I wonder what they dream about...

As I write, there is a ridiculously adorable red pup in a crate beside my bed...growling and barking in her sleep.  She's quite an active sleeper, I wonder what she dreams about.

Since my earlier post, we've worked more on the sit.  It's going well.  The pup is 15 weeks old (almost 16) so she's definitely ready to begin working on some simple commands.  I just make sure I have her attention, then guide her gently into the sitting position.  She's gotten to the point where (if she's not sitting already) I only have to gently touch her back end with a couple of fingers and she plops it down.  She picked up the sitting thing REALLY quickly when it was dinner time (of course) haha.  I'm also working more on building positive associations with the crate during the day - of course she eats in there, and today I continued to leave treats inside at random and would toss her toys inside for her to retrieve.  Tonight, I met less resistance while getting her in there and though she "screamed" nearly the entire time I was in the shower, it was less intense and had more frequent and longer pauses in between fits than there were yesterday.  I just took my time, not opening the bathroom door until she'd paused and been quiet for a few seconds and then if the waterworks started up again, I waited for another pause and short bout of silence before stepping out of the bathroom. Overall, I think she's making good progress for only having been here for 48 hours.

I've been reading Leerburg's article on marker training and I'm considering using it to work with this puppy.  I won't be going the more well-known "clicker training" route, rather, I would use the word "yes" or something of that sort as my marker.  I'm not a big fan of clickers, mainly because I prefer to have the source of praise come from you.  For me that means that I would rather use my voice to mark a desired behavior (which is what you do when you praise, anyway) than a click.  The article is fairly long but I plan to get through it over the next day or so.  The prospect of having a few more mentally stimulating games to play and a way to redirect attention towards me when I need it is what has got my interest peaked at the moment.