How was your holiday weekend? My family and I backpacked into White Pine Lake with friends of ours and thoroughly LOVED the experience. Ok, well I did and I'm pretty sure everyone else enjoyed it too. They said they would go again so that's a win in my book.
While we were gone, Boots spent the night at my friend's house where he met new dogs and played with new people. He had a great time! It's so nice to have close connections so I can leave my dogs in good hands worry-free.
The rest of the week Boots and I: fielded training calls, hosted puppy playdates, taught week two of the LIVE! Canine Coaching class, answered emails from people like you and worked hard on his service dog training! In fact, this week we worked on the following...
- Lesson 1.11 BELL TRAINING (I told you we would work on this and we did! Boots successfully found the bells on his own multiple days in a row so things are going in the right direction here.)
- Lesson 2.14 "SAY HI" (Boots is great at sitting to be greeted so this week we added the leash - a simple change but definitely a new challenge. He handled it well. Good dog Boots!)
- Lesson 2.15 "LEAVE IT" (We practiced this outside with trash on the ground, pinecones and random items Boots found interesting while we walked. Boots loves our two cats and they helped with our training as well. They love to stroll along with us down the road, climb trees nearby and unnecessarily tease Boots while we train. Don't worry though, he handled it like a champ and quickly redirected his focus to me each time I said, "Leave it" for the different items we passed.)
- Lesson 2.8 "LET's GO" (Boots and I have done a lot of off leash walking this week. He's to the point that his off leash walk looks very similar to his on leash walk! He's fabulous at checking back in with me for his high-value reward! Smart puppy!)
As for field trips, we took Boots to the Elementary School and watched all the kiddos with backpacks and bicycles walk into school. Boots can hardly wait for his final round of shots so he can run on the ground to say hi to all the children. We also visited a few stores. The local Walmart employees will know Boots by name soon!
This week we plan on completing the following:
- Lesson 3.8 "GET IT, BRING IT HERE, GIVE" (He knows GET IT now so this week we will work on the BRING IT HERE and GIVE parts. He does these automatically after getting it from a close distance but I want him to learn the individual parts to this behavior before I start transferring them to different items.)
- Lesson 3.13 "JUMP" (This is new to Boots so we will start practicing on surfaces low to the ground and easy to jump on. Make sure your puppy isn't jumping off things taller than him as it could hurt his growing joints.)
- Lesson 2.9 "HEEL" (It's time to teach Boots the HEEL position. We'll practice this week getting into the correct position and putting it on cue.)
Should be fun! Also this Wednesday at 1:00 PM Mountain I'm teaching week three of a six-week Canine Coaching series "TRAINING 101" which is an online puppy class for members. I hope to see as many of you there as can make it. I will record it as well and post it on the Canine Coaching page for those of you who can't attend. Topics this week include: come continued, loose-leash walking, impulse control, stay and go to bed. Bring your puppy and practice along with Boots and me!
As always, if you have any comments or questions, please contact us online at BAXTER & Bella and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Happy Training,
Amy