Puppy skills planning for me as a coach, is setting up a pathway to success for Rylee. When we first got her, we simply followed along in our puppy classes, while diligently doing our homework between sessions. We didn’t actually have any specific direction that we were following. We did know that there were some things though that we felt were important to accomplish with her sooner than later. It was not an easy journey through the being alone skill but through planning and persistence we were able to achieve it.
One of the most important activities we did as we are coaching Rylee in our puppy skills planning, was to prioritize the skills that we wanted her to learn. We think first of all about the ones that caused us the most stress. Our list looks something like this. The top 3 are still ones that we think about. We do have the top 2 done but are still working on the third one. The rest of them are going well and are not in any particular order. Some are going better than others but they are all manageable.
Rylee Skills
- Able to be alone
- Able to be in the car alone
- Able to be in the house while we go outside for a minute
- Able to focus on us by looking at us
- Able to Loos Leash Walk
- Able to walk without her lunging at distractions
- Able to greet guests at the door
- Able to sit and wait at the door for the OK to go in
- Able to drop something when we ask
- Able to relax on her mat
- Able to quiet when we ask
- Able to leave it when asked
- Able to sit and stay
- Able to relax on her bed
- Able to relax when we are at a friends home visiting
- Able to greet people on the street without jumping up or barking
- Able to refrain from barking when we have guests that she wants attention from
- Able to refrain from vocalizing in the morning to wake us up
- Able to maintain her arousal level
Simply looking at the list, there are actually many things that we are working on. Some of the skills are more complex and have additional skills that will be a part of the successful end result. The top 3 in the puppy skills planning list were the most important ones that we wanted Rylee to have success at.
There are also some other ones that we work on with a mix of fun and useful skills:
- Tuck
- Touch
- Roll Over
- Crawl
- Weave
- Shake A Paw
- High five
We are fortunate to have the time to dedicate to Rylee’s training. At 11 months old, we can confidently say that she is doing well on most and doing ok on all of them. There is of course more for us to work on but we feel like if we spend the time and focus on them without over coaching her, we will have success for all of us.
Puppy Skills Planning Practice Cards
One thing that has helped us is to have training cards. They ae basically pieces of paper that have 5 skills on them. We have 4 which we chose from for when we are doing training sessions. We try to do 2 10 minute sessions per day. I believe this has been very useful as we are moving through her adolescence because we have not experienced many of the setbacks that many have. They might look something like this:
We designed them because we wanted to do 10 minutes of coaching per day but were often at a loss as to what to do. This gave us something to work with that we could expand on. We tried to put skills such as touch on all of the cards so that she is keeping a solid grasp on the ones that we might need to draw on for redirection while we are on a walk for example.
I have found when working on some of the skills more than others, I need to use some mental skills like emotional control. This helps to keep me calm during the execution of the skill. We often think of what the dog has to do for success and forget what we have to do depending on the complexity of the skill. If we are working on a skill that includes arousal for example, like the door greeting, I need to be calm as I am guiding Rylee through the process so she can learn without having to figure out what I want as I am moving frantically to get her to her holding place.
This information is relevant for any age dog who is learning new skills or refining old ones. The concepts are the same. Just as in planning for athletes, I believe that planning for Rylee’s success is knowing what we want to do, how we are going to do it and the variables that are going to impact the process.