Chupete (now 9 months) is ready to “graduate” from his intermediate training class tomorrow! We’ve all learned so much about training dogs, first in his beginner class and now in his intermediate class, you wouldn’t believe how different he is from when we first brought him home. In fact, Chupete was a Christmas return! The adoption center told us that he was a Christmas gift for a couple of kids (t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e idea – don’t do it parents!!) but the parents brought him back because he was “too aggressive.” Really, he was just “too puppy”; hyper, chewing on things, excited, chewing on things, gnawing on things and chewing some more, testing the boundaries to see what he can get away with…yeah this was the chupete we brought home originally. He was crazy – he’d fight his food, demolish our apartment, bark like crazy and he put about 100 holes in my sweatshirts and yoga pants with his little puppy teeth! So obviously Javi and I couldn’t wait til he was a) neutered and b) trained up. We enrolled him in the PetSmart basic training class where he learned sit, stay, loose-leash walking, down, off, drop it and leave it. We also taught him “bang bang” (play dead) and “go around” (going around in circles) for fun. Already the changes were huge – he was listening to us and not driving me totally insane anymore. When we moved into our new house we were finally okay with letting him roam around without following him to make sure he doesn’t get into any mischief (though we still have to follow Choripan around…).

Chupete (ahora con 9 meses) esta listo para “graduarse” de su entrenamiento de nivel intermedio manana! Hemos aprendido mucho sobre entrenamiento de perros, primero en suclase de principiante y ahora en la de intermedio, no creerias lo diferente que es comparado con el primer dia que lo trajimos a casa. De hecho, Chupete fue una devolucion de Navidad! El centro de adopcion nos dijo que el fue un regalo de navidad para un par de ninos (terrible idea! NUNCA LO HAGAS!) pero los padres lo trajeron de vuelta porque era “muy agresivo”. En verdad, solo era “muy cachorro”; energetico, masticando cosas, hiperkinetico, mordiendo mas cosas, gruniendo, mordiendo mas cosas, probando los limites a ver que podia y que no podia hacer…si ese era Chupete cuando lo trajimos a casa. Estaba loco – se peleaba con su comida, destrozo el departamento, ladraba como loco y lleno de hoyos nuestra ropa con sus dientecitos de cachorro! Asi que obviamente Javi y yo contabamos los dias para a) operarlo y b) entrenarlo. Lo inscribimos en el entrenamiento basico en PetSmart donde aprendio a sentarse, quedarse quieto, caminar con la correa, hecharse, salir de encima, soltarlo y dejarlo. Tambien le ensenamos “bang-bang” (hacerse el muerto) y “da la vuelta” solo por entretencion. Los combios fueron enormes – ahora escuchaba y hacia caso. Cuando nos mudamos fue el momento de finalmente dejarlo andar libre por la casa sin que tengamos que seguirlo por todos lados para asegurarnos que estaba portando bien (aunque todavia tenemos que seguir a Choripan a todos lados…)

In his intermediate class, Chupete learned “park it” and “heel” and in the meantime Choripan learned “down.” When we practiced heel and park it at home Choripan started to pick up on the commands, so now we’ve got two dogs who can park it! The point is to be able to do this when people come to the door so they don’t jump all over the place and knock guests down when they step over the threshold into our house, but we aren’t quite to that momentous achievement yet. Anyway, it’s something that they know what the command means! Here’s a video of our little training session last night.

En su clase intermedia, Chupete aprendio a “estacionarlo” y “caminar pegado” y por mientras Choripan aprendia a hecharse. Cuando practicabamosen casa, Choripan tambien aprendia un poco las ordenes, aso qiue tenemos dos perros que aprendieron a estacionarlo! Ahora el proximo paso es poder hacer esto cuando gente viene a la puerta asi no estan saltando en todo el mundocuando alguien cruza el dintel de la puerta, pero eso sera un GRAN logro y todavia nos falta un “poquito”. De todas maneras, es algo que saben hacer asi que pronto nos sorprenderan! Aqui hay un video de su entrenamiento anoche.

Here’s another video from way back when, training Chupete to do “bang bang” and from even earlier when we trained him to lie down (he’s such a pro at all of this now!)

Este es otro video, de hace tiempo, ensenandole a Chupete a hacerce el muerto y otro  de hace mucho mas tiempo atras cuando le ensenamos a hecharse (ahora es un profesional de hecharse!)

And finally, here’s a little montage of (most) of the tricks Chupete knows

Y finalmente, un compilado de la mayoria de sus trucos