Today was our first day with our trainer. We are learning to train with a clicker. We also set up a puppy playpen with her crate inside it, so if we can’t pay attention to her, she can hang out in there and be safe. It’s 8 ft x 8 ft so plenty big. We have some puppy puzzles to use now to put in there to keep her occupied and happy. Right now she’s so tired from training she first fell asleep at our feet at the end of the session, now she’s in there taking a nap.
Our first week lesson - getting her harness on and wearing a few minutes at a time. She gets really bitey and chewy and is very sensitive to this. We had to put her outside to run around because she got so over excited by this. If we can only get the loop over her head this week that’s okay.
This week we’re teaching her sit, looking when her name is called and targeting - which for us is holding out two fingers and have her touch her nose to them. Each time she puts her butt down, turns her head when she’s called or touches our fingers she gets a click as she does it and then tossed a piece of kibble. Funny thing is, we know it’s training us, I felt uncoordinated at first remembering to use the clicker then toss the kibble. Dog A, Humans B.
We will also give her treats for 4 feet on the ground, particularly around the cats. We will ignore the jump and have her in puppy playpen with new visitors until she gets used to them.
She is 14 weeks now and 28 lbs and growing.
Clicker training works as long as you train, too. 
We did clicker training when are last dog was a puppy. Honestly, though, we got lazy and stopped using it. 7 years after I was cleaning out some stuff, found the clicker, clicked it, and the dog came over and sat down in front of me. If only we the humans were as disciplined…
Thank you for the update!
Does she recognize her name? Is is working?
Can you explain the purpose of the clicker?
From what I understand - the clicker is a unique sound that is always consistent - regardless of who is training, that sound signifies, if I get the clicker sound, I’ll get a treat. It’s fast as well and it’s a different sound than other sounds they are used to. Humans talk a lot, but that click sound tells puppy, that’s good to hear, what I did gets that sound which gets me a treat. You can use it to train them to do almost anything and it’s all positive reinforcement.
She learned her 3 new thinks quickly. She already knew her name and she does already sit. The nose touching my hand is new and she got that pretty much right away. I worked on the harness with her and that will be a work in progress. She starts getting very antsy with it on.
Can you sub a photo of her for your avatar for a little while so we can see her? (craves Berner puppy pictures…)
^ +1 for a puppy picture.
@eyemamom: still rooting for that puppy picture. And news!
Can I upload a picture from my iphone? I have a ton.
My little pup weighed in at 52 lbs this morning. Still have a trainer and I work with her nearly daily, most times several days. She is very social! We live on about 5 acres and have a sandy beach and water. One of her greatest joys is running on the beach, digging in the sand and running through the water. She also discovered she can run across the pool cover. Her favorite inside game is a combo tug of war/fetch. She absolutely needs to have 2 run wild outside times a day.
We have 2 maine coon cats and that is still a work in progress. One of them doesn’t bother to run anymore and I think what they are doing is playing since pup has caught up to him on many occasions and doesn’t do more than sniff and jump around.
She can sit, lay down, stay, leave it - when I drop food by her, or something like a slipper that she loves to chew or paper, I can say leave it, she stops, and looks at me. I am working on her mat - I throw down a towel, without a word she goes and lays on it. I’m working on extending the time she can stay on the mat without a treat. Right now she’s faking relaxing - she knows we want her laying on her side or her head down - she’ll put her head down while staring at me. We’re also working on the leash walking. She was like a wild bucking bronco getting on her harness and would lay down and not budge an inch if it was on. I can now make it about 10 steps between treats and she’ll walk by my heel. We’re mostly still inside - but I’d say this was her biggest obstacle initially.
She absolutely loves people. When the trainer comes tomorrow we need to continue the jumping thing. She will not jump on me or anyone in the house - we know to turn our backs and fold our arms and not engage. However, people in public encourage the jumping! And I don’t want her jumping on delivery people or friends when they come to the house. She just gets so excited to make friends she can’t contain herself. She really doesn’t bark, she’s house broken and I moved the rugs back inside. She is a mouthy dog and wants part of us or our clothes in her mouth a lot, not to bite or hurt.
But she is so sweet. I know she’s very attached to us, and it’s mutual. I think we picked the right breed for our lifestyle. We work mostly from home so she’s happy to always have us around. Being an “older” mom now, I’m way more relaxed, which makes her a way more relaxed dog.
She sounds adorable. and how lovely for her to have that big area to play in.
Yay! I figured it out. This is Sophie on her mat.
So hard when people encourage jumping. I have a 70 lb. Briard and run into the same thing. I end up preemptively stepping on her leash to put her brakes on.
Thanks for posting the photo, she is just lovely!
So adorable. She looks like she has furry brown booties on
It’s hard to tell from my avatar, but Australian shepherds have very similar coloring to Bernese Mountain Dogs. When Foster was a puppy, everyone thought he was a BMD!
I thought your dog was a Bernese!
We had training yesterday. We’re coming to the end of our package. Yesterday we started the come/here. For high value situations she suggested we use a word she doesn’t hear us use, so we’re using “aqui” - spanish for here. Right now we’re inside and the trainer wants us to just do it a few times with a very high value treat - we’re using melted cheese on bread. The goal is for her to be super excited and run to us, and she has to put her nose to our outstretched hand. She’s got that down. In a few days we’ll move outside to the patio and then the lawn, then further away.
We’re also working on not jumping, I am working on putting her mat near the door with someone on the other side while I work on walking closer to the door, back for a treat, then turn the handle, back for a treat, then opening the door, etc. If we know someone is coming over though we’re going to be putting her on a leash and waiting until she can calm down before greeting someone.
I’m posting this because I never knew what was involved in training a dog to be a good pet, so if you see a very well mannered dog out in public, it didn’t happen by accident! It also has helped my daughter who has been afraid of dogs and them jumping on her to learn she needs to be calm and turn around and ignore the dog.
I need to decide what to do when these lessons are over, if we sign up for more to get to more intermediate/advanced skills, have her come every few weeks/month for a check in, or just be done. Hubby thinks we should continue. I enjoy doing it and I do practice a lot. However, my husband does not train her, though he says he does - once a week or every other week is by no means consistent enough. He’s often too busy to even be at the training session, but he likes the results.
“with a very high value treat - we’re using melted cheese on bread”
I’d be very motivated by that, too!
Thanks for being a responsible pet owner and working on training your dog responsibly. I like dogs but dislike whe they jump up on me which happens too often. Especially with a big breed, it’s important training.
