Hi,
We adopted Cosmo ten days ago from a shelter that had a pretty good read on his personality strengths and weaknesses. He's four years old, timid around strangers but very outgoing, feisty, and loving with his people. It's clear he had good early training on leash walking and basic commands like "sit," "come," and "quiet." I suspect he learned "heel" so completely that he does this on his own without commands. He can even correct me if I drift off to his left while on a long walk.
He is known to be somewhat afraid of men, and sure enough he attached to me very easily but was submissive and anxious around Brendan for the first week. Even now, he's more finicky if Brendan is in the apartment at mealtime. He sets Cosmo's food bowl in the bathroom because it's small enough to feel like a "cave." At first, he was much more fidgety and less sociable with Brendan, and whined a bit whenever I left.
Then he discovered his toys, especially his b-a-l-l. In the past three days, he has initiated games of fetch roughly every 2 or 3 hours if he can get our attention. His anxiety level when I'm not around seems to be going down, and although he still likes to eat in his cave if Brendan is at home he is no longer fidgety or agitated around him. I should add that in spite of the anxiety, Cosmo warmed up to Brendan on the first day, allowing him to give belly rubs and licking his face.
Brendan and I agree on the basic goals for his first round of training classes: build his confidence, teach him the commands and tricks he doesn't know yet, and get him comfortable around other dogs and people.
Our goals for ourselves is: for Brendan to learn the basics of formal training since I took our last dog to classes on my own; and for me to be confident in handling a younger, somewhat larger dog than I'm used to. (Cosmo is tall for a Sheltie, and solidly built. A little overweight at the moment, but we think his normal weight would be about 28-30 pounds.) We would like him to prepare him for taking agility classes to further his Sheltie socialization, but not for competition purposes (out of our league financially.)
Whew, long way of asking: will Clicker training address some of the basic behaviors and commands Cosmo may still lack? My intuition tells me he will be more mentally stimulated by clicker responses and additional tricks, and thus he will continue to build confidence. He is already more responsive to attention and praise as rewards than to treats. Brendan is concerned that clicker classes won't be basic enough to build the foundation Cosmo will need to benefit from sports training. We do agree he'll benefit from clicker classes eventually, before starting agility training.
We adopted Cosmo ten days ago from a shelter that had a pretty good read on his personality strengths and weaknesses. He's four years old, timid around strangers but very outgoing, feisty, and loving with his people. It's clear he had good early training on leash walking and basic commands like "sit," "come," and "quiet." I suspect he learned "heel" so completely that he does this on his own without commands. He can even correct me if I drift off to his left while on a long walk.
He is known to be somewhat afraid of men, and sure enough he attached to me very easily but was submissive and anxious around Brendan for the first week. Even now, he's more finicky if Brendan is in the apartment at mealtime. He sets Cosmo's food bowl in the bathroom because it's small enough to feel like a "cave." At first, he was much more fidgety and less sociable with Brendan, and whined a bit whenever I left.
Then he discovered his toys, especially his b-a-l-l. In the past three days, he has initiated games of fetch roughly every 2 or 3 hours if he can get our attention. His anxiety level when I'm not around seems to be going down, and although he still likes to eat in his cave if Brendan is at home he is no longer fidgety or agitated around him. I should add that in spite of the anxiety, Cosmo warmed up to Brendan on the first day, allowing him to give belly rubs and licking his face.
Brendan and I agree on the basic goals for his first round of training classes: build his confidence, teach him the commands and tricks he doesn't know yet, and get him comfortable around other dogs and people.
Our goals for ourselves is: for Brendan to learn the basics of formal training since I took our last dog to classes on my own; and for me to be confident in handling a younger, somewhat larger dog than I'm used to. (Cosmo is tall for a Sheltie, and solidly built. A little overweight at the moment, but we think his normal weight would be about 28-30 pounds.) We would like him to prepare him for taking agility classes to further his Sheltie socialization, but not for competition purposes (out of our league financially.)
Whew, long way of asking: will Clicker training address some of the basic behaviors and commands Cosmo may still lack? My intuition tells me he will be more mentally stimulated by clicker responses and additional tricks, and thus he will continue to build confidence. He is already more responsive to attention and praise as rewards than to treats. Brendan is concerned that clicker classes won't be basic enough to build the foundation Cosmo will need to benefit from sports training. We do agree he'll benefit from clicker classes eventually, before starting agility training.
