Things you wish you had taught you dog earlier?

Can you explain this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZarFGdcj8s

LOVE this method, been using it for years in all my training classes with a 100 % success

It'd be easier to show you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZarFGdcj8s

Basically, you start in a small, non-distracting environment and put a little pressure on the dog's lead in one direction. When it turns that way, you mark/treat. It just builds up from there.

I spent many a night with Frag outside of pet stores turning in circles and standing like a fool with a tight leash waiting for him to turn into the pressure, but it totally paid off. He didn't walk on a leash except in pet stores for the first 1.5 years of his life, so he had no idea what a city walk was. Now he's great!

eta; whoops! Someone else shared the same link while I was typing. I recommended it in my first training class last week to a couple and I sure hope it helps them. They need it.

Might give that a whirl! Bodhi is the puller, Fred is ok, but not perfect. He's better on his own. Will try that!

Good luck!

Impulse control- I'd likely do a NILIF program. I'd also work on supervised exposure to things like shoes lying around, so that he would be desensitized to their prescense and not want to eat them on site.

I also wouldnt try to force socialization so much, which is more important for a fearful puppy. If hes not comfortable i'd immediately end the interaction and back up.

I agree with getting the dog comfortable with having things taken from him. When I finally taught Tucker a good retrieve and could get him to bring me his stolen objects it was the greatest thing ever.

Also I wish I had taught him to relax and self occupy sooner. For the longest time he would go steal things and get into all sorts of trouble if he was not being directly interacted with or asleep. So far a while I'd make all sorts of food stuffed toys or try to play with him until he was exhausted. So he didn't learn to deal with having nothing to do in an appropriate manner.

Probably learning to be out and around the house earlier, making having the freedom not some big exciting deal which means it's time to look for trouble. And more socialization, especially to sun glasses.

This may sound uber specific, but I wish I had started ALL of my dogs on rear foot targeting BEFORE front foot or nose targeting. Snipe is soooo much easier to shape in body awareness type things since we started with rear foot instead of front foot.

Just from a pet dog perspective, not a sport dog perspective:

I plan to get Future Puppy used to ALL things vet visit/grooming/handling related as soon as possible. Restraint positions for blood draws (neck, legs), chilling out in a kennel, nail trims, ear cleaning, teeth brushing, physical exams (and all the weirdness that goes with it), being able to settle on his side if needed, being rolled over and held on his back, getting wet in unexpected places (alcohol or surgical scrub), etc., etc. Also getting used to the force dryer and baths.

After dealing with untrained, idiot dogs at work, I want my dogs to be the model patient. Cynder, Cooper, Gracie, and Chloe are all great. With Chloe and Cynder I can't blow dry their ears, and Cooper hates having his nails done, but other than that they're great. (If I'm the one restraining Chloe, that is.)

Sadie learned at a young age how to just lay down and relax when she was on lead (she had to, as she was out in public with us all the time). Chloe knows that lesson as well, and after experiencing my sister's puppy - who has NO idea how to just chill unless he's sleeping - I plan to really implement that as well.

Also, off leash recalls. Puppy will be started Day One on off leash behavior. Cynder, Gracie, and Cooper are all great off leash and I want Future Puppy to enjoy off lead time in parks and such as well.

Self-control has been the A-#1 focus this past year. And Miss Grace is still a work in progress, though at a year old, finally so much better! Love relaxation protocol and place work for this. And she had to learn to be bored, which is still often a challenge.

Her recall is pretty awesome, for which I'm grateful. Her breeder started it early and it's a super fun game for her so it's been easy to reinforce.

We also focus a good amount of time on Bailey-Grace dynamics.

My only real "advice" is to remember that dogs change over time and keep in mind that it's a forever process. For example, G recently started demonstrating some (very mild) resource guarding behaviors -- something easily missed or dismissed, but we're working on it so it doesn't turn into anything.

Bailey and Grace are very, very different dogs, so probably some of it is breed and dog specific. Gracie is a typical happy-go-lucky bouncy golden and everything rolls off her back, whereas Bailey could absolutely have benefitted from more confidence building at an earlier age.

Yes. Hats

So much this! Juno and Lucy are actually both wonderful for vet procedures. Juno moreso, probably because I was in tech school when she was a pup and practiced everything on her! So handling is definitely always a priority for me.

Handling, handling, handling. Jackson HATES to be handled by other people. He is a nervous WRECK at the vet, hates being groomed, hates having his nails cut, hates being crated.

I will definitely work on that kind of stuff first and foremost. Probably attempt to take next pup to the vet just for fun visits, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Immediately start nails, and teeth brushing too.

Noises. I know sometimes you can't help this but I really wish Jackson wasn't so noise sensitive to guns, fireworks, alarms, etc. I think maybe had I exposed him early on, before the fear started, that it wouldn't be so bad. With my dad teaching me how to shoot now and stuff, I wish I could take him with me, but alas, he'd have a heart attack.

-Asking to jump on/off furniture.
I worked on A LOT (general manners wise) with Merlin.. but I really let this slip. I sat on the sofa, he jumped up next to me. He was never impolite about it so I just let it slide.
Now I have a dog who ASSUMES he is allowed on furniture and hops up when I sit or whenever he wants to really.

Push him off? It's a game! YAY! JUMP UP AGAIN! LOL

- Ignoring people/waiting to greet people.
Merlin went through a bit of a fear period, so I UBER SOCIALIZED him. Other people got treats to give him, people wanted to say hi to him.. so now he assumes EVERYONE wants to say hi to him.

It's lucky he's so cute because sometimes he will sniff the hand or lick people just walking next to us on the sidewalk and it makes people jump! NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO SAY HI TO YOU MERLIN!

Rewarding more for positive dog experiences. Less time at the dog park where all hard work was ruined in two visits.

My main reason for this reply was to say this should be a sticky.