Okay since I gave you all a bit of a shakeup last week with my cyber behaviour experiment, all good trainers know in order to prevent complete shutdown, it is time for a heavy dose of reinforcement. Here you go. It is my new Puppy One Hundred list. But now, due to the input of some of you readers, it has turned into the puppy One Hundred and Thirty-Five (okay, I may have manipulated it to get to the thirty-five bit:)).
This is a list of things you can do with a puppy before you start training on actual agility equipment. There are two more lists I use, one of agility skills you can teach without putting the puppy on equipment and another of tricks to teach.
Since we already have a “trick” resource on this blog I felt it redundant to post those.
Although there are some skills in this list that are agility related, I actually do have another list of “agility” skills. I thought all of you can contribute to today’s post any agility skills (that I haven’t already mentioned) that you can teach a puppy without having them do any equipment. I will give you a hint. I do use a table and a single jump (with a jump bump) and many of the non-jumping jump skills can be found in my One Jump DVD.
But there are many, many more agility-type skills you can add. So look at this list and then add your suggestions of “agility” related skills you teach before you put your dog on equipment. I feel a new monster list developing!
The Puppy One Hundred
- Tug
- Cookie-tug-cookie-tug
- Hand targets (puppy touches nose to your hand)
- Smack da baby (while tugging) or puppy pankins as my friend Helen King calls it
- Potty on lead
- Potty on cue
- Potty on different surfaces
- Upside down puppy
- Kisses to get down (from #8)
- Reward puppy for stretching
- Crate Games
- ItsYerChoice with food (learn the foundation game)
- Restrained Recalls
- Recall from play with other puppies
- Recall in ANY distraction
- Walk on a Loose Lead
- Value for RZ (reinforcement zone) on either side
- Shaping the love of a head halter
- Sit
- Duration sit (from Crate Games)
- Moving ItsYerChoice
- Greeting Rituals: “Go See”
- The FIFTY: 50 men, 50 women, 50 children, 50 new experiences every week/month
- “Go Play”—Play with other puppies with permission out of a control position
- Hide N Seek Level One: Cover your eyes
- “Out” on cue
- Smoke Ya Game (chase games)
- Wiffle ball/target stick touches
- Collar Grab
- Cookie stretches (foundation for left and right) (paws still body twists)
- Here’s Yer Pill (open the puppies mouth and put a treat inside)
- Bath tub games
- Nail tapping with a spoon (preparing for nail cutting)
- Tug then sit then pause then “get it”
- Duration staying on the dog bed
- Back up
- ItsYerChoice with toys
- Sit to greet people
- Sit-Tug-Chase
- Sit at the door to go out (or come in)
- Perch work (pivots in front)
- Shaping: In/On/Around/Under
- Ladder work
- Shadow Handling (circle work or LLW in a circle)
- Hide N Seek Level Two: Hide in other room
- Nose touches with open palm of full of cookies in the other hand (itsyerchoice & nose touch combo)
- Nose touches with cookies over head
- 1-2-3 Game (complete description written up in Ruff Love)
- Wild distractions in Crate Games
- Play with whatever toy the mama has
- Tugging games while wearing a Head Halter
- Down
- Down for duration
- Stand (using back cue, or a hand touch over head cue)
- Duration stand with distractions (should be easy if you progressed from Crate Games, to sit, to down, to stand)
- Sit Stay: throw toy behind puppy
- ABCD no Jumps (from One Jump DVD)
- “In” and “out” of an empty Pool
- Perch work w/bumps
- ItsYerChoice: cookies on paws/or walking over
- Verbal push-ups (without a lure) Sit/Down/Stand
- Balance Disks play
- Physio ball play
- Tugging on a wobble board
- Get in the box (bowl, my shoes etc)
- “Go” drive ahead of me (taught from Crate Games and progressed to bed, then to nothing)
- Decel work without a toy
- Decel work with distractions in front
- Hold (start with a dowel)
- Back up stairs
- Random sits at distance
- Head down
- Add water to the pool
- Surfing on da mama’s chest in a big pool
- Distractions to sit stay: dogs walk by, people walk by, cookies dropped on your head
- “With Me” off leash
- Shadow handling adding Front Cross
- Back up over bumps/through a ladder
- Push on wall for go outs, flyball & up contacts
- Calm at ringside (lying while other dogs work)
- Calm while skate boards, vehicles/bikes
- Back chaining up the stairs
- Hold household items
- Shaping driving around a plyon
- Drop on recall/ teach the puppy to touch his front paws to length of a target stick first
- Scent tubes/Find it Games
- “Bring Me” return items to hand
- Introducing hold/retrieve of metal items (spoon, dinner dish)
- Side and Close
- Focus forward (toy/jump)
- Left and right (directionals)
- Tomato can games (standing on them with 4, 3,2 or 1 paw)
- Discriminations (use household objects)
- Distance retrieve
- Retrieve/stack dinner dishes
- Lying on your side (grooming)
- On back for grooming
- Puppy yoga (tuck your head under my arm)
- Bull fighting (ole)-adding a front cross to your restrained recall
- Post turn in restrained recall
- Simultaneous hand targets (two dogs hand target the same hand, one in front, one in back)
- Get on a chair
- Rear crosses out of crate with bumps
- Duration staying on your mat
- Two Crate Games
- Balance walking parking curb or railroad tie
- Climb a ladder
- Ride a skate board
- Slide down a child’s slide (the ultimate weight shift game)
- Stop before the toy retrieve (verbal control at a distance)
- Toy discrimination (pick up the one I name)
- Look back (spin around to see what is behind you)
- Dragging puppy with tug toy
- Weaving between legs
- Figure 8 heeling
- Lateral heeling
- Pivots (on the spot)
- Front feet handstand
- Water retrieves
- Distance downs
- Ride in elevator or up an escalator
- Relax in the crate: while in the car, while I train another dog etc (from Crate Games)
- Teeth inspection
- Standing on different surfaces
- Heel down the stairs (great for body control)
- Heel up the stairs
- Clip / unclip lead without bolting
- Take cookies nice (ItsYerChoice)
- Have crate lifted and moved about (preparing for flying)
- Accept hands over head
- Accept being held/touched anywhere
- Up / load up onto something
- Find – “____” (toy discrimination)
- Stop/Wait while in full run
- Back paws on a wall
Today I am grateful for all of the awesome puppies I have owned over the years that have contributed to this ongoing list.
