In this episode of Pandemic Puppy, Kayla and Amber Quann discuss preparing your puppy for adventures! They cover what supplies you should have and tips and tricks to make for a successful adventure.
Puppy adventure gear (backpacks for carrying tired pups)
- Kurgo G-Train backpack
- Consider their comfort
- Garmin GPS Collar
Principles of successful adventures (setting up for success with management, keeping quality over quantity in mind)
- Varying between letting your puppy walk and carrying your puppy for different durations of time
- Quality over quantity
- Be careful not to emphasis the wrong behaviors; ie. chasing ducks, etc.
- Consider what adventures you want to do in the future and practice things at home to work towards it
Assessing confidence for different types of adventure activities (brewery, paddle boarding, etc.)
- Watch their body language and behavior
- Take your time, give them a break if they need it, reassess
- Consider your dogs baseline confidence along with their confidence with each new thing
- You want the experience to leave your puppy wanting more
- The shorter the better in the beginning
Observe & learns as a foundation for adventure success
- Simple things like taking them to a parking lot to people watch
- Let them experience things from a reasonable distance
Training skills that are applicable to all adventures
- Recall
- Focus around distractions
- Settle on a mat
Off-leash foundation work with safety & success in mind
Specific skills: pull over, recall, stop, directionals, wait, this way
- Look but don’t touch/observe and re-engage
- Make sure they can manage recall and check ins on their own (eventually)
Links Mentioned in the Episode
Patron questions:
- Skiing question from Amber’s client
- From CH – I have a 6 month old male border collie pup, Kipling. Kip and I live in Johannesburg, SA. We have starting hiking more and more, and have travelled/camped a bit too. He has experienced some small wildlife (mongoose, guineafowl, etc.) and some livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, horses). He definitely has some interest in all of these animals (staring, sometimes moving towards them) but I have been able to call him off. But I am still terrified of wildlife encounters (especially larger herbivores which are abundant here). I tend to keep him on long line or drag line in places I’m worried but do you have any tips for adventuring around wildlife, and keeping both dog and critters safe?
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