Training William

William's Debut Part II

2008-02-25T08:17:00.000-05:00

Well I am happy to report that William did a fantastic job during his runs at the APDT Rally Trials last weekend. He won his class both runs! And not only that, his second run was nearly perfect except he knocked a sign over ................. because he was looking up at me!! I'll take that kind of attention any day! I put him in the puppy class because there was another puppy entered and I didn't want that puppy to not have any competition, but by his score he would have done just as well in the Sub Level 1 class competing with the older dogs!

And this weekend we participated in "Check Your Leash at the Door." The entire 90 minute class consisted of us taking our dogs off leash and leaving them off leash the entire time while we loose leashed walked around each other, did stays, recalls, reaction to neutral dogs, meet and greets, etc. It was a fantastic attention training opportunity and I was able to keep William with me the entire time. I am so proud of how he is coming along.

William's Debut

2008-02-12T02:31:00.000-05:00

I will be entering William in Puppy class fun runs this weekend at our APDT rally trials. Wish us luck!

On the Agenda

2008-02-08T18:19:00.000-05:00

I've set some short term goals:

He'll take the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test next month. Tucker got his at 4 or 5 months too, so William should be fine.

AKC RN (Rally Novice) at 6 months. I will be showing him in rally at a couple of shows the end of March and the beginning of April, hopefully finishing his RN at the Dalmatian National Specialty show. William will be showing in futurity, sweepstakes and in breed entered in the Puppy dog, 6-9 mos. I might show him in Pre-Novice obedience as well. It all depends on how well his stays are. He does not like stays!

Life without William?

2008-02-08T18:13:00.000-05:00

It's funny. He has become such a part of our lives that I can't remember him not being here. He has fit in so well. He knows not to bug the little boys too much. He leaves Tucker alone, for the most part, except every now and then when Tucker will play a little bit with him outside. Mo Mo and Leo are his favorite play buddies. And at PNI his best buddy is an 8 month old Berner puppy named Bernie. Bernie outweighs him by at least 40 lbs but they are a good match and play very well together.

Okay, he's phenomenal - there I said it!

2008-02-01T11:46:00.000-05:00

I am simply amazed at this puppy! He is the most food motivated and focused I have ever seen. If it weren't for the spots you would think he was a Border Collie puppy - oh oh, what did I just say? ;) But honestly, he is catching on to everything so well it almost is surreal. He is attending 2-3 of my classes a week, playing with and socializing with other dogs in daycare, after classes or at bi-monthly puppy socialization hour at least two - 3 times a week. He LOVES people. And the newest behaviors he is mastering are ........drum roll please....

RETRIEVES AND GO OUTS!!

I've placed colored hoops on the floor and he will run to the hoop from 20-30 ft out and .... SIT!!! Awesome. He retrieves his toys and bring them back to me.

Awesome, awesome puppy.

While in classes I can drop his leash and he stays with me while we train, showing little interest of running off to be with the other puppies/dogs. I can get his attention back lickety split. I can stack him on the table and he won't move an inch. Awesome, awesome puppy.

As you can tell this has been a great training week for us. I will do everything in my power to continue this great ride we're on.

Oh, and have I mentioned, I really love this little guy. He is so loving, so sweet, and so willing to play all these games with me.

Goals: CGC in about a month and RN at 6 months of age.

William 2008

2008-01-18T08:09:00.000-05:00

Well we all got through the holidays unscathed and so far, I've kept up with my training and socialization plan for William pretty well. During the holidays he attended several of the playgroups and played with some of the dogs attending overnight care. He even got to spend New Year's eve playing with other dogs!!

He has been attending two different Puppy I classes and one Puppy II class simultaneously and is doing well. He also attended a Beyond Basic class last week and surprisingly kept up very well with the other students!

Behaviors 90% reliability:

Sit
Down
Stand

Behaviors 50-75% reliability:
Shake Hands
Roll Over
Stay - not sure he totally gets it but can tell he definitely doesn't like it. He does better with Stand/Stay than anything else - which is a good thing for now!!

He is growing like a weed. He's doubled in size and barely fits on my lap anymore :( .. but that doesn't stop him from trying! When he runs down the hall and I just catch a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye I can barely tell whether it's him or Tucker!! He is such a loving puppy, so sweet and so cuddly - all good things.

