Click and Treat...

The past two days have been a little hard on Savvy. Last night I loaded him, his brothers, and Fly into the car and drove to Townsend Veterinary Hospital for their first puppy shots. I was very proud of all of the puppies. They did excellent. Savvy was stolen for a few minutes and made the rounds in the back of the hospital saying hi to everyone.

Then we came back to the house with Neva Gronert and her friend Carmen. Neva had flown all the way from Denver to meet Martin and see the litter. None of the pups let me down. They were happy and friendly just like I knew they would be. :-) Neva came back today and took Martin home with her. The boys are acting great, they don't seem too upset that he's gone, although I noticed that they've been a little more ornary than normal tonight.

So onto the training part of tonight's entry. I started working with Savvy a couple nights ago charging the clicker. He wasn't too in to it at first. He was highly distracted by everything in the living room. So the second night I put a leash on him and he did okay. I started luring and shaping the sit with him and got a few repetitions but nothing too big. Tonight he had his first introduction to Red Barn treats, ooh yummy! He was VERY into it. I began by charging the clicker and got his attention very quickly. Then I worked on the sits. I lured him 3 times and they waited him out to begin shaping the behavior. He was distracted but if I teased him with the treats he would come right back. I think I probably got about 5 sits from him without luring, which I consider pretty good for only having been trained three times plus he has the attention span of a gnat. :-) Afterwards I also worked on the gotcha exercise with him and he did wonderfully. Of course he's used to being grabbed by me constantly so I didn't expect too much of an issue with him.

So I'm quite happy with how things are going with him so far. He is enrolled in Puppy class starting next Monday and Flex class at Gemini starting on Tuesday night. He is officially starting Daycare next week, but I think I'll bring him with me on Saturday because I have to work 7-3. Then he can get a head start on getting used to the place.