Vizsla pup 12 wks old- Place Wait Take practice

It's important that Luci understands where she is supposed to be and what she should be doing while we get her acclimated to accompanying us in our daily routine.  We are establishing her 'place' in each room of the house and encouraging her to relax, chew, and play in this place.  

This video is my attempt at establishing a place for her in our kitchen.  Once I established the place with this exercise, she goes there and stays while I unload the dishwasher, etc.  She was previously chewing the dishwasher bins while I unloaded it, so this exercise solved a big problem!  

We incorporated the 'place' practice with the wait and take practice from the prior week.  We are now also requiring eye contact before she takes treats- this is the equivalent of her asking 'please, may I' before she takes action. 

If you watch closely towards the end of the video, you can see her stop her body from lurching forward towards the treat.  Instead of acting on her impulse, she looks towards me and 'asks' permission.  

Just minutes earlier, she was not quite as sharp (see video below)...

Vizsla pup 11 weeks old off-wait-take practice

Learning patience at 11 weeks old with off-wait-take practice.

Vizsla Pup- 10 weeks old- water games

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What a chew face!  This vizsla pup needs tons of time with bully sticks.  

One of our goals this week is to increase water confidence- Drew is DYING that vizsla isn't ready to swim in the pool yet! We started acclimation with a fun game of duckies in a tub of water beside the pool.  This is a fun way to get used to paws and noses in the water and easing poolside anxiety. Vizsla is always anxious to work on retriever skills so we incorporated that to relax her into the game confidently.

Here's our game of fish, run, return and drop...

Next up- feeling confident enough to approach poolside alone and retrieve a duckie...

Huge success and an overall great experience for both of us!

Vizsla getting better at:

-Leash pulling- a long way to go on this one

-Giving people & dogs their personal space when greeting (still needs lots of work on this)

-following commands in areas with distraction 

-learning that carpet and rugs and corners and cabinets are not to be growled at or chewed on

Vizsla has mastered:

-no accidents

-sleeping all night in crate

-sit command

-commands from previous week

-getting in pool- climbs in and out to first step only

Vizsla loves:

Chewing

Lap time

Practicing commands

Hammock time

Vizsla Pup- week 9

Baby girl is home!!! Chewing consumes her waking hours- thankful for bully sticks!

Saint Lucia (Luci) flew home to be with us in Texas at 9 weeks old. 

We are both newbies at dog training, but here's some of what we accomplished week 1.

Bird dog owns me when she puts on her business face!  

We started target training (touching her nose to my hand).  We are also working on rewarding her for making eye contact.  Somewhere along the way she decided that she would sit and look me in the eyes when I cross my arms in front of me so I just went with that as a signal.

Achievements:

-Getting very comfortable in home and yard setting- no longer scared of wind chimes

-Comes to a target hand

-Makes eye contact on signal

-Housebroken almost instantly

-Great with off/wait/take commands

-sleeps in crate all night

Problem/ work areas:

-Jumps like crazy when meeting & greeting

-Strong-willed on leash-- pulls & bites leash

-barks and jumps at me to insist on continuing rewards for good behavior

-no eye contact and won't take treats when on leash in new setting

-learning not to jump/ bite at Drew

-eating quail wing instead of dropping it

LOVES-

Fetching games

Chew sticks (bully sticks)

Squeak toys

Finding & Retrieving quail wing from shrubs 

Hammock & lap time

Learning new commands