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Sit pretty and lay down, Mayzie

6K views 51 replies 14 participants last post by  megansievert 
#1 · (Edited)
Mayzie is 16 weeks old now, and she hasn't had any more health issues. She continues to learn really well, and I am having so much fun with her. I got a video of her training today just for myself and thought I'd share. She was tired of training at this point, and I'd had to up the value of the treats to those baby puffs to get her to comply, but she did pretty well. If you see her coat is parted in the middle, it was because I am constantly wanting to see how her adult coat is going to look, ha!



Her hair is still curly on top her head and because she'd had a bath about an hour before, and I still haven't bought a buttercomb for her face. Soon enough I will!
 
#9 ·
Thank you for that tip! I will implement it. I am a talker, so I tend to fill up all that empty silence with words no matter who I am talking to, ha!

Should I say "down", and if she doesn't comply just wait? Or should I say "no" and then repeat the command? I don't want her to learn to comply on the 4th time I say "down", but I don't really know what to do when she doesn't comply the first time.
 
#12 ·
Well, I am very glad to know not to say "no". And denying her the treat would matter to her a lot more if I would keep the training sessions shorter...that particular session had gone on too long, and she was tired. I had even replaced her treats with those Gerber baby puffs because she wasn't interested in her regular treat anymore (which is just dog food...she's very food driven usually).

I have always had on my bucket list to (1) get a dog titled in obedience, and (2) deliver a litter of puppies myself. I have given up on (2), but not (1). I have checked the kindergarten classes at Petsmart, and they have classes for puppies less than 5 months or more than 5 months. I guess I have a month left to get into the young one!
 
#13 ·
A few additional tips.
1) With a puppy that young, training sessions should really be 5 minutes maximum. Even Mario, at 9 years old, goes just 15-20 min before we are done. Multiple 5 minute training sessions are ok, but if she starts to be so over it that she is rejecting rewards, you should have ended that session awhile ago. You don't want a dog that resents training.
2) While bits of kibble can be good for initial training, you want to add in other rewards of higher value. She will catch on very quickly that the "rewards" she is getting are just her regular food. Getting a variety of rewards will keep training interesting for her and make it easier to use a "high value, low value" dynamic.
3) Avoid Pet Smart/Petco training classes like the plague. Any joe schmoe can apply for those jobs. The environments are chaotic and out of control. Very scary for little ones. Find an obedience school near you for puppy k. The trainers will be qualified instructors whose own dogs have titles, and it will make getting your foot in the door for obedience much easier.
 
#16 ·
Thank you for pieces of advice! I have used Carnivore Kisses in the past as training treats, but those things are like styrofoam, and they are big too. I have ordered some Wellness Petite Treats which are supposed to be soft, so hopefully those will work better. I can definitely tell a difference in Mayzie's attitude when I go too long, so I definitely hear you when you say to keep the sessions short.

I am glad to know that about PetSmart's puppy classes. I did a quick Google and found a "Kinder Pup" class from a group nearby that will train all the way up through CGC and Therapy Dog classes, and it is about half the price. The school was founded by someone who had "won numerous titles on a variety of breeds of dogs", which is kind of what you mentioned.

Again, thank you for all the advice. This is a great learning board, and I'm happy I found it.
 
#17 ·
That sounds like it might be a good place to start. Just make sure they use positive training methods, not correction-based training.

CGC is a great starter goal... I did it with Panda. But if you are truly interested in competitive obedience, you will need a training center (or club) that will go well beyond CGC. "Pet obedience" classes are great for most people (that's what CGC is all about) but if you aren't careful about the WAY you train various behaviors, you may find that you need to re-train or at least clean up a lot of your work to reach competitive obedience standards. That's a problem I had in the beginning with Kodi. I was seriou about competitive dog sports from the beginning, but didn't know the right questions to ask, or the right classes to take. It took me a long time to "clean up" some of the sloppy behavior that I let creep in in the beginning.
 
#18 ·
Oh, and as far as training treats are concerned, I mostly use real, roast meats, cut into tiny cubes for training. If I don't have time to cook, my go-to training food is Happy Howie's dog food roll cubed small, or the pelleted form of Fresh Pet. Both are high quality food, soft, and great training treats.

I cut the Fresh Pet pellets in half, because they are a little large for dogs our size. Another option is to buy the cat version of Fresh Pet. These are much smaller pellets, so don't require any cutting. Unfortunately for me, they contain fish oil, and Kodi is allergic to fish. (It's fine for most dogs!)
 
#19 ·
Another good one I haven't mentioned anywhere else is Wellness Core Air Dried. It's been awhile since I purchased it because it's around $30, but you get 2 pounds of it. As food, the price is astronomical, but as a training treat, you get quite a bit of bang for your buck. Ounce for ounce, it's about the same as the Cloud Star training treats I use.

There is a little bit of a training treat discussion happening here, if you want some other options. While Wellness Petite Treats work well for some, they are a bit brittle as far as soft treats go, and I use tiny little pieces (two Cloud Star treats is all I need for 10 minutes of training), so I've never used them for training.
 
