Saffy - 15/10 - 9 Weeks Old

All the dogs had marrow bones today. Saffy has really got the idea of eating different types of food in the last day or so and was really impressed with the marrow bone. She sat in the garden and chewed it for ages and carried it with her if she wanted to move so no-one else could take it.

Training today was sit down and touch. at first she wasn't sure what I wanted for the down. I had her in a sit and then put my hand on the floor with a titbit in. She put her nose down to it and kept licking and nibbling my hand. it took a while but she went down as it was easier to get at the titbit. As soon as she went down I clicked and she got the titbit. It only took a couple of goes and she was going into a down as soon as I put my hand down. i will fade the titbit and the hand movement as soon as I can.
She will now move a foot or two to touch my hand. and can sit as soon as I say.

We played tuggy and worked on give and also sit to get the toy back. To get her to let go of the toy when playing I take hold of her collar and stop pulling on the toy and wait. She soon lets go of the toy as it is boring not being able to tug. As soon as she lets go i click and let her have the toy again. Now she is letting go of the toy as soon as It touch her collar.

Dog training tonight she spent the first half in her cage and then came out to meet the other puppys. She is very confident with all the dogs there now. We walked around and let the puppys meet and the called them away from each other. Saffy is fairly good at coming as long as she is not playing too wildly.

We played while the other pups were doing recalls. Saffy was able to play with me even with the other dogs running past. Also worked on sits, touches and eye contact . At the end we had another play session with the border collie puppys. They are still a bit bigger than her as they are 14 weeks old but she holds her own. In fact I realised that there always seems to be one or other collie on their back with the others jumping on them but I have never seen Saffy on the bottom.