ahhh time spent with a puppy… or two or three…!
Written by Pam on June 17, 2015
I marvel over all the things that you can teach a puppy. The puppy may already be showing you his take on a few of his cute games. Once your puppy does something that you actually like and want to have it repeated, you will need to immediately praise and instantly the puppy will think to himself – self …what I just did, she likes and I will repeat it. Try and think fast and give the behavior a name so that each time he displays this action, you can use that selected word. Amazingly puppies do truly want to please even at 11 weeks old – they will constantly do something until they get a reaction from their human friend.
Sometimes there is a behavior that is cute, but one that needs to be modified somewhat. One example that seems to happen daily is with Enoch. Enoch is a wonderful pup – he is smart and truly enjoys the outside but when the fun starts he runs back to my daughter or me. Then he paws-up for reassurance or just to make sure we are okay with what he is doing. This to me is very cute but I don’t want him to jump on us when he is 70 lbs so I need to modify his behavior slightly. When he comes to me, I know 9 times out of 10 he paws-up. So because I always want this joyful pup the freedom of joining us, but without the paws-up or jumps, I gently hold onto his front paws and gently place them back on the ground and then praise. He stops, then sits while giving me a look of uncertainty but he will learn and it will…stick! The pups are young so you need to set the stage for them to always win but to redirect certain unwanted behaviors and truly encourage those behaviors that you want them to continue. By starting now, you will get that well balanced, well behaved – smart HGT puppy! The labs are included in these pics! During the last set of water fun pictures, the labs were recuperating from some OFA testing we had done and were not interested in entertaining the pups. The entire gang at HGT enjoyed time spent together yesterday! Enjoy, Pam
