Day 18 -- The Calm Before, During and After the Storm

We were super spoiled with all the nice weather we've been having. Lots of outdoor play and training sessions outside. It's been lovely. But we've had to retreat a bit indoors again as we are getting more typical February in Oregon weather. I noticed a big change though, from the first time we had to find indoor activities. Wow, Mollie is so much calmer. We still had to make sure she got her exercise and we had plenty for her to do to engage her mind but it wasn't at the level of intensity it was a couple of weeks ago.

We've worked on puzzles and training. She's had plenty of time to play with her pals (Chase and Healey pictured above). We had to redirect her for her chewing a bit more than if we had had outside time but it's still a huge difference from when she first came here.

When I sat on the floor to take pictures of them all playing together she actually curled up on my lap. All the activity going on around her with dogs playing and she chooses to snuggle up with a person. It seems like such a simple thing but, with most dogs, they would much rather play with other dogs than hang out with a person. And it was such a calm, quiet activity for her. I think maybe this whirlwind has been channeled.

Mollie quietly resting on a dog bed.

And finally puts herself in her crate for a little nap. What a good girl she is...

Day 17 -- Enjoying

The really nice thing about everyone getting on the same page, dog and owner, is that you can really start to enjoy each others company. You can start to see the cute, sweet things your dog does instead of just being exhausted from trying to manage a whirlwind.

There are still times when she is in motion...

But it's no longer perpetual motion. She can start to have more control over her actions and listen to what people are saying to her.

She now has other ways to communicate besides her mouth. And now that she is so much softer with her mouth, everyone may be able to survive until those sharp little puppy teeth begin to fall out and the nice, dull adult teeth replace them.

What a joy to have a puppy who wants to engage with you instead of terrorize you. It makes for such a nice foundation for a great, life long relationship. What a joy to have a puppy who you want to do things with and interact with.

It's hard to believe she'll be going home soon. Everyone will miss her here (especially myself and Sinbad). She is so nice to have around. She's just been a lovely girl.

Day 16 -- Surviving

So how do you survive puppyhood and adolescence? They sure keep you on your toes! And sometimes they just seem plain naughty.

I think one of the most important things you can do to help your puppy grow into a nice, responsible dog is to catch them doing things right. She's going to repeat behavior that works for her and if she gets smiles, happy voices, and scratches behind the ear when she is behaving nicely, she will want to repeat those behaviors.

Ideally I can catching her thinking about being naughty. If I see her getting ready to launch up on a counter to see what she can swipe, I can interrupt her before she makes the leap. It's much more effective to catch her at this point then to wait until she has her feet all the way on the counter. If she's got her feet up you then have to get her off and redirect her but she already been partly rewarded by discovering what was on the counter. It's even harder to fix if she's not interrupted at all and she is able to swipe something off the counter. This can easily happen if she is not in the same room as her people. This can be a big challenge with an open floor plan. I use baby gates and doors to keep puppies in the same room with me or I can attach them to their leash and attach it to my belt loop.

It's not always possible to catch them as they are thinking about doing something. Sometimes you are in the same area as the puppy, you look down and they are chewing on a chew toy, you praise them, you look away, you look back and they are chewing on the furniture. They are fast and they can be tricky. So just interrupt the behavior and redirect them to an appropriate activity.

Sometimes that works. Great! Praise away and keep an eye on her. But, if it doesn't and you have found yourself repeatedly interrupting her and redirecting her, try a time out.

Sometimes they can be a little naughty when they are really tired. This can happen in play with puppies too. If they start to get a bit cranky, it might be time for a little break. She has had a great start in her crate training too so it's a useful tool to manage her behavior. Not listening and still being naughty? Try a little bit of crate time. You're tired and don't want to watch her or you're busy and can't watch her? Try a little crate time. You have done yourself a big favor by helping her to be so comfortable in her crate. You can tell she likes her crate when she chooses to go into it when she's tired. What a good girl!

It's always a lot of hard work in the beginning but it will pay off so much in the long run. All the work you put in now will help her to grow into a nice, well adjusted, and well behaved adult dog.

Day 15 -- Changing it Up

As you can tell, Mollie has been enjoying playing with other dogs while she is here. It's helped her expend some of her energy and helped us with our lessons.

I break up play a little bit with practicing recalls. This helps her to learn to pay attention to her people but also gives me a way to settle down the play if needed. I have rules for my recalls; I only say her name and "come" once, I only use the word "come" if I know I will get a response or I can follow through if I don't get a response, I don't call her for things she dislikes, I encourage her on every step she takes towards me and I reward her heavily for coming to me. I will frequently release her to go play again as part of the reward too. This helps insure I get a really fast, reliable recall from her. It pays off well for her to come to me even if it means interrupting play with her pals.

