puppy kindergarten

Puppy Kindergarten - a Diary
Kathleen Rupprecht

Weeks 1 and 2

Mikey (Orlane's Michelangelo at Play, age 14 weeks) and I attended his first (my second) KPT class last night (September 7, 1999). I thought you might be interested in what is covered in the St. Hubert's KPT program.

The St. Hubert's program has changed during the 5 years since Molly's classes. Now the first night of the 8 week session is an orientation for owners ONLY. (I was told that owners tend pay better attention to the trainer's lecture when the puppies aren't there.) Last week Pia discussed common puppy problems like housesoiling, mouthing, and barking. We were told to introduce bite inhibition by saying "Ouch" and acting "hurt" if the puppy's teeth made contact with our skin or clothing. We got a handbook that goes into more detail and were told to read the first chapter.

Puppies play-bite all the time. When one puppy bites too hard, the recipient yelps and play stops for a few minutes. Then, play resumes and the puppy who bit usually lessens the intensity of the biting to a more socially acceptable level (at least by canine standards). That's how puppies learn how hard they can and can not bite.

The handbook explained that the point of the "Ouch!" exercise is not to stop the puppy from biting or mouthing. It is to teach the puppy that human skin (and hair and clothing, etc.) is extremely sensitive and any contact with the puppy's teeth could be painful. Over time, the owner wants to condition the puppy to automatically "soften" its mouth around humans so that later, if the dog bites instinctively out of pain or terror, the dog's mouth is already soft and the "bite" will cause less damage.

If one stops the puppy from mouthing too soon, the puppy never learns this lesson. In Mikey's KPT class, we will address biting and mouthing via several steps over the 8 week session. For now, the puppies are allowed to play-bite as long as they don't bite too hard, and over the next few weeks, we are to monitor whether the intensity of the play-bites was diminishing.

Last night was our first night with the puppies. The owners and puppies sat in a semicircle on the floor. (Other family members stayed in the "audience".) For the first exercise, we learned to relax our puppies while holding them in our arms and massaging them. We were told to start petting them slowly near their temples and then working our way down their shoulders, chest, and sides to their back legs. The puppies do start to melt after a few minutes -- Mikey slid off my lap and ended up lying between my legs, flat on his back with his paws on his chest. (This conditions the puppy to being held without struggling. Ultimately we will do this with a "settle" command.) Our "homework" is to do this for three 3-minute session/day, and next week we're supposed to start massaging our puppies when we first get to class. (The goal is to teach the puppies to relax when they come to class.)

Then we taught the "gotcha" command. The goal of this exercise is to teach the puppy that a hand reaching for the collar is a GOOD thing. (Think about it -- in most cases, a hand reaches for the dog's collar just before discipline of some sort.) We were told to hold a treat in one hand and, once the puppy focuses on the treat, grab the collar, say, "gotcha" and give him the treat. After a while, we added attaching a leash to the collar. (This was followed by at least 3 more treats/repetition.)

This was followed by several playtimes, which always ended with the owners grabbing the puppy's collar, saying gotcha, attaching the leash, and treating.

Then we taught a sit command by holding the food in front of the dog's nose and moving it back over his head until he falls into a sit. This presented a complication for me, since it teaches a rock-back sit and Mikey needs a tuck sit to stay in heel position on a halt. We modified the lesson by holding the food in front of his nose with my right hand and tucking him into a sit with my left. (This method takes a bit longer but is ultimately just as successful.)

Then we had two playtimes which ended with the owners making the puppy sit, gotcha, leash, and treats.

We ended the class with a lesson on teaching a tug game. Tug has three rules.
1) It starts when the HUMAN gives a tug command.
2) It ends when the HUMAN gives a release command.
3) It will end if the puppy's teeth touch the human's skin or clothing.

To teach release, we offered the puppy a treat (or equivalent toy) in exchange for the one he was holding. If the puppy didn't release, the owner dropped the toy. (After all, it is only fun when someone tugs back.)

Mikey was a bit reserved during playtime -- not fearful or shy, but definitely not rude. (Go Muffit!) Pia Silvani, the trainer (and Director of St. Hubert's Pet Training Program), said that this is common for puppies who have been around adult dogs. She pointed out that most puppy play involves rude behaviors that Molly and Muffit won't tolerate. (I guess he's learned a few good manners during the last few weeks.) Pia feels that Mikey will get into the mix once the others calm down and once he understands that the rules are different than those at home.

