Breeze is Whisper's 5.5 month old puppy. One thing I like about Whisper's litter is their responsiveness to human voice and desire to work. When I evaluate a litter I look for the puppy that immediately turns and looks to a human voice and offers eye contact. All of Whisper's litter showed these traits.
Breeze learned to look and come quickly to her name. I also love her eye contact. Does she know her name or is she just responding to my voice? This was the first time I had asked her to work in a public place and there was a distracting little white dog running off leash just out of sight of the video. I am pleased she ignored it-for the most part-to pay attention to me.
She also is learning to sit and down on command as well as learning the basic steps of heeling. I have been using a clicker to mark the response(sit or down) that I want but I forgot to bring it to the park for this training.
I teach puppy heeling a little differently than an adult. With a puppy I have them come forward to me for a toy with all four feet on the ground. Then I quickly turn and have them heel to my side. This begins to teach them to heel with their head up. The toy gets them interactive/excited with me but they don't get it unless they come quickly with all four feet on the ground. Then the toy appears and they get to tug/play. This is only the second time we have attempted a turn and few step heel. Overall she did great despite the distractions.
