag?', i had to say 'but it's leather'....anywho) as well as a flat tug that should be nicely sized for his mouth. it'll be good to work with those as well.

you guys are great!

 Quote: Jennifer Mullen

those are great suggestions a little nylon muzzle would be perfect for now.

but i have some more ideas now! i might be all organized (gasp!) and draw up some sort of chart - still doing everything fun, but just to keep in mind what we're doing now, and what to introduce.

Yes keep it all fun no pressure just fun fun fun.

Another thing you could do in place of buying a muzzle Neb will grow out of. Is to use a paper cup and feed him treats or even most of his meal one piece at a time, just to get him used to placing his muzzle in and out of a confined space for his face. (LOL a poet and I didn't even know it) You could even pop out the bottom of the cup and use an elastic or a shoe lace to hold it on his face and feed him through the bottom of it once he is at that point.

Keep it short fun with no negativity at all even if he struggles. Just pop another smelly treat in and keep on trucking. He will catch on quick I'm sure.

you are indeed a poet

that's a great idea....and that way i'm not shelling out for a muzzle (yay cheap!) until he's full grown.

thanks!