Let’s Get Ready!
Look at that happy smiling face of your puppy and smile back! They need you and you need them. Remember it was your choice to bring them into your life, and you owe them your dedication to making their world the best you possibly can. Did you know that statistics show many people starting new programs won’t make it past the first week? This is usual for anything transformational–fitness programs, a new way of eating, New Year’s Resolutions, getting to bed earlier. Have you noticed this in your own life?
This is not to discourage you, but to remind you that keeping your focus is important in the success of your puppy. They are going to be with you for their lifetime, so why not do what is necessary at this early stage to ensure that they will have the best life ever. Anxiety is something that no one should have to live with, human or animal. When you approach this program commit to completing all the lessons.
To make this commitment, you will travel through days your puppy will not cooperate and days they will. You will come home from work, and will feel like only snuggling on the couch with your puppy and your favorite beverage. BUT…even if you have a day like that, with our LifeStyle Training, you still can teach your puppy something. Work on “easy” and “alert” as you pet and give those belly rubs. Work on naming their body parts. We all need a day off at times, but we all still wake up and brush our teeth. There are things you must do every day regardless, and giving your puppy instructional direction is something that must be done all of the time. So having a bad day or being tired, or just because you don’t feel like it, isn’t fair to them. They are thriving for your attention and can’t wait to be told they did a good job. Dogs have become so domesticated, that they love to please us. How can we ignore that? Some of you will endure big challenges; some, smaller ones. But nonetheless, life will come at you, and you will have to decide what’s really important. We hope you realize just how important teaching your puppy about our world really is.
We can tell you right now, we have trained puppies all day everyday for 5 years now. And out of those thousands of days, there are days where we are tired, and just don’t feel like training. It is boring when you think of it as “training”.
It takes a push at first to start something new, your desire will burn bright for the first few days but then you think you know what is next. Or you think you really don’t need direction. We can’t teach you to “want” to train your puppy, but we hope we can inspire you to do so. Remember why you brought that little face into your life….it made you happy. Staying happy is up to you. It is your choice. Do you want to be happy? As your puppy makes accomplishments with our program, the smile will come across your face, and the confidence will fill your heart.
This is the feeling we as trainers look for everyday. It is our euphoria. We hope it will be yours.
Enjoy!
Kim & Christina
Stress can be a killer. That is a scary thought.
We all know we should avoid negative stress at all costs–a concept that makes many people feel stressed about feeling stress. Can you imagine how your puppy feels when they don’t understand what is happening. It places such a strain on their mind and body.
Sometimes though, stress can be good. It will push the mind to learn more, and the body to be more tolerant. This is what the BioSensor Program does for puppies. We start when the puppies are just 10 days old and they are not happy campers. We do it for short spurts- just a matter of counting to five. We can say that we have found that not doing it with a litter makes a huge difference. Now you can’t go back to when your puppy was 10 days old, but what you can do is place them in a little bit of controlled stress now. We have put a little spin on the BioSensor Program developed by Carmen Battiglia, to work with older puppies. The Biosensor is quick, easy, and something you can do everyday. As long as you can hold up your puppy! If you can not pick up your puppy, simply mimic the motions and support your puppy’s bum on the floor. Whatever is easy for you. Do not stress yourself over it as that is not good stress!
Current research even shows that if you approach stressful occurrences as positive in some way it can actually cause a healing response in your whole system. So smile at your puppy, remember your body language and remember your tone. Speak softly and reassuring but do not coddle the puppy if you see them a “little bit stressed.”
Dishwasher
LIFESTYLE PRACTICE:
As you begin teaching your puppy what ‘here’ means, remember to make yourself the most desirable, reinforcing presence in the room. While your puppy is learning to respond to the word ‘here’ and touch their nose to your finger target, we also want to make sure we praise lavishly and consistently. Use treats even: a couple bits of kibble are awsome to puppies. As your puppy becomes more proficient bring in another family member or friend to make it a game. Simply call puppy back and forth between the two of you! Lengthen the distance between as your puppy gets stronger. Eventually move outdoors to a safe, no to low distraction area to practice. Remember to keep it short and sweet. As with all training, puppies learn best in quick intervals over the course of time. If their attention seems to be fading or you’ve lost it completely, you’ve gone too long. No worries! Let your puppy rest for a while and go a little shorter on the next round. All puppies learn and process information differently, there’s no such thing as a dumb pup. Just keep on keeping on. You’re doing great!