I’m a Slacker

Okay, Laev’s finally starting to get the “down” verbal cue. I wish I could say what great technique I’d used to make it click for her, but frankly I have no clue. 🙂 I think it just finally sank in.

There is the slight problem that she will fold back for the hand signal, but likes to walk into the down with a verbal cue. I want a foldback. I think we can fix that, though. She sure is happy to do obedience! I love puppies.

But there are quite a few things I haven’t done.

• I’ve had her touch my palm, but no real targeting yet. I’ll be needing that later for all kinds of things, so I should probably be using it.
• I haven’t done much formal recall training. By that I mean, restrained recalls, etc. She does come when called — of course she does! She’s 11 weeks old! — but I haven’t conditioned a cue for this.
• I should be tracking even more often.
• There are probably things I should be doing differently during play to enhance retrieving in the future, but I’m not doing them now. We do have fun play sessions, she does chase and pick up objects, and she does usually bring them back to me. The only exception is when she runs past me to do a victory lap. I’m not sure I want to worry about this now.

I thought we were making good housetraining progress, but last night was bad — visiting a friend, and two accidents indoors! /sigh/ I was so very, very spoiled by Dante….