I know I've said it before but I am completely, madly and crazy in love with my little girl. She's just absolutely perfect for me, and for our pack. Gyps is so much fun to train and even more fun to just play with. Oh I just love sitting and playing with her!!!
Now, that's not to say she doesn't present me with challenges. We've had issues with her potty training (all my fault), issues with her lack of self control when things don't involve her (again my fault as she's been the center of attention from the moment she entered this world!) and she has really challenged me by not being food motivated. Rival was very similar at this age though and he's a chow hound now!
I posted on Facebook the other day trying to get new treat ideas, to find things she really likes. She definitely likes cheese, thinks meatballs are okay, but there's nothing that WOWS her except ice cream! Not even her meals really impress her. After reading through people's posts and thinking things through more, I decided to get a bit creative.
Gyps loves her toys and loves the action involved in playing. Most of the training I've done with food involves less active behaviors, and lots of shaping requiring her brain to really spin. In between exercises, I always play with her which she just loves. So I thought what if I bring the action to the food? Voila!!! A food motivated dog in the making. I got super high energy just like I do when we play . She just LOVED chasing me for food, getting a tiny piece when she caught up. Doing some circle work, sitting in heel position after catching up to me and throwing pieces while she was moving. I also did some luring which I haven't done with her, teaching her to spin left and right and she thought that was the bomb. It was the most fun training session we've had yet. And it carried over to the sessions we've had since then. Yay!!!!
I still need to expand her selection of treats, because I'd like to use things that are more nutritionally valuable for her instead of tons of cheese! So I am going to play around with some new things and see what else might work.
Boy does the girl like to PLAY! And she's very clever. She loves her pink soccer ball, and wants to play with it all the time. So I started using it to reward her after she went potty outside. Now she runs out, pees and waits for the ball. If I am not fast enough, she'll even squat and try to pee again, staring at me as if to say "did you see me go potty?" The I just sit on the ground and play with her for a while---she loves to chase and retrieve the ball and kill it as well by biting on it like made. It's full of puppy teeth holes now! She loves tennis balls too and we've had great fun making up new games in the evening with that. I just an in awe of how this girl lives life---she has no worries, no cares and is just full of joy all the time.
Okay one exception. She hates when I put her back in the kitchen or in her pen when there are other things going on. She feels quite strongly already that she should be treated like a big dog and be given full run of the house! When she's not involved, she just screams. Of course I don't let her out until she's calm and quiet. But the girl has as set of lungs on her!!!
Gyps has also figured out the dog door, sooner than I had hoped. There are a bunch of stairs back there and I don't want her doing them with any frequency. So it adds another level of management when she does have free time in the house. I have to block her access to the dog door.
Such is life with puppies! But I am loving every minute and it's flying by way too fast!
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