Interesting Tidbit: Listography

Today I was reading and I came across an interesting little activity. It said to make a list of 10 training goals for your puppy, this way you get to work on training without thinking about what it is you're going to do. This makes it easier to practice training as an everyday habit.

So with my handy-dandy pencil in hand I took to the paper to see what kind of goals I could come up with:

1. I'd like my puppy to sit when greeting people entering the home.

2. I'd like my puppy to heel to me on command when on the lead.

3. I'd like my puppy to lie down when I sit or relax in the home.

4. I'd like the puppy to lie down before I give an employment tool (chew or game).

5. I'd like my puppy to stay-sit when I leave the room unless asked to come.

6. I'd like my puppy to respond to the leave it command when I want him to drop a toy.

7. I'd like the puppy to recall when in the presence of others.

8. I'd like my pup to learn the speak command when asked.

9. I'd like my pup to lay on his pillow or kennel when I am resting for longer periods of time (watching tv or a movie).

10. I'd like my puppy to come and lie in his kennel when it's time to go or it's sleep time.

Some of these tasks are obviously more direct than others. However, I've attempted to keep the tasks fairly simple so that the puppy will learn quickly. These are also tasks that can be build upon in the future to do specific tasks.

Example: Both Heeling and Recall are great for agility competition training.

They are also a non-exhaustive list of things that I want to value. I plan on playing the magnet game from an early age so that I may reward only those naturally occurring behaviours that I find valuable. I can't wait for some of this stuff to become useful. I find having something like this list as a guide will save me a lot of time when I'm working on training my dog.

It's also 3 days before the puppy's birthdate. I'm very excited about this. It'll be a for sure thing when I actually know there is a living, breathing, creature that is mine. Still looking forward to a few pictures of the pregnant Kylee (mum) before she's due. Gosh there's just so much to get done.