Sulley's progress (and mine too!)

Share your experience and tell us how using positive reinforcement training methods has changed yours and your dogs' lives.

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leslie123
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Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2010 8:16 pm
Location: Georgia, USA

Sulley's progress (and mine too!)

Post by leslie123 »

Sulley's been in our family for 5 weeks now. He's right around 15 weeks old so he's coming up to a kind of a milestone in his life. Soon he'll finally finish up his shots and get a shiny tag to hang on his collar. Through positive training we've taught him to sit, down, touch, off, high five, leave it and most recently "turn away" another command I wanted to use to deter him from focusing on the cats too much. He'll do these commands very quickly about 95-100% of the time. He also knows come and stay, but we're still perfecting them. With me he comes about 90% of the time, with other family members probably closer to 70% at best. His stay is only at about 3-5 seconds from about 3 feet away, but we're building. I've learned sooo much about dogs this past month. I've always owned cats before. We had dogs a couple of times when I was a kid, but my parents moved a lot and sadly dogs got left behind. :( So this has really been my first time to take on a dog fully. What I'm finding the most fascinating about raising up this pup is watching his little brain work. I've heard Victoria say it on her show so many times about not repeating commands.. sit.. sit.. sit.. I understand that is so the dog knows the command is sit, not sit(x3). But I'm not sure I've heard her mention that if you can be patient and watch the dog, you can see them trying to work it out and a sparkle in their eye when they get it. And as soon as they do, they do want to do it again and again. When I first taught Sulley "touch" it took him a few mins to figure out what I wanted, but once he got that treat once or twice, I couldn't get my hand out quick enough for him to touch!

Since I was noticing Sulley's come was not as strong with the kids and my hubby I decided we would all practice it together so we all had a handful of treats and we called him to come in different corners of the family room and kitchen. At first we were kind of going around the circle. Me, hubby, daughter then repeat. After the third time around Sulley just automatically went to the next person before being called. :lol: He caught on to the pattern that quickly! We then mixed it up for the next few until we had finished up. By the time we got to the last couple of treats he was one tired pup! He finally just flopped on the floor and we all gathered around him with lots of praise!

There is still lots of work to do and lots of growing and learning for both Sulley and us, but we revel in the little victories. Like, he actually nudges us to go out now! YIPPEE. I look forward to walking him on a loose leash. I hope someday he'll stop trying to catch butterfly's and moths. I know someday he'll give up on the cats and stop bringing them toys and bouncing around them like a big galoof perplexed why they don't understand his "let's play" signals that he's giving so clearly. I especially look forward to being out on a walk or somewhere with him and having someone tell me what a good dog he is and asking "how did he get trained so well"? And lastly I look forward to posting his little victories here for everyone to share with us. :D
Fundog
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Re: Sulley's progress (and mine too!)

Post by Fundog »

That's wonderful. Savor this time-- it will fly by very quickly, and he will be a BIG grown-up dog before you know it. :D
If an opportunity comes to you in life, say yes first, even if you don't know how to do it.
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Mattie
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Re: Sulley's progress (and mine too!)

Post by Mattie »

Well done Leslie, training our dogs isn't difficult one we understand them and how they learn. :D
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wvvdiup1
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Re: Sulley's progress (and mine too!)

Post by wvvdiup1 »

Way to go, Leslie! Keep up the good work! :D
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jacksdad
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Re: Sulley's progress (and mine too!)

Post by jacksdad »

yes, way to go. woohooo :D :D
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leslie123
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Re: Sulley's progress (and mine too!)

Post by leslie123 »

Just a little update on my puppy. He's almost 5 months now and no longer that ball of white fuzz. It looks like his ears might be taking after his sheperd mom now because at least one is trying to stand most of the time. Jury is still out on the other one. :lol: (I'll get some pics posted soon!)viewtopic.php?f=31&t=7698&p=57835#p57835 Recently my daughter who is 12 was mentioning to me that it would be cute if he would roll the ball back and forth if she sat on the floor with him. I agreed and told her, go for it! I'm not sure what was more precious, the look of accomplishment on her face when he picked it up so quick, or watching him push that tennis ball perfectly in her direction. He learned it in less than 5 mins. He has also learned to do a spin. When he first learned it, he was doing it automatically as soon as he saw me pick up the clicker, too funny. He's making good progress on his leash too. The weather has finally turned enjoyable and we've walked up and down our driveway a lot with me saying "close". It gets a bit trickier when we get away from our house sometimes, but its progress. He's much better with the cats too. One of them just hasn't caught on to how she needs to move around him, so she dashes around sometimes and that only peaks his interest. The other cat always move slow and boring around him, and rarely does Sulley take much notice. I'm not sure if you can call it a setback or not, but it seems that for some reason every time we ask for touch, we get a touch and a lick now. I don't mind a lick on my hand, but then when I asked for a touch on a balloon (we're working up to volleying with his nose) he licked that too. :lol: Any thoughts?

I think thats most of the update for now. Thanks to everyone here, just for being here. I learn so much all the time just from reading the posts, and most especially thanks to Victoria for even having this here. If it wasn't for IMOTD I can honestly say I wouldn't even have a dog.
emmabeth
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Re: Sulley's progress (and mine too!)

Post by emmabeth »

Thats awesome progress, he sounds like hes really cottoned on that you like many of the behaviours he can offer you and will 'pay' him for those so hes seeking out opportunities to earn his living!

THAT is what positive training is all about, having a dog who actively wants to work with you. Brilliant stuff!
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
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