I also break up play at times by asking Mollie to do a down. She doesn't have much of a stay on her down so I'm not asking for long downs. I just want her to alternate a little bit between a lot of activity and really calm activity (it's that nice on/off switch that we like so well).

All of these exercises help her to be more in tune with her people. So, if she gets distracted...

I can say her name and get a really fast head turn and she's paying attention to me. I pay her off with a lot of praise and sometimes a treat or a toy. She's so enthusiastic about it! I love how much she is into people, checks in frequently and stays tuned in. What a good girl!!

But what do you do if you don't have dogs around to keep things more interesting for her?

I like to put away a lot of the toys and regularly rotate different toys out for her to play with. She gets excited because it's like it's a brand new toy and she doesn't get bored with the same old toys day in and day out. It's the same with the exercises we do. I try to switch those up a lot and do different things with her. It keeps it exciting for both of us. I don't get the skunk on the lunge whip out every day. I don't want her to get too obsessed with it and I want it to be really exciting when I do get it out. I also like to change up her rewards. It's nice to be able to whip out some tasty treat she has never had before when we are in a particularly distracting environment. If I used the same old kibble, she's more likely to turn her nose up at it because the new dog walking down the sidewalk is much more interesting. By doing these simple things, your dog begins to regard you as a source of ever changing exciting resources and it's a much more fun way to interact with your dog.

Day 14 -- Feet Forward

Mollie is so pleasant to have around the house. She still gets into puppy mischief but she is so response to my verbal direction and redirection. If she's being a little naughty, I can interrupt her and she happily comes over to me waiting to be praised for ending the behavior. My praise is a much bigger production than the interruption. It's a big deal for her to stop doing something that she views as fun, rewarding, etc. If all I'm doing is correcting her in a stern voice, there is nothing to motivate her to stop the behavior except avoiding the stern voice. I would much rather our relationship be on a different level than that and I want her to happily listen to my requests.

Mollie is really good at letting me know when she needs to go out to the bathroom. If we are downstairs she runs to the back door. If we are upstairs, she runs to the top of the stairs. If I don't notice what she has done, she whines a little and runs back to me. I better catch on by then or we will have a puddle at the top of the stairs. Puppies this age are not fully house trained yet but consistency with their training and observing their body language is going to go a long way towards getting that job done.

Mollie continues to approve in other areas as well. We've built up to a brightly bandaged foot and she's more than willing to give me eye contact instead of chew on my foot.

It's ok for her to investigate my foot but I don't want any teeth on my feet or any part of my body or clothing. I have worked with her in a variety of settings so she can generalize this to other feet, places, etc.

Even when on the floor playing with her she did really well. A couple of times she put her mouth on my feet but didn't put any pressure down at all and immediately removed her mouth when I said ouch. But most of the time while I'm on the floor with her wiggling my feet she is ignoring them. She's come a long way!

And even better, she would really rather snuggle up on my lap. That is so much more pleasant than a puppy who is nipping at your feet all the time.

Day 13 -- Balancing Act

So much of what we do with puppies to help them grow into nice, well mannered dogs is a balancing act. We balance setting firm boundaries with allowing dogs to express their natural needs and desires. We show dogs the behavior that we like and discourage them from the behavior we don't like. In all this balancing though, it's important to make sure the dogs are getting their needs met. They don't have a verbal language to tell us what they need so we need to be able to either read their body language or anticipate their needs.

As I mentioned before, play is a great way to exercise your dog and to teach them skills. I want to be involved in their play too so she doesn't think that all fun things only happen with other dogs. I really want her to be tuned into people. When she is keyed into people...

She'll respond to you even when there is really exciting things going on around her. She's doing really well at this and is quite attentive to people. She'll drop almost anything she is doing when I call her. On a rare occasion I still need to remind her but, for a puppy her age, she is doing really well.

She is still getting plenty of exercise and this definitely helps with her attentiveness. She even gets her exercise needs met in my small yard. That's the beauty of the circle in the middle of the yard. Even if there are no other dogs around, Mollie will run circles around that tree.

And again the balance...she gets enough exercise and her little mind gets worked and in turn we have the nice calm, quiet moments with sweet little Mollie. What a good girl she is!

Day 12 - A Little Help

Mollie is still a baby so even with all her practice, she won't be perfect with her leash skills just yet. When dogs are still learning to walk on leash politely, I sometimes use equipment to help. I like to use head halters because, if used correctly, they are humane and easy to use. I'll especially use them if I need to walk a dog but I don't have the time or the ability to really focus in on their leash skills. I still do regular training sessions with the dog so they learn to walk nicely and eventually I like to wean them off of the head halter.

