"Dead Dog"

After dinner, Echo got to go out for ice cream. Or should I say Echo went along for ice cream, on our way to OccuPaws training. Before training started Echo "died" a few times. He ate food that was lying on the floor which he should LEAVE because it could be harmful or fatal. Probably the most difficult item to train is not eating edibles off the floor.

The photo shows the puppies in a SIT STAY while Nicole walks a blindfolded Mark into the wall. Or are they looking at the posters. Actually she was simulating how to "drive" a guide dog. She stopped before the wall and Mark had to identify why she had stopped before offering his next command.



After a short training class, the focus of the meeting was teaching the puppies to touch/mark an object. Or should I say teaching the puppy raiser how to train the puppies. Along with a pad of post it notes, we received a clicker, which I never thought I would see working with an OccuPaws puppy.

Using a post it note and clicker for positive reinforcement, we should start training Echo to touch the post it note in various locations. The clicker will be used to provide feedback to the guide dog during formal harness training and the post it notes will facilitate training the dog to understand object words (door, sink, elevator, etc).