Puppy School week 2
Keep your training sessions short. 2 minutes maximum 2-3 times a day
Eye Contact
With distractions:
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Grab a handful of food rewards and make a fist
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Put your hand out to the side
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Wait for your dog to look away from your treat hand and towards your face.
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Say the word "YES" then reward your dog with one of the treats in your hand.
Recall
Recall step 1:
The key component to teaching a reliable recall is to train a visual and verbal recall cue. I like to teach a hand touch as my visual and the word "come" as my verbal. Using a whistle as your verbal will work just as well.
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Stand in front of your dog
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Place your hand flat out close to your dogs nose
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Say the word "YES" as soon as your dog touches her nose to your hand.
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Once your dog is touching your hand reliably you then add a cue. I like to say "come"
Drop
Drop - step 2
Now that you have had some time to condition the drop cue, you are ready to teach your puppy what behaviour drop will mean to them.
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Start a tug game with one of your puppy's toys Ideally the toy should be nice and long.
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After about 20 secounds of play. Keep the toy very still and say your cue "drop"
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If your puppy does not let go, simply place a food treat on your puppy's nose. Remove the toy when they open their mouth and then give the food reward.
Sit, stay
Adding duration and distance:
Once your puppy can sit on cue every time. They are now ready to learn a sit, stay. The criteria for a sit, stay is that your puppy needs to stay in a sitting position until they hear their release cue. Your release cue can be done, finished, go, release etc. I would avoid using the word "OKAY" as we tend to use that word regally in conversation and what you don't want is to cue your dog to stay, stay while you answer the front door and during your conversation you say "okay" then suddenly your puppy runs out the front door! Also note that the release cue is not a recall. It is purely a signal to stay you can move from that sitting position.
Step one:
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Cue your puppy to sit, then reward
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Say the word "stay" or "wait"
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Move your hips side to side
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As long as your puppy is still sitting, reward them.
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Repeat step 2 and 3
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This time say your release cue "finished"
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Then drop a treat on the floor slightly away from your puppy so that they need to get up and eat the food reward.
Step 2:
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Cue your puppy to sit, then reward
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Say the word "stay" or "wait"
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Take one step backwards
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As long as your puppy is still sitting, go back to them and reward them.
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Repeat step 2 and 3
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Go back to them and say your release cue "finished"
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Then drop a treat on the floor slightly away from your puppy so that they need to get up and eat the food reward.
Socialisation
Househole appliances:
Once a day leave a new house hold appliance in one of your puppy safe rooms. Scatter some food around it then let your puppy into the room to explore the new object.
At this stage you don't want to turn on any of the household appliances. We are just working on building a positive association to things your puppy will be on a regular basis.
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Hoover
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Broom
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Mop
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Ironing board
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Drill
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Mower ( this introduction will be in the garden. Don't place the food treats too close to the mower.)
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Plant pots