Having something foreign on their face is not always accepted in the beginning. I start dogs out slowly at first.

I begin by luring them through the nose loop with a little treat and then quickly taking it back off again. I'll do this for several sessions before I move onto the next step.

Eventually I will get to the point where I clip it behind her head. Again, I only do this for a second and then take it off. Each time I am luring her nose through the loop with a treat. So far she thinks this is a really fun game and she eagerly pushing her nose into the head halter.

In the next step, I fee her with the head halter on. She is very enthusiastic about her meals so I want her to develop a nice, positive association with the head halter. I will do this for several sessions (as long as she needs) before I ever hook the head halter to a leash. So far she is doing very well with the head halter. I expect that we will be walking with it for the first time in the next day or so.

The nice thing about the head halter is that it is difficult for the dog to pull on the leash. It, instead, turns their head if they pull, just like a head halter on a horse. It's important though that you don't jerk on the leash when they are wearing their head halter. That can damage their neck and it's counterproductive in her training.

We're working a little bit on "down." It's definitely not a crucial skill for Mollie but it's nice to have her work on that when she is learning to settle.

But she is already doing such a good job with her manners in general, I think her "sit" will be of far more use. It's so nice to have a lot of this in place before Mollie reaches adolescence. She'll need a lot of reminders when that time hits but she'll have a lot of skills and knowledge to fall back on.

Day 11 -- New Friends

Mollie met a new friend today. Rosario is a 9 week old puppy in training to be a service dog. It's really nice to have puppy play groups for your dog when they are young if you know of others who have a puppy around the same age. Both puppies should be working on their vaccination series and healthy. They need to be monitored in their play so that it doesn't get too rough, no one is learning bad behaviors, and teaching opportunities are utilized.

It's helpful to know about dog body language so you know when to intervene. In this picture Mollie is trying to get small and roll over in a more submissive position. They are pretty even players with a lot of give and take. They switch roles frequently throughout play. This makes it much easier to monitor. I just need to step in if one has the other pinned or if someone has an ear and won't let go. It can be a little more challenging when they are not so evenly matched.

In this picture you can see Healey (the older dog) has her ears pinned back a bit. We call Healey "the fun police" because she likes to monitor dogs when they are playing and she barks if she things they are getting out of hand.

This is a great opportunity to practice her recalls. She is completely distracted and running in the opposite direction of me.

And she is turning on a dime and running to me when I call her. I wouldn't try this in an unfenced area. That adds to the level of distraction quite a bit. But she can build up to that with practice. Recalls are something you have to practice throughout the life of the dog. They can get rusty at this skill if it's not used regularly. But it is a really fun one for the dogs and oh so pleasant for the owner to have a dog who comes bounding towards them when they are called.

Part of building her recall is rewarding her for random check ins with me. If she is out playing and running around and then comes over to sit in front of me to "check in" with me, I am going to reward that. That's a pretty big deal to have a dog interested in you when there are a lot of other fun things happening around them. It definitely warrants a treat and praise.

And play sessions are a great time to practice her name recognition. If she doesn't respond to me by looking at me when I call her name, I'm not going to repeat her name. I simply walk up to her and wiggle a treat under her nose and lure it up to my eye. She's still learning to do this in distracting environments so I want to make sure that I always follow through with her so she doesn't learn to blow me off.

Day 10 -- On/Off Switch

I introduced a new toy to Mollie today. It's a plush skunk on the end of a lunge whip. If this goes well, it could be a good way to exercise her in a small space.

This is not only another option for exercising Mollie but also a good way to teach her a good on/off switch, drop, and other self-control skills.

Because Springers are bred for flushing and retrieving game, this is a great way to allow her to do some of the things she is genetically predisposed to do.

She loves catching the skunk

And sometimes tugging with it

She is learning to drop it when asked and she's doing very well. I say "Mollie, drop" in a nice, even tone (no need to say it in a grumpy, stern voice) and put a treat to her nose. She drops it very willingly. We will soon be to the point where she will drop it without a treat to her nose. She's very close now...

Another part of her reward for dropping is to frequently get to tug again. She learns that dropping things really pays off for her because she will get treats, praise and, frequently, she will get the toy back.

I'm careful to make sure she doesn't get too obsessed with this game. I want it to be a pleasant thing that is rewarding for both her and her people, not something that is a source of anxiety for either party. She also has to earn the privilege of playing. Just like anything else, ask her for something before the game starts (sit, attention, stay, etc.).

So now our mornings look like this. She is choosing to lay down on the dog bed and chew on her toys. This is with several other dogs nearby and my wiggly feet within eye shot.

And our evenings look something like this. It is so nice to have a puppy who chooses to quietly lay on the dog bed beside your desk while you work.