Yesterday was the first day of me going off to work and leaving my little Ewok at home.

I can't lie- it was hard. Luckily, my man had Monday and Tuesday off of this week, so he has been able to be home with the little guy. I got a few pictures sent to me during the day to keep me smiling. This one- he looks like he took the picture himself. Look at him and his little diva self.

Alex tried to put him in his kitchen space, so he felt comfortable. Apparently all he did was whine- cry- and make whale noises. (Well, I call them whale noises... Alex thinks they are wookie noises.)

I feel bad for our neighbors, because for a little guy he can be LOUD. Tomorrow is the first full day of him being alone in the house while we are at work. I feel outrageously guilty. Honestly, it's ridiculous that I do feel guilty, though. I can't not go to work... so little Brucey is going to need to get used to being alone.

I have this video from the wondrous Kikopup on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGxhcb-itO4) on how to teach your pup to be alone in the puppy pen. With Bruce- its the kitchen, but it works the same way.

The vet suggested we put him in the space for short amounts of time during the day we are home, varying from one minute to 5 minutes to an hour.. so he never knows how long he really will be in there. I am going to combine these two training techniques and try to get him comfortable.

This is the main thing I want to work on with him this weekend. I do not want him feeling alone or abandoned while we are at work.

Bruce is almost there in being confident in the clicker. He is responding to his name 80% of the time.

Trials conducted for Bruce's clicker training:

1- click + treat... (charging the clicker)

Bruce gets this. I have been using part of his dinner to train, as well as a few training treats for puppy's that he likes. Also, Bruce is kind of in love with the freezed dried chicken.

2- saying BRUCE and when he looks up at me click + treat. (getting to know his name)

Like I said, he is about 80% there. Last night after I felt I gave him enough treats- I used playing as a positive reinforcer. He was having the zoomies and wanted me to throw his toy. I would say BRUCE and when he looked at me I would say GOOD! and pet him/ throw the toy. After the game- he would look at me for the majority of the time when I said BRUCE! I am going to continue to work on this with him.

3- Having a treat in the fist but only giving it to him when he stops trying to lick/bite/get into my fist (teaching him to pay attention to me and not the treat).

The steps with this are as follows:

1- have him back off from licking/ biting the fist and click him

2- Once he is showing he will not go the fist, have him look up at me and click.

Like kikopup says, he is learning that if he shows no interest in the treat but interest in me- then he will get the treat. Right now, I am on step one. He was doing pretty well with not biting or licking my fist after awhile. I haven't asked for eye contact because- well.. he is a puppy and has ADD! I didnt want to push all this training at once!

Those are my goals right now.

1- to get him comfortable being alone.

2- to get him to confidently know his name

3- to recognize that he needs to leave the toy and give me eye contact instead.

Then from there my goals are:

-Sit

-Stay

Also, when we first got him he was religiously going on the puppy pad (he has only been home with us for a few days). YESTERDAY HE HAD ACCIDENTS OUT THE WAZOO! For the most part we'd catch him and lift him quickly to the pad. Now that he knows the clicker- I am going to click him for going on the pad... so hopefully we can reinforce that behavior. I'm not sure why he is not deciding to go elsewhere!!

Thats all for now. I will post a few of my clicker sessions with him soon.