Oreo's Diary - Dog Training - First thoughts

This picture is of an agility course set up for a demo in our local dog park. Our puppy ran through it, led with a puppy treat held by my son, who rather enjoyed the course himself as you can see... if the mountain will not come to Mohamed ;) We're beginning to find out that people learn just by watching and I suspect that's true for dogs too.

But perhaps the message here should be "all things in good time." With people (including kids), certainly, it is the case that you cannot make them do what they are not ready to do. When they are ready, however, there is virtually no limit to what they will try and succeed at doing.

With dogs, I suspect this is also true. For example, there's no point in scolding a 10-week-old puppy if it piddles on the carpet. It can't hold it's bladder at all. When it has to go, it has to go. End of story. So, for heaven's sake, take your puppy outside every two hours like clockwork if you want to avoid accidents.
But, house training is not really training. Puppies instintively want to pee somewhere other than where they live. Your job is to give them the opportunity.
Sit, come, fetch are more complicated things, requiring some thought on your part and your dog's. So far I can't figure out a good reason why my puppy should sit when I say sit, come when I say come or fetch a ball I evidently like to play with more than she does. I'm sure there are reasons and when I figure them out, I'll get back to you.