Crazy Puppy Raiser

A day of training for the five month old black puppy that we call Banjo:

This morning on our walk I was the crazy puppy raiser, not Michelle like you all were thinking. I only pick on her because she doesn't read the blog. Please don't tell her, I will be in big trouble.

At every intersection, Banjo and I traversed all four corners and then continued on our merry way. To any normal person it wouldn't make any sense; It would look crazy. My purpose was to have the puppy focus on where I was going and how fast I was going. Walking in a straight line using a consistent route the puppy's mind has a tendency to wander.

During the day, we worked on the "OUT" command to get the puppy to move himself out of the kitchen, to a rug, and stay out. Banjo understands the move part, but isn't yet certain where to move to. As we reduce our prompting, he thinks moving to a rug is desirable, so he moves to the rug in front of the stove. This may take another week.

At our weekly teenager class at the Dog Den, we brushed up on WATCH, SIT, DOWN, and we introduced COME, STAY, LEAVE IT, which were also refresher for Banjo. The games this week were to have your dog SIT/DOWN as many times as possible in thirty seconds. The purpose of this exercise is to get to an instantaneous reaction to the SIT and DOWN commands.

This week Banjo was best in class (of eight). In the first part I thought Lisa was counting; we estimated at least eight SITs. Counting responsibilities confirmed, he DOWNed eight times in the second part. Can your puppy do any better?