Week 3

When we entered the room, the owners and handlers were supposed to sit in a semi-circle on the floor and massage the puppies until class started. About half the owners did so, and I was surprised that most of the puppies were relaxed and quiet as the class began. (Most puppies were bouncing off the walls as they entered the room.)

Class started with a short description of the importance of socialization, which was followed by a "Pass the Puppy" game. The class was divided into 2 groups. Each person "passed" their puppy to the person on the left, saying the puppy's name so the new person would know it. Then each person was to play with the "new" puppy. After a few minutes, we were directed to pass that puppy to the person on the left, again familiarizing that person with the puppy's name, etc. Most puppies had no problem dealing with new people. Most people had no idea how to play with the new puppy. (The other five people in my group spent their time with Mikey trying to put him in a rock back sit. I was amused that he responded by tucking his back legs forward and jumping in their faces. Go Mikey!)

After that we had a playtime. The Jack Russell was too rough for the little dogs so he stayed with the three Labs and the Viszla. Two of the little dogs, a beagle and an American Eskimo Dog, were intimidated by the others, so they were separated into their own playpen by a 20 foot gate. When they still didn't interact, we added Mikey to that group to stir things up a bit. (Mikey and the beagle, Molly, had been playing before.)

This week's new command was "down", which means the puppy lies on the floor in a prone position, relaxed on his left hip. Down is taught from heel position. The puppy is lured from a sit to a curled down by bring a piece of food from in front of the sitting puppy's nose down the right side to the puppy's right rear legs. As the puppy tries to follow the food with it's mouth, the puppy is put off balance and falls into a curled position with the puppy's weight over the left hip. (This is a more relaxed position than the sphinx or crouched down, and will become a resting position for the "settle" command.) The lure hand is kept palm down, with the food between the thumb and the top four fingers. (Later, the hand signal for down will be a palm-down hand moving down.) Mikey quickly discovered that by extending his left foot laterally, he could avoid falling into the down. I then knocked him off-balance by poking my finger by his ribs. (Molly and Muffit tried the same thing.) Like Molly, Mikey prefers laying flat on his tummy with his legs straight out in back and rear pads facing up, so for us, curled vs. sphinx no longer mattered. (Molly's command for the long down is "feet out", where she extends her rear feet straight behind her with rear pads facing upwards.)

Using "down" in this context means that we have to use a different word to indicate getting off of the furniture or not jumping on a person. For Muffit and Molly, those commands are, "On the floor" and "Off".

Our homework was to do 25 downs/day in a variety of locations. The puppy is rewarded with food for every successful down.

We had a second play time, which was ended with the puppy doing "sit, down, gotcha, leash, treats".

After that, we started teaching the puppies to walk on leash without pulling -- the "Let's go" command. The first step is teaching the puppy not to pull on the leash while you're standing still. We started with the leash in our left hand and a bunch of treats in the right. The puppy was rewarded whenever he sat calmly and looked at the owner. If the puppy pulled, the owner leaned back or took a few steps backward. (Tension on the leash is OK at this point.) As soon as the puppy slackened the pull and looked back at the owner, the owner praised the puppy and gave him a treat at the owner's side. If the puppy refused to slacken the lead, the owner should say nothing and wait it out until the puppy figures out that he's going nowhere by pulling. It took about 5 treats for the puppies to figure out that, right now, the fastest way to the food was watching the owner.

Once the puppy is standing nicely at the owner's side, the owner says, "Let's go" and begins to walk. The walk continues as long as the puppy walks nicely without pulling. Whenever the puppy is about to pull, the handler stops all forward motion until the puppy begins walking back towards the owner. Then the owner praises the puppy and rewards him with a treat as they continue the walk.

Mikey walks between Muffit and Molly on our walks. Both dogs jump on him if he tries to pull in front of them, so he's been patterned to stay at my side. In class, Mikey was more interested in the food in my pocket than in anything else. He sat at my feet and stared when standing and walked at my side when moving. We eventually scattered some food on the floor to get him to pull on the leash.

Our homework was to feed the puppy his kibble while walking nicely on leash. If the puppy's meal is gone in the first block, we need to practice more at home, in a quiet area. If the puppy is doing well, we should increase the distractions. We are not to let the puppy pull to go to the bathroom in the yard, when we are sitting with him in class, at the vet's office, etc.