2nd Puppy Socialization

2007-12-19T13:09:00.000-05:00

Well the shrinking violet is gone. William was full speed ahead at the puppy socialization hour this past Friday night. He and Tank, a 12 week old English Bulldog puppy played pretty roughly with each other for the entire hour. In addition to our built in timeouts I had to pull William out for some additional timeouts when I saw him getting a bit too riled up. Apparently his bite inhibition is doing well because he uses his mouth ... A LOT .... during play and never once did it produce a yelp from any of the other puppies. So he must be pretty soft mouthed. It sure doesn't look like it though.

Behaviors Introduced

2007-12-14T17:08:00.000-05:00

Good news!! Just like all my other dogs large and small, William is food motivated - yaayyyyy! Therefore since I already have his undivided attention with him just "suspecting" that I have food, I've decided to introduce basic behaviors (sit, down, stand) without or very limited luring. He learned "sit" quickly merely with me standing in front of him and taking a step toward him. As soon as his little tushie hit the deck, I clicked and treated. I added the word fairly quickly and he was doing it pretty consistently ..... until I introduced "stand."

Right now William is a little confused as to whether I want a "stand" or a "sit" when I am standing in front of him, but I believe this will work itself out once he gets comfortable with the word cues. But to be honest, right now, I'd rather his default behavior (when I am standing in front of him) to be a "stand" since I will be showing him in breed. I am going to try to associate "sit" with me standing next to him as opposed of in front of him. We'll see how that goes.

I've also introduced "touch" and he is consistently and eagerly touching both my right and left hand quickly on the first cue.

Potty training is going well. Within the three weeks he's been with us he has had exactly 4 "poop" accidents in the house The first one was on my watch, totally my fault for not tethering him. I learned my lesson The last three have been on my husband's watch who is already just putting William outside with the other dogs and expecting William to be like Nike and "just do it." William comes in, my husband let's him run around unsupervised and untethered, and wallah, poop accident. So, students listen up, even we trainers must struggle with uncooperative family members. (Love you honey!) He has had a couple of #1 potty accidents in his crate and one poop accident while crated at Pup 'N Iron. All these attributed to him not being taken out when he should have been because he is very quick to urinate upon being taken out. That is the first thing he does. So I truly feel these accidents will certainly lesson as his bladder control improves AND my husband starts cooperating. (Love you honey!)

Training Goals

2007-12-14T13:39:00.001-05:00

My general goals are to show William in both breed and obedience, possibly agility down the road. Of course I would love for him to achieve both his breed championship and CD before one year of age, but I will settle for just the CD and at least one major by that time. Shouldn't be too difficult since I am going to do everything right, right?

Off to a good start .......

2007-12-14T13:24:00.001-05:00

So far William has attended 3 puppy I classes and one puppy socialization class. I am impressed with his attention on me, thus far, as well as our success in redirecting his attention back to me when he has become distracted. He was a little reserved at his first puppy socialization class two weeks ago, but since then he has been seeking out interaction with other dogs and I am thinking tonight's socialization experience will be much different! I am expecting to see him fully involved in play interactions!

Will -I- Am

2007-12-14T13:16:00.000-05:00

He has entered our household with a vengeance, so henceforth he shall be named "Will - I - Am" the Conqueror!

I Knew I Was in Trouble ....

2007-12-14T11:47:00.000-05:00

Okay, in my own defense let me just say that I love to evaluate a litter of puppies. It is something that I don't get the opportunity to do all that much, so I jump at the chance whenever opportunity arises. So, naturally when the opportunity to evaluate a litter of Dalmatian puppies arose, I had to jump on it. Did I mention that they have an impeccable pedigree?

So off I went to evaluate the litter and I am not exaggerating when I say in regards to temperament the litter was one of the most even I've seen. All the puppies were social, confident and alert. They all were accepting of touch and were not bothered by and/or recovered well from sight and sound distractions. Did I mention that out of the four generation pedigree only two dogs are not finished champions?

So the temperaments were great, but the conformation was great too. All the puppies were put together nicely, straight fronts and rears, one was a patch and one had less spots on his show side, but all the other pups had beautiful markings, good pigment and beautiful expression. Did I mention two of the males were liver/white and I've never seen a liver/white pup before?

On the way home I called my husband to let him know I was on my way and the first thing he asked was, "so which one will you be bringing home?"

'Nuf said.

I went to pick up William, one of the liver/white males the next weekend at 8 weeks old - the same age I acquired Tucker, under the agreement with myself that I would use this puppy as "exhibit A" in y quest to "develop a well adjusted, well behaved dog." As an instructor I have talked the talk and now it is time for me to walk the walk. With William I have vowed to do everything I am always telling my students to do in regards to proper nutrition, socialization and training. Let's see how nature vs. nurture truly unfolds.

This is the proverbial put up or shut up opportunity. Come along for the ride .....