Puppy Training Wk 6: More Distractions and Shake
The puppies were hyper excited at the beginning of Petsmart puppy class today. We were supposed to be demonstrating Sit-Stay and Down-Stay. There was a family standing outside the ring and the three children were a huge distraction for my goldendoodle puppy. Still, Ebony did great on the Sit-Stay. It took two tries to maintain the Down-Stay for 15 seconds. Then, we focused on meeting others. Ebony did really well with this. Jumping has never been an issue for her. I would give the comment Visit and she would sit and wait for the person to pet her. We had to tell some of the store employees that could not pet the puppies. I would tell the person no then get Ebony to Watch Me. She did great!
Next Jennifer, our excellent trainer, laid out some toys and some nice stinky bones in one of aisles. We were to walk with a loose leash down the aisle. If the puppy pulls at the leash for one of the objects, they were told Leave it and we were to keep going. The first time, Ebony strained for one of the bones but immediately responded to Leave it. She walked perfectly down the rest of the aisle, ignoring the objects. We repeated this three times, each time Jennifer moved the items closer together. Each time, my cute puppy walked on a nice loose leash and ignored the tempting objects.
At the end of the class, we turned to a trick. To teach her to shake, Jennifer had us tap the back of the leg where it attaches to the foot. Once the puppy raises her foot, they get a click and a treat. I was really tired at the end of the class and I was getting confused as to how to transfer from the tapping of the leg to holding out my hand to shake. Ebony was also confused and we could see her thinking about it and trying to figure out what I wanted. By the end of class, she would put her paw on my hand about 50% of the time when I said Shake.
