Today is a big festival in India. Deewali, the festival of lights. People burst fire crackers and there is smoke and sound and light every where. usually the time when dogs will crawl under the sofa and not come out till late tomorrow.

Not my puppies, I took them last year to the terrace to watch the fire works. This year, I decided to use the opportunity to do some training. I did the Long down, long sit, and heel walk under what I would consider considerable distraction.

All my babies did well. Bommi was a bit scared, and I had to scare her out of her fear. She is a super soft dog and does not take corrections well. But I had to correct her and you can see that in the video. But once we got over the initial problem, my puppies did what was asked of them.

Helga was super cool with all the noise and light and surprisingly Kari was too. Kaiser was trying to chase away the invisible demons coming out of the crackers, but it was fun to watch.

Here is a video of that. Hope you can give me some advice on how to do it better.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcxnoWWy0fc

Errr .. I've got to ask. How did you correct her after she had gotten up and left? I've always given a verbal negative correction immediately for breaking a down, within a second, then if needed a physical correction right after. That way s/he can link the unwanted action of moving without being released, and the correction.

I told her that she was a "BAD GIRL" and gave her a flat collar pop and put her back on the down. Once she was down, I kept praising her and told her that she was a good girl.