Otto at 9 Months and our Retrieving Journey

 

Otto doesn't really have a retrieve. Or so I have said repeatedly over the past 5 months. 

What I meant was, Otto doesn't play "fetch" like my border collies. My experience, up to this point, has been with dogs that either play fetch (anytime, anywhere, as long as someone will throw the toy--Lok, Jun, and Ira) or don't play fetch (Elo--unless it was with a baseball that he found himself at the park, or occasionally in the basement when he felt like it). My attempts to build a fetch game with Elo utterly failed. He would turn his head as if he did not see either me or the toy I was attempting to engage him with and ignore me until I gave up. 

As a disc dogger, I have always felt I was pretty proficient in training the various aspects of a game of fetch, and my dogs who have played fetch automatically from the moment they came home had aspects of the game that they needed training on: releasing the toy on cue, carrying the toy until given a verbal drop cue, switching to another toy.  What they haven't needed work on was being interested in toys to begin with, picking up the toy, or bringing it back to me.

"Otto doesn't really have a retrieve," I told multiple people, with some level of embarrassment. And I could feel their judgment, probably all in my head, but I could feel it nonetheless. After all, he's a retriever. A poodle. He's supposed to retrieve more or less automatically.  He's supposed to want to run after the thrown ball, pick it up, and bring it back to me. And I'm a dog trainer. I'm supposed to be able to get my dog to retrieve. And his parents and siblings are retrieving fools.

At 12 weeks, he would run after a toy, and bring it back to me to chew in my lap. He would tug, sometimes, but not with a ton of enthusiasm and not with just any toy. I set about "working on his play skills" with the games that are supposed to work. Games of two-toy, cheering him on when he tugs, or brings the toy back, letting him win. It was a bust. By 15 weeks, he wasn't playing at all. He turned up his nose at almost any toy. He refused to pick up a ball. Occasionally he would paly fetch with a piece of trash or some "forbidden" item. Mostly when I could get him to play with a tug toy, he would just roll on his back and bat at the toy like a cat. Amusing, but not really what I was hoping for in my sport dog.

I told myself his mouth was hurting, and I mostly believed it. He was teething. And he had a base narrow canine hitting the roof of his mouth. I told other people his mouth was hurting, and they raised an eyebrow. And I truly wondered if I was just making excuses for him. And then, the day after he lost the offensive canine, at around 6 months old, he started to pick up balls for fun, and I started to feel a little vindicated.

Since then, and since his adult teeth have come in and resolved themselves (with the help of a minor oral surgery) his interest in toys has grown. He tugs now, he enjoys balls and frisbees, and he has started to simply carry things around in his mouth like his other siblings do. 

But I have continued to lament that he doesn't have a retrieve. He doesn't play fetch. And it's not that he NEEDS to play fetch. But if he enjoyed it, it would make his obedience and potential hunting career a lot more fun for him. I scoured hunting resources for how to teach a dog to enjoy fetching and came up empty.

And then, a couple weeks ago, I remembered that I am a disc dogger. I have these skills.

I had given up on using the techniques I know to build his play skills because his interest in toys was simply not high enough for them to work. He is also a sensitive dog and "cheerleading" him is perceived as pressure and he will shut down. BUT now he has enough interest in toys that maaaaybe I can teach him some different ways to play, and that they are fun! 

First off, I brought back two-toy, and it was an instant success. He tends to value possession and he likes to take his toy and go lay down with it. But if I have an identical toy and play with it on my own, he seems to think that the toy I have might be more interesting than the one he has, and he wants it. So that has been somewhat successful. He's shown sustained interest in playing disc with a second identical disc to lure him back to me.

The second game I've used is called "tiny tugs." Rather than a long drawn-out game of tug, and letting him win, I give a tiny tug on the toy, let go, and back up. He follows me, and I repeat. This has been teaching him to drive to me with the toy for the fun to continue, and since there's no long, drawn-out fight for the toy, he doesn't feel he's "won" it and feel the need to take it and go off by himself.

 Thirdly, it occurred to me that chasing (preferably being the chasee, but being the chaser is a close second) is SUPER high value for him. I took him out with a single disc the other day, and when he'd pick it up, I RUN, sometimes just in a straight line back and sometimes all around the yard. When I stopped running, he'd come to me with the disc and release it for another throw. This is the closest he's gotten to a real game of fetch! I've also been doing the same when working his trained bumper retrieves and it's increased the enthusiasm of his return.

Finally, picking up a "dead" (i.e. still/motionless) toy (or bird, which is also literally dead) has been a struggle. But stealