1st day of "puppy kindergarten"

We got a copy of Patricia McConnell's book "Puppy Primer." Which I would recommend to anyone getting a puppy.


Hunter was jazzed the whole time- It was hard to get him to calm down. He wanted to go meet all the new people and play with all the other puppies.


They went over the proper way to teach a dog the command "sit." Don't push down his butt- he'll just think that everytime mommy touches my butt- I get a treat! The correct way is to have them follow a treat- from chest level to above their reach- when they put their butt down- then give them the treat. When they start to understand what they're doing in order to get the treat- say sit right before moving your hand upwards. They'll learn the word and the visual command of your hand as it moves upwards- to mean sit.


A little bit of play time- Hunter is a bully. He's just too jazzed- and he likes to dominate and jump on other dogs. After the trainer worked with him for a while- he was doing good. I have a feeling that taking to "puppy playgroup" at the dog den may have pushed back his progress. On the webpage of the dog den it says that the trainer at puppy playgroup would make sure that the puppies played well- and learned how to play nice. The trainer at the dog den never mentioned anything was wrong- we just thought he liked to play a little rough. Too rough- not good.


Trainer went over the commant "come." Basically- start giving the dog a smell of some good treats- say his name and "come." Then turn around and run- while running make fun noises and claps so that he follows. When you stop give him the treat (5 total, one at a time) and give him lots of praise.


I really enjoy our training. The training is at "lucky dog daycare" and the trainers are from http://dogsbestfriendtraining.com