Because Phoenix is a rescued pup we’re not sure of his birthdate. The rescue group, on Feb. 20, guessed he was born 12/20/11, and was 8 weeks old. I thought he had to be older than that (who ditches an 8-week-old puppy in rescue?!?).
So now, the first week of April, he’s either 14 weeks old, or a little older. I’m waiting for his teeth to start falling out at that 16-week mark to have a better idea of how old he is.
I’m going to establish a birthdate of 12/15/11, making him 16 weeks old this week. We’ll see what happens with his teeth.
Regardless of the precise age of this pup, he’s learning rapidly and is a joy to train.
First, the resource guarding is a constant training opportunity for us.
Instead of a little growl when I touch his bowl, I get a happy face and a wagging tail. I always hold the bowl and stroke Phoenix’s back, and the tail continues to wag.
If I touch his face with my free hand, the tail stops wagging, but he doesn’t freeze up anymore. This is going to be a long-term training objective, and we can’t ever forget that he doesn’t like having his food bowl approached.
He has half-a-dozen behaviors which he offers in sequence when I pick up his food bowl.
He loves to offer: sit, down, 2-o-2-o contacts, front, heel, table, and go-to-bed (get in crate and lie down).
For breakfast we work on contacts. I’m allowing him to climb the ramp now, so 2-on-2-off is done in motion, at some speed.
For lunch we work on pause table (on the living room ottoman) and go-to-bed (with his crate).
We’ve added a new exercise for dinner. I’ve set up 3 hoops (ala NADAC) in the yard and am teaching “go on” as a cue to keep engaging the hoops.
If the sequence of 3 hoops is 1-2-3, I start with #3, “YAY” and reward, then #2-3, “YAY” and reward, then #1-2-3, “YAY” and reward.
We reverse direction and repeat the exercise. I can generally get three of four of these sequences in for a single bowl of food.
Tags: 2-Minute puppy training, agility camp, basic dog obedience, Bud Houston, crate training puppies, dog agility, dog performance sports, dogs in motion, housemanners for puppies, Marsha Houston, puppy training, Shelter dogs
The 2-Minute Dog Trainer Blog 
May 12, 2012 at 6:21 am |
Hi Marsha,
I know someone who volunteers at the local dog shelter and they had two 8 week lab puppies dropped off because they were “too old to sell” .
Also, I am getting a puppy this summer, probably mid August so I will be reading your blog diligently to know how to train. I will keep you posted on my pup. Grace is my first dog to ever train (and the first dog I have owned in over 20 years) and I want to do better with my next dog.
Plus my next dog will be a large dog, so it will be an entirely different ball of wax to work with than little grace.
Georgette Burritt