Mikey slept in the car all the way home.

Week 4

As we did last week, the owners sat in a semi-circle and massaged their respective puppies until class time. The class began with some discussion about bite inhibition. Now that the puppies have learned to inhibit the force of their biting, it is time to allow some gentle mouthing until the owner requests it to stop. When the puppy bites, we're to say, "No bite" in a firm tone. (He has no idea what this means, but he should respond to the tone.) If the puppy pulls away, we're to praise him and redirect him to a chew toy or bone. If the puppy ignores the No-bite warning, we're to give a loud "Ouch" followed by "No bite", followed by a 30 second time out. (For this, the owner walks away or leaves the room.) This is repeated until there is no mouthing following the "No bite" warning. We should see a decrease in frequency of biting over the next two weeks.

Those puppies who were adopted earlier (7-9 weeks) seem to have more mouthing problems. I suspect we're ahead of the others in this regard because Mikey stayed with his family until he was 13 weeks old. Thanks to Linda, her family, his doggie mom, Lady Godiva, and his siblings, Mikey already has a fairly soft mouth. I've said "Ouch" a few times when he wasn't careful while licking and when he started tugging at my clothes.

This week we introduced the "settle" command, which teaches the puppy to calm down and hold a relaxed position. Five years ago, in Molly's KPT class, St. Hubert's was teaching "stay" with limited success. (Those owners that went very slowly, keeping their hands 1 inch, then 2 inches, then 3 inches from the dog for 10 seconds, then 15 seconds, then 20 seconds, etc. actually had fairly reliable stays, but most owners put the dog in a position, said STAY, and stand up/walk away only to have the dog break the stay. With no corrections, this was a pretty useless exercise.) Since then, they've left "Stay" to the Basic Class and substituted it with "Settle".

We started by sitting on the floor, holding the puppy between our legs, saying "Settle", and releasing him after 2-3 seconds. The puppy is rewarded by letting him go back to what he was originally doing. If the puppy resists or squirms, we should hold him firmly and remind him what he should be doing (Settle) until he stops any resistance. (Holding the puppy and massaging him for the last several weeks should have prepared him for this step.) Once the puppy is relaxed for about 5 seconds, we should praise and release. Our homework was to gradually increase the time from 3 to 5 to 10 to 20 to 30 seconds. Our goal is to have the puppy remain calm (with owner help, if needed) for 30 seconds before being released.

This was followed by playtime. This week a little Cocker Spaniel was mounting many of the small puppies into submission. He and the Jack Russell Terrier were separated from the other small dogs and played together. (Actually, the two of them spent most of playtime mounting each other.) Mikey and the beagle, Molly, got the zoomies for the first several minutes and ran around the room shoulder-to-shoulder. This got the other small ones moving, too. Playtime ended with sit, down, settle, gotcha, treats. A second round of playtime ended with the owners giving the puppies their tug toy. I consulted Dr. Debra Fiorito, a veterinary dentist, about the tugging a few weeks ago. She agreed that prolonged, hard tugging can mess up the bite on a puppy, particularly in the smaller breeds. I want Mikey to learn "Give it" and give me whatever is in his mouth at the time of the command -- it could save his life someday. Our compromise -- Mikey may tug for a few seconds on the toy before I ask for it's release. This shouldn't interfere with or damage his teeth or bite and should let him learn to give me what's in his mouth.

The next exercise was "Puppy Push-Ups", or Sit-Down-Sit. The reasons to teach the puppy to go from a down to a sit are two-fold. First, dogs don't do this naturally and many older dogs can't learn this movement -- instead, they stand from a down and then sit. Puppies are more flexible and have less mass, so once they learn the motion, they will build up the muscles necessary to do this. Secondly, one can use the same treat to induce two different behaviors. Part of phasing out the food process is sequencing several commands together. (Mikey's been doing push-ups for weeks. Mikey also knows "Leave it" and "Wait" from living with Molly and Muffit.)

This was followed by playtime, which now ends with sit, down, sit down, settle, gotcha, leash treats. Whew!