Wow! I’m just starting out with our first puppy who is 10 weeks, we are doing HSTD, pedicure please and crate games at the moment. So much to learn, thank you for sharing your amazing knowledge 😁
This list would make a fabulous video 🤞🏼
Should/could you do these with an older dog (like more than a year old) that hasn’t had much prior training or socialization? Or would some of these games lose their relevance after a certain age?
I guess in a way I’m asking is it ever too late to lay a good foundation for your dog?
Never too late Jessica!
An outside dog house is also a great option and one that works best for bigger dogs.
and by putting your puppy into a cage you are promoting them to hold their bladder until
they are in an appropriate area. Dogs function best if they are given a responsibility, something which not all dog
owners agree with.
I love this list though there are a few things I don’t understand the meaning of. I collect my new puppy on sunday so the timing is fab!
thanks Susan!
me, too. Any references? (obviously crate games, but some of the others? )
[…] up with something not related to anything you have been working on. If you need ideas check out the puppy one hundred (and thirty five) or refer back to the mostly tricks list we came up with before that. Or come up with something […]
AMEN to Helen’s comment!! So.. that makes me grateful for Helen???
Just kidding! I am grateful for all of this good info.
Today I am VERY grateful for Susan’s 135 things to do with a puppy 😉
Gosh I thought I was having fun but I discovered that you have to know how !!
As Dr. Seuss put it :
“Did you ever fly a kite in bed?
Did you ever walk with ten cats on your head?
Well we can do it. We know how.
If you never did, you should.
These things are fun and fun is good.”
Thanks for the list! I did find it very worthwhile to go back to your posts on number one: tug.
Ok it was tough but how bout teaching a puppy not to struggle when you lift them off a grooming table or ?
Great timing Susan – been a while since I had a puppy but Jr is coming home in just over two weeks!! I agree with Sarah that we might need to add wearing winter clothing to the list though!!
How about never letting your puppy blind cross you during the day-to-day activities, i.e. walks, play, in the house while going from one room to the next, in the kitchen while getting the supper ready, etc.
I have to confess and say I have not read your full list of 135 things yet….need to have a bit more time to be able to absorb all of them 🙂
But something I have been doing with my current puppy is working a pull to a send around one side of two gates parallel to one another set about 6 inches away. I have made the gates out of PVC and some plastic garden fencing…
Teaching some distance entrance stuff to translate to contacts at a later date and translate to a jump with a hold out to the off side of a jump (or at least I hope this translates to those skills 🙂
I also incorporate, front and rear crosses before sending forward through the gaits…..the puppy finds this fascinatingly fun! And all these skills should build on her ability to be independent on contact entrances, and sending out to obstacles….or like I said at least that’s the plan.
The even better thing is I can work all of this in my basement, as I am quarantined to it for the most part until we get additional hours in the daylight again here in Michigan, by the time I get home from work there is no more sun to be found outside …LOL
Excellent – I am hoping this list will come in useful in 2011! Missing your inspiration back home and can’t believe you’re also stealing Jodi too!!! 😉
Great list!!! Thanks – will print and check off – have one of Helen’s pups and we’ve done some of them, but gives me lots of ideas for things I’d never thought of!
Great list, Susan. Things I should be doing remedially with my adult agility beasts! And now I’ve got this post bookmarked.
Any way you can make that list in a pdf, so it is easy to print?!?!?!?
THE BEST LIST EVER! Thanks Susan!! 😀
teaching a puppy to go backwards up a flight of stairs once they have other rear end awareness. people that come over think it’s crazy that my dog go up the stairs on a up command and go backwards ( one step at a time) on a beep beep command.
Perfect timing! BC puppy in…..9 days! I don’t think we’ll have all in place by the next puppy camp but we’ll have a dent in them for sure.
Thanks so much for this–what timing! We just moved to a new place without any quiet grass areas near by, and I was looking for a list of non-equipment training exercises we could work on at home in between classes. This is going to be hugely helpful!
Awesome! I agree there’s so much to do before agility training-grateful for the additional ideas!!!
I can’t wait to start ticking them off for myself and my own puppy!!!!!!!!!! Where’s the tick for “accept being dressed up” Please winter go away!
Wow with a list that long it is hard to think of more to teach, but here are
a couple I l to teach: “go”, move head of me, and “get out” , move lateral of me.
YAY!!! and just in time…puppy arrival in 5 weeks…