Junior Puppy Home Training PT I

Part I – Overview and Summary Program Guide

Overview of Parts I, II and III

This training outline is for puppies starting out learning and responding to the cues their guardian would like them to understand in terms of “manners”. This training should start as soon as the puppy comes home and can continue to about 6 months of age, depending on the training frequency, intensity and responsiveness of the pup. The program sets the foundations for future training for Obedience Trials, Agility, or just having a polite companion, basically anything you aspire to doing with your mature dog in the future.

If you can take your pup to a qualified puppy school (with a Government Accredited qualification trainer – such as a Delta Institute qualified trainer) as soon as it is old enough (check with your veterinary practice – they commonly have Delta trained staff who run classes) that will fit in well with everything you do in following this guide.

The following Parts I, II and III in turn outline the aims of the training program (what you can expect), background information explaining useful (common) terminology, what space and equipment the guardian needs, what to use as reward treats, then explains five stages of training in a developmental, stepwise fashion. The duration of this whole training program will vary depending on the puppy, the focus of the guardian and the regularity of the brief training sessions. There is nothing sacrosanct about having 5 stages – it just fits well with what this guide covers – and is enough for a very good start. As a broad guide, each of the five training stages might run for a couple of weeks, some will go faster than others, but as you build the pup’s repertoire, the sessions can take a little longer, because you revise the past session’s learnings each time. Think of this as fun and bonding with your pup – showing it simple manners and ways it can please you, get stimulation and satisfaction from being with you and generally enjoying an enriched life.

Because the full program (Part III) assumes little or no knowledge, it includes a lot of explanations (the “how to” of delivering the cues and obtaining dog responses) and so is necessarily quite long. For those familiar with the basics, the terminology and such elements as “Luring”, “Shaping”, “Bridge & Reward”, etc., and just want a quick reminder, or a training program guide, we will start with a brief summary in Part I, then follow that with the whole enchilada [Parts II and III]. If any part of the Summary Program Guide is not clear, just go to Part II, the Beginner Basics and Part III, the Full Program Guide {Stages of Training}].

Program aims

By the end of the full three part program, puppies will be able to:

·        Respond to name and give eye contact.

·        Confidently accept the presence of other pups, and people.

·        Respond to the cues of “Touch” and “Follow hand to position”.

·        Sit when cued.

·        Greet people in a positive, friendly manner.

·        Down (Drop) when cued.

·        Settle on mat with short/medium duration.

·        Stand when asked for short duration (beginning “vet examination”).

·        Loose lead walking (progress to “stay close”) – calm happy walk together.

·        Progression of recalls (end of lead – may progress to long lead).

·        Accept collar holds and put-on/take-off collar (in excited and relaxed states).

·        Relaxation (“Doggie Zen”) - accept gentle calm and handling (feet/mouth/nose/ tail/etc).

·        ‘Wait’, or short ‘stay’ with guardian staying with the pup and/or at front (up to end of lead).

·        Introduction to crate training and use of enrichment chews/food dispensers.

·        “Leave it” exercise (toy/chew).

·        “Place” cue – go to a mat, carpet square, bed or upturned basin, taught by “shaping by approximations”.

Guardian education

By the end of the full three part program, guardians will understand:

·        Positive reinforcement training.

·        Understand how and when to ramp-up excitement fun versus calm and relaxed time.

·        Tone of voice for cues and understand marker/bridge and reward.

·        How to teach cues of sit, down (drop), stand, stay/wait, touch, go to mat, follow hand, recall, go to a “place”.

·        Crate training – appreciate value of the crate for short relaxation times and vet visits/stays – step through the “how to” introduce the crate and calm in the crate (with enrichment toys/food dispensers).

·        Understanding the “shaping” and “chaining” concepts as general training principles.

Summary Program Guide

First Stage - Starting Exercises.

“Doggie Zen” – calm handling to settle pup and build trust (see companion article under the “Training” section on this website – Zen and the Art of Dog Training).

•        Name recognition/response.

•        Then - start the session with “Charging the Marker” or go straight into the “Look at me”/ “Watch” exercise.

•        Next - the “Touch” cue.  

•        Collar touch. 

•        “Go to mat”/ “On your Mat” 

Second Stage - Exercises.

•        Crate Training: (see expanded explanation in Part 2).

•        “Charge the Marker” or use the repeat of the “Name recognition” and/or “Watch”/ “Look at me” to achieve this and then perhaps “Touch”.

•        Now, extend the “Touch” exercise to “Follow my hand” 

•        Introduce the “Sit” exercise using “Luring”.

•        “Come” / “Recall”. 

Review

• “Go to mat” and add a “Sit” on the mat.

• Then do the “Follow me” with a small walk away from/return to mat (the beginnings of loose lead walking).

As pup is doing well (you judge) start to mix up the order of cues and actions – for example:

• Name (“Fido”) then “Sit”.

• “Sit” then “Watch”.

• “Follow my hand” to go-to-mat.

• “Go-to-mat” to sit.

• “Follow me” then return to mat – “Sit” (B&R).

When the session is done – “Good Puppy – Great job – Let’s go” (walk/have dinner/ have a cuddle/ whatever).

Third Stage - Exercises.

Review & Practice

• Condition Marker/Bridge.

• Name recognition then Sit and Watch.

• Come/recall up to length of lead (use a lead for this if you don’t have a helper).

• Come to/Go to mat (add sit on mat) with little circular excursions away from mat and return – throw in a Sit here and there.

• Revise “Follow me” - the (continued) beginnings of loose lead walking (remember to say pup’s name and cue “Let’s Go”).

Progression/New exercise (depending on individual progress)

•        Introduce the “Down/Drop”. 

•        Now start to think about “Physical enrichment through varied movement” in your training sessions.

Fourth Stage - Exercises.

Review

• “Go to mat” to “Sit” to “Watch” (2 different sequential exercises: B&R after the “Watch”). Vary the sequence to “Go to mat” to “Sit” to “Down/Drop”.

New exercises

• “Leave it” - object or environmental distraction.

• “Stay” - introducing short duration - use mat – initially no movement away from pup.

• “Stand” - Start with the pup sitting beside you (probably on your left side).

·        “Shaping by Approximations” to go to a “Place”. This is a variation of the “Go to the Mat”.

Progression/Extension to deliver “varietal enrichment” (mix and match according to pup’s progress):

•        Sit to Watch.

•        Place.

•        Follow my hand to go-to-mat to sit/drop to watch.

•        Follow me - around cone/chair - extend distance.

•        Sit to short Stay.

•        Sit to Stand (if “Stand” already introduced).

•        Come to me/Recall when called (front sit).

Fifth Stage – Revise all Exercises.

Review each of these exercises in turn – just one or two repetitions of each as a warm up is sufficient.

·        “Touch”.

·        Follow my hand (around chair/cone).

·        “Go to/come to” mat.

·        “Sit”.

·        “Stay” in position for a very short period (can add step in front and return if doing well).

·        “Watch”/ “Look at me”.

·        “Down/Drop”.

·        “Stand” (review if already introduced – or add as new exercise – depends on progress).

·        “Leave it” (a distraction/toy – not a treat).

·        “Place”.

Part II provides Beginner Basics and Part III provides the Full Program Guide (exercises with detailed "how to" instructions).