"Bella... Be Good": Training Series Teaching a Puppy to Be Good | Ep: #5

In episode #5 we continue to establish routines with some consistency on teaching a puppy to be good. Coming out of the kennel under control and straight outside to take care of her business will be something we do every time. Once that is squared away, we focus the majority of this episode around establishing a feeding routine and then settling into her “place”. Although I am not a treat trainer by any means, I do use kibble very early on to reward some behavior and shortly after I replace the kibble with praise. Bella is proving to be a dog that is not very “food driven”, so the effectiveness of using feeding times can be a little less with a pup like her. I build in some very core skills like sit during short sessions like this. We try to establish a bit of a “lining” drill to the bowl of food, but as you’ll see she has other ideas. Her lack of confidence at this point in training almost freezes her up and gives the illusion of being very “steady”. I don’t necessarily think that is the case, and I will end up having to excite her more to break loose and send for the bowl of food. She also continues to show us the struggle to focus on the meal and eat all her food in one sitting with distractions. She has a bad habit of being a little of a “grazer” and will eat a few bites, then run off and check things out. We offer up some insight as to a few ideas to minimize and ultimately eliminate that habit. Finally we show you some of the very first “place training” with Bella. She takes to it very easily and proves to respond very well to any simple change in tone as correction when needed. Timing is everything both with correction, praise and attention span or focus. Finding the right balance with all of these things is key. Another takeaway from this episode is the way we manage to balance and build “everyday life” into our raising of a dog when teaching a puppy to be good. I have our 5 month old apprentice Lillian trainer overseeing this morning session. It is just another example of how we too are forced to build training into everyday schedules rather than scheduling everyday life around our puppy training.