#21 ·
I will check out the treats thread. I am actually just switching to Wellness food (not the Core, but the Baked Blends puppy).

I am taking one step at a time when it comes to obedience plans for Mayzie, and I think I'd consider my bucket list satisfied if she got the CGC. This is the place I am looking at, and the first class would be Oct. 15, so just around the corner. https://www.facebook.com/FullCircleObedience/

Thanks!
 
#26 ·
I don't think Mayzie knows what "go potty" means, and I don't think she even cares when I tell her "good girl to go potty". I think learning to potty on command is a great one to learn - it will be handy especially if you ever want to show her or take her to PetSmart or Lowe's or someplace and want her to empty her bladder sooner rather than later!

I am the housebroken one around here because I take her out every single time she exits a crate or her ex-pen or if she starts sniffing around. I watch her like a hawk, and I'm in this for the long haul. I have seen people comment that their havanese was hard to housebreak and that it took nearly 6 to 8 months before they were reliably housebroken, and all I think is heck, I can continue this habit making for another 2 to 4 months. Six to 8 months is nothing compared to the 15 years of payoff for that work.
 
#27 ·
Oh, I am definitely the housebroken one here too! It is just that now when we do go outside, instead of a 10 minute sniff fest, he complies with my command and gets right down to business (most of the time). Sometimes I think he fake pees just to get a treat though! I have learned to walk him across the back yard after his first squat, and if he really needs to go, he will pee a 2nd time on our way back. I thought we were doing great, with no accidents for over a week, but last night he wet the kitchen floor, right at my feet. He did make me proud last week when I took him on a 5 hour drive for a 4 day trip to the Outer Banks with some college friends. He did not have one accident the whole trip, even being in a strange house! The other girls were amazed.
Hopefully our vigilance will pay off with totally housebroken dogs in a few months!
 
#28 ·
/...Sometimes I think he fake pees just to get a treat though! .../QUOTE]

Hahaha, that is hilarious! Our pug Porky will lift his leg and look at us for a treat even if he doesn't actually pee, but it took him a while to learn that! Oreo is one smart cookie (no pun intended!)!
 
#30 · (Edited)
I've taught Mayzie a few new tricks, namely "roll over" and "give me 5". I didn't get a "gimme 5" on the video, but here's roll over. If you hear a gnashing sound, it's me trying not to repeat the command over and over. That doesn't come naturally to me! :)

I did try to not give her the treat until she was actually in the "sitting pretty" position, back on her haunches.

 
#31 ·
Adorable!!! You know, when I see all of her in the video, she almost looks like a merle (color... you often see it in Aussies, and a few other breeds) That isn't an accepted color in HAvanese, but new mutations DO show up, and in a pet puppy would be no cause for concern. It WILL be interesting to see how her coat matures!!!
 
#32 ·
What a good girl! She's a quick learner :) Has she been through her puppy k class yet? She might show the others up ;)



Good eye Karen! Didn't notice at first, but watching the video again, I definitely see what you're talking about. That WOULD explain the coat lightening in patches rather than as the hair grows.
 
#33 ·
I have been trying not to consider the possibility that she is not 100% Havanese. I've explained the unreliability of the breeder before, and I still haven't gotten her AKC papers, something to do with the date being wrong on the date she got them back from the stud owner or something ("but they're coming, and (of course) she is from champion lines"...). And no, sorry, no pictures of the parents because "I don't have any good ones" (so go take one?)? I don't think she is big enough to be part Aussie, but then again, who knows.

I am so curious, but in the end, if she is a bit mixed, I won't care terribly. I mean, I won't be happy to have rewarded that behavior, but I am not a breeder and can show in obedience if I chose too with other options.

Either way, thank you for the info and the sweet thoughts! I am very fond of her!
 
#35 ·
I don't think Karen was trying to imply she might be a mix at all, let alone an Aussie mix. She was just pointing out that her coat almost appeared to be merle. That's something that can show up as a mutation in many different breeds, but is only allowed in a few, including Aussies, Shelties, and Danes. Otherwise, it's a disqualifying fault.

There's nothing wrong with a pet puppy that has a color DQ (though if parents are consistently producing it, they probably shouldn't be bred). We had a little blue piebald dachshund in our agility class, and our breeder said "That is one CUTE mutation" :laugh:
 
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#37 ·
Yes, that's exactly what I was saying. She MIGHT be a merle (though I'm not sure of that either...) but that DOESN'T necessarily mean that she is not a purebred. Even with "papers", without DNA testing to match her to her parents, there is no way of verifying that, either. :) So just enjoy her for the ADORABLE, sweet thing she is. If you get her papers, great. Even if you don't, you can STILL register her with AKC though the PAL program, (Purebred Alternative Listing) that allows you to register purebred dogs without papers. The dog must be spayed or neutered, but you planned to do that anyway. With that registration, she can compete in any AKC companion event, (like obedience, rally or agility) just not in conformation.

Purebred Alternative Listing (PAL) - American Kennel Club
 
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