Puppy Training
A couple of weeks ago we signed up for puppy training for Buddy at the local Petsmart ... we got snowed off last weekend, so it started last night.
The first session was without the dogs, just owners, and it was pretty good. A lot of the stuff she was saying was stuff we had already been doing (never say NO, or use their name when telling them off for example), and some of it seemed very basic to me, but from the looks of some of the others in the group, not to every one else.
There is one woman there, I’ll call her Jumper Lady, cos she had a horrible jumper on, who is going to be difficult. She has a “Cockapoo”, a cocker spaniel / poodle mix, and seems to think that bringing the dog to the one hour a week sessions will automatically make it well trained. She seemed quite shocked when the trainer suggested that we should carry treats, so any time they do good things, or follow a command, they can be rewarded, and you could just see her brain thinking “I’m not carrying stinky dog treats in my pocket!“ She also jumped around with questions, all things that her dog does or she wants to know, instead of just shutting up and letting the instructor get to it ...
Either way, we have a couple of excercises to do this week, one being the Name Game, where you hold a treat in a clenched fist, raise it to face height, say their name once, then extend your arm out. They get the treats, along with a YES and a cuddle when they look back at you, and stop looking at the treat. The idea is to have them focus on you, not the reward, and to get them to see that their name being called is a good thing too. Buddy is good at it, he already sits very well and on command, so it’s pretty easy for him.
We also picked up two fantastic toys:
and
These things have the loudest squeekers I have every heard, and both dogs absolutely *love* them. They are quite soft, but very tough. They will squeek when they bounce even! Buddy has worked out how to pick it up by the head and chompsqueek chompsqueek chompsqueek chompsqueek, but Brutus still hasn’t worked it out. He picks it up by it’s feet, which don’t squeek, they gets all confused that it’s not making that cool noise 
Most definitely recommended toys!
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What’s the name of the toys? Wondering if we can get them over here?
on 02/12 at 04:34 PM | #JW Pet Cuz toys is what they are listed as here ... the white is called “good” the red, “bad” 
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