Bravo's Life Skills -n- Stuff

Rebel Soul Timeless Applause = "Bravo" is now 14 weeks old.   He has lived at my house now for 7 weeks.    I was in California for 2 of those weeks and gone for 2 long weekends sharing K9 Fitness with the masses.   Yikes.  I had this overwhelming feeling of being behind in the training processes until I started looking at what we have accomplished.     

Mr Bravo has been working on LIFE skills. During the times when I am at home we have done the following:

• sleeping through the night (9pm-7am) and generally being quiet for naps in my crate at home and at the studio
• nail trimmings - Bravo is not a fan but we are working through it.
• baths and being brushed - not a fan
• meet people on leash in lots of different places
• learned how to go down stairs without falling down the stairs
• learned to potty on potty pads when at the studio and when daddy's working
• learning how to go potty outside and ring a bell that makes the door open - he is now ringing the bell regularly when he needs to go outside.
• experienced surfaces - metal bleachers, turf, track, inflatables, matted, grass, pavement, concrete, carpet, and more.   
• visited many places:   3 different veterinary offices, Aloha Feed Store, several pet stores, Dicks Sporting Goods, my studio and veterinary rehab office, high school, grocery store, and more!
• car rides
• walks on leash with his brother Jack and sister Kaos - wearing a harness and a collar
• being part of the Lyons Pack - Drama is still not sold on Bravo nor is Kaos but his buddies are Jack and Riley.  Bravo gives Drama some room when in the house but runs after him right along side Jack in all the chase games.   When outside playing, Drama and Kaos are pretty OK with him.  I keep Kaos and Drama separated when in the house.  Koas has shown that she can be unpredictably crabby toward any of the dogs. 

Daddy taught/reinforced a few things:

• to shake each front paw - w/ hand signal
• get in crate before meals
• to "sit"

I have been busy shaping.   I have trained the following on cue using a combination of C/Treat and C/Play.  He is one smart pup and is doing well learning specific behaviors one at a time mixed in with life skills. (ahhhh the training spark - love seeing that moment when a puppy understands how to earn reinforcement):

• "down"  = lay down 
• "touch" = nose touch 
•  "paw" and "foot" verbal cues for his shake each front paw behavior
• "toes" = front foot target
• "hop it up" = put all four feet in or on an object
• "come" = come to me
• "take" = take tug from my hand
• "out" = toy to my hand

Behaviors that came naturally  - no training involved.

• he loves to tug - we play tug with anything that is handy and we play after every training session
• retrieves any object
• loves to play in any way

I may have forgotten a couple things but I guess we aren't doing too bad.   I believe that puppies should be allowed to be puppies.   Life skills, fun skills and foundation performance skills (on the flat) are great things to teach a young pup but don't forget to play.   Puppies need to have fun, they need to play and they need general life skills to become good doggy citizens.   

I am starting Bravo off a bit different in hopes of improving communication from the start.  Stay tuned for more training and fun with myself, Bravo and Drama as we all become a better team 

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