Yesterday Bob and I had a training walk with our puppy raising manager Michelle, she needed to make sure Bob was confident enough to take away all his testosterone :) He did great so the appointment is in June - I can't wait!!!! lol. Man hormones = annoying puppy, no man hormones = good puppy :)
So, here is our walk told to you through pictures of course - Michelle was the amazing camera person ;)
.jpg) |
| The first thing we did was cross the street so Bob had to find the button. |
.jpg) |
| Once we reached the other side, we walked all down the sidewalk making sure Bob wasn't phased by the traffic noise and stuff.. he didn't even notice.. Here Bob is leading me around the cardboard box":) |
.jpg) |
| This was me trying to get Bob to look up at the overhead obstacle.. his face was too cute though so I had to zoom in and crop me out :) |
.jpg) |
| Bob checking out that overhead obstacle - obviously he noticed it - after I shook it of course haha. |
.jpg) |
| Bob and I got really distracted by something - here we are checking it out.. |
WARNING - IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH DO NOT PUT YOUR MOUSE OVER THE NEXT PICTURE - JUST MOVE ON...
Here is the distraction - sorry if it freaks you out.. If you would like to see the distraction just drag your mouse over the image.
.jpg) |
| Another overhead obstacle - I got Bob to pay attention to it even with that distraction so close! |
About this point in the walk Bob started to get really bored... Michelle told me I need to engage him more and get him paying attention to me and constantly wondering what I'm going to do (not just walking) so here I'm doing puppy push-ups (the wrong way!)
.jpg) |
| You'll notice my posture - apparently Bob notices it too... and is a butt-head because of it and doesn't do what I tell him to do - Michelle told me I need to stand up straight and be more demanding, but still nice so I need to work on that lol. |
.jpg) |
| Me working on my straight up standing - I keep catching myself now - I'll learn one day lol. |
Also, Michelle told me that I need to let Bob have more fun (It's not always work!). I'm too serious on our walks and just need to let him be a happy dog - that way he actually likes to go out and work - this I can do no problem though ;)
.jpg) |
| Here is Bob finding the next Button - I had him put his nose right up close to it ;) |
.jpg) |
| Me praising him and him working on chewing that treat lol. |
Funny story - the lady that is in that white car behind us at the light pole was apparently watching Bob find the button, well her light had turned green and the guy behind her honked at her because she was still watching us lol.
.jpg) |
| Here is us heading to Petco - he was getting very hot and burned out but still did the step ok (the second time lol) He blows the steps sometimes and goes on before I tell him to so we have to work on that with him. Lucky for me he knows "wait" :) |
.jpg) |
| Bob tired and panting in Petco. |
.jpg) |
| I love this picture! lol. |
.jpg) |
| And him getting a drink - note to self - don't use this water fountain anymore lol. |
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
14 comments:
I LOVE the last three pics, but especially the middle one. :D I wasn't able to see the "distraction". :( I'm getting tips from your blogs for whenever I finally get my puppy. :D Sounds like this puppy walk was more for you than Bob, lol. Way to go on teaching him all that stuff! I'm so amazed at all they learn & I keep thinking, "HOW am I going to teach my puppy to ______?" (Fill in the blank...find the bathroom, button, etc....mostly the "find" commands. lol)
Thanks! I'm sorry you weren't able to see the distraction (did you put your mouse on the picture?) - its a dead bird.. I'm glad you're learning from this - I learned from all the other blogs I'm following but nothing teaches you better than Michelle! Even if you think you know what you're doing - she knows better haha!
I enjoyed your post and hearing about your training walk. But there is one thing I just have to ask. LOL Is he really drinking from a public drinking foutain?
WooHoo, go Bob! Sounds like the training walk went great, what a smart little guy you have. And congrats on the snip, snip. That is always an exciting appointment. . . for the humans, not the dogs.
Uhh.. yeah he is drinking from the public drinking fountain haha! In my defense it was Petco and he was hot... lol. I'm more worried about him passing out than I am about spreading his germs everywhere...
I read once that waterparks were one of the cleanest places because the water is constantly flowing - I'm hoping this somewhat applies to water fountains too... but I've seen gum and stuff stuck to the little holes so I don't use them anyways.. lol.
Lesson to take away from that - CONSTANT VIGILANCE!
if anyone knows that quote - it means you're cool :)
Bob's doing so well & trying so hard. YOU'RE doing well too!