The last exercise was the introduction of "Come". This is one of the times when the St. Hubert's trainers get on their soapbox. They want to emphasize two points: 1) Coming to the owner must ALWAYS be a positive experience. NEVER call a puppy (or dog) to you and then punish him -- he will associate the punishment with coming to you, lessening the probability that he will come to you in the future; and 2) Only use "Come" in situations where you know your puppy is capable of obeying it and you are capable of enforcing it. If you have any doubts, use a different word, like "Cookie!", "Look what I have!", "This way", "Here", etc.

One of the trainers/assistants held the puppy while the owner showed the puppy a piece of food and then ran to the other side of the room. The trainer releases the now straining puppy when the owner calls, "Dog's name, Come!" The owner can praise as the dog goes approaches, then the owner draws the food lure into his/her body to bring the dog all the way in to the owner. (You want the puppy to think that coming to you is the most wonderful thing on earth.) While the puppy is chewing the first treat, the owner pulls out a second treat to lure the puppy to his left side and then the two run back together to the trainer. Once there, the owner lures the puppy into a sit, grabs his collar (gotcha) and gives him the treat. Mikey has never heard the word "come" -- so far our "recall" has been "Mikey, Mikey, Mikey" in a squeaky voice. He came for the food and walked back like a pro. After having excised that word from my vocabulary in earlier classes, I had trouble choking out the C-word.

Our homework was to practice "come" where the puppy is set up for success. We must have a food treat, toy, or some reward for the puppy for coming. If the puppy doesn't come, then ask why -- is the situation too difficult, was my voice uninviting or threatening, was the toy/food not motivating enough, is the puppy still hungry? We were cautioned never to let the puppy come, check in, grab his treat, and then check out by running away.

Mikey was asleep before I left the parking lot.

Week 5

Mikey picked up a cold last week and is still sneezing, so I attended class without him last night. (Mikey began sneezing on Friday night. Muffit and Molly began sneezing on Monday, so it sounds like a 3 day incubation.) The role seemed familiar, since I've assisted for KPT many times.

Tonight Pia introduced of the next step for "settle". Last week we were supposed to work until the puppy could maintain a relaxed position for 30 seconds with the handler holding him or massaging him in place. Now, once the puppy is relaxed, the owners start to take their hands away, starting with one inch at a time and 3-5 second intervals. This way, if the puppy moves, the owner can put him back in place. Our goal for next week is to have the puppy hold a 3-5 second settle with the owner standing up next to the puppy.

Next was the "recall" contest. Pia and an assistant each held a puppy while the owners showed the puppy a treat and ran to the other side of the room. When both owners were in place, they each called the puppy to come and the one who reached it's owner first was the "winner". This was repeated until every puppy had a chance to run. Then, the "winners" repeated the exercise until there was only one "winner" left. In this class, the final heat involved the American Eskimo puppy and a Weimariner, with the larger dog winning. As "timer", I noticed that most of the owners stood like trees after calling the dog. Praise was nonexistent, which means that while the dogs learned their homework, the humans missed theirs.

This was followed by a playtime, which ended with sit, down, sit, gotcha, leash, treats.

Pia introduced the next stage of "loose leash" walking. We set up two rows of 4 cones in the room. A puppy and owner started at the end of one row and walked around the cones, serpentine style. If the puppy pulled forward, the owner changed directions so the puppy ended up further from the point of interest. This was repeated until the owner and puppy could navigate the 4 cones without any pulling. (Mikey learned from Muffit a while ago. If Mikey pulls on his leash, Muffit jumps on his head.)

This was followed by another playtime, which ended with sit, down, sit, gotcha, leash, treats. All of the puppies seemed a bit more aggressive while playing this week. Most of them seem to have gotten much bigger, too.

The new command this week is "wait". In the basic obedience classes, wait is introduced with doorways, while in puppy class, the concept of "wait" is taught with food. With several treats in hand, the owner puts the puppy in a sit and opens the hand, exposing the food. As the puppy reaches for the food, the owner closes the hand and says "wait". It is important not to pull the hand away -- that would induce the puppy to follow it. The hand remains in place but the puppy can't get to the food. This is repeated until the first time the puppy doesn't strain for the food, at which point the owner tosses the treat FORWARD on the floor and says, OK. Right now, the wait-interval is less than a second before release and reward. Our homework for the week is to work on extending the distance to the hand (from in front of the puppy's nose to several feet away on the floor) and increasing the wait interval. Our goal for next week is to have the puppy hold a wait while the owner puts a piece of food on the floor and then stands next to the puppy for 1-2 seconds.

