SDG Goldens

Today was puppy party day. For this activity, we invite people who have not worked with the puppies before and place them at four brand-new stations the puppies have never seen. Today’s stations included a bridge, a teeter-totter, a wobble board, and a tunnel. The goal is not just to see whether a puppy will complete an obstacle. We are watching how each puppy responds to something new. Do they approach boldly? Do they need a little time to think? Do they recover quickly after feeling unsure?...

We played the Box Game today, and the puppies did such a great job starting to learn how training works. The whole purpose of the Box Game is teaching puppies how to learn. Dogs are not born automatically understanding what we want from them, so one of the very first steps in training is helping them learn how to figure things out and offer behaviors. In this game, the puppies are rewarded for interacting with the box or tin cake pan. At first, they do not understand why they are getting...

One of the things we’ve been continuing to work on is sound desensitization. Over the past several days, the puppies have been hearing the vacuum from a comfortable distance. Today, we took the next step with the vacuum. Rather than just letting them hear it from across the room, we introduced the vacuum directly into the pen. First, I let the puppies investigate it while it was turned off so they could sniff it, climb around it, and realize it was nothing scary. Once they were comfortable, I...