Otto at 22 Weeks

 We had a slower week this week. Otto rocked puppy class Week 3! We are getting to a point where certain exercises need to be advanced, but we're not quite ready to advance them, and others aren't quite ready to be started. 

• We started scent articles last week and he is now confidently searching among six articles with 100% accuracy! 
• His spin is nearly on a verbal. I've just about faded the hand signal. Right now all he needs is a little finger-flick.
• Sit at a distance is coming along slowly. We're working with a barrier. I think the lie down will be easier.
• Play ball retrieves for food. We are doing ball therapy to try to get his adult canines to sit in the right spot as they come in. 
• I think his mouth is at a place where he may be ready to start learning a shaped hold. We may give that another try this week.
• Sit-stay and Stand-stay. We've been able to get a stand-stay walk-around this week! I guess I can start proofing that stand-stay harder. I'm really anxious to start working more on his positions, but physically he's not quite there yet. I've started working on his tuck sit with front feet on a 1x4 board and his back feet are just so sloppy. I need to figure out what he's doing mechanically without the board because his sits look good to me on their own. He has a tendency to sit crooked that I think is more related to building strength and coordination than anything. I started luring the fold-back down and stand-from down. When he was younger, he always needed to move a front foot on the stand. Now he is able to stand with all feet planted. I could start working on his sit from down. 

Ok, I think I'm organized for the week ahead. 

Otto at 21 Weeks

Otto is 19.5" and 28lb, 10oz! On Tuesday his puppy harness fit. On Thursday it didn't. Where did this big dog come from and what happened to my tiny puppy?!

We gave a full groom a whirl this week. Bath, blow-dry, some scissoring. It went FAR better than our last attempt, having taken the past month to do some desensitization with the blow drier. He was trooper! This week, we've been working every day on laying on his side on the grooming table, which he understandably finds kind of scary. Yesterday I was able to get him to lay on both sides on the table for brushing. I am hopeful that with continued practice he'll be able to relax on his side while I blow dry him. We've also been working every day on putting bands in his topknot. He's gotten pretty good at keeping his head on a pillow while I brush and part and mess with his hair, but putting the band in is still challenging for some reason. 

Puppy class went WAY better this week! On Saturday we practiced with Otto's friend Everest at his house. We had a training-and-play-date and worked on focusing around another puppy, LLW past another puppy, etc. They also played together really nicely. 

For our class we switched to the earlier class with bigger puppies in it. Otto acted like I had done some training with him a time or two, so that was nice! He recalled past puppies, he recalled away from play, and he LLW through the entire group! Big improvement! He mostly remembered on his own to focus on me. He also had a much better time playing with this group, and we even one of the less rambunctious ones. He's so cute how he flirts with other puppies by licking their faces.

We went to a hunt test! I went to watch and Otto went to listen to gunfire. He was completely un-phased by it, so that was great! The friend who invited me encouraged me to enter him in the puppy stakes, but considering I haven't worked on retrieving with him like at all, and haven't paired retrieving with gunfire, we decided not to embarrass ourselves. It was fun to watch though! I am looking forward to teething being over and snow being gone so we can really start to work on hunting-related skills.

In the continued adventure of integrating the dogs, Jun and Otto trained TOGETHER! Otto worked on sitting on his station while Jun worked, and he was mostly great! By his third time returning to his station he could no longer contain his wiggling and wiggled right off of it! Jun did a great job ignoring him!

This week, we worked on:

• Marking an empty target on cue and distinguishing between mark and attention cues.

• Pivot platform fronts and finishes. I love this drill for teaching straightness on fronts and distinguishing between fronts and finishes, and he picked right up on it! Next step is to my myself closer to the platform for fronts. 

• We continued to work on finding heel position on a sit platform.

• We worked on a bounce-touch for solid/square sits and increased energy/engagement. He has gone from not really enjoying or being enthusiastic about hand touches to loving them! He's different from the border collies in that way. They are fast-twitch about everything. They do everything with enthusiasm and energy whether they understand what they're doing or not. Otto can be slower at first, and I usually panic, worried about him shutting down on me or that this is the "poodles can't handle repetition" that I have always heard about. My breeder suggested that maybe he just didn't "get" hand touches, like maybe he thought there was more he should be doing. I think she was right. He's very much a thinker and I feel like he can be slow with things while he is thinking them through, figuring them out, putting all the pieces in place, and then his enthusiasm picks up with his level of understanding. 