We'll have to see how Mikey does with all this in practice.

Week 6

Mikey, who has stopped sniffling and sneezing, was back in class this week. He seemed happy to see most of the other owners and even played with some of the puppies. (Mikey's figured out that most of the humans have food in the fanny packs around their waists.)

We've reached the final step for bite inhibition. By this time, human skin, hair, and clothing are off limits and any contact with the puppy's teeth elicits a "No Bite" reprimand accompanied by some form of negative reinforcement -- leaving the room and slamming a door, ignoring the puppy, or giving him a time out. After stopping the inappropriate mouthing, we are still to redirect the puppy to what he CAN chew and then praise him for that behavior.

We practiced the "wait" command with food. Mikey and I have a long way to go with this, so I was relieved to see that Mikey wasn't that far behind the rest of the class.

This was followed by a playtime. All the puppies have grown and playtime has gotten somewhat rough. The labs and Viszla remained in their own group and the smaller puppies were left together. MIkey is now 20 weeks old and his hormones are kicking in -- he tried to mount most of the female puppies and even a few of the males. He learned, "No" from a young beagle girl and then spent his time acting cute for various owners in hopes of getting food or running around the room in big circles (what we call the zoomies). Playtime ended with sit, down, settle, gotcha, leash, and treats.

Then we started the reinforcement step for the COME command. Starting this week we no longer hold a visible lure -- the reward is still there but it is out of sight. Every compliant step will still be rewarded, but the puppy must comply in order to earn (and even see) the reward. We had another race to see which dog had the fastest recall, but this time the handlers exchanged dogs. (The teaching point was that the handler's behavior affects the dog's recall. Usually, the owners with the slowest dogs the first week also have the slowest dogs the second week.) I had a miniature dachshund named Kelsey and her owner took Mikey. (Kelsey was the slowest dog the previous week and the owner was somewhat upset because her puppy went to the other handler.) Kelsey beat the cocker spaniel for the first round -- she seemed to like my squeaky voice and freeze-dried liver. Mikey and Kelsey's owner ran after us and this time Kelsey's Mom cheered as I had. Mikey was fast, but not fast enough.   Kelsey and I won the first three races but she just couldn't match the Viszla's speed in the fourth. The Viszla won this week, just as he had last week. That puppy is FAST!

The "race" was followed by a second playtime, which ended in sit, down, sit, gotcha, tug.

For the final step of loose leash walking, whenever the puppy pulls in the leash, the owner
1) Stops walking, or
2) Shifts into reverse and begins to walk backwards, or
3) Makes an about turn and goes in the other direction.

With this, the puppy should learn that pulling will delay/prevent his getting to the object of interest. He will get to where he wants to go fastest when he walks with the owner.

After this discussion, we did the jumping exercise. The owners stood with the puppies in a big circle. For this exercise the owners function as a tree which holds the 6 foot leash. Then Pia and the assistant walked around the room approaching the puppies. If the puppy sat, he/she was rewarded with a treat. If the puppy lunged at Pia or tried to jump on her, she turned around and walked away. It took about 3 minutes for all 12 puppies to figure out that they should sit whenever the person approached. Mikey was one of the last dogs to learn this. He went through a variety of behaviors whenever the people approached, but his favorite was to leap vertically in the air and land in a sit. (I've seen this before and warned Pia, so sitting after leaping was unacceptable.) Now we just need to practice it about 5000 times!

Mikey tried to mount Pia's 11-year old Golden, Ashley, as we were leaving. Ashley, who lives with a 10-year old male Golden, simply sat and looked down at him as if to say, "You're kidding, right?" Mikey carefully avoided Muffit but jumped on Molly when he got into the car. Molly growled whole paragraphs while she sat on HIS head.

Week 7

The puppies seem to have doubled in size since Week 6. Most of them begin bouncing around as the cars pull into the parking log. The puppies almost drag their owners over to the Ring 1 door. (So much for loose-leash walking. Most owners are also ignoring the suggestion about not letting our puppies play while on leash. Mikey needs to know this for classes and trials, so I kept him focused on me by click/treating whenever he looked at me until the Ring 1 door was unlocked. (How priggish of me!))

