Recently I rescued a 4 month old puppy. I named her Sookie after the gorgeous Anna Paquin who played Rogue in the X-men movies and Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood. Anyways, I have had dogs before but have never really put time, energy and effort into training them but Sookie is going to be different and so far it's been an experience for us both. So I figured the little tricks that I am learning I may as well share with my readers. Again I am no expert and not saying this is the best or even a good way to train your puppy but it has been working for me.
The first thing I decided to do with Sookie was teach her name to her, this is very important because it helps with gaining control and trust with them. The way that I found was easy to teach her that her name was Sookie was actually pretty easy. Also anytime your training your puppy it's important that you have there attention and are alone with them or relatively alone.
I admit me wearing a black shirt was not the smartest idea but as you can see I am in an area where it is just me and her. In my hand are pieces of slim jim..she likes them ALOT. But you can use any type of treat/food that you want the goal is to give them a positive reinforcement. Now while sitting I would play with her but I would not move from my spot after a few moments when her puppy ADD kicks in and she wanders off I would say "SOOKIE," and show her the treat. When she would run over and eat the treat I would rub her and give her kisses. In the picture i was in an isolated place but this can easily be done while your watching tv. I like to try and get creative like walking down the hall and call her name or whatever.
Currently I am working on teaching her how to sit, which I would get her attention with the slim jim pieces and let her smell or even lick it but not eat it. raising the treat above her nose naturally makes her sit at which point I would say "kneel," and give her affection. So far I am trying to do about 10- 12 minutes a day practicing these 2 techniques. Hopefully this will help someone else out there to train your companions.
