Advice on "starting off on the right paw"

[Stephanie and Ragley]

Posted this in the comments, but I agree that it is better being contained in a discussion-

I would love to ultimately have Ragley and I become a therapy team (not sure through which organization yet). She is about 4.5 months old right now so I know she is still far too young to be tested and registered, but I want to make sure I am doing the correct things now in order to aid our future path. We are in obedience classes and I plan to continue these and I try to take her as many places as possible to meet as many people as she can, but is there anything else we should be doing? Is there anything you wish you would have done with your puppies to help them prepare?

Thanks!

and of course no discussion would be complete without an updated picture...

[Adina P]

The only thing that Rosco still has a hard time with is his crazy food focus.  If there is or has been food in the room, he couldn't care less about the people he's there to see or the people who are there to see him.  He becomes focused on the food and he'll stare at it or (now that he's wayyyy out of obedience practice) pull toward it. So I guess the only thing I would advise is to be sure you train around as many different distractions as you can think of: things that catch a dog's nose, eyes, ears, desire to chase, excitement, fear, etc.  When I say 'fear' I don't mean put him in a scary situation, as much as if something minor tends to frighten him...work with him on overcoming that with your trainer's guidance. Train obedience commands in the midst of various distractions so you can SEE him learn how to cope with those distractions and ultimately come out on the other side as a dog who can 'work' no matter what is going on around him. 
As I'm writing this I had one final thought.  I train with a choke chain.  Choke chains aren't allowed with some therapy groups.  So...don't do what I did and ruin your dog's training by going to therapy gigs on a flat collar where your dog thinks all bets are off.  Rosco is still pretty well behaved on a flat collar, but his obedience is much 'looser' that way because we didn't work at all to wean him down to just a flat collar.

[Cathy, Fozzie & Shaggy]

Stephanie, it sounds like you are doing a great job of socializing and training Ragley for future Therapy work. At some point before taking one of the therapy tests, spend some time with dog/handler teams as they visit, to get a look at how they present their dog for visits - it is different than an obedience work. Good Luck to you both!!!!!!!
Oh, one more thing, Ridley is ADORABLE!!!!

[BG and Gavin]

You were right to include a picture - she is so cute!

I think you are off to a good start and on the right track.  I wish I had taught Gavin a few more "tricks."  People are highly entertained when I just run him through sit/stay/shake/high five/come.  They just love to see tricks - so maybe roll over, play dead etc. would really get them excited lol.  Someone posted a while ago a video of her dog playing three card monty with three cups and a treat hidden under one of them.  It was awesome and I think the folks we visit would love that.  Maybe that will be my goal to train this summer.  I will have a search for the video.

[BG and Gavin]

Okay, here it is:  http://www.doodlekisses.com/video/the-shell-game-bayley-doodle

[BG and Gavin]

Instructions for training this found here:  http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/will-bayley-pass-her-obedi...