Bailey – 10 Week Journey

Training Begins: August 17th, 2024 | Training Ends: October 26th, 2024

Behaviors Bailey will learn or begin learning during her stay here:

BEHAVIOR	Week 2	Week 5
Sit	Responsive to hand signal; learning verbal cue	Presents automatic sit for various rewards throughout day including exiting playpen and crate, getting food, and getting attention. Knows “sit” very well with a near 100% success rate.
Down	Following a hand signal that points directly to the ground; pops out of down right after being rewarded	Bailey now loves down and remains in a down position for longer periods of time, often waiting for an “ok” to pop out of the position. She knows the verbal and visual cue for down and responds to either almost 100% of the time.
Name Recognition	Responsive to name 70% of the time	Bailey has not improved much with her name when outdoors, and has hit an age point where she wants to ignore my calling for her. Bailey has begun dragging a long line outdoors to ensure she follows through with responding to her name through gentle leash pressure until she returns. Very normal part of “growing up” and just another hurdle of puppyhood.
Touch	Proficient in “touch”	Proficient in “touch”
Recalls	Associating name with coming back to human; starting to pay attention much better when called, but still gets distracted easily.	Bailey knows her recalls but, as noted above, is starting to challenge them when she would rather be running around the yard rather than coming inside the house. She will recall very well throughout the yard, but as soon as she realizes it’s time to go inside, she suddenly forgets what recalls are. We are working on changing this through using a long line to ensure she cannot run away from the door, and rewarding heavily as soon as she gets inside the house.
Go Into Crate	Easily follows food into crate and is quiet while she eats her treat and settles in to sleep.	Bailey absolutely loves her crate and goes in very willingly, often choosing to be in the crate instead of out when relaxing during the day. She immediately runs to the crate for nap and bedtime, excited to get her “night night” snack. Bailey rarely makes a sound in her crate anymore.
Sleep Training	Sleeping around 6-7 hours in a row overnight; sleeping for 2 hour stretches during daytime crating.	Bailey is sleeping through the entire night and can be crated 2-3 hours easily during the day when needed.
Leash Walking	Dragging leash while being frequently rewarded for “heel” position; often wanders off despite high value treats	Bailey is really starting to focus on heeling and now follows me around the yard with or without a leash attached. She still has bouts on leash where she wants to go do something else and gets frustrated she can’t, but is quick to re-focus on me and walk nicely again.
Place	Runs to place when she sees it, happy to get her reward!	Love, love, loves her place! She will run to it from several feet away and will go to it in a variety of environments.
Stay	Started adding 1-2 steps to “stay” to add some distance	Bailey will “stay” on her place while I walk several feet away now, and nearly always waits to be released with an “ok”!
Drop It	Not Started	Bailey is starting to pick up on “fetch” skills and is bringing toys back to me on occasion and does a very good “drop it” upon bringing the toy back. Bailey is not much of a tugger, so has not had much practice dropping while tugging.
Leave It	Began “leave it” with treats in a closed hand; she is picking this up quickly	Bailey is now doing “leave it” when a few low value treats are dropped on the ground a foot or so away from her.
Wait	Waiting for a “sit” before releasing from crate, playpen, or doors.	Bailey is getting very good about waiting at doorways and to come out of her crate/playpen. The one time she has difficulties is first thing in the morning. She will still paw at her crate door wanting out in the AM. Now that her potty training is going so well, I am waiting for a moment of calm before letting her out in the AM now.
Potty Training	No accidents; going out to potty every 15-20 minutes while active. Will whine in playpen when needing to potty.	Going out to potty every 30-40 minutes while active during the day. Bailey goes potty on cue when I say “Go Potty”.
Grooming	Taking more interest in the brush touching her, a little squirmy about nails being trimmed but handled it quite well. Does not like baths at all and tries to escape when the opportunity arises.	Has calmed down a lot with baths and now calmly allows me to bathe her, though it is definitely not her favorite activity.

