Training Your Human Part 1

Morning all,

Dex and Louis here. Now, as there are so many new Pupsters joining Blogville thought it was about time we imparted some of our wealth of knowledge we have gained in training our humans. We may eventually write a book as we think there could be a call for this :-) Humans can be quite hard to train, the trick is to get them to think that they're doing the training but really it's the other way round.

Lesson 1.

How to get a treat.

Have a little mooch around the house and find something that you're not allowed to have, but that is easily and comfortably carried. Pick it up and wander slowly into the vicinity of your human, now sit and stare at them until you get their attention.

A glove is perfect for this

When you human sees you they will probably say something like 'No' - Louis thought that was his name for a year! As they come towards you to take the glove, run away quickly and do a few tours of the room - this part of the training is good exercise for the humans so you're actually doing them a favour. If you can't find anything else, try and get the lid off the recycle bin and hunt out an easily carried food box.

A box from the recycling is perfect

an empty toilet paper roll comfortable and easy to carry

Now, the idea is to let the human have the item back before they start to get annoyed. Just stop running around, they will think they've made you stop. They will say something like 'leave it' and try to take the item from you, resist for a short while - this all adds to the triumph they will feel when you do eventually leave go.

Voila - you have been such a good dog by obeying the 'leave' command they have to give you a treat!!! When you are very experienced in this exercise you can actually immediately go and do the same again with something else, useful when you're a bit peckish.

Troubleshooting

Occasionally the urge to chew will be too much, so try not to pick anything too tempting for this training exercise. Louis is still at the phase where he gives in to the chew - I'm still training Louis ;-) 

Sometimes the urge to chew takes over!

So, we'll leave you to practise that exercise. remember to choose something easily carried and also practise the 'I deserve a treat now' look required for the end of the exercise.

Practise your 'I deserve a treat now look'

We hope you enjoyed this lesson, we'll be adding more training guides over the next few months so watch this space!

We're nearly back to normal blogging. The Momsters shoulder is much better but she's still at physio every week. We'll be round to visit you all over the next couple of days, have a great weekend!! Dex and Lou xxx

Edited to add a note: Have you heard the massive news over on Magic's blog - go and check her announcement, if you're not following her already you'll want to now :-)