Puppy School at 9 Weeks Old
One of the many things we did to prepare for Adelaide’s big homecoming was registering for a program called “Puppy Socialization” from a local dog training school called “When Hounds Fly”. Friends recommended this program and one of their locations is conveniently close to home for us, so we simply had to check it out. First off, we researched a bit into what something called “Puppy Socialization” might entail. We’ve read articles about socializing your dog which can mean many different things including exposing your dog to all kinds of experiences and people/pets. Would this program just be a big puppy party? Would we be exposing our pup to experiences? We had to go and find out!
A week before picking up Adelaide from the breeder, we went to orientation at When Hounds Fly. A group of new or soon-to-be dog owners gathered for a lecture style orientation where we learned all about their teaching philosophy and program. Luckily... all of their teachings align with what we’ve been reading: positive reinforcement is key.
Jess remembers attending puppy school with Cloey at the young age of eight. As expected, the memories are fuzzy for Jess. But what she remembers most of all was the award her dog won at the end of the program: “cutest puppy”. Looking this time for a bit higher aspirations (perhaps friendliest, smartest, best behaved, etc) Jess was eager to sign Adelaide up.
Defying Ryan’s initial impression, the puppy socialization is much more organized than just a puppy party. This is real school! Adelaide will be learning to focus, build relationships with us and her fellow pups, as well as learn basic skills and tricks.
Biggest shocker of all though is the quantity and quality of the treats! We’ve been learning about currency with dogs. You can inspire your dog into a desired behaviour if you know what their currency is - food, play, attention. With this program we need 100 tiny pieces of an extremely high value treat (think hot dogs or cheese). Not gonna lie, this definitely inspired Jess and Ryan to cook up some hot dogs themselves after orientation.
After orientation we got the opportunity to stay and watch the next scheduled class... a puppy socialization class! It was so interesting watching the different puppies at varying levels of experience. Some of the dogs were in their first of 5 classes while others were finishing the program that day (at When Hounds Fly, you can complete the puppy socialization classes in any order). Some of the dogs were socially driven while others needed a lot of coaxing to play or focus on their owner. We loved seeing the different personalities of each dog and how their parents tried, failed and succeeded at different tasks. Above all, we noticed how beneficial the experience is going to be for our Adelaide. You can practice tricks at home forever but it’s an entirely different thing to get your dog’s attention when there’s a room full of excitable puppies and owners. We are excited to take on this training as a way to better understand our pup and build our relationship with her as she grows. Can’t wait to learn and grow with you, Adelaide!
So it’s the big day: Adelaide’s first day at puppy school happen to be on the day she turned 9 weeks old! The lessons today were “slack leash walking” and “resource guarding”. The biggest surprise of the night was how nervous Adelaide was when she walked in the room. Sometimes she shakes when she’s nervous but we didn’t expect this when meeting the other puppies. Perhaps this was her very first experience meeting dogs of other breeds. We discovered how tiny she is compared to all the other puppies. Despite her initial fear, Adelaide made great friends with an adorable male Pomeranian named Ravioli. They loved to play together, both got scared at the same time by other loud barks, and even had a cute little dance on their hind legs. A happy surprise was how good Adelaide could sit and walk on a slack leash! This was the first exercise and she aced it like a pro. We just loved watching her dainty little trot as she followed mom on the leash. She maybe got a little too excited and had a little accident after.
The next exercise was a little more difficult only because Adelaide was disinterested in her “pacifier” (the bully stick). We even tried covering a rawhide stick in peanut butter, but it just couldn’t grab her attention more than the treats or other puppies. We were instructed to coax Adelaide away from her pacifier with treats however the treats remained the most interesting thing. The trick was supposed to teach her that giving up her pacifier was not a big deal. To Adelaide, it never became a big deal. We wonder if in the future we will come across this behaviour. For now we’ll just thank our lucky stars that we know how much she loves those high value treats. Hot dogs are her currency!
We didn’t expect to feel so accomplished at the end of our first session! She did some of her best walking ever on the way home, she made it almost a whole block without getting distracted by grass or rocks on the ground. We know that there are many more challenges up ahead, but Mom and Dad are eager to tackle these challenges with you, sweet Adelaide!