# Starting an obedience pup



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I've had much success and many struggles with Lily who is my novice A dog. Thankfully she has been very forgiving of my novice handler mistakes. I will take my lessons to heart and use them to teach Javelin to get ready for obedience with some different strategies.

First lesson, don't wait until you are ready for utility to teach utility exercises. We started to work on two important things today, one for open (dumbbell) and one for utility (scent discrimination).

I used Javelin's lunch as the rewards for being a willing and able learner.

First we worked on scent.

I put two altoids boxes with holes in the tops out. The blue one had kibble in it.









If Javelin showed me which one had the food in it...









he got to eat from the box.









Later I had him lick the correct box to get the food.









Eventually he will only get food for putting the box in his mouth and after that for picking up the correct box.

After this we worked with a small dumbbell. First I showed it to him. 








Then I put food on my hand and the dumbbell over the food. He had to nose around the dumbbell to get the food.









Later he got food after he reached for the dumbbell.









After that he got food for taking the dumbbell in his mouth. After a few repeats he picked up the dumbbell very cleanly and walked across the living room with it. We had a very big party. Sadly I didn't get a picture of him carrying the dumbbell.









I also have been working on retrieving using balls. I have several little squeaky tennis balls. I squeak the ball to get his interest revved up and then I toss the ball. If he goes and gets it I squeak the other ball to get him to come back with the first one. To get him to give me the ball he is carrying I squeak the ball I am holding when he sits. This gets him to look up. I put my free hand on the ball he is holding and take it. If he gives it easily I squeak the other one and throw it. Repeat as long as attention lasts. Once Javelin is picking up and carrying the dumbbell reliably I will start throwing the dumbbell mixed in with throwing balls.


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## Summerhouse (Jun 12, 2015)

Thanks for posting I find that really interesting. Clever boy

How will you get Javelin to put the box in his mouth if he doesn't work it out on his own that's how to get the reward?

Please continue with his foundation training clips


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Javelin was very clever with all of what we did today, so I think he will get the concept. However, I actually used the altoids boxes with Lily. Eventually she figured out that the only way to get the food was to take the box from my hand. I was using really high value stuff (my homemade turkey brownies). After she was willing to take the box from my hand I put it on the floor with one finger under it to make it easy to pick up. After that she quickly figured out to take it off the floor. Javelin will learn the same way.

It is important to let the dog figure this out. They have to believe in themselves very confidently to do scent discrimination so you have to be careful to teach it gently and let them figure the problem out themselves.

I will continue this thread all the way through. I'm glad you are interested!


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

Yes, keep sharing! This is great foundation stuff. I love seeing it, too. Isn't it amazing how much you learn with your first dog thtat helps so much with the next? For example, my Pixie had "iffy" start line stays. She would stay sometimes, other times break, so I had to always be mentally prepared to take off if she did. That was a lesson to make SURE I got and maintained good stays with my next dog!

I'm sure you'll share as you go along, but do you have anything else off the top of your head that you're saying, "I'm going to do this differently with my new guy..."?

--Q


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Q one of the biggest things that will be different with Javelin is to have him working on everything from now on. I so wish I hadn't waited until Lily was closing in on her open title to start teaching her the utility exercises.

Also I will work at home with Lily near by so she watches then work with her so he watches. I hope that they will learn to each place high value on their working time by seeing the other one get special attention.

The other thing I hope to be able to do is to use a lot less food rewards, but instead rely on release to play. Since food is never available during a trial run I think it is sort of a lie to rely on it so much in training. I watch tons of people shoveling liverwurst, cheese and hot dogs into their dogs and then can't understand why they don't understand why the dog doesn't work in a trial. I also know someone with a mini who weighs as much as Lily. The dog is shaped like a sausage. Her owner says she has her on a calorie restricted diet, but feeds tons of liverwurst in training.


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## AngelAviary (Aug 12, 2014)

I will be watching this tread too with great interest. I watch the utility dogs work before Stellas Open/Novice class and have wondered when I would want to start teaching her those things too. Im sure everyone at class will let me know as things progress, her class is full of all the teachers and their dogs so Im in VERY good company. What a way to learn surrounded by teachers! I am excited to try these things with Stella as Javelin learns them too.


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

I totally hear you on the food. Food is so powerul that it can be very difficult to wean the dog from it and very easy to come to rely on it excessively. Another thing I learned that I've put into practice with Sugarfoot is the power of play, toys, and especially tugging. (Controversial for pets, but a very valued type of reward play with Agility dogs.) I had Sugarfoot tugging while on the potty stops on the way home from pickng him up from his breeder!

I love the whole idea of training Novice, Open, and Utility "at the same time" or at least "from the very beginning." My first spoo knew the signals at distance before we started competing in Open. (Life happened and we were never destined to go further than the CD, but I had learned...)

Eager to see more from your tiny genius!

To everyone reading the thread who might not really know what's needed, but want a performance pup, I *highly* recommend The FOCUSed Puppy, which is a book about the "life structure" to strive for with an ultimate goal of performance in mind. 

--Q


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Yes on The Focused Puppy for sure. I know many people who have a go out that is "go find the cookie." This is not what I want. I am actually thinking about investing in the Garmin Tracking Dog system so I can teach a real go away until I tell you to do otherwise go out. My obedience club has a "cheese stanchion" for go outs. I never use it.

Javelin was tugging the day we picked him! It is a great way to help a dog to learn impulse control to have the game start and stop on the handler's terms.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Sorry to say I don't have pics or video right now, but I will try to get some later today. We have continued all of what I started right away in July.

Javelin now scent discriminates among four articles and I will add a fifth today (after BF drill the holes for me). I will also show him leather articles today.

The dumbbell continues to make progress. He now will retrieve the thrown dumbbell with enthusiasm. He doesn't always bring it all the way back, but I will work on shaping that because he does sometimes bring it all the way back. Lily always (100%) dropped the dumbbell on the way back so I had to do take, hold, give with her.

I had a quiet week at my classes this week since there is a local trial and the folks who are hosting had match time on Friday. It was nice to be able to pay attention to my poodles a bit more frequently during the morning. I worked Lily in utility and worked on Javelin being settled, calm and not barking in a confined area. My last class is novice and my mom was the only person who came. I took Javelin out and worked on getting a sit at halt and having a loose leash and frequent check ins with me. We did some baby dog recalls (on 6' leash). Mostly he needs to learn about waiting until called and sitting at front. The sit at front is coming along well. The wait to be called needs work. We also did sit stay and down stay with mom and her boy and Lily. Lily has rock solid stays so she was the role model for the two boys, neither of whom appreciates the long down very well at this point. Both boys did well with the sit though.

After my mom left I took both Lily and Javelin out to play. I threw small tennis type balls for them. Once Javelin was excited about the balls I threw a dumbbell and he reliably went and got it. He was enthusiastic to go out for it and was pretty good about bringing it back!
Monday we have an agility lesson scheduled. I will take all three dogs so that everybody has cool down time. It is a lot less hot than it was last week, but I still think a cool down break for them is important. It lets them physically get collected and mentally gives them time to process what they just did.


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