Down/Off
I have an almost six month old light yellow Labrador Retriever puppy named Calypso. She's a very rambunctious little hellion (right now, she and her favorite kitty are play the "Drive Mommy Crazy Game".) and I love her to bits.
She's my first dog--my husband has a 3 y/o black Lab named Thor--and I've been working on training her somewhat. I've realized recently that I don't have the skills to train her to be the obedient. well adjusted, well socialized dog that I want her to grow up to be. So, we're going to puppy class in two weeks!
Kippy already knows a few commands with decent reliability--"come", "sit", "stay" (not as well), "fetch", "give" (giving back the item she's fetched), "up" (get in the car/on the item I'm pointing at), and the command that's got me concerned: "down".
We've used down with both the dogs to tell them "get off of whatever you're on" or "get out of the car". However, I'm worried that the trainer will use "down" to mean "lay down on the floor next to me."
Is this something I should be concerned about? Should I start saying "off" and "training" my husband to say the same thing? Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill?
All my life, we've had dogs trained with what I call the "monkey principal" coming from a quote my dad used to say (mostly in jest, but you'll understand): "Knock a monkey across the living room a few times and even it'll learn!"
That's really not what I want to do with Kip--she's a very sweet dog who is super willing to please as long as she understands what's going on and what people want from her. (She *is* a Lab, and is about a dumb as a box of rocks so this sometimes takes a while. <3 ) She is *very* food motivated (it's more the idea of "yay!!!!!! I get something SPECIAL!!!!" than the actually treat, it seems) so I've been using a lot of treats to encourage good behavior.
I can't wait to take our first class--she's going to ahve a lot of fun meeting new puppies, and hopefully some of her good behavior will rub off on Thor!
Calypso in the front; Thor in the back. The spot on her hip is a mosaic, cause by cells that randomly got an extra E. When we first got her, it looks like a tilde (~), now it is kind of mouse-shaped. When she was stolen, the black spot got her recognized and returned. <3
She's my first dog--my husband has a 3 y/o black Lab named Thor--and I've been working on training her somewhat. I've realized recently that I don't have the skills to train her to be the obedient. well adjusted, well socialized dog that I want her to grow up to be. So, we're going to puppy class in two weeks!
Kippy already knows a few commands with decent reliability--"come", "sit", "stay" (not as well), "fetch", "give" (giving back the item she's fetched), "up" (get in the car/on the item I'm pointing at), and the command that's got me concerned: "down".
We've used down with both the dogs to tell them "get off of whatever you're on" or "get out of the car". However, I'm worried that the trainer will use "down" to mean "lay down on the floor next to me."
Is this something I should be concerned about? Should I start saying "off" and "training" my husband to say the same thing? Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill?
All my life, we've had dogs trained with what I call the "monkey principal" coming from a quote my dad used to say (mostly in jest, but you'll understand): "Knock a monkey across the living room a few times and even it'll learn!"
That's really not what I want to do with Kip--she's a very sweet dog who is super willing to please as long as she understands what's going on and what people want from her. (She *is* a Lab, and is about a dumb as a box of rocks so this sometimes takes a while. <3 ) She is *very* food motivated (it's more the idea of "yay!!!!!! I get something SPECIAL!!!!" than the actually treat, it seems) so I've been using a lot of treats to encourage good behavior.
I can't wait to take our first class--she's going to ahve a lot of fun meeting new puppies, and hopefully some of her good behavior will rub off on Thor!
Calypso in the front; Thor in the back. The spot on her hip is a mosaic, cause by cells that randomly got an extra E. When we first got her, it looks like a tilde (~), now it is kind of mouse-shaped. When she was stolen, the black spot got her recognized and returned. <3