Puppy School week 1
Keep your training sessions short. 2 minutes maximum 2-3 times a day
Attention
Eye contact:
Eye contact is the foundation for many other important behaviours such as recall, loose lead walking, learning to pay attention to you and so much more.
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Drop a treat on the floor.
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Wait for your dog to eat the treat.
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Then wait for your dog to look up towards your face.
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Mark that behaviour by saying the word "good" or "yes"
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Reward your dog by dropping another treat on the floor.
Start your training in a quite room of the house then slowly start moving your training sessions to other rooms of the house, then the garden then after a few weeks start taking your training out into the real world ( on road walks, in parks etc)
Sit
Step one:
Don't say the word sit yet
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Place a treat on your puppy's nose
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Slowly move your hand up and over their head
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As soon as their bum touches the floor, mark by staying "good"
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Give your puppy several food rewards one after another while they are still in the sit position.
Step two:
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Say sit
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Wait for for your puppy to sit. (give them 30 seconds to work it out)
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Say "good" as soon as their bum touches the floor
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Grab some treats from your treat bag / pocket
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reward your puppy while they are still in the sit position
Settle
Step one:
Don't say the word DOWN
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Place a treat on your dog's nose
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Slowly move your hand down onto the floor
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Keep your hand there until your dog's tummy is flat on the floor, then mark by staying "good"
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Give your puppy lots of food rewards on the mat in-between their paws while they are still in the relaxed down position
Drop It
Drop items:
This cue is used if your puppy has picked up something you don't want them to have. Common items are socks, stones, sticks etc.
First we need to condition the word "drop" with food appearing on the floor near you. If your dog picks up something you shouldn't try to take the item out of your puppies mouth. Doing this can either teach your puppy that picking up things encourages a fun chase game or in a more serious behaviour it could teach the puppy to growl or bite when hands come close to their mouth.
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Say "drop"
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Throw a handful of food on the floor
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Point out the food on the floor.
Enrichment game
Scatter Feeding:
This is a great enrichment game to teach your puppy to use their nose. Scent work slows down a dogs heart rate and helps them to calm down.
Zoomies:
If your puppy is running around the house like crazy and it normally happens early morning and around 7pm at night this is called Zoomies. Your puppy has a bit of extra energy at these times and hasn't learnt how to deal with it. This is when scatter feeding can help to calm them.
Socilisation
Video curtsey of Amy's Puppy Pre School
Play Sounds:
We can't socialise our puppies in a normal way at the moment but there are lots of other ways we can build confidence and resilience in our puppies.
During your puppies meal times play some sounds off the Puppy Sound Proof App or Youtube of things your puppy will encounter when out walking. Make sure the volume is down quite low as not not startle your puppy. Some examples of sounds would be:
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Children playing
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Babies crying
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Skateboards
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Crowds
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Motorcycles
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Cars
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Trucks
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Thunder
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Heavy Rain
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Fireworks