Hello! Treasure here. I want to tell you about what we did yesterday. Ellie says that it is really important to train us doggies in a variety of different settings. Just because we know how to 'sit' in the living room does not necessarily mean that we know how to 'sit' outside. In her training classes, the human students used to tell her all the time, "But, Max can do this (sit, down, stay, etc.) at home! I think he's just being stubborn and ignoring me." What most likely happened is that they didn't train Max in different environments, so he was either distracted, or he didn't know that 'sit' means 'sit' and 'down' means 'down' wherever or whenever they are. Training us doggies in a variety of different settings and places will help us to know how to do these things anywhere and anytime!
So, to help us with this, we went to the park across the street from our house to practice! It is important when doing this for the first time, that your human chooses an area that is not very distracting... like your backyard, or maybe a different room in the house that you don't normally train in. If you are used to training in your living room, then you suddenly go to a very crowded pet store, it will be much too distracting for you and your human, and you won't be able to focus very well! You should slowly add in the distractions one at a time to set both of you up for success, and so you don't get frustrated!
There were a couple of human adults, and a few human children at the other end of the park yesterday. We chose the most distant corner from them, so we could still hear them, but they weren't so close that we would be too distracted.
(Please forgive the picture quality! We didn't have our good picture-machine with us yesterday!)
When training somewhere new to you, you should always start with things you already know how to do very well. Start with the simple things, so that you can get used to the new environment while you do things that are very easy for you. Also, if you know how to 'stay' for 30 seconds at home, maybe do it for only 10 seconds in the new environment, and work up from there. Set yourselves up for success! Succeeding builds confidence!
Check out how focused Rocky is on Ellie's face! He is learning to ignore distractions!
High-five:
Devin even took a turn with me. Ellie wants us to be able to listen to Devin as well as we listen to her. So it is important for us to work with him so that we get used to it! This is Devin asking me to do a 'twirl', which is a circle in a counter-clockwise direction. My ears look funny!
This is me focusing on what he wants me to do next (actually, I am focusing on the treat in his hand... shhhhhhh!):
We got a couple of nice rewards after our training session! The first one was more for the boys. They got to play with the fox on a stick at the park. I don't understand why they like chasing that thing so much! (Amp is on a long-line, because he likes to wander off sometimes even when playing with the fox. This makes him easier to catch!)
The next was an outing with our humans! Ellie later told me that this was part of our training too... to get us used to going different places and seeing new things.
Ellie says that going different places like this is good for our mentals. Also, it is part of something she calls "socialization", which is something she feels needs to be done throughout our whole lives so we don't forget!
We had such a fun day! I hope we can do it again soon!
Dog-training blooper: (supposed to be a high-five)