;-) Poor little birdy. Good job to Bob for not trying to have him for a snack!
Why it's Mad Eye Moody it is.
I didn't know raisers showed the dogs how to find stuff. I really only see it on your blog. I wonder if it's a difference in schools? I think it's awesome though, give the dogs a jump start.
I don't know if Michelle gave you pointers for the down, but I got in the same trouble, bending over. Not only was I told to stand straight, but there was a hand gesture too. And a cadence to my voice. I was taught to say the word "long" if that makes sense. So it's like "doooown" and I lower the pitch to my voice as I say the word too. It's hard to explain without you hearing it. And my hand starts kinda at belly level, and I move my hand down as I say down. It varies with the situation, the way I'll say it, but it really works. It's like a calm, "Jayden...doooown." Hahaha!
But the cool thing is when he pops up while I'm at the gym, I can do it from across the room and he lays back down. Obviously the sighties tell me what he's doing hehe!!
It is a difference in schools Ro, some schools don't have the raisers do anything - just behave in public you know, there is one in the East that doesn't even have the raisers do up steps.. I know its their thing and all but to me if you're going to need something to be a pretty hard set habit - start early!
At GDTx the puppy raisers get to teach the dogs tons of stuff - it can be a bit overwhelming but they are really good about helping when we need it. We do hand gestures too, for down we point at the floor, we do them so that incase there is a time when talking isn't always acceptable the handler can just do the hand motion and the dog will do whatever its told - he's really good at his commands but sometimes he's a stubborn little butt.. Bob is actually better at the hand gestures than he is at the spoken commands - I assume because of all the practice in class lol.
Oh and good job with the quote haha - I knew if anyone would recognize it you would lol.
They have these collapsible water bowls that work well when it is hot out. That photo reminded me of the first dog I raised for GDB. This dog was incrediably smart and learned from watching others very quickly. My son was walking her and we were leaving the grocery store. He stopped at the drinking foutain and took a drink. Tamera watched him push on the metal bar and saw that water came out. As he was walking away, Tamera stood up and pushed the bar herself and tried to drink the water! Of course, she was corrected for that, but all of the people in the grocery store were NOT happy she did that. Then she tried the same thing one more time when I was in a bathroom washing my hands. She tried to jump up on the counter to get to the water. Everyone was shocked that a puppy in training was doing that. I just told them she was obsessed with water. But I did correct her really hard, and you know what, she never did that again :) Although, when I returned her to GDB, someone I know who was working in the kennel told me that when I left, she discovered the automatic water bowl. She would splash all of the water out of the bowl and then sit there and watch it auotmatically fill back up. Then she would do it again. I was told she would only do this when someone was watching her. She was a show off. But believe it or not, she is a working guide today!
That so cool you get to do so many things as a puppy raiser! Whenever you are training a command and the pup is in the learning phase, body language cues will always over the ride verbal commands . In the learning phase, the verbal and the physical cue must be done at exactly the same time. Otherwise you will end up with a dog that will not respond to verbal commands, and will wait for the body cue. One way we make sure our pups are not doing this is we all turn our backs to our dogs, and give the verbal command once. The dogs should do the command. But many of them just stand there like Huh? It sure makes us raisers become aware of the commands we did not teach properly. But I just think the way a dog learns is fun and interesting to figure out :)
It's really interesting to see how other schools teach stuff and the process in which they do it. Looks like Bob did great!!
Good work! I think the amount that raisers teach is dependent on the size of the program. It seems like you have lots of one on one time with someone who works for the school. Much more time for guidance on how to perfect these things that are so important in the end product.
GDB has 1000ish puppy raisers out there and it is impossible to monitor each puppy closely enough to make sure that every little part of commands is being learned CORRECTLY! Figure I have 12 pups in my puppy group (or will as of next weekend). I see the whole group 3 times a month. Our GDB-employed advisor sees us once a quarter. That's a lot of time for raisers to be teaching things a little different! It is far easier for professional trainers to teach something to the dog then first time than it is to correct it after being taught wrong.
WOW, what a neat puppy walk. So nice of your advisor to take pics of you guys too! Bob's so adorable! And you both are learning so much! WIth the first pup there is such a learning curve! You guys are doing great! Keep it up. And - good job on ignoring the dead bird! (Cute way of "hiding" it by the way!)
Post a Comment