Snickers – 10 Week Journey

Training Begins: March 30th, 2025 | Training Ends: June 8th, 2025

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

BEHAVIOR	7 Weeks In Training
Sit	Snickers is a master at “sit”! She sits for attention, to be released from doorways, for her food, and for many other rewards throughout the day!
Down	Snickers knows “down” very well with a visual cue and is progressing well with knowing the verbal cue. She still sometimes won’t respond to the verbal cue, in which case I just point to the ground to remind her and she “downs” following the visual cue.
Name Recognition	Snickers knows her name and reacts to it really well!
Touch	Snickers loves to “touch”! “Touch” is when I hold my hand out and they touch their nose to my hand. I use this to redirect them, get their attention, or for an easy cue to distract them or help them settle down.
Recalls	Snickers does a great recall – about 90% of the time. When she is overtired or has gotten zoomies, she forgets I exist. Keeping a long line on her so she can be reminded that recalls are important will prevent her from learning to ignore her recalls.
Go Into Crate	Snickers had a rough start with her crate and still doesn’t love it, but does well in it. She follows her treat in, eats it, and goes to sleep quietly nearly every time now. Every once in a while she will whine for a minute or two, but that is rare now, and usually only during daytime napping. She sleeps the entire night (wakes up around 6:30am) and is doing a great job!
Leash Walking	Snickers is doing very well with loose leash walking, and stays by my side with barely any straying. If she does stray off and go to the end of the leash, she quickly comes back and gets back into position. Frequent rewarding is still recommended until she is into adulthood. Treats can be spread out more and more as she ages, though when she first goes home I recommend treating every few steps during her first few walks as she’s getting used to her new handler!
Place	Snickers does a good job with “place” and is starting to go to her “place” with just a verbal cue instead of me needing to point to it. When introducing new “place” spots, she will need them pointed at for a while until she gets accustomed to them.
Stay	Snickers is excellent with “stay” when she’s on her “place”! She’s able to stay while I walk across the puppy training yard and will also stay when toys are thrown around.
Drop It	Snickers isn’t a big tugger so we haven’t gotten to work on this too much, but she does drop things instantly when I say “Drop it” and present a treat to her.
Leave It	Snickers is doing very well with “leave it” and is starting to work on a “leave it” with food being dropped on the floor. Since she loves food so much, this has been a challenge for her but she’s successful with food dropped from a small height!
Wait	Snickers does well with “wait” around doors and gates.
Potty Training	Snickers has not had an accident since her first couple of weeks here. She signals she needs to potty usually by panting and whining/barking near exits. She will initially pace near the doorway to her playpen or the door to outside.

Snickers’ Midway Update

Snickers is SUCH a fun puppy! She has a zest for life and is always happy and playful. She has a lot of energy to burn, and as long as she gets exercise a few times a day, is also content to relax around the house with me. She definitely knows how to “zoomie” and you have to stay out of her way when she’s got them! Sometimes I have to put her on a leash inside when she gets zoomies because she will start flying on and off furniture – so if she starts getting those out of control zoomies, just clip a leash onto her and work on a few calm cues (like sit, down and touch) to help her settle down. While those zoomies can be cute, I would encourage calmer behaviors indoors because she’s going to be a decently big girl!

Snickers loves learning and does such a good job during her training sessions. If she’s not listening, I know she’s having an “off” time and we just do a training session at another time, because she listens so well the vast majority of the time! She’s very focused and in tune with me and is a stellar student. She is also very good on our walks and listens great to recalls — that is, unless another puppy is running around with her! Her and her brother get into some mischief with each other and will go about and do their own thing and ignore me. When she’s not with her brother, she listens very well. This is something to keep in mind when she’s with Nugget – if she’s not listening well, she may need one-on-one time.

Snickers can be vocal – not in her crate anymore, but in general. She doesn’t like when someone else is having a one-on-one training session and barks the entire time I am with the other puppy (she loves her training sessions SO MUCH I think she’s just jealous!) She also likes to bark at the other puppies while playing… which Nugget also liked to do, so I envision them having some barking battles in the future! If this happens, you can let them play for a little and then break it up whenever you want with a training session with both of them.

Snickers has gotten so much more confident during her stay here and now loves to meet new people and go to new places. She can still be a little shy initially but warms up very quickly if you allow her to initiate the interactions. I bet in another couple of months that shyness will be completely gone!

Snickers is doing really well with crating in comparison to when I first got her. Her and her brother were some of the hardest puppies to crate train initially – I had to have them next to my bed for the first week which I don’t usually have to do when I have siblings who can share a crate! Now she is in her own crate, nowhere near me, and doing wonderfully. She does often wake up early from naps (usually takes a 1.5 hour nap before shes awake and whining). She could easily go 2-3 hours with no problems aside from maybe complaining about it, so if you need to crate her longer because you’re gone, don’t hesitate to do so, she’s been left for longer times here as well and does just go back to sleep once her complaining goes unanswered. If she is having any problems with the home change, you can either crate her next to Nugget or crate her next to you overnight while she is settling in, but I am hopeful she will not have any further crate issues.

This girl is a fiery one and you should have a lot of fun with her – she is such a wonderful puppy! I cannot wait to hear how it goes with her and Nugget!!