Fun at Puppy Class

Tate may be young but she is one smart little cookie and she really seems to love to learn. To me though, more important than the "sits", "go to mat" and loose leash walking is the opportunity to be in a new place, experience strangers and new dogs and lots of different things.

The drive to class was making her sleepy but she didn't want to lie down and miss anything

In yesterday's lesson we worked on "settle" which is the behavior of being able to say a cue - I chose "mat" and the puppy goes to a specific mat and lies down. Tate was great at sitting on the mat but this class she finally figured out the lying down part. Yay Tate! Unfortunately I was too busy with my treat pouch and clicker to snap a photo of the "down".

Another thing we worked on was a lesson in "shaping". Shaping simply means breaking down a behavior into tiny increments and reinforcing the dog at each incremental step until you've achieved the full behavior you are working on.  Beyond just being a great way to teach a more complex behavior it is a very fun game for the dog and human and strongly develops the process of learning for the dog since they are getting reinforced at a high frequency. The more you train the quicker they learn, since the process of learning is in itself a skill. And the trainer is getting reinforced by the dog's learning so everyone wins!

Tate loves shaping and is super quick. We started with her getting reinforced for just looking towards the balance disc. Then the criteria moved up to her having to touch the the disc. Next she had to put 1 paw and then 2 paws on the disc to earn her treat. This is an underinflated disc so with 2 paws its a bit wobbly and is a new experience for her.  I had planned on that being the end behavior but she quickly was putting 4 paws on so we kept working and ended up with her easily doing a sit on top of the disc. Go Tate!

Tate showing her end behavior of sitting on the balance disc

We also did an exercise where one puppy in the class got to walk over a bunch of weird new things while the other puppies worked on looking back at their people when distractors are around. At first Tate wasn't too sure about the sandpaper topped walking frame or the hula hoops but after a few seconds of inspection she figured out they were no biggie and they also had treats scattered on them so were worth a closer look.

Scratchy walkway

Hula hoops that rattle a bit when bumped

This photo is from another class but we did try a bit of puppy play time at the end but there's not a great match up of personalities in the class and we don't want to teach pups that other dogs are unpleasant. It's important to be very careful to match dogs together who have similar play styles. An intense player with a fairly timid dog is going to make the timid dog even more worried about other dogs.

Tate and Lucas sniff poor Gracie who is not having fun. Pups were all quickly distracted by their people after I took this shot to give Gracie a break.

I sure hope that Tate will get to continue training after she's adopted since she has such a fun time doing it.

Puppies are People Too!

Okay, well they are dogs, but the point I'm trying to make once again is that a pup is not a blank slate. They come fully loaded with genetic predispositions that can't be ignored. In the world of nature vs. nurture, nature is always going to kick nurture's butt. But let's talk nurture. Dogs have a short window of opportunity as puppies to be well socialized to new people and other dogs and to have as many new experiences as possible. If that socialization isn't done carefully and thoughtfully, or doesn't get started until the end of that window, there will be anxieties that will need to be worked with. Our pups are nearing the end of that socialization window and are just getting their first outside of the home socialization. They are starting out with some deficits that are going to take time and dedication to work through.

Don't get me wrong, we want these puppies to be adopted - none of us are fans of life with a houseful of puppies since it's so much work.  But we want these pups to be adopted by people who understand that signing on to parent a pup is a huge responsibility. A dog is going to come with genetic baggage and their family's job will be to meet the pup where they are at and educate themselves on how to help that puppy (through positive training) to become all the pup they can be. That may mean rearranging the human's schedules, paying money for a person to come and give the pup play time mid day; and it definitely means spending the money for puppy training classes from a knowledgeable and certified positive trainer.

The reality though is that most people have cute puppy blindness and are positive that all will be right with the world if they can just get their hands on an adorable little furball of terrier cuteness.

For people who really want to know what they are getting themselves into when bringing a terrier into their lives, I highly recommend the book Terrier-Centric Training: From Tenacious to Terrific by Dawn Antoniak-Mitchell. And if you want to hear more about how puppies are not a blank slate be sure to check out this wonderful blog post over at Paws Abilities.

Stay tuned to learn about the unique personalities of Mesquite and Juniper - some of the areas where they will need some help from their humans, and what we've learned about them so far. Not just cute faces. Unique individuals who are certainly adorable but who have their very own personalities, likes and dislikes.