Class started with a lecture on grooming. The take-home message is to start grooming your dog as a puppy so he'll be used to it and accept it as an adult. There was some discussion about coat brushing, nail clipping, ear cleaning, tooth brushing, bathing, and flea/tick eradication. Pia stressed the need to get the puppy used to the owner touching the puppy everywhere, especially ears and feet. (This will be covered again in the Basic classes since many dogs object to the owners handling ears and feet.)

The grooming lecture was followed by a playtime. The larger puppies have become quite rough, enough so the smallest Lab (a female) was moved into the small dog group to keep her from being trampled. The smaller puppies were also rougher and tended to gang up on two of the more submissive ones. Mikey seemed obsessed with zoomies and spent most of playtime running in big circles around the room. (The beagle, Molly, and a JRT, Brody, would run shoulder-to-shoulder with him.) Playtime ended with sit-down-gotcha-leash-treats.

Pia pointed out that one can also tire a puppy by exercising its mind. She pointed out several toys (Buster Cube, Activity Ball) that can be used for this purpose. She also recommended teaching the puppy games like "Find it". We started by putting a treat on the floor in front of the sitting puppy. The puppy waits until we say, "find it". The next step is to put it under a paper cup and telling the puppy to find it. One can add more cups and then progress to putting the objects under newspapers, under furniture, on top of doorknobs (for bigger dogs), and so on. Pia recommended starting with treats that have a strong odor so the puppy learns to air-sniff to find the treat. The owner hides several things (toys, treats, filled Kongs) around the house and tells the puppy to "Find It". (This could be used when the adult dog is left at home for a while.) She demonstrated the game with her dogs, who understood that there were still treats around as long as Pia kept saying "Find it".

Mikey had no problem finding the treat on the floor. At first he was hesitant to knock the cup over to get the treat. After a few minutes he thought nothing of sliding the inverted cup across the room to a wall or chair leg to give him some leverage. He's still working at the 3-cup stage. (Sue Sternberg's secret to the "shell game" is that the treat ALWAYS ends up under the middle cup.)

This was followed by a musical game. The puppies and handlers walked on loose leashes while music played. When the music stops, the handlers are supposed to get their puppy to sit, down, and settle. The first puppy to break the settle is eliminated. The process repeats until one puppy is left. There are always a few puppies who take a long time to settle. (The secret is to take your time getting the puppy into a down so they don't have to wait for long.) The puppies with poor "settle" commands were eliminated quickly and the settle time increased rather dramatically after the 4th round. For the next 4 rounds, Pia decided that we could use a treat to lure the puppies into a down but couldn't use it to keep the puppy occupied in a settle. Then, for the next 3 rounds, the handlers could no longer touch the puppy during settle. Mikey and the black Lab, Gilbert, were the last two dogs. After both dogs held settle for about 2 minutes with us standing by them, Pia directed us to walk away. Mikey got up and followed me at my 3rd step, so Gilbert won the bag of treats.

We had a second round of playtime, which ended in sit-down-sit-tug-release-treat. The purpose of learning the "release" command finally became clear. Right now the puppies have been conditioned to give the owner whatever is in it's mouth because they know they will get something as good or better in return. This will become useful when the adolescent/dog gets something in it's mouth that it shouldn't have. ("Release" and "wait" are also used for teaching a puppy/dog NOT to guard it's toy/food bowl. Pia suggested that we periodically take the puppy's food bowl away in the middle of a meal and put goodies or food INTO it to condition the puppy that hands reaching towards the bowl is a good thing.)

After this discussion, Pia demonstrated a second method of teaching a puppy not to jump. Again we held our puppy on a loose leash. Pia and her assistant approached the different puppies, but this time, if the puppy jumped up, they continued walking into the puppy's space, forcing the puppy to jump backwards until they fell into a sit. I'll admit this was quite effective for the larger puppies. Mikey thought it was a new game, walking and jumping backwards on his rear legs in front of Pia for a good 20 feet. Fortunately the method from last week (turning around and walking away) worked well for him!

When we got to the car, Molly chased Mikey onto the floor. He slept on the floor until we got home.

