LUNA is going home for the holidays

I have a friend coming in from New Zealand to stay for awhile and Luna gets to go hang out with her family for a week as well...

Please be careful, enjoy your holidays and we will see you in the New Year!

GROWTH SPURT!

While we were at Tractor Supply practicing some of her LEVEL 2 skills, I had to get her a new coat.  This girl shakes like a Chihuahua in this weather - she is not a fan of wind, rain or snow and we have it all right now!

She's going all leggy!

MILEMARKER: LEVEL 1 TRAINING LEVELS COMPLETE

Our first MileMarker besides basic socialization and exposure training was for Luna to complete her LEVEL 1 CORE by Christmas.  She has done this beautifully.

There are 5 basic criteria here:
COME GAME - Recall between two people
SIT - Verbal and Hand Signal Individually
DOWN - Verbal and Hand Signal Individually
TOUCH - Nose to Palm Targeting
LEAVE IT - In her case, she is already doing LVL 2 - open hand and on the floor

In the FACEBOOK GROUP that I run for this - I have created extra credit exercise for each behavior which we will be doing as well as it is good practice and fun for her to learn the extra skills.

Onto LEVEL 2!

BRIBE vs REWARD

Let's talk about this for a moment.  Getting those treats out of your hand is a very important step of any training but I have a lot of students who ask when they can stop using rewards all together.

Remember - rewards can be anything - which is why I transition from food as the primary to praise/play/access to a resource as we go. 

Luna is learning that BEHAVIOR happens first because it is asked not because there is a great reward offered.  Don't get me wrong - there is a great reward involved but it only comes AFTER the behavior is done - not as a bribe for doing it.

Does your dog need to SEE the treat in your hand before they will respond?  Then you need to work on what is called FADING THE LURE.  Make the reward a REWARD and not a BRIBE...it makes all the difference.