It's been almost a month since my last update. Otto is now 6.5 months old and he is just perfect! He's really getting to be such a nice dog! He and Jun can be out together, though he gets a little excited and crazy still. She gets grumpy at him and he thinks it's hilarious to provoke her and then dodge out of the way of her teeth. Of course, I don't let it go too far. He's been so good in his crate lately, no barking when I'm at home and less barking when I'm gone. Now that teething is over, he's less bitey and will sometimes just sit on the couch with me for pets. He doesn't really understand cuddling yet though. He is getting to be a great little walking buddy! He walks nicely on a loose leash 90% of the time and we've begun doing neighborhood walks as the weather has gotten warmer. Yesterday he got to do a long line hike and stuck close and came when called. I even took him off leash a couple times. We are still learning how to respond to people and dogs in the environment, but his reactions have gotten less extreme. I need to do some more work with him in higher-population areas and on busy walking paths, but we're definitely getting there!
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Otto is in multiple different classes and training groups. He regularly comes to Monday night training with Jess, Lauren, Morgan, and Maureen. We've been doing more and more real obedience work at training night, and usually take the opportunity to work on CGC greetings. We're now at the stage where someone can walk up and touch him and he will hold his sit. He's also doing well at being somewhat polite when I release him to "say hi." Mostly, his feet stay on the floor, though his favorite greeting is still the gentle wrist bite (AKA mouth hug) and I love it so much, I won't correct it.
New this week, he is working off leash around other people and staying with me!
He graduated from Tuesday night puppy class! I'm sure if he understood that he would be sad that puppy playtime is done. I need to try to arrange more playdates for him as the weather warms up. He loved playtime and did a fantastic job recalling away from play! It was surprising to me, given how excited he gets about FRIEEEENDSSS how well he was able to settle and work while he waited for playtime, how well he recalled away from play, and how well he was able to settle after playtime. The dog is a social butterfly, but still has a brain and loves his work! His favorite friends were a litter of 13 week old PWDs that joined class the last week. We stayed an extra week to play with them again. He was like the ringleader of a gang of tiny Ottos! It was the cutest thing ever!
He started big boy obedience class and is in the Wednesday night class before Ira's. He's absolutely blowing me away with his progress on obedience! More on that below.
He also just started Friday night Sport Foundations. This class is new to me and I'm not sure exactly what it covers. I think a lot of agility foundations and other basic sport skills. Last week, the class worked on front and rear crosses with cones and start line stays and sends with buckets. Otto wraps a cone at home, but wasn't sure what to do at class, so we worked on generalizing his cone wrapping skills and adding distance to his send to a bucket.
Obedience-wise, we're in a stage where Otto is not necessarily learning many "new" things, but advancing known behaviors. It's crazy to me that we've hit that stage already. This week, we're focusing on down-from-stand. I decided I want this to be a fold-back down. We've been working on luring that motion for several months and in the past couple of weeks, I've made him responsible for initiating the movement himself and started adding a verbal cue "lie down." I am hoping to transition to a hand signal ASAP., as I loooove how well he is already responding to his sit-from-down signal. Ira took YEARS to get as much distance and reliability as Otto already has. With Ira, I made the mistake of adding in hand signals to his training far too late.
We're also working on fronts and so far I'm loving the results I'm getting with the method I'm using. Of course, fronts and finishes are a lifetime journey and never done, but I've added a cue already and Otto has shown a real knack for understanding concepts of "position in relation to me" so I think fronts will not be a terrible struggle with him.
We are nearing the end of the tooth journey! Otto's left canine resolved on its own and his right canine very nearly resolved, so he ended up only needing a very minor surgery to plane his gums so that the tooth is no longer hitting and digging into gum tissue. No orthodontics, no cutting down the tooth, and no extractions! I knew I named this boy Stroke of Luck for a reason! One more week of heeling and we can start working on retrieves and toy play in earnest and I can stop worrying about pain!
I absolutely adore this dog! I don't know how I lived without him for so long. He is good natured, friendly, sweet, funny, and smart with a great work ethic, lots of talent, and super handsome to boot! I truly lucked out with him!