Week 8

Tonight is Graduation

Class started with several back-to-back playtimes. The class is still divided into two groups (big and small) for safety reasons, so the owners and puppies who are not playing were supposed to practice "settling" on the sidelines. This worked find while the small dogs played, but after the big dogs knocked over three chairs and one small-dog owner, Pia asked us to hold the smaller ones. At this point, one owner refused, saying that she'd been told never to pick up a puppy because it will teach the puppy to be afraid. Pia picked up Mikey saying, "Hi, little boy! Come up here with me!" in a squeaky voice, petted him for about 30 seconds, handed him to me and said, "Do you think Mikey was frightened?" That launched into a short discussion of how we transmit and project our fears onto our puppies. Ultimately everyone held their small dogs while the big guys played. Mikey's become very fond of zoomies (racing at full tilt in big circles around the room). Several of the other puppies got caught up in them too. (At least when they're zooming they don't go around mounting each other.)

Then we got "The Talk" about adolescence and neutering. St. Hubert's is part of an Animal Shelter that deals with thousands of unwanted dogs and cats/year, so both subjects are important for them. This is one of two times that the instructors get on their "soap box". (The other is when they tell people NEVER to punish a dog after commanding them to "come".) As far as neutering is concerned, Pia pointed out:

• Female dogs don't need to have a litter to be "fulfilled". There is no medical or emotional reason why a female should have a litter. Female dogs do not dream or fantasize about motherhood.
• Females who are spayed before their first season live, on the average, 2 years longer than intact females.
• There is no medical or emotional reason that a dog should go through one or two seasons before being spayed.
• There is a medical benefit from spaying before the first season. Besides eliminating the possibility of uterine and ovarian cancer, spaying before the first season reduces the incidence of mammary cancer.
• Neutering does not change a dog's masculine appearance.
• Male dogs do not need sex. In dogs, sex is a reflexive behavior like defecation. They do not dream about it. There is no romance.
• Neutered males have a lower incidence of prostate problems as they age.
• Neutered dogs do not get fat and lazy. Dogs who eat too much and get too little exercise get fat and lazy.
• Any change in personality will be for the better. Neutering has no effect on intelligence.
• Neutered females tend to be less interested in other animals and running away and more interested in spending more time with their family.
• Neutering males has a positive effect on personality and behavior. Typical effects include: Decreased leg-lifting and territoriality, decreased running away and roaming, decreased fighting with other males, decreased mounting of people, children, other dogs, or objects, decreased dominance, testing, and aggression. In general, neutered males are more gentle, affectionate, docile, and cooperative.

As far as breeding is concerned:

• Dogs should not be bred just because they are purebred. Being purebred only means that the last several generations were all of the same breed. It says nothing about the quality, health, soundness, etc. of the dog. Only those who have proven themselves both physically and mentally sound (and exceptional) should be considered for breeding. If you feel that your dog is of such high quality, you should discuss it with your dog's breeder.
• Breeding will not bring financial rewards. You have vet bills, possible loss of puppies, possible loss of the mother, and the responsibility of placing the puppies. Very few, if any, breeders make a profit from a given litter.
• Males who've been used at stud present their own set of behavioral problems as pets.
• Improper breeding has ruined many breeds. Cocker Spaniels are currently ranked as the "most aggressive" breed in the US. Golden Retrievers rank 4th. Labrador Retrievers rank 6th.    Most of these problems developed from uneducated breeding as the breed gained popularity. (This was added after a Lab owner announced that he wanted a few litters from his puppy because it was so "friendly".)

As far as adolescence:

Adolescence is a stage in puppy development that is similar to the teen-age years of children. It begins between 5-12 months of age and lasts until the dog is 1-1/2 to 3 years old. Larger breeds typically begin adolescence at a later age than small breeds and usually remain in adolescence for a longer duration of time.

Adolescence is often the most difficult period the pet owner will have with a dog. It is time of change -- they are no longer puppies but they are not adult dogs. Some owners will have a difficult time with adolescence and some will not -- most fall somewhere in between. Most of the dogs who are delivered to shelters for behavioral problems are adolescents. (The typical dog dropped off at a shelter is between 8 months and 2 years of age.)

The most blatant behavior of an adolescent dog is that of challenging rank order. The adolescent sees himself as bigger, brighter, stronger, and wiser than he was as a puppy. He will start testing to see if his subordinate position is permanent or if he can, perhaps, earn a rank promotion. In the wild, adolescents usually start with lower ranking members and work their way up, ultimately challenging the leader. In human families, dogs will usually start with children and work up the to adults.

