Puppy Play

Up to now Bijou has liked the puppy, sniffed her and trotted around with her, but I had doubted that she would really play with the puppy. Given that her legs barely hold her up some days. Wednesday night they barked and chased each other a little, but all standing up...no real rough and tumble play, and I had given Bijou a pain pill that night. Yesterday, Bijou had a morning and evening pill. She wasn't really hurting I don't think, but she was creeping around. This morning there was a pup wrestle mania in the living room. Bijou was the instigator this time... It was really good to see her interact with the puppy like the old Bij that always smothered most other dogs with love. They were almost "slap fighting" like kids sometimes do. It was hilarious. They were mouthing each other a lot as evidenced in some of the pics where one or both has their mouth open. Puppies learn bite inhibition best from other dogs, and I yip "ouch" really loudly if her razor sharp teeth bite me which is what all the books and people tell you to do. However, I am not the same as another dog. Bijou got rough with Lena, a little yelp and she backed off and Lena got a little rough with Bijou and Bij yelped Lena backed off. Perfect.

I also worked with Lena and the clicker this morning. Someone suggested trying the training in the bathroom to minimize distractions. I shut us in for about 3-5 minutes and we worked on making sure the clicker was "primed." This means that Lena knows that a click means "good job" and she understands that she gets a reward. I am convinced she knows. I re-read an email from Esther, a dog trainer in Holland that I met via YouTube, to be sure that she knows. Esther says, "click one time when she's looking away from you, if she looks up at you when you click ('where's my treat?') then she understands how it works." Lena's eyes were down. I clicked, she looked at the clicker, then my eyes, then the hand that usually treats her.

I am excited! We worked on "touch" today again and I started using the cue word touch after she performed action. I put my hand down, and when she touched it with her nose I clicked. This is an important command that will allow me to teach her other more sophisticated commands later.

We also worked on sit. She did pretty well, but it was getting close to about 4 minutes and her attention span was slipping. We ended on a positive note.

I am really excited about her...and nervous. I hope I do a good job, and I hope I am clicking at the appropriate time. Initially, I was clicking too late. Needs to happen during the behavior and I realized I was clicking after. I need to work on that.

Hopefully, we will start puppy class in a couple of weeks. I just hope that I can integrate clicker methods with their methods.

More to come...

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p.s. If you click on the YouTube link above you see Esther in action. Her pup was executing those moves at 10 weeks. Lena and I have a lot of work to do to catch up!!! Actually, I don't expect to, Esther has been doing this a long time and I am a novice, but I am hoping we eventually get there.