_{*Please note your puppy is learning other skills in training including socializing, riding in cars, learning manners (no biting, no jumping, etc) that are not displayed on this chart, but will be discussed as needed.}

Bailey’s 2 Week Report

Bailey is the sweetest little girl! While she is not as confident and outgoing as her sister, Bailey is still a fairly confident pup who, even if she does show fear about something, tends to overcome it quickly. Bailey gets distracted very easily during training (especially outside) so she is being trained in short bursts while I can hold her attention. She benefits from high value treats to practice harder skills such as heeling, and even that sometimes can’t keep her focus for very long! This lack of focus is very much a baby puppy trait, and I anticipate as she continues to learn how rewarding interacting with people can be, she will start to focus better. Despite her inability to pay attention, Bailey is a quick learner and is staying right on track with training even if her sessions have been very short. Bailey is a snuggler and a kisser and loves to be held and cuddled on. She is doing great with handling (paws, tail, ears, etc. being handled regularly, she does not mind any of this) though when she is busy playing, she doesn’t want to take the time out to be pet and will often run away if you attempt to while she’s busy. Bailey absolutely loves the other dogs and humans in the household and is quite the social butterfly! Sometimes she needs a few moments to feel comfortable around someone new, but she is very quick to warm up. Bailey has been a joy to work with so far and I will continue to update about her as I get to know her better!

Please continue visiting this page to see her progress get filled in on the chart above!

Bailey’s Halfway Report

It’s so interesting watching these puppies change as the weeks go by! Bailey has gained a lot of independence and is often off doing her own thing away from me and the other puppy these days, though she frequently checks in. If we are doing a training session, however, she has become very focused and will stay “tuned in” until the training session is done. She is still a snuggly girl, though still has a lot of times where she doesn’t want to be bothered while she is busy (she will walk away from you when you try to pet her while she’s actively playing with her toys, for example). Bailey has also begun to show more head shyness as she has aged. I noticed it when I got her when I approached her she would back away, but I figured she was too busy for attention… however she is ducking away even more these days despite continued reinforcement for being touched. She is happy being touched on her sides, chin, chest, legs, paws… but her head and back she tends to shy away from if you are standing up. If you are sitting down, however, she is all over you and has no problems at all being loved on. I think she is just intimidated by people leaning over the top of her (we look like giants to her!) and really likes when people are at her level. Funnily enough when she is taller in the stroller while out and about, she has no issues with people leaning over to say hi to her. I will continue working on handling with her and letting her know that while we are very tall in comparison to her, we just want to love her! I see this crop up in a lot of my shyer petite puppies, so I am not alarmed by this behavior, I just want to point it out so you know how she best likes to interact with people!

Bailey has become an incredibly focused learner and is very quick to pick up cues and is improving every day with all of her manners. Our biggest challenge at the moment is her recalls (only when coming back into the house, any other time she does fabulous recalls). Once puppies are past 12 weeks old, they are out of the age where they want to follow people around, so this is a pretty typical setback at her age that I end up working through with a lot of puppies. Bailey absolutely loves being outside (even in the rain) since it has cooled off and just doesn’t want the fun to ever end! I’m making sure her coming back into the house is rewarded with treats and a fun play session so she sees coming back indoors as something rewarding. Aside from the recalls (and sensitivity to people standing over the top of her), I cannot think of any other major challenges with Miss Bailey! She’s doing a wonderful job in her crate, is starting to go for short walks with minimal if any pulling throughout the walk, and is learning all of her basics very well.

Bailey has a vet appointment for her final round of vaccines on October 7th. 2 weeks following (her last week here) she will be safe to be on the ground in public and will get to practice everything she has learned, and will continue to learn, while in very distracting public environments just in time to go home. I have a feeling she’s going to do great for her final testing with how much she has progressed in the last 3 weeks since her last big update!