Rundle - 12 Weeks

Rundle turned 12 weeks old today and in a few days it will be 4 weeks since he joined our family.  It is hard to believe how much a little puppy can become a huge part of your family in just 4 short weeks.  Rundle goes right along with the household schedule, even though it can change from day to day.  He is very easy going that way -  it is nice that puppies are so adaptable.

Over the past two weeks I have really noticed a difference in Rundle's attention span and how much training we can do in a session.  I still keep training sessions short but now we are quitting before he is noticeably ready to stop.  He is really catching on to clicker training and to shaping exercises and comes running when he hears me get the clicker out.  Last week, I decided to try to teach Rundle to go to a mat and lay down.  I figured it would take several sessions over a few days to shape the entire behaviour.  I wish I would have video taped our first session because in about 10 minutes he was going to the mat and laying down.  This was with 100% pure shaping - I did not lure in any way - I just sat in a chair and clicked Rundle for getting closer to the behaviour I wanted.  I was very surprised that Rundle picked up on this so fast, because this was the first shaping exercise he did where several behaviours were combined to make one final behaviour.  I have attached a video and you will see him working this.  The mat I am using in quite small, so it forces him to really work to get on it.  It is also on the carpet, which is harder for him than when it is on a different feeling surface, such as the linoleum.  Right now, I am not too picky about how much of his body is on the mat, as long as he is working to do what I want.  I will reward if he starts out totally on the mat but ends up part off while he is laying down.  Gradually I will only reward when he is totally on the mat in a down position.  You will see in one spot in the video where he laid down beside the mat and he got no reward - I said and did nothing and let him think about what he needed to do to get the cookie.

I sometimes struggle with how much training I should be doing with such a young puppy.  They are such sponges at this age that I hate to waste it by not doing enough.  I also don't want to do too much and have a puppy that is bored or doesn't like training.  I try to keep everything we do fun - I want to set the tone that training and learning is always fun and that working with me always brings good things. We also do lots of playing, just to play.  Rundle also knows that down time is good too.  Everything with a puppy is such a balancing act.