Kipling plays tug with daddy Woo. |
Today we worked puppy recalls, a bit of hide and seek in the yard and the beginnings of "don't leave the momma" - this all plays into his foundation work. I'm looking forward to letting him BE a puppy - probably the best thing I ever did for Teller as a matter of fact - just BE a puppy. Lots of games here and there, lifeskills too of course, but my plan is to keep training FUN with lots of play, specifically lots of constructive play - puppy lessons that will come in handy if and when he ever plays agility or obedience.
The big one I start with is called "Don't leave the momma". Other people might be fun, other dogs might be fun - but stay with the momma when you are told to do so. Momma is WAY more fun! When he's older this translates to "don't leave the ring", "don't visit the judge" and "don't pants the ring stewards". Foundation, Foundation, Foundation. It's tempting for people to skip foundation stuff - but over and over again it comes back to bite people. I'd rather bring out a dog later (and older) and know that I can trust them to stay with me and stay in the game (mistakes and all).
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Kipling LOVES his water bottles - which we're affectionately calling "his girlfriend". Do you need your girlfriend Kippie? |
He's still sleeping in his borrowed baby crate when he's down for naps and overnight. The big crate in the setup is at this point just his clubhouse - I plan to move him into his big crate over night this weekend - my rule of thumb is that I want dry mornings for one full week before he gets bigger quarters (so far he's two for two). For enrichment purposes, every time he goes into the playpen he has different toys to play with, I'm rotating them in and out, two at a time - mostly letting him learn to settle away from the pack regardless of what is going on. I've even caused a bit of a deliberate ruckus with pots and pans just to keep proofing for what he'll hear on the road. Settling is such important skill for a wee lad who will be playing support crew at trials for the next couple of years.
On a humerous note, Kipling offered his first 'fake' pee-pee behavior today in hopes of earning a zuke. Yep, He's outside and there he goes squatting in the grass (over and over again) not actually going potties. That is my cue to stop the food rewards for the 'pee-pees' and cut over to praise only. The problem (at least in my experience) is that the fake pee-pees quickly overtake the real ones and accidents start to happen when puppies are too busy thinking about the position and not the behavior. They come back inside and have accidents because they forgot to go (and of course their people think they DID go!).
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Cute little jailbird eh? |
Cute little video clip of Kippie playing with his toys (and tail) this evening. As you can see this is the point in the day when he's getting to the over-tired, hard to focus part of the day. About 10 minutes after this video he passed out in his ex-pen...LOVE a tired puppy. BTW - this is pretty much what he did all morning yesterday in his crate in the van at the dog show. Good puppy Kippie, good puppy.
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