Taming the wee beastie
Commands Elsa knows so far:
-Sit
-Down
-Up lv1 (stand on her back legs to touch fingertips with her nose)
-Spin lv3 (meaning she can spin about 3 times before she gets dizzy and falls over)
-High-five (both paws hitting the palm)
-Paw lv1 (just one foot so far)
-Take it lv2 (whatever is in my hands she can't take without permission)
-Crawl lv1 (butt on the floor, she can go about a foot)
-Watch me (maintain eye contact)
-Speak
Commands Elsa is working on:
-Over (roll over to the left, command works about half the time)
-Drop it (new) (whatever's in your mouth, put it down!)
-Leave it
-Wave Wave (new) (sit up and flail her front legs)
Right now, my main focus is on leave it and Fetch lv2. Leave it is still tough, but going well. Fetch she understands well, but still gets overexcited and grabs for our hands when we have the ball. Level 2 will be when she sits to ask us to throw it and drops it neatly in front of us.
I did have an awesome couple of moments today, though - out of curiosity, I sat on the floor with treats and put one in my outstretched palm, our cue for "you can have it, but when I say so." We'd only ever done 10-second bursts, but she surprised me by going easily through 15- and 20-second waits. At the 30-second mark, she sat and sniffed my hand, but didn't so much as move to take it. Super impressed, I gave her a huge chunk of liver for her effort. I think she might've even gone longer, but that was like a freaking hour for a 3-month-old puppy. And, even though I'd only taught it to her hours before and using her toys, she spat out a stolen tissue when I told her to "drop it!" from across the room.
Genius pooch.
When she wants to go into the kitchen, instead of pawing at the door, she sits to ask. Same thing with food - when I have her food dish in my hands, it only hits the ground when her butt does. She's awesome about that.
She's been barking to demand things a lot less lately. In fact, it's almost gone completely. She'll bark once in a while when we're training on something new to let us know that she's getting frustrated and needs a break, or else she's barking at something she's hunting, like while pursuing a ball we threw. Her predatory instincts are frightening - the growling and gurgling she makes when she's taking down plastic prey is almost identical to that of a pit bull. But the barking situation is great.
Nipping is still a little bit of a problem. She's three months old, and constantly wants to fight. She gets yelled at for putting any pressure down on fingers, toes, and pant legs, but still needs to be reminded once in a while. Otherwise, she's great at directing her puppy rage toward the toys.
Leash walking is going well, too. She doesn't pull or drag (except for the dead bird - she wanted that thing so bad) and will generally leave things alone and continue when told "let's go!" She greets people by wiggling her whole body and either crawling toward them or rolling onto her back. She does the same thing to other dogs, but the attention span for the latter is less than half what it is for two-legged creatures.
She's doing wonderfully - I couldn't have asked for a smarter, more eager-to-please puppy. She's only about fourteen weeks now, and I can't believe how well she's doing.
I guess the test will be how she does when elenuial's folks visit in a few days.
-Sit
-Down
-Up lv1 (stand on her back legs to touch fingertips with her nose)
-Spin lv3 (meaning she can spin about 3 times before she gets dizzy and falls over)
-High-five (both paws hitting the palm)
-Paw lv1 (just one foot so far)
-Take it lv2 (whatever is in my hands she can't take without permission)
-Crawl lv1 (butt on the floor, she can go about a foot)
-Watch me (maintain eye contact)
-Speak
Commands Elsa is working on:
-Over (roll over to the left, command works about half the time)
-Drop it (new) (whatever's in your mouth, put it down!)
-Leave it
-Wave Wave (new) (sit up and flail her front legs)
Right now, my main focus is on leave it and Fetch lv2. Leave it is still tough, but going well. Fetch she understands well, but still gets overexcited and grabs for our hands when we have the ball. Level 2 will be when she sits to ask us to throw it and drops it neatly in front of us.
I did have an awesome couple of moments today, though - out of curiosity, I sat on the floor with treats and put one in my outstretched palm, our cue for "you can have it, but when I say so." We'd only ever done 10-second bursts, but she surprised me by going easily through 15- and 20-second waits. At the 30-second mark, she sat and sniffed my hand, but didn't so much as move to take it. Super impressed, I gave her a huge chunk of liver for her effort. I think she might've even gone longer, but that was like a freaking hour for a 3-month-old puppy. And, even though I'd only taught it to her hours before and using her toys, she spat out a stolen tissue when I told her to "drop it!" from across the room.
Genius pooch.
When she wants to go into the kitchen, instead of pawing at the door, she sits to ask. Same thing with food - when I have her food dish in my hands, it only hits the ground when her butt does. She's awesome about that.
She's been barking to demand things a lot less lately. In fact, it's almost gone completely. She'll bark once in a while when we're training on something new to let us know that she's getting frustrated and needs a break, or else she's barking at something she's hunting, like while pursuing a ball we threw. Her predatory instincts are frightening - the growling and gurgling she makes when she's taking down plastic prey is almost identical to that of a pit bull. But the barking situation is great.
Nipping is still a little bit of a problem. She's three months old, and constantly wants to fight. She gets yelled at for putting any pressure down on fingers, toes, and pant legs, but still needs to be reminded once in a while. Otherwise, she's great at directing her puppy rage toward the toys.
Leash walking is going well, too. She doesn't pull or drag (except for the dead bird - she wanted that thing so bad) and will generally leave things alone and continue when told "let's go!" She greets people by wiggling her whole body and either crawling toward them or rolling onto her back. She does the same thing to other dogs, but the attention span for the latter is less than half what it is for two-legged creatures.
She's doing wonderfully - I couldn't have asked for a smarter, more eager-to-please puppy. She's only about fourteen weeks now, and I can't believe how well she's doing.
I guess the test will be how she does when elenuial's folks visit in a few days.