Alpine Dog has gone to puppies! We started our new summer puppy play and train program (program full) on Monday with Ginger as our first camp kid. She is a week younger than Fury, so they make a great pair for socializing! We have a couple more puppies on deck to finish out our summer, and can’t wait for them to start up with us! We began our morning, with the most important part of our day, learning how to play! I had never met her before, so chase and catch for the first 40 or so minutes was perfect to help build our relationship. I hung out with her while she drank water and we enjoyed some really sweet hugs and kisses together before we played with the ball a bit more. She had nap time in the crate while I worked with a few regular clients. Coming out of her crate, we went out for a nice walk, learning how to walk on a loose leash. She pulls like heck for her owners, so I want to be sure to make that easier for them as soon as I can. The rest of the day was spent meeting and playing with Brick, Ruger and Fury. We had swim lessons, which is super important for summertime, and learned how to take breaks and calm down during play so we don’t get over excited. Our house is very busy with human traffic, so throughout the day, she was exposed to several new people who know how to do calm relaxed greetings on the floor with no jumping. This program is geared towards getting your puppy started in the right way, socialized properly, and trained using play so you have a well balanced dog as an adult. My goal with this program is to help prevent a few owners from needing me for behavioral issues a year or two down the road from now! 🥰
**Starting off this morning with another new puppy program!**
Your new puppy can’t stay in a crate for more than 3 1/2 hours when it is 8 weeks old. What do you do for potty breaks for him or her when you are at work all day? Do you have time during the week to get your puppy properly socialized, play with him or do some basic training? You are missing a really important learning period during the week while you are at work! You only have 16 weeks during its critical period to get your puppy exposed to the environment, people and other dogs so you can ensure a confident well socialized dog later in life.
Why not send him to puppy camp??!!
😯 🤩
This is a full day program where your puppy will learn potty training, socialization, basic manners training, crate training, walking on leash and confidence building… but most of all, your puppy will learn the most important thing in its life, and that is HOW TO PLAY!!! Play is a primary reinforcer! Why wouldn’t you use this as a reinforcer and get rid of your bag of treats?!? Studies have proven that puppies that were not exposed to playing games had behavior issues later in life. Why miss the opportunity to get play based training started the right way, while you are at work?? Play based training is an amazing way to reward good behavior and sets you up for great off leash reliability. Be that bigger squirrel to your dog!
Limited space available!! Three days/week, in two week blocks of beginner and advanced puppy training curriculum. Private transfer lessons included at the end of each two week block.
Call me to reserve your spot!
Rolling out the first of several puppy programs now available through Alpine Dog’s Puppy Academy!! Are you thinking of getting a new puppy?? NOW is the time to reach out to a trainer!! Get your pre-puppy consultation, so you know the ins and outs of purchasing from a breeder, or adopting through a rescue. Learn what supplies you need to purchase, what will save you money in the end. Learn about how to properly socialize your puppy, what your vet schedule should look like and what different types of training styles are out there and what will fit your lifestyle the best! I’m here to help start puppies off on the right paw, so mistakes can hopefully be avoided. I want you to have a successful life with your new dog and it all starts before you bring that puppy home!
Fury’s first day at the beach!
The first 16 weeks of your puppy’s life is the most important time to be able to get him exposed to the things that you want him to be successful around later in life.
It is important for me to teach Fury that water is super fun and how to swim. Since he will be on our Adventure Team, being a strong swimmer helps me feel comfortable with him around the river. I would also love for him to be a dock diving prospect, so getting him to like jumping in the water is also very important!
We are also learning about Chase & Catch games and loving the cooperative nature that bringing a toy back to your person allows for. Basically, everything that I’m doing with him right now is all about building my relationship with him being an authority figure to him and just allowing him to be a puppy and have fun. We are doing that through learning the rules to playing games and exposing him to the many different environments that we will spend the most time in.
Ultimately, I really just want a well rounded, well trained, happy dog. All the competitive stuff later is just going to be a bonus for us and we will think about most of that once he is a tiny bit older. This last month went so fast, I would like to enjoy more of that before we really get down to business with training.
This video is a long one, but one of my favorites of all time! Sound makes it way better btw 🔈🔉🔊 groove out and enjoy!
When the Heeler makes a guest appearance, we are sure to have way more energy than usual, and then add the Vizsla? Game ON!
No one got hurt during this video but you can see where things can go wrong quickly and quite unexpectedly. We need to expect this is a risk when going to camp. Even I can get hurt out there. These guys are athletes, and are very agile so I allow things go, to a point. The dogs know if they are capable of certain things or not. Even when it comes to the Heeler deciding he needs to bite the waterfall 🙄
Never a dull moment with these guys, but this is why off leash reliability (RECALL!) and trust in my leadership is so darned important, and this is what makes our Adventure Team so awesome!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!
Camp days are the best when you can take some of it home with you 💐🌾🌸 peaceful days, strolling thru the fields in the sunshine, one stem at a time 💗 This is from last Thursday!
