Puppy Kindergarten

Today was Tailor's first day of class!
He napped in the car on the way over so he had more than enough energy when meeting the dogs for the first time. It even included barking at one dog (b/c he wanted to play) which I couldn't get him to stop doing. Lessons today included the following:

• Automatic check-in - Relationship building, occasional check-in and focus exercise. Basically he gets a treat whenever he looks me in the eye. This was just a warmup since it's leftover from last week's homework.
  
• Market word - This was review from last week as well. As soon as the dog does the command you want them to, you say your marker word (in our case it's, "good"). Then you give him the treat. Since dog's minds move so fast, there's too much time b/w doing the command and giving them the treat. The marker word signifies that they did the right thing and a reward is coming. The marker word is the equivalent to clicking in clicker training.
  
• Name recognition - Walked around with him on leash. Occasionally called his name and when he looked, he got a treat. I thought he'd struggle with this since I'm convinced he thinks his name is, "Tailor No" but he did really well.
  
• Sit - Hold a treat in front of him then move it back behind his head. Let him follow it with his eyes and he'll naturally sit down. Tailor and I have already been practicing this, so he was very good at this exercise.
• Nipping - We learned that if our dog nips at us we're supposed to yell, "ouch!" and turn away for a few seconds. Dogs are sensitive to hurting others, so this should cause them to stop. We were instructed not to push them off since they may view that as play.
  
• Staying down - Use the same command (such as "off" or "down") if he jumps on you, on furniture or anything else he shouldn't jump on.
  
• Play time - Got to play with the other puppies. This was the only time they were allowed off the leash. He was so funny and checked out all the dogs, but soon it was the 3 labs sticking together. It's like they knew they were cousins. Anyway, towards the end of play we each practiced name recognition by calling their name in the middle of play.