Morning,
Puppies have short attention spans and are JUST now experiencing the shift from a flat buckle collar to a chain collar. It is a HUGE transition for a young puppy.
So, my Mannerly Puppy Graduate students get an extra week to do Longe Line with their puppies. This 'extra week' is so the puppy can accept the new feel of the chain slip collar and begin to understand their responsibility is to pay attention to their owner. However, new students also benefit greatly from doing an Intro to LL - the Inverted LL before going onto Week 1.
So, once you've kenneled your dog for an hour before a LL training session (EVERY TIME? yes at it teaches the pup that the 'work' is where it bonds with its owner and where life begins to have a purpose). Be sure to air (go potty) your puppy BEFORE YOU BEGIN. Longe Line work is work and not sniff, poop, pee, explore time, it is time to work and pay attention to the person on the other end of the line. AND LL is always done on soft surfaces, never on concrete or asphalt.
Inverted Longe Line (for puppies or dog with an injury and an unschooled dog just learning)
Explanation of Inverted LL training
Pree demo's an Inverted Longe Line training session
Understand that dogs 'perceive' life in smells and shapes and silhouettes
So this extra week is for puppies to do Inverted Longe Line training sessions. You should aim for a total of an hour a day, and with puppies that may be two 30-minutes sessions, or three 20-minutes sessions, or even four 15 minutes sessions.
Each session, whether you do 2, 3 or 4 separate sessions, follow the exact same protocol. Dog is either kenneled for an hour PRIOR to their LL session OR do QT (Quiet Time) for 30 minutes. Dog is worked until you can see they are done and compliant with remaining in the 'Safety Zone' next to you.
Then, you do the Cool Down on your way home.
THEN, once the Cool Down is done, you either kennel the dog for another hour (if at home) or do QT out in public. A correctly worked dog is mentally toast after a LL session and should be tired enough to relax in public and snooze.
It is critical the 'training sessions, the work' be sandwiched between nothing to do and nothing to do. That is why they are either kenneled or do QT. We are trying to flip the dogs inner work ethic switch to 'ON' and so the work when sandwiched between nothing to do and nothing to do becomes of utmost importance and interest to the dog. Plus the dog simply must have QT to process the lessons just learned after a session so it can go from short term to long term memory. A dog remembers the last thing it did so if you train and 'end with play' all the lessons from the training are lost.
So here is how your week is structured.
X-Tra Week 1, Days 1-2: Do Inverted LL work in areas of low distractions. QT at least 2 times a day.
X-Tra Week 1, Days 3/4: Do Inverted LL work in areas of medium distractions. QT at least 2 times a day.
X-Tra Week 1, Days 5/6: Do Inverted LL work in areas of high distractions. QT at least 2 times a day. Post a video doing Inverted LL in a high distraction level environment. BTW...the video of me working your dog for the first time demo'ing LL IS off the charts HIGH distraction level. Why? Because I am a stranger and working your dog, as its handler, while the owners watch.
E-Tra Week 1, Day 7 - no work, no training sessions at all. The dog always gets one day off a week.
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