Training Practice

So here we are,  puppies are twelve weeks young and growing at a very fast pace. No longer am I able to take control by picking them up and moving them to where I want them to be. Their training is taking on a much more crucial role. How am I doing? Honesty here is the best policy, I think? Well, it is a bumpy road that's for sure. One minute I am ecstatic with the success we are having the next I am discouraged by my failure to engage these guys in the behavior I am seeking. It's all in the timing as in classical conditioning. I am not as speedy in reflex as I once was which is certainly a disadvantage in training these little guys. I managed very successfully to undo Bruno's good eye contact training by inadvertently rewarding him with a treat for a jump and bark. I was a split second too slow to reward the calm sitting and eye contact----the result? Every time I tried to get him to sit and maintain eye contact he jumped and barked!!!! A behavior he had never engaged in before. So what to do? We had to go back to the beginning and retrain----fortunately, he remembered well and it did not take too long. The moral of the story here is to be too discouraged by regression---- keep plodding on:)