Week 2 Silvia Trkman Puppy Class

I said:"Wow we have learned a lot in this week. I’m obviously the weakest link on our team. Reading that article on the main page about playing with your dog helped me a lot. It’s amazing how easily I can forget why we are training -- to have fun!
So now I am trying to play, throw treats, hold treats in my hand. Tibby is giving me her attention now! And we are having fun.
Plate -- seems ok. I tried to use a cue for the one paw vs. two paw, but Tibby doesn’t get it get. More work needed.
Box/bowl -- work in progress. I tried to go too fast, so we are going back to the beginning. I cut down the sides of our boxes. I think that helped some, but this needs more work. She keeps walking through the smaller box. When I wait for her to offer 4 feet in she gets frustrated and offers other tricks away from the box.
Recalls -- we have been having a lot of fun with this! I didn’t think Tibby would ever choose to follow me if she had the choice. Well, she chose to follow me! In the video there is a loose dog running around in the park and Tibby doesn’t even care. And other dogs are her favorite thing.
Frog -- I don’t think Tibby gets this. She doesn’t know what I’m clicking for. What do you think? We tried it with the pillow, but that just confused Tibby.
Impulse control -- Work in progress. I tried it with Tibby’s favorite toy and steak. She eventually got it."

Silvia said:

"Well yes, she is definitely offering more action! That’s a great start! Those bowls for 4 in were somewhat too optimistic, I think it’s better to stick to that second box you had after the bowls some more, until she is really getting in with all 4 feet as soon as she sees it. It’s no hurry with this trick, we don’t need it for the next homework, so just take the time, use that box and then add something at the side, maybe rather a newspaper or something as the bottles, she didn’t seem to like those in her box
Same with frog: it is hard for the dogs to understand you might be clicking for hind legs if they weren’t clicked for hind legs before, so just take the time and let her figure it out: some other tricks for hind feet awareness that we’ll be working on in this class will help with it too. If you want to try on a pillow, you can tell her to lie down on a pillow, you don’t need to shape the down again if she knows it already – that will allow you to focus on frog legs instead.
For paw touches, it’s normal it takes some time for them to learn the verbal cues, but she is definitely offering the behaviors nicely, that’s the important thing! Recalls from a stay look great, try to slowly add difficulty by recalling also from sniffing etc. – not when it would be too difficult, first when you see she has nothing else to do, then also from more&more distractions."

I said:
"Yes I don’t think she likes the bottles. I thought of using newspaper, but she LOVES to tear up newspaper and cardboard. I might try a rolled up blanket.
Can’t wait for next week"