The VERY FIRST LESSON to teach your new puppy
By Jennifer Stoeckl, MAT - Dire Wolf Project CEO, June 3, 2024
If you don’t have your puppy yet,
you are going to want to keep this email
for when that time comes.
As you know from last Friday’s email, Dublin (Chisel/Dreamer) is the DireWolf Guardians’ newest service dog in training.
His cute, little 10-week-old puppy mind is ripe for inputting information.
Like a dry desert drinks the rain, his mind is soaking up how to be a good boy that is ready to learn.
But what should he learn first?
Many people teach a puppy how to sit first.
It’s easy for a puppy to understand and gets puppy to settle itself down.
Not a bad skill to know, but not the very first thing to teach if you want your puppy to be fluent in human.
Some people believe containment training is the first necessity when training a new puppy.
This is a powerful skill for a new puppy to understand because it has never been alone before. It doesn’t understand why it’s placed away from its pack. It must quickly accept being by itself from time to time in order to adapt to our strange human world.
But, that’s not the very first thing to teach a puppy.
It’s extremely important, but not the very first lesson.
Think about a foreign exchange student who knows no English. What would be the very first thing you do when you meet them?
Before you address where to place their bags.
Before you sit down for a meal.
Even before you direct them to the restroom.
You reach out your hand in greeting and…
INTRODUCE YOURSELF!
But a new puppy isn’t just from a different culture… it’s from an entirely different species!
Your new puppy doesn’t have hands to shake. It has paws instead… and it has to walk on them.
It doesn’t have vocal cords that produce intricate sounds as advanced as our complex human languages.
Your new puppy uses body language as its native language… it certainly doesn’t know English, or possibly even that the strange sounds humans make have meaning!
So, HOW in the world are you going to teach your puppy
“Me, [insert your name]… You, [insert puppy’s name]”
???
This weekend, I began filming the extensive footage that will accompany the “Canine Culture Shock” puppy training series I am writing.
It will be a primer to address how to teach a soft-hearted, gentle, emotionally-sensitive family companion dog like the puppies in our breed.
(Although, other sensitive puppies in other breeds would also benefit from this series.)
I’m going to film Dublin’s training from start to finish and build a comprehensive dog training course that takes you through all of the steps, and shares the reasons behind the steps, of how to teach your puppy to become a fluent human-speaker.
A dog that understands the fundamental nuances behind what it means for a canine to live in a human world.
And this week, our special Dire Wolf Project Inner Circle email subscribers get a sneak peak into some of the footage from Dublin’s VERY FIRST LESSON.
Remember last week when I said training Dublin was a DREAM!
Wait until you see his brain begin to piece together “Me, Jennifer… You, Dublin.”
After one lesson, Dublin now knows who he is and a bit about who I am.
Our relationship can only grow exponentially stronger from here!
Click the link below to see exactly how I taught Dublin his name and what to do when he hears it.
P.S. The Monster Movie litter (Cookie/Jesse) is well on its way!
We anticipate puppies will arrive on time right around June 7th.
There are currently THREE families active, and I am looking at keeping TWO puppies.
If we have more than FIVE PUPPIES born, there is still room on the waiting list for you. (7 puppies is average)
If you are on our waiting list, you are now welcome to go active for this litter.
Simply reply to this email and let me know.
If you are NOT on our waiting list, you’ll need to apply, be approved, and place a $600 non-refundable deposit down in order to secure your place in line for a puppy from us.
Here is the link to get you started:
https://direwolfproject.com/puppy-application/
Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.