• Added distance to his nose-touch to stanchion. Another nose touch behavior and he really seems to enjoy booping the stanchion with his nose. He's more enthusiastic about this than I had expected.

• We started working on a cued "spin" because I got bored of working other stuff and he needs more tricks. I lured this, because Ira's shaped spin is atrocious and more of a pivot on his front and whip his butt into things kind of move. I am working on fading my lure and adding a verbal. It's going ok, but it's slow, which is why I don't usually train like this. He's started to sometimes offer a little head turn on the verbal.

• We worked on nosework every day and worked on spreading out the containers and putting them in different places. It's coming along!

• We started scent articles!! Since I have the concepts of sustained nose touch and searching for odor from nosework, this is coming super easily and he's already starting to catch on to what pays! I love shaping articles!

• We started working on sit out of motion at a distance. I am tossing a treat, waiting for him to eat it, and calling a sit. He should not move after I call the sit. We are still working pretty close up, and have only done one session on this, but it's going well. I will focus more on this next week.

Otto at 20 Weeks

 The most exciting happening of the week....the dogs are fully integrated! No more sheets over the ex pen! Of course, Jun is still her bitchy, guardy self and takes every opportunity to throw her chin over his back and growl if he gets within 3' of her. And Ira is still his weird self and chooses to spend most of his time in his crate. But I can now do things like let two dogs walk from the car to the house together! We'll see if they ever develop any more relationship that mere (mostly) peaceful co-existence, but I am fine with what we have.

The first picture of Otto with either of his siblings!

It's been a really cool training week! I've introduced a lot of big boy concepts, like stimulus control, cue discrimination and intervals/chaining! 

Cue discrimination: He has several behaviors somewhat on a verbal (sit, settle, touch, peek, superdog) so we started working on mixing up those cues and learning that you have to listen to the word I am saying. Touch and peek are easy, because there is body language associated with them. Sit and settle get mixed up a lot, which is completely expected at this stage. All I want is for him to start to learn that all of his tricks can be mixed up together and he has to listen to know which one will pay.

Intervals/chaining: The concept of having to do more than one behavior before getting a reward and that if you don't get a reward after one behavior it doesn't mean you were wrong. Within the cue discrimination game, sometimes I will ask for more than one trick before I pay, simple as that.   

Stimulus control: Doing the behavior only when I ask for it and only on the cue for that behavior. So this has two parts. First, I have introduced nonsense words. In his sit-out-of-motion exercise, I will also say random words that he hasn't been taught, and he should only sit when he hears "sit." At first he would sit when I would say anything, but he caught onto this really quickly! 

Cute story: I was saying random words and had moved onto colors. I said "blue" and he kept following me, I said "yellow" and he stopped dead in his tracks and gave me the funniest look. I couldn't figure out why he had such a reaction to the word "yellow" and later I realized that "yellow" was one of his sisters! So it was definitely a word he had heard before.

The other part of stimulus control is "do the behavior ONLY when cued" and I hate teaching this because it inevitable results in some confusion at first and I don't like to confuse my dogs. Maybe there is a better way to teach it without confusion, I should think about that. I am using my foot target, called "step." So, once Otto is consistently offering the foot target, I name it, and after a bunch of repetitions, once he is consistently "responding" to the cue, I wait and don't give the cue. Of course, he goes to the target because that is the behavior we are working on. If I did nothing, he would probably offer other behaviors on the target, come back to me and go to the target multiple times, before getting frustrated and just laying down or something. I like to help my dogs a bit more than that though while they are learning this concept. When he goes to the target uncued, I will talk him through it "ope, I didn't ask for that! come'on bud," call him back to me, reward near me and when he offers eye contact I will give him his cue. Once the dog gets this, they really, really get the idea of performing behaviors on cue and it makes their behaviors so much stronger! 

