Starting Shaping

Puppy Game #1 Attention
I decided to start with Susan's Puppy Game #1 Attention. Drake did pretty well with it, given he's never done clicker training before. I'm going to work on this for the next couple of days. Hopefully, he'll learn that looking to my face will earn him a treat.
Puppy Game # 2 Tug
This game shouldn't be any problem with Drake! I've discovered since picking him up this weekend that he already has a like for tugging, so I'm going to make sure to build on it.
That's about all for now! You can't ask too much of a 15 week old puppy, so I'm keeping sessions short, as his attention span isn't very long, and he tires out after a little bit of work.

Welcome!

Welcome to Drake's blog! Drake is my youngest Sheltie puppy. After reading Susan Garrett's Shaping Success, I decided the next puppy I started, I would train him or her using Susan's wonderful methods, as well as those of other trainers using shaping/clicker training to train their agility dogs. Here you will find our trials, successes, progress, pictures, and videos as Drake learns to be a successful agility dog, starting from the age of 15 weeks on up through competition using shaping.
I thought it would be really interesting to start a blog and track the progress of my first puppy to start from the get go with these methods, and have that there to refer back to with future dogs.
Susan's book has been such an inspiration to me. I plan to start out using her Shaping Success book, my clicker rally book, and crate games from the get go with him, and down the road, implement her wonderful 2x2 weave method, and Silvia Trkman's running contact method with him.
I hope you enjoy following along on our journey to what will hopefully be a successful learning experience, agility career, and amazing bonding opportunity. I recommend to anyone reading this that hasn't already done so to get Shaping Success, and read it. Not only does it have informative training information, but it's also an entertaining read.