Zoey Training update....

akyramoto82

 zoey did great at puppy class last night, only barked a few times in the beginning - that whole pre class excitement period where all the puppies are going bonkers doesn't really happen anymore. She did great for her exercises. I was thinking about leaving before the puppy play time, but decided to stay as soon as I saw her buddy Digby ( catahoula pup) come in. He's shy enough that he doesn't trigger any weird stuff outta her. Oddly enough there was another pup in our pen who would not calm down, but eventually zoey even got to sniff that pup without any bad stuff!! I dont let her meet long, bout 3 seconds maximum then I tell her 'yes' and she gets a treat. I was constantly treating her around the other pups so that she has a good association with other dogs even if she isn't interacting with them.

So we had lots of good sniffs with Digby, the other pup and a little pup on the other side of the fence. I was very proud of her, even though she was never let off leash. I got good at communicating towards another owner letting them know that I'm feeling crowded & they need to back their pup off.

so pretty happy I stuck around.

I'm glad you stuck around, too, and I encourage you to allow off leash play while she is still this young - it helps develop bite inhibition and she will be a more confident dog if she learns to interpret and issue signals while she is physically interacting with other pups.  If you limit her to only on leash interactions, you may be shortchanging her in terms of a good learning experience.  If the puppies aren't all nice in your class, ask the ones who are to arrange for a play date!

spiritdogs

akyramoto82

 

I'm glad you stuck around, too, and I encourage you to allow off leash play while she is still this young - it helps develop bite inhibition and she will be a more confident dog if she learns to interpret and issue signals while she is physically interacting with other pups.  If you limit her to only on leash interactions, you may be shortchanging her in terms of a good learning experience.  If the puppies aren't all nice in your class, ask the ones who are to arrange for a play date!

the only dog in that class that she *might * be able to play with is Digby & at times she overwhelms him! lol He's very shy.

She plays with Bella fine, I've had to get after her the other night for being pushy with Amber, and after 3 times telling her that wasn't ok, she finally got it & was fine the rest of the night.

She plays with my friends dog's fine too.

so far in the class there's digby( 2nd class) , a dobe who whines at Zoey alot!, and the rest are little dogs, and the bully girl who came up to her in the first class ( she wasn't at the last class though, either was the dobe), other than that it's really small dogs!

in the second class there's the rottie pup, a boxer pup, and another heeler pup - all are too bonkers for Zoey.

So I'm not sure what's gonna happen tonight. Last week we played on agility stuff rather than have play time.  Seems like her default setting is 'if I'm unsure - act crazy!!' LOL!

 Zoe Bug graduated her puppy class, i want to get her spayed then hopefully enroll her in another class when she recovers, its either going to be sr. Puppy or agility for fun ( yay clicker training!!).

This weekend I took zoey for a short ride up & down the road on the bicycle!! I put her crate on the trailer and put her in it, the first 5 minutes she seemed to not like it - but hey that'd be my reaction if my 'safe' place suddenly sprouted wheels and was being pulled by a contraption that should be herded!! lol.

She relaxed after a bit, I was going really slow, then we stopped at the neighbors and she got some attention from them. I figured I need to get her ok with this stuff now before she gets too old and really pitches a fit. I let her have a break, then I thought well I may as well start training her to be next to the bike walking now. so I unhooked the trailer and we started walking down the road, her on my right side and my bicycle on the left. I pretty much treated it as a normal walk. She did really well!! she didn't have any adverse reactions to the bike - of course I let her check it out before I started this whole exercise. After about a quarter mile I figured she was doing well enough I could actually sit on the bike.

So i sat on the snapdeck which enabled me to still put my feet on the ground, had my clicker in my left hand that was on the handle bars. Slowly started walking the bike forward - C/T every time she was paying attention to me or in the right position - trying to wander off or pull or bark =- bicycle stopped & waited til she re-focused.

She did great at the end of the road - not much distractions down there. I even got her up to a trot for a couple seconds, and she stayed in position and somehow i was able to balance the bike ( in a very strange position lol) as well as steer it, click my clicker and get treats out of my bag & give them to her in MOTION LOL!! I think I need to get this on video next time!! haha.

the rest of the way went really slow - lots of distractions I must have been sitting there a good 5 to 10 minutes sometimes because she was going bonkers at the horses. But it least this time i had a seat to sit on!!

overall it was a beautiful day, I think she did well, hopefully next time will be even better.