Otto started puppy class this week, finally! He was.....a challenge. He's gotten really good at ignoring (pretending to ignore) people and dogs in public and focusing on me, but four other puppies in a small room was just way too big a jump for him. We worked outside the ring for half the class and were able to move into the ring by the end, but it was literally constant work to maintain his focus. The class includes playtime, but all the other puppies were younger and smaller than he was, so they weren't really feeling his vibe. I emailed the instructor and next week we're going to the later class, with puppies that are closer to his size: a golden, lab, boxer, and doodle. We have 5 weeks left of puppy class and then I am hoping we'll get off the waiting list for Sports Foundation.

First attempt at puppy horns

 We worked on SO MUCH this week:

• Back-up: up to 8 continuous steps and I have put it away while I decide what to do with it. I don't really use it for anything, so I'm not sure what my cue or criteria should be.

• Cooperative Care: We worked on this a LOT. We worked "flat" on both sides and moved it to the grooming table, which he doesn't really care for and I don't blame him. It's small, and I'd certainly be worried about falling off. But we're getting there. We worked on "pillow" which is resting his head on a pillow while I mess with his topknot and ears. He got the basic behavior, including duration, in about 10 seconds. Adding in my using both hands to comb his hair and such has taken a little more work, but as you can see above, he actually let me put ponytails in and I was so impressed! His hair is hanging in his eyes terribly these days, so this is an important skill. We also worked on using his chin rest for a practical purpose, which is resting his chin one one hand while I use the other hand to mess with his head.

• Foot target: Cue "step." Worked on a lot of stuff with this. Adding distance to the send, stimulus control as described above, and working on marking a target that doesn't have food on it and distinguishing between eye contact, mark, and send. We just started this, so I will get video next week, but my hope is he will have a far better mark than Ira does and will give me a sustained look at a target on cue. Once we have this down with one foot target, I'll add multiple and that will be the beginning of a directed retrieve.

• Sit on a platform: All I wanted was to teach him to tuck sit on a platform and he ended up basically giving me left finishes on his own, so....ok!! We also started working on his sit-stay this week, and worked up to a walk-around-to-heel.

•  Nose touch to a stanchion: for go-outs

Otto at 19 weeks

Socialization/focus/outings:

• Long line hike to a bridge. Worked a couple of recalls. He still mostly tends to stay within the distance of the 30' long line. I'm sure that will change. But he recalled very nicely!

• Trip to the dog-friendly art store. In which I learned that he will pick things up off the floor before I even see them. Time to work on our leave-it. I also learned that while he can walk calmly past people, if I stop to talk to anyone he gets very upset that they are paying attention to me and not to HIM. Note to self: make up more questions to ask employees.
• A walk around the block. I wanted to see what he would do on a walk if I wasn't feeding him much. He tends to heel if I'm feeding, which is great, but I also want him to able to just walk and look around. He maintained his loose leash walking pretty nicely until we got back to our driveway and he "knew where we were going." So that was a nice teaching moment. Even if you know where we're going, we still have to go together. He did look around more, but also still spent a good amount of time walking in heel or side or behind me.

Training wise switched gears this week and worked on a couple of new things!

• Put your head in a loop. I got tired of collars ending up in his mouth when I try to slip them over his head, so we worked on the behavior of him offering to put his head through the loop. 

• Down on side for cooperative care. I would like him to lie down on his grooming table for brushing and drying, including lying on his side (saw this in a video---wow, I have a lot to learn about grooming!). We worked on the cue "flat." I started with a lure and transitioned to the verbal + tactile cue (my hand on the side of neck, which will tell him which side to lie on. We started adding duration and proofing. Next week: get out the brush and blow drier on low.

• Back up. We started this last week and have made a ton of progress! Today he offered 6 continuous steps! We're working with a wall on his left because that's the only side he tends to get off track. I need a cue for this. It can't be "back" because that's a hunting cue I plan to use. I also need to figure out what my cue means. 

• Retrieves! Otto still doesn't really do toys, although he did a bit more this week. Hopefully teething is getting to a point where his mouth is more comfortable. He still has that canine that's hitting the roof of his mouth though. A couple more weeks until his dental appointment. In the mean time, I have been using his object-stealing powers for good and encouraging him to bring the objects back to me for a treat. He's picking up on this and enjoying it! No behavior is required other than carrying the object to me. And I've even been able to toss objects for multiple retrieves. This week he retrieved: shoes, boots, the end of a carrot, a sponge, a small leather piece, a mesh bag of scent articles. I'm hoping he decides that bringing things to me for a treat is a better game than running off with things.

