Otto at 25 Weeks

 I missed a week of documenting because I spent most of last week getting ready to put on an obedience/rally show last weekend. Otto attended his first dog show, and he was SUCH a champ! It was a lot of crate time. More than he's ever had to do in his life, and he was good and quiet. He was also able to walk through crowds of people and dogs and even did some really nice work! 

We didn't accomplish too much last week training wise. But this week has been great!

• Heeling - I couldn't put it off any longer, we're actually doing it! No platforms or boxes. Hell, not really any lures. He was BORN to do this! Just a few days in, he's giving me beautiful side-passes, backing up in heel, left turns, left pivots (moving his front end back AND his rear-end behind like it's the most natural thing in the world) and right pivots. He even gave a perfect left finish on his own, like "this is where I belong," Yes, buddy, yes it is!! 😍

• Down to sit on a signal. This is really coming along! He is responding correctly from two steps back. When he has this at 5', I will start working on his down-from-stand signal.

• We went to our first big boy obedience class--he is now a drop-in in the class before Ira's. The agenda was heeling and position changes, and he is not quite to the level of the other dogs, but the work he IS doing is very good! We also worked choose to heel in class and his heel position of choice is absolutely perfect, as well as dynamic and prancy. I just love this dog!

• Scent articles are absolutely no problem for him. He's working metal, leather, wood, and rubber; up to 15 articles at a time; mixed materials; and switching from one target material to another. 

• Stand-stay is looking great! I am now able to walk all the way around him and have introduced other proofing, like moving objects around him.

• We also checked of "find heel from two angles" on a box for the TEAM 1. We are also working on putting his back up on a verbal. So we really just need fronts and position changes. I need to get back to working fronts.

Otto at 23 Weeks

 This was our 11th week together, almost three months! I am so pleased with what we accomplished this week! We rocked the goals we set last week.

• Articles: Otto has been 100% on 6 metal articles, so I introduced wood. He had NO problems with wood and is working 7 wooden articles at 100%. I decided to mix substrates. He was 100% on 13 metal and wood when searching for a single substrate within a session. The next session, I started with metal and then switched to wood. That caused some confusion, so we need to work on this next week. I also introduced leather today. Leather was harder, but he got it and was working 6 articles by the end of the session.

• Hold: I am SO proud of what we accomplished on this behavior in one week. We have a solid one-second, independent, quiet hold on a PVC pipe. I am going to put this away now until his teeth are done coming in.

• Down to Sit on signal: It took most of the week for him to pick up on the hand signal without a food lure. Now he's sort of got it. Today, he was anticipating the hand signal and just popping up into his sit. It's all a part of the learning process. I am really liking beginning this behavior on a hand signal only. A year from now his mind won't be blown when I try to switch cues on him

• Sit at a distance: He really seems to have this down! I was able to add more distance, vary direction, and I'm not getting any steps forward. He is anticipating the game though, and sitting as soon as he eats the treat, not necessarily on my cue.

• He was great again in puppy class. We worked on sit-stay. Today we worked sit-stay at home and we got up to 20 seconds.

Our official goals by 1 year old are the CGC and I think I might also go for a TEAM 1. With the CGC, the hard part will be polite greetings, but we are working on this every opportunity we get. It will also be difficult to do the test without treats. 

For TEAM 1, we have a really good start on all of the behaviors!

• 10 second engagement and 180 pivot ✔ 
• Find heel from two angles: this can be done either on a pivot bowl in a stand position or on a box in a sit. He can already do it on the pivot bowl, but I want to do it on the box. We need to clean this up. He's good about sitting on his box, but is not always straight.
• Find front from two angles: again can be done on a pivot bowl or box. We're still working on the pivot bowl and have not started the box work in front yet.
• Position changes: sit and down from 5': They can be done on a platform in any order. I would like them to be stand-->down-->sit on signals, so we have a ways to go on this one
• Back up two feet: We have the behavior, just need to get it on cue
• Send to vertical target from 5 feet ✔
• Jump: he's not old enough yet, but this is easy--just going over a jump that is 1/3 of his height
• Go around an object from 5 feet ✔
• Scent articles: find the correct article out of three  ✔
• Stay with release: sit or down stay while handler places a treat 5-10' away and returns to heel, after two seconds, goes on release. ✔

Goals for next week:

• Progress scent articles: mixed substrates, adding distance that I am from the pile
• Continue working sit signal.
• See if he can do a fold-back down with 4 stationary feet and start luring that more. That will be the next signal I work on.
• Keep working fronts and finishes.
• Add a cue to back-up