Kia Starts Training

Kia loves to learn things. She is so darn smart! I honestly have to think of things to do with her every day, every hour, sometimes minute to minute, to keep her enriched and her mind occupied. Because Kia is so smart she is like a really super smart human child where a lot of the time the child is bored because the usual things don't always inspire and stimulate their brains, and we all know what happens when children who need a challenge are not challenged enough, usually it manifests as the child finding their own ways to challenge their selves much to their parents displeasure <smile>.

Some of the behaviors Kia does when she needs more mental/physical enrichment:

Barks at me to let me know she is frustrated
Can't decide if she wants to be in or outside.
Barks at the other dogs in the house to get them to play
Goes over threshold when playing a game of tug or other game with her human or other dog.

None if this means she is a "bad puppy", and the truth is she is an awesome puppy, she is just a wicked smart lil girl who requires mental and physical exercise to reach her full potential. And yes she does have an off switch, but she needs some help to get there.

Kia is a terrier, she has been bred to be a working dog and she wants and needs to work. She has some impulse control deficits that require the humans in her life to get creative and work around, and I am positive with the right adopter she will flourish and be an awesome companion!

You know the dog Eddie on Frasier show? I read that Moose (aka Eddie) as a puppy was impossible! He was hyper and destructive, then he got a spot on the show Frasier and all the training he had to do to be Eddie gave him a wonderful outlet to use his high intelligence and to feed his working dog brain.

Kia is not an Eddie, BUT she is highly intelligent, and active. So yes she can be challenging. The cool thing is she is super duper fun to work with and she LOVES to train!

These videos are in order of the very first training session we played around with. I simply was reinforcing her to go to a mat in the bathroom and in short order she wasn't just going and standing on the mat, she was sitting on the mat and giving me eye contact. This took her about 5 minutes to figure out.

In this first video I was working on shaping her to go to the mat and stand or sit on it. She wasn't sure what I was wanting yet so she gives a little bark to tell me she was frustrated or confused.

In this video you can see how shaping is working. I quietly wait for her to go stand all fours on the mat and when she does I say "yip" (her bridge word), then I toss her a treat.

This next video she gives me a sit on the mat for the first time and I was so excited! She got a jack pot for that and this will reinforce her to want to try that move again.

Here she does give the sit again. And now we go for eye contact with the sit.

And this was our last try before ending the training. I could tell she was getting tired, and training like this really is a mind work out for her.

You can see how she wants to work. She is very intent on giving me eye contact and sitting on the mat.

Kia still wanting to train even after the other dogs were let in the bathroom.

Still sitting there and she and I are now working on a "that's all" cue so she knows when we are done.

She was still trying so hard to get me to continue our session. Birdie smells the treats that I had up on the bathroom sink.

She had gotten off the mat and then was headed back in case I didn't know what a good girl she was being.

This is a close up of the first pic, she is adorable and can't you just see the intelligence in those eyes?

Kia is an amazing dog! She is all of 12-14 weeks old and is ready for college! Since this first training session she is learning to sit for her meals, sit to come in the house, sit to get a treat, sit after she goes potty and comes for her treat. She has a few other things she is learning too and you will have to keep watch to see her in action.