• Moving Chin Rest. Broke out the chin rest for the first time in ages and added following me while I back up with his chin in my palm. It was kind of funny, he was having trouble finding the chin rest at first and I thought I'd need to re-teach it. Then I realized that I was offering my hand where I had offered it when he was 3" shorter!

• Stationing. Stillness (mine) is always the hardest thing to proof a stay with for an operant dog. We have worked up 8 second reliable and 12 seconds max of stillness. I can walk all the over the place and he will stay. I changed the mat to a stationing behavior in a down rather than a foot target and transitioned his foot target over to a round piece of plastic, which made complete sense to him, as his pivot bowl is basically a round foot target. We are working on distance and duration with that.

Just Otto Things: Gosh, he is delightful! This morning he followed me around the house while I cleaned. He tried to steal my sponge while I was cleaning the bathroom and eventually got it. Then he brought it back to me for treats! He is just fun and happy and joy!

Otto at 18 Weeks

 Otto is 18 weeks old and weighs 24 pounds. We had a great week, full of holiday fun! 

Socialization

Otto came with to all of the holiday celebrations! Elo used to be my "family get-together" dog, except when family get-togethers included other dogs. Otto gets along with everyone, and I'm working hard to keep it that way, and also teach him manners and self-control, so the world will be even more open to him!

• Christmas Eve met labs Lola and Harper and lots of different people, ran around like crazy@. Next year he probably won't fit behind the Christmas tree!
• Christmas Day. This was a good experience for him because it was at a church building, so new kind of place, new sounds, sights, smells. He met Payley the mutt who had a different play style than he was used to. He also got to experience lots of little kids running around! Everything was very exciting! Both days we had free play time and also worked on settling on a leash at my feet while I did other things.
• We took a night walk around the neighborhood on a long line one night that it was snowing. He had a blast!
• He went to a brand new training building and after taking a little time to settle in and learn that we were not there to play with people and dogs he worked really well for me! As well as he does at home. Its.....kind of crazy.
• Trip to Chuck and Dons' (pet store) to work on focus. He was spooking at endcap displays for some weird reason, which is something I haven't seen from him before. We just didn't make a big deal out of it. He did a great job with focus and attention and we worked his sits.

Training

We are advancing everything and adding new things. I have started so much with him sometimes it's hard to figure out what to work on.

• 2on/2off on a board. I didn't really have a goal working on this or know what I was working towards, and it showed. I'm not necessarily training for agility. I thought he might offer backing up to the board and I could use it to teach a back up. But no such luck. He did get the concept of putting his back feet on. He definitely picks up on it when I don't have a plan and it shows in his effort. 
• Shaped back up. I've really been unsure how to start backing up with him. He did start to offer it back in our very first shaping session, but I never continued. I did some luring, but I don't love that. He wasn't getting the idea of stepping his back feet up to a target and I've never really figure out how to use that method well. Finally I decided to just shape it and of course that's working really nicely. We are a few sessions in and he's getting it!
• We progressed his nosework to 5 containers, which he is rocking. We started working on "I'm the only only" which is "hiding" just the one container with the scent in it. He's less confident with this game. I have not really done many treat-finding games with him, like I did with my other dogs long before they began searching for odor. I should go back to some of that.
• Stationing. We progressed duration with my movement including walking around behind him. Of course, like all of my dogs (all operant dogs taught with shaping, I think) he has the most trouble settling into his stay when I am doing nothing. He thinks he should be offering a new behavior, so I am working on slowly building this up and I use a very specific posture, weight on one leg, arms folded, looking above his head. 
• Added a second cone to his "loop" behavior and asking him to sometimes loop two cones before a reward. He doesn't quite get it yet, but he's doing it. 
• "Peek" trick - he can find it from the front! I love it, it's adorable! He picked up on this so quickly!
• Sits out of Motion. We started this this week and he really likes this game! 
• Added a cue to his down. Calling it "settle." This will just be "lie down however." I don't care how he gets there.
• Advanced his stand-stay to me standing and moving.