​Why haven’t I trained my puppy yet?

It may surprise you that as a trainer I haven’t started doing much training with Bramley yet.  We have had him 6 weeks, and in terms of obedience training, he knows sit (the breeder started that) and to respond to his name, so the start of recall training.  That’s it.  I think this will surprise some people. 

With any new dog (puppy or rescue) the last thing I focus on is obedience training in those first few months.  Don’t get me wrong, I start working on manners such as where to toilet, reducing puppy biting, confident in being handled and showing them how much fun playing with me is.  My focus is on finding out who this dog is, what they enjoy doing, working on building confidence in the world around them (noises, different environments, people, dogs etc) but mainly it’s all about building a trusting relationship.
 
I love all the training side, and he will learn lots of skills, but you cannot expect a dog to enjoy training and learning without the fundamentals of having a relationship first. 

Our main focus with Bramley at the moment is raising a confident dog. We met our target of meeting 100 people before he was 12 weeks old (Ian Dunbar recommends this amount) which took lots of planning and carrying him around and having people in our house.  He has meet several of our friends’ dogs before he was allowed out to interact with others.  We have been to garden centres, B&Q, housing estates, rural walks, woods, riverside walks, seen some horses and sheep.  Lots of trips in the van, which he is now happy to travel in.  Working on being left alone, and appropriate play with the other 2 dogs.  I have goals of what I want him to be good at as an adult and what experiences I don’t have easy access to – this shapes what we do each week.  I need to be proactive in what we are doing but also being aware to not overwhelm and give him space to process. 

The joyful moments we now have with him and Hallie playing together is lovely.  We had to do a slow introduction to start with as Hallie can guard me and stuff on the floor, so management is needed.  However, they are building a lovely bond together and figuring out how to play.  Cuba isn’t that interested but as he is 9, I wouldn’t expect him to be.  I think when Bramley is less bouncy their relationship will build. 

I will keep you all updated with what we get up to as he grows up.  The joys of adolescence will be on us in no time!!! 
​Jo x