The owner must recognized the challenges for what they are and deal with them appropriately. Problems start and grow when owners fail to recognize a challenge and laugh it off as cute or funny. The dog starts his ascent one rung at a time (Dog 1, Owner 0, then Dog 2, Owner 0) until the once compliant, well-behaved 5 month old puppy is an out of control 8 month old puppy who is running the show.

Rank testing can be subtle -- so subtle that owners often overlook it or make excuses for it. Two common forms of subtle testing are deliberate household rule breaking and non-compliance to obedience commands. Typically the adolescent doesn't break a rule by accident or even sneak to do so. He waits until you are watching, then blatantly displays the forbidden behavior right in front of you. For example, if the dog is not allowed on the sofa, he may one day sit in your living room and bark for your attention. You walk in to see what the barking is about and once he knows he has your attention, he runs around the room jumping on the sofa. The same tone is set when he ignores a command. The adolescent isn't confused or having a bad day when he ignores your commands. He's telling you that it isn't convenient for him to listen to your request at that particular time. He's asking you if he must obey and, in turn, what will happen if he doesn't.

The difference between the innocent mistake of a puppy and the deliberate action of an adolescent is attitude. The adolescent is aware he broke a pack rule. He knows he didn't respond to your command. He's challenging you and your reaction will either make or break his advancement in the hierarchy.

The owner has to stay on top and can't let one incident go unnoticed. Unfortunately, adolescence usually occurs just after owners are finding their puppy trustworthy enough to give them some freedom and privileges. Owners are often slow to notice that the behavior and attitude of the adolescent is undeserving of this freedom. When the adolescent dog challenges, the owner must demote him back down to subordinate by temporarily restraining his freedom and denying him privileges until he earns them (again). Freedom must be earned -- always.

Be consistent. Continue to enforce your commands. Have patience. If it takes 30 minutes for your dog to sit and wait before exiting the door for his walk, then it takes 30 minutes. You have to be more persistent than the dog. When you are, eventually the dog will stop testing and comply immediately. Your consistency and follow through show him that testing only brings about a delay in what he wanted to do in the first place. He learns the quickest way to get what he wants is to comply with your request. By shifting the responsibility to the dog to choose to want to comply to earn the reward, you take the confrontation out of your training. Adolescents thrive on confrontation, so don't give them the satisfaction of falling for that game. Everything is always and only done YOUR way to YOUR standards.

Adolescent dogs are more confident and independent. The puppy that followed you around turns into the adolescent who wants to explore. As he ventures further away, you may find it difficult to get his attention, to get him to look up at his name, to get him to come when called. Take precautions to prevent the dog from having the opportunity to run off. A dog who has never had the chance to roam doesn't know what he's missing. The dog that has can't wait to do it again.

Now might be the time to install a fence or put up a dog run. (Pia answered a few questions about electronic fences with some well-hidden distaste. She stressed that electronic fences don't keep other animals out, so you should never leave your dog in an electronically fenced-in area unattended.) When none of these options are available, put the dog on a 50 foot long line and let him drag it after him. If he tries to run off, step on the line.

The most serious challenging behavior in adolescence is aggression. Pia repeated how important the food bowl stuff from last week is to preventing this behavior. She encouraged us to call her if (when) we encountered growling or snarling from our puppy/adolescent. Such behaviors are the early stages of aggression, but when people punish it, the adolescents simply skip that behavior and escalate to the next -- snapping. When snapping is punished, the dog skips it and becomes the "dog who bites with no warning". It's easier to prevent the latter two stages (by dealing with the first two correctly) than it is to fix them. The Basic Obedience class deals with these issues in more detail.

By this time the puppies were getting rambunctious. Pia set up a circular track with traffic cones and drew a box on one side of the circle. Each handler had to get his/her puppy to start in the box and go with them around the circle in between the cones. When they returned to the box, the handler had to "sit-down-gotcha-leash". The exercise was timed and there were no leashes or treats. Most dogs made it to the final stretch and got distracted by the audience. Mikey stayed focused on me and did quite well.

After the race, Pia brought out the diplomas and her assistant started on the "Pomp and Circumstance" tape. (I knew it was coming but it still cracks me up.) Mikey's diploma came with two stars for perfect attendance and a schedule for the Basic Obedience classes (which, for him, will start on December 6).