Nickie’s Puppy Pool and Stuff!

This a shot of Nickie’s desensitization pool. It will allow her as a puppy to experience different sensations such as surfaces, sounds, and loud noises. This will help her during her time between her next series of shots, where she cannot fully experience the outside world.

Here is a shot of Nickie’s Crate. She is pretty good about being in the crate. Preparing for Crate Training began even before we had Nickie. We had to take a chance that we would end up with a Puppy from this particular litter. We gave the breeder two items. 1. A baby blanket to capture Dog Moms scent. We placed it into the crate creating a familiar smell for her which allowed her to adjust much more quickly and feel safe. 2. An old shirt that we captured the liter scent on. We picked this shirt up from the breeder a week prior to picking up Nickie. We put the shirt into a bag and introduced the scent to our current Golden Retriever, Kipp. This allowed Kipp the get used to the scent of the puppies and allowed him to prepare for the new addition as well.

The crate is next to our bed, so Nickie can look right up at us. As well, we can see her if we need to take her out for a potty break. She is currently at about 3 hours, in between breaks. She loves the Lambchop, and sleeps with it as if it was a littermate. She is not left unattended with anything in the crate other than her blanket when she is alone for safety's sake.

This is a shot of Nickie’s in house potty box. Some trainers may disagree with our decision to pad train her in the house with an enclosure, instead of going outside with her. We have a 3-story house and tried several methods to be close to an exit, but it all came down to the same important factor. We don’t want to unnecessarily expose her to the outside world unless we have to or know the surface is free of Parvo.

We still follow up with a mark and praise when she uses the potty box. We verbally throw her a fun Puppy Party when she does potty on cue. (We clap and encourage/praise her with glee).

Here is a short video of Nickie and her first attempt at Lure training. I just wanted to give her the concept of luring and getting her to follow my hand. This is but one element of building our Partnership together.

This is not a formal training secession, but more of a quick introduction to see is she could grasp the concept. She did really well with this training secession. This will be the basis for a lot of her Obedience training, and Service Dog training as well.