By Fran Jewell
Kalidor turned 6 years old this past week, and in honor of him I want to rerun a few articles I wrote that earned me the Idaho Press Club Award. More so, since I have some new puppies to take care of right now, I am not available to many who have requested my help. I thought this would be an excellent way to give those with new puppies some things to focus on. Here we go…
As many of my clients know, I am bringing home a puppy this Thanksgiving week. He will be the first puppy for me in seven years! There have been a lot of puppies in this house, but all have been service-dog candidates.
My new puppy’s name is Kalidor. He is a 9-week-old, long-coat, black German shepherd. I want to dispel the myth that puppies will take months to housetrain, to stop biting, and that obedience training shouldn’t start until a puppy is 6-8 months old. I thought what might be fun is for my readers to see what I do with my puppies in a weekly diary.
This week, my focus will be on teaching Kalidor his name, teaching him about marker training or clicker training, housetraining, crate training, no jumping and no biting, socializing him with my pack, “sit,” “down,” “come” and “watch.” Sound ambitious? Not really. Many of these things I can combine very quickly.
First thing is going to be teaching him to recognize his name and come running when he hears it. I will wait until he is hungry, put him on a leash so I have him close at hand, then simply say his name and give him food from my hand. I want him to see that his name equals food. At the same time, I will not give him food if he is jumping or biting me. As this is going on, I slip in a click with the clicker as he is taking his food for his name. As he learns that “Kalidor” means food, I back away. As I say his name, he follows the food. Then I will introduce the word “come” while he is in the process of coming toward me. This is the only time I say “come” for several week. It is not yet a command.
When he knows click means food, I can introduce “watch” and “sit.” I take him to the door with a leash on and wait for him to look at me. When he looks up, he will surely sit. I click and treat for sit and say “sit.” When he looks up for another treat, I click/treat for looking at me and say “watch.”
Then, we run outside to the place I want him to go potty. I wait for him to relieve himself. When he does, I click, name it, and wait for him to “come” running back to me for that treat. When he gets to me, I wait for him to sit, click/treat. Then I wait for him to watch me again. He gets one treat for relieving himself outdoors, sitting, watching me—and no jumping!
Stay tuned for more!
Fran Jewell is an IAABC Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, NADOI Certified Instructor and the owner of Positive Puppy Dog Training, LLC in Sun Valley. For more information, visit positivepuppy.com or call 208-578-1565.