Day 3: Photogenic?
Woke up at 4am for 10 min walk and pee, and 8am for his breakfast session. This day I tried a different routine (Thanks mom for the advice) which was much better for me. I took Finster out at 8am for 30-45min, then crated him immediately. I stayed with him and if he barked I simply gave him a stern "No". This worked much better for the barking. Only twice did he bark again after I said no, at which point I squirted him with a little water which got his attention. I also taught him both sit and come by this day. The sit came really easy, actually I don't even remember training it, it just sorta happened. I also trained him to sit when I came to a complete stop. Off-handedly I was teaching him loose leash walking, without a leash, by the end of the day I added a leash and just let him walk around with it on, without me holding it. To do this I just walked around the yard feeding him a kernel of dog food every 10 steps or so, and when I stopped if he sat he got clicked and treated heavily (4-5 kernels). Comes were also very heavily treated, maybe 10 kernels and lots of love if he came. To do this I just started running, he would run after me. After I got about 20 yards ahead of him I would stop and say come, then when he got to me I would click and treat about 10 kernels and pet and love him. I do this about 2-3 times per 30-45 min walk. I also worked on his crate training some more. I started leaving the basement when he was in his crate. I started off by leaving for 30 seconds, if he didn't bark I ran back down to the basement and treated him and praised him. Then to 45 seconds, then a minute... I worked my way up to 3 minutes this way.