“Tiny” is a 4 month maltipoo who has given his owners their fair share of training challenges.
Before training, Tiny was a hyper little guy with significant chewing and potty issues.
Our initial observations: no self control - peeing and pooping in the crate. We got him of a very reliable routine using a crate to help him through this to get predictable results. In the beginning of working with Tiny, we noticed his high level of insecurity with being led around on the leash.
He would just freeze up and not walk. He wouldn’t move forward at all. This is common with young puppies who have yet to learn how to walk on a leash. But that’s not all. He also had challenges with trusting us in general.
So as we help Tiny learn the ropes, how to move forward, how to overcome challenge, how to not get in his own way and to trust to follow our lead, his confidence develops.
Currently, this hyper little puppy has learned to pay attention, listen decently, and come when called among other training commands. He's also catching on the remote collar communication pretty dang good too!
With such a young dog, when we start training, we keep our expectations pretty low. We don’t want to put too much pressure on a dog to perform beyond their current level of ability - similar to how you wouldn’t teach algebra to a toddler who is still learning their numbers.
When a dog is young, like Tiny, this is even more true. But as you can see in this video, Tiny is already doing well and is well on his way to fitting in really well in the people world. 🐾