Six Months Old : The Companion Program 

Since four weeks of age your pup has been consistently exposed to each piece of training needed to become a Companion.  He or she has learned the foundation of obedience through play and rewards, cued for success and we are now in the final thirty days of the Companion program, which consists of reviewing here, heel, sit, sit/stay, place, look, Crate, off-leash recall, and going on age-appropriate longer field trips to " proof" these skill sets

Your pup is working on finalizing the following skill sets:

Sit: "Auto Sit" sits automatically when the handler stops walking. "Cued sit." Sits when cued either with a command "sit" or "sstt" or a hand gesture "hand out in front of you, pointing with your pointer finger."

Heel: The pup walks right at your thigh on your left side, watching your leg. How to maintain heel?  You maintain heel by making sure your pup does not lose eye contact with your leg, and that your pup does not exceed more than 2 inches in front of your thigh.

Here: Come back to you when you say "here" or use the recall whistle.

Place: When given the command "place" your pup will go to a specific spot: their dog bed, a raised dog bed, or maybe even their crate. While they are on place they can sit or lie down or even chew on a toy, but they need to be calm, and they cannot get off until you release them. This rolls into sit/stay: the pup stays in a specific spot even with distractions around them. Now that we are at the end of the program, we demonstrate these skill sets in more high-distraction areas such as pet-friendly stores, parks, and in town. 

Look: We have focused on eye contact and the "Look" command since your pup could sit. With the luring of our hands and treats. Now we take away those motions and work on giving the command "Look." Once the pup makes eye contact and holds it with the handler, then they are praised. How to maintain the skill set? You can maintain this skill set by asking your dog to "Look" at you in a calm, low-distraction area when they are not playing and then giving them a treat when they make eye contact. 

Crate: Going into the crate calmly when given the command "Crate," settling in the crate for an allotted amount of time, and keeping the crate clean. How to maintain the skill set? To maintain this skill set, you will want to continue to use the crate daily. 

Your pup is going out on individual walks in the fields and woods.  We use these walks to review our off-leash recall and whistle cues.
What is an off-leash recall? Off-leash recall is the training process of getting a dog to immediately return to you when called, even with distractions, ensuring safety and allowing freedom. 

How do you teach and maintain this skillset? It relies on building a consistent, positive, and high-value reward association with a specific cue (e.g, “here” or a whistle), starting in distraction-free areas with a leash or long line to ensure success, allowing them to learn the command without the option to ignore it. Use high-value treats the dog only receives during recall to make returning more rewarding than staying away. Consistency is crucial, use the same command or whistle every time to avoid confusion. Gradually increasing distance and complexity over time. Add release instead of ending the fun every time you call your dog, occasionally recall, treat, and then release them back to play. 

Your pup is working on home etiquette lessons. 

What is home etiquette and why is it important?

Home etiquette focuses on building polite daily habits through consistency, positive reinforcement, and structure to ensure a calm, well-behaved pet indoors. Pups are taught door manners; they sit before entering and exiting through a door. Pups are also taught to settle either on a dog bed or in a crate. This is crucial for working from home or managing high-energy behavior. We work on calm greetings, the dog sits when visitors arrive. We also expose them to vacuums, brooms, cupboards shutting, TV sounds, Etc. Home etiquette is very important as you want your companion to respect your home and their new home. Home etiquette ensures calm, respectful behaviors in the home. 

How to maintain home etiquette? Home etiquette needs to be clear and followed from the very beginning so your pup knows how to behave in your home. If you want to allow them on the furniture with you, this will be a learned, continued behavior. If you don't want them on the furniture, don't allow it at all. If you want them calm when guests arrive and visit, put your pup on place before the guests enter. Let your pup observe guests and new things from the comfort of a place before allowing anyone to give attention to your pup. We have instilled these skill sets in your pup, but it is important for you to reinforce them so your pup respects your home.

At the end of this program, your companion is heading home in the last week of the month or continuing on to the Adv. Companion program.

Seven to Eight Months old:

The Advanced Companion Program

Your pup is working on an introduction to off-leash heel. 

What is off-leash heel?  Off-leash heeling is when your dog is heeling on the left side, watching your leg without a leash. 

Why is off-leash Important?  Ensures their safety during unexpected scenarios, such as a dropped leash or open door, while providing essential mental stimulation and physical exercise. 

How do we teach it and maintain it? We begin teaching the concept of off-leash heel during our intro to obedience, when the pups are around 3 to 4 months old.

With our treat bags on our left hip, we reward pups for walking on the left side at heel and watching our leg. This builds the foundation for off-leash work.
The most important part of off-leash heel is that the dog watches your leg. As they mature and understand “here,” “heel,” and “sit,” we start draping the leash over our shoulder, keeping our hands free, to begin off-leash heel training. After a few lessons, we drop the leash and let the dog drag it while remaining in heel position. After practicing this for several lessons, we remove the leash entirely, and the dog walks at heel off-leash.

Where can you successfully cue for this skillset? Once the skill set is learned and understood by the dog, you can begin to cue in low-distracted areas, such as hiking trails, open fields, woods, and private land.  After repeated and prolonged success in a low-distraction environment, you can start adding distractions and challenges to the training. 

 Your pup is working on extended Down and Down/stays. This is when your dog completely understands the skill set, and it can now perform the skill in public places and for longer durations. Your dog is doing down /stays in home depot, parks, beaches, and in the office.