4/15/2014: Trey at 9 1/2 weeks. All these basic commands are getting crisper and he's doing them with more spunk. He really likes working, and he is very treat driven. He's basically a chow hound. I found that if I trained him before a meal, then he didn't finish his meal. If I trained him after a meal, he would eat (scarf actually) his meal, and he would still be highly motivated by the treats during training. So after-meal training seems to be the best approach for now. In this session, I'm training the following behaviors: 1) Let's Go (taking off from the place board).... 2) Place (go to your place board).....3) Paw (or shake)............ 4) Come......... 5) Heel finish after Come .........6) Down from Sit ......... 7) Sit from Down ............. 8) Spin (both directions) ....... 9) Heel (to my left side and sit) .........
I love that Trey offers a "Sit" as a default behavior. He's done that since we brought him home at 8 weeks. I make sure I get the sit every chance I can, for instance, when serving his food, I make him sit before I put it down. He makes it easy.
I'm using the place board as another default behavior for Trey. Much of his further training will develop out of the place board, so getting him comfortable there and getting him to desire to be on the place board is important. It's funny; now whenever we walk near it during the day, he hops up and sits and looks for a treat. In that case, the treat is enthusiastic praise, but not food.
Here's today's training session with those behaviors: http://youtu.be/fznd0pKARjs
Next up: 1) I always train in the exact same spot; I need to move the place board and training session outside or to another room; 2) I haven't started working on retrieves yet; begin that with simple "fetch" 3) I have not been working on the "kennel" command. We put him in his crate often; he loves it, but I need to start teaching him to go into the kennel on command. 4) Jumps: here's a big one. In Connie's videos, she has her dog doing the jump exercise at 9 weeks. But Connie has access to a full-blown training center, (hers!). I've got to think about how to begin teaching this without proper jump equipment and gates and such. 5) Come, using a long line.