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.