Why yes, all that practice does help

So, accidents in the house have plummeted since we taught Rogue to ring the bell to go out.  She picked it up in a day.  Now, she will ring the bell if she just wants to go out and play in addition to when she has to potty, but that's okay. 

And really, who wouldn't want to go play?

She and our adult Aussies are enjoying each other's company and Steel will even go out of his way to get her to play with him.  

 

One of the problems with teaching your dog shaping is that your smart dogs will figure out pretty quickly  that they have some control over their environment and you can get a kind of terrible twos stage as they decide that no, they don't want to do that, thank you very much.  This is your puppy trying to figure out what they can do to get you to do what they want.  All dogs do this, but it varies how early and how well.   

 

Currently, Curt is working on getting her to walk beside him on leash and we're both working hard at solving the jumping problem.  She doesn't jump on us because we don't allow it but she's so cute that anywhere we take her, people love on her when she jumps on them and she's now big enough to knock small children down.  And she loves kids.

 

Kids are actually easier to teach this to as they are so thrilled at the idea that they can make the dog sit, they aren't petting her while they're giving her the hand signal.  Adults, usually reply, "Oh, I don't mind."  Well maybe, but I do.  She has learned now that some people won't allow her to jump on them so she will try it a couple of times to make sure they're not going to pet her until she sits and then sit.  

We did finally teach her a negative marker.  No, I don't mean any type of punishment but a sign for no.   We had to in order to deal with her being in hell puppy mode which is the only time she still tries to grab out pants and such.  Redirecting helps, but at some point, we had to reinforce that certain things just aren't acceptable.

Now, I managed to stop the licking the dishes in the dishwasher behavior without resorting to no.   I just reinforced something I'd started with Steel and Ruby which was laying down in a certain area of the kitchen while I'm cooking and added Rogue to the mix.   She will stay in that spot reliably for 5 and ten minutes at a time with regular food reinforcement right now as long as one or both of the other dogs is there with her.   If she's alone, I am still reinforcing every 15 seconds or so to get her to resist temptation.  

The go to your mat command is so very versatile.  I might need a bigger mat.

 

When Ruby isn't shaking that small rug to vent her anxiety, I can pretty much put it down anywhere in the house and have all three dogs sit or lay on it.    I am going to try to use this the next time we take her to another house to see if that will make her relax.   She's fine in her crate in the car.  She still protests a little crated at night but she will howl like she's being murdered if we crate her anywhere else unless she's sharing the crate with Steel.

 

She has two doggie friends that she sees semi regularly.  There's Evie who's an adult terrier mix.  Every time we go over there, they romp and play, but the hard part is getting them to settle down.  Rogue has a really hard time if there's ANYTHING going on because she's so visually distractable and since she refuses to be quiet in the crate....  It's something we can work on but when hanging out with friends, how long do you really want to let the puppy scream in the crate?  It's a work in progress as we try different things to get her to calm down and sleep because an overtired puppy is just as bad if not worse than an overtired toddler.

Rogue's other friend is Staley an Australian Cattle Dog puppy who is 2 weeks older than she is.  Watching the two of them play is like watching professional wrestling.  They launch each other off furniture, jump on each other form above and dive under chairs and tables.  I'm getting video the next playdate because it's hysterical.  And not only that...  tired puppy.

Staley, after Rogue has been over to visit.

 

I can't stress enough the value of a tired puppy.  I get all kinds of things done when she's worn out and just wants to chill and nap and maybe snuggle a bit.   I will not miss her hell puppy days one bit.

 

And it's another reason why early socialization is so important.  Steel and Ruby taught Rogue that different dogs have different play styles so she alters her play to match her playmate.  But it's also important to  know when they're getting overtired so the happy playmate doesn't become the evil worst enemy because someone looked at someone wrong and they were both tired and the fight started in earnest.   We watch the puppies carefully because as intense as their play gets, it can get over intense and we need to stop it before it goes too far.  

Right now, we really need to work recall.  We've been spending too much time picking Rogue up to do things she doesn't want (like go into her crate) and so she is avoiding us partly for that reason and partly because she really likes the chase game and thinks it's fun to make us chase her even though we don't.  We know better.   But we need to work recall a lot more than we are.  Until her recall is solid, we won't dare to try anything off leash without a fence, even with Steel and Ruby to play puppy goalies.   

And now, she's in puppy snuggle mode so I'm going to go and snuggle my puppy.