Otto's 5th Week

 Otto is 17 weeks old, officially 4 months, since its the 25th today. We had QUITE the week. It started out with a bang...er....with a bath. Poor Otto! It was the first time I've seen him really scared. We went to a self-serve wash place, since my tub is not ideal, and he had just the worst time. The dryer was even worse than the bath, and TBH,**I** found it a little scary too, lol. It was LOUD and STRONG. So I sat on the floor with him in my lap and dried him that way. We're now borrowing a dryer from a friend so he can get used to it at a slower pace. 

Socializaion

He continues to be un-phased by environmental stimuli. Our big outings this week:

• A trip to the dog park parking lot to practice focusing around dogs. It was BUSY and he did a great job!
• A long line nature hike, just the two of us. He had a great time hunting critters in the tall grasses and running in big circles around me.
• First trip to Petsmart! It's getting too cold to do focus work outside, so we plan to hit up dog-friendly stores at least once a week.
• Met lots of people
• Convinced shy lab puppy Cedar to play, played with BC pup Everest again, played with my Aunt's two labs, Lola and Harper. 
• Met Jun for the third time, this time with both off leash in the yard. They're doing really well together!

Training

Certain things are really starting to gel.

• Focus and attention: As above, and we went to Monday night training and he was able to focus SO well that we actually trained--on a dropped leash, no less! He focused for a good 15 minutes. We worked mark-->send-->recall at about 30' and got some great speed on his sends and recalls! We worked on adding the criteria of eye contact to sitting in heel position. At home, there is nothing to look at so it's not an issue. At class, there are other dogs working! So we learned that heel position is for active attention. You can't just passively sit there and look around and expect cookies. If he looks away, I just step out of position, signaling that his opportunity for reinforcement has been lost. He caught on well and we worked on a release to look around on cue, but this is a lifelong exercise! We also worked on some mat work. I am SO pleased that even though he is so enthusiastic about FRIENDS he is quickly learning to ignore them and focus on work!

• Impulse control: We continued to advance this with hand touches and sits around cookies on the ground and recalls away from cookies on the ground. Added more duration on his station behavior.

• Nosework: Last week, he was doing a great job with IYC. This week, he really caught on to the "searching" portion! We worked containers and after about three days of doing containers, he figured out that it is about the ODOR and started actively searching rather than indicating on all containers. We are now up to 5 containers and he's doing a great job! I also love that he has a really nice, still nose-pointing indication. Ira does too, and I'm not sure if its something about teaching staying at odor in my hand the builds that because I didn't purposely teach it to either of them. I really thought I was going to have trouble with Otto smashing things with his paws because he's so paw-oriented, but nope. 

• Tricks!: Generalized Superdog to different locations. Started "peek" - stand between my legs with eye contact. He's got this as long as I toss a treat and turn. I want him to be able to find it from different angles, so we're working on that. Tricks like this are awesome for working obedience concepts without actually working obedience. I can teach the concept of finding a position in relation to me without screwing up my positions. And since he's between my legs, he'll be naturally straight!

• Obedience: This week we focused a lot on tuck sits. We worked on coming into pressure and tucking into a sit as foundation for fronts. I start this by sitting on the couch and having him come in between my knees and tuck in as close to me as possible. I added criteria of a tuck sit to the heel and side work I'm doing. I'm still luring him into position, but now he has to tuck in. Before I was just having him sit however and stepping into position myself. We also worked on his pivot bowl. He's getting stronger and more confident with this and we advanced to start pivoting at my side. We also advanced his stand-stay to have me standing and starting to take steps.