It occurred to me after thinking about a post that I put on my personal page, that some people really may not know what training a dog looks like. Especially when using TWC methodology. Training Without Conflict has only been out in the open for 2 years now. Play based training has been around for a long time, but I don't feel like it was widely known around here until a few years ago. This is why the person at the dog park didn’t know I was actually, really training Fury. All he saw was me and Fury playing with a toy and didn’t understand the concepts behind possession games.
Everyone is so used to seeing, “Yes”, treat. “Yes”, treat. Rewarding your dog while in position with food. Recall your dog (get your dog to come back to you) and give them a cookie. Throw a bunch of food on the ground and jackpot the return.. When you look training up on the internet that is what you see most often then not, especially in the force free world of dog training. I used food rewards & marker training for years, but there is so much wrong with this, and I can explain to you why in more detail during your consultations with me.
Fury likes food, especially if I use a hot dog or cheese to train with, but I have to skip his breakfast in order for him to be food motivated enough to work for me this way, and I have to use it in the form of treat chasing (games using food) for it to have any sort of entertainment for him.
Toys are a much bigger motivator for him, especially when it comes to possession. You need to be the bigger squirrel to your dog! Your dog needs to WANT to come back to you. Your relationship with each other is what drives that and makes him decide that the competing motivator (the other thing challenging you for his attention) isn’t as important. So, here we are using possession games as a reward for recalling off of other dogs and a bird. Dogs are a big competing motivator to Fury so this is very important to me to get ar
Another Tuesday with Fury and the pack! He was almost outgrowing his backpack last week, and totally frustrated when he was in it… because he’s a big boy and can do it himself!
This will be his last day out with the pack for a while. He’s too young to hike the entire distance we hike, and as much as I liked the workout I was too concerned with the possibility of his getting hurt.
It’s a very real risk when out at camp. You never know what will happen and an injury can happen fast, especially when u have Gumby legs as a puppy!
We will continue to socialize here at home with the dogs on Fridays, so he will continue to develop his relationship with them. What a fun day this was!
Furious Alpine Socials
After camp, I held back a couple dogs from Friday’s dog camp and brought them to my house. This was Fury’s very first #BK9SocialClub! I can’t be more proud of the dogs in my pack and of my baby puppy! #DriveLitter #DriveFuriousOFFK #FiresideFernweh #FurrarixZorro
Let’s switch off from Fury for a day and visit our Friday Adventure Team! This was our first day out in 3 weeks, post vacation. It was well… safe to say, a crazy day!! Everyone was super excited to get out and run, and swim, and hunt, and bay 💖💛💜 we all got home safe …. and sound asleep!
PS, look how happy my Brick Dog is in these pics! Vacation was good to us 🤎
A little treat chasing with Fury this morning! I haven’t used much for food in training with him yet, so I thought this morning I’d change things up for fun! He is still trying to get a hang of the OUT command, so this is a really great way to teach your dog about interruptions in your game without knowing OUT while playing with toys. When he anticipates the command and releases before I give him the cue that he can move on, I will mark that he didn’t do it right and put him back where he broke. With his focus command, “watch”, I move my arm out to the side to distract him. I want to see him physically turning his head to me for attention. I love the engagement this exercise creates between us, and it’s fun! Playing games like this is also a really good way to start your off leash foundation and getting a good recall. It makes recall not so… well.. boring! Boring is the last thing you need your dog to think about recall, make his training fun!! 📚 🍎
Fury made some new friends this week! I am very lucky to have access to a large group of solid dogs to socialize Fury with. Buddy, Louie, Stanley and Libby were with me Tuesday to help! Fury is in a very critical learning period now. He will be for his first 16 weeks. I’m being very careful what his experiences are and doing my best to make sure everything he does is fun! Everything is imprinted now and will influence his life forever, this means a lot for us as a team. Socialization is essential to his development, but not in the way you think!
Interactions with other dogs is a huge part of our training right now. This is the first time he has met and interacted with other dogs besides Brick and Ruger. I will NOT allow him to “meet” every random dog on the street. Actually, my goal is quite the opposite. I want him to ignore every single one of them! I want his attention to be exclusively on me when we are on leash and/or in public. Our relationship is what is most important out there. At dog camp, he is off leash and has the interactive play time he needs with trusted friends that can influence him in a positive way.
He is too young to be able to run far. His joints are Gumby joints right now and won’t be fully formed until he is a year old, or even older since he’s a large breed dog. The chances of injury to his bones and joints are very high. I need to be very careful that everyone stays calm around him, and doesn’t trample over him, not just because of risk of injury, but also his trust in the other dogs. I need to be careful of his desire to want to jump from high places too (he is Evel Knievel and will jump from anywhere!)! So, we did have limited time on the ground. While he does have free roam, he is allowed to make his own decisions on what he likes to do and what he doesn’t and he’s allowed to be a puppy. I listen to his cues and we move on as soon as he’s ready to go. While we are on the move, he has been really g
