Meet Otto (Waypoint's Step 4 Stroke of Luck)! He is my first poodle, my first puppy, and my first purpose-bred dogs. Well, my other dogs may or may not have been bred for a purpose, I guess I'll never know, but this pup is the first dog whose lineage and upbringing I know everything about. He had a great start for the first 12 weeks of his life in his breeders home. I brought him home one week ago and so much has happened already! I needed a place to document and log this experience, so here I am.
Potty Training
Super, super easy! He was litter trained at his breeder's home. He has only had two accidents (my fault, of course). My goal was to really ace housetraining, since I have not done so great a job with my past foster puppies. His breeder made my job pretty easy, since he already understands the concept of holding it and appropriate places to go. But I'm taking some credit for keeping an eagle eye on him and taking him out 50,000 times a day.
Socialization
He has been to my mom's twice and was a happy, friendly, playful, outgoing puppy! He went to the vet. He went to a friend's house and met her in her yard.
He loves everyone. He has no fear of objects, surfaces, or noises. He's adventurous and loves running over, under, and through things! He has not met any new dogs yet, but has seen Jun through barriers and in my arms, and has seen Ira in multiple contexts. We have been slowly exploring the big yard and he's getting more confident running around. He's a little unsure of people and dogs at a distance out in public. We had our first big parking lot outing yesterday and he spent a lot of time looking at things. He did a great job processing, shaking off, and reorienting to me for cookies. If only it were not winter, my hands are going to freeze socializing him outside, but it will be worth it when he is happy and confident in public places this summer! Puppy K was canceled due to Covid, so this is all on me, and I'm up for it!
Goals for the coming week: Meet two friendly dogs, come to training groups on Monday and Wednesday to hang and take it all in, go on two outdoor adventures.
House Manners
Otto is settling into a routine nicely! We get up in the morning and train and play, and then he goes into his pen for a chewie. Pig ears are his favorite and keep him entertained for quite awhile. After a noisy first day, he's generally pretty good in his pen. He has slept all night since day 1 and only barked about 30 seconds the first night. We went from a crate on my bed for a few nights to a crate on the floor next to my bed. He has been on several car adventures and has gotten comfortable in his car crate and rides quietly. We are also learning about quiet crate behavior in other places: he hangs out in a crate in my office for a couple hours a day while I work, and hung out in a crate during dinner at my mom's.
I am teaching quiet mostly by ignoring barking and whining. I'm finding it unproductive to randomly reward quiet in his pen. All that seems to do is break him out of "settled" behavior and start the cycle over. I have found it productive to systematically teach quiet on car rides and in his crate. Since he's a smart puppy, I'm being careful not to let his whining be a reminder to me to reward quiet. I count. Starting at 5 seconds quiet. Working up from there and ping-ponging between longer and shorter intervals. If he whines/barks, I start over on whatever number I was working on. I haven't needed to work to more than 45 seconds. After he makes it that long, he's usually nicely settled.
Today we started working on "paws up" and "off."
He's working on waiting for a release to leave his ex pen, although he's basically doing this automatically so maybe his breeder worked on this.
Training
- Name Game. We started with Puppy Ping-Pong and now I am working on calling him randomly throughout the day. He comes to me prancing and enthusiastic!
- Collar grabs. He likes to wiggle away from me. My criteria is I will not chase you or grab for you. You will come very close to my hand so I can grab your collar. Sometimes I catch him and other times he gets a treat and gets lets go to play.
- Crate games. I used the crate to start shaping with him. We shaped a crate entry. We are shaping a stay. And he has learned, and loves, the Release. It's so cute, when he self-releases and realizes he gets nothing he turns around and goes right back in. Next step will be building duration in the crate, adding distance to the send, and putting a cue on it.
- Nose touch. Surprisingly, this is not his favorite. He does better with it out of motion. If he's sitting he doesn't want to break his sit and look away from me to go for the touch.
- Puppy Zen. Working auto-leave-it and eye contact in the presence of treats in a hand and just started with treats on the floor. Also working on an auto-sit and leave-it while I put down his food bowl. This kind of blows his mind, but he's getting it! I'm trying not to do too much control work, since his favorite thing in the world is to sit and stare at me. We need motion and energy!
- Shaped hold. Starting with a sponge, a welcoming texture for a little puppy mouth! He gave me three nose touches and then gave me teeth on the sponge, and now the criteria is a "full-mouth" grab, and then will start adding some duration. Mostly, I am looking to teach the concept of interacting with objects with your mouth.
- Luring: sit, down-from-sit, stand-from-down, fold-back down from stand, spin/twist, through my legs. Just to build the skill of following a lure and build some muscle memory for behaviors I will teach later.
- Building value for heel position. Every day we spend some time sitting at heel and walking in heel with a lure. Again, building muscle memory and value for a position.
