Wow! He's barely six months old and has learned all that?!! 😃 Phaz, that's amazing! If you got him at 4 months and he's now six months, does that mean you've had only 8 or 9 formal lessons with him so far? And do you practice with him daily or near daily? And what treat (brand &/or flavor) do you give him? What a great dog and team the two you of you make!
😅 Thank you! So thus far we've gone to Puppy Kindergarten which is a 5 weeks intro to obedience and socializing for puppies, and at home, we worked through the Fenzi Baby Geniuses course (which we loved)
Fenzi Dog Sports Academy - FE115: Baby Genius. I usually do training a couple of times a day and during our walks. I'm fully WFH but have a super busy schedule as a game developer (our working hours are legendarily long lol) so I'm able to work training in by feeding him most of his meals by hand while practicing, training basic commands like; heel, sit, stand, down, and quiet, during walks, and using one day a week (usually Saturday) as a super training day where he has a class or puppy playschool in the a.m. a long break, and then distraction training near a busy area like at a park or near a restaurant or something similar where I can maintain distance from people but also be close enough for it to be a distraction for him. It sounds like a lot but I feel like before I would just be looking at my phone or something during that downtime that I use now, and Saturdays during Covid were just spent indoors so this is quite the improvement.
For the treats, I use a few because this boy is piiiicky. I've been working on expanding his palette though before all he wanted was cheese and chicken-like any other toddler would want lol. I use low value and high value treats depending on the distraction level and the difficulty of the trick. For example, "sit" in the house with no distractions, get kibble, but "sit" on a crosswalk as cars speed by gets carnitas or roasted chicken
Same for seeing something really exciting like a dog running by on a lead, definitely needs cheese or fresh meat shoved straight to the mouth to encourage him to focus on me.
So my line up now is:
Nature's Logic Rabbit kibble (his regular food)
Kiwi Kitchens Lamb Dinner
Kiwi Kitchen Fish Skin Treats
Kong Sweet Potato Paste (I use this on a spoon or target stick for heels and stacking)
Greenies Salmon Cat treats (he loves fish, so sometimes I have to get him cat treats that don't contain added Taurine)
High value (fed more rarely)
Tillamook Cheddar Cheese Snack Portions (I looove these, they come individually wrapped so I can grab a pack out of the fridge, throw it in my treat sack and run out the door. I just break off a little bit as I feed him)
Fresh, cooked meat like roasted chicken, liver, pork
Primal Rabbit Nuggets
OH and he is very toy-driven so when it's too late at night to feed him or I just want to keep the momentum up, I also reward him with a game of tug, fetch, or flirt pole.
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