training day 2.

puppy school tonight. 

last week we worked on: 

• eye contact - he is getting better but still a little slow to look from the hand that gives the treat, to the eyes
• touch - he is VERY good at this and learned really quickly
• doggie zen - he is also good at this, although sometimes army crawls along the ground to get closer to the treat...not what we want for training purposes, but hilarious to watch

this week we learned: 

• loose leash walking - this is exactly what i need, as rufus pulls on the leash a lot of the time. we started with reward rufus moving when our legs move...so take one step - when he moves towards the leg, reward. we did that walking backwards, then sideways and eventually walking forward. this will be (what i think) our biggest challenge, but hopefully biggest reward with much better walks. 
• tug - how to play tug properly. we let him play, even tease him a little, then ask him to drop the toy and give him a treat. also make him wait patiently before he gets the toy back.
• sit and down - rufus is very good at sit, so we are working on down. this is standard, do the hand motion, reward when he does it. the next stage is to do that for a bit and then do nothing and see if he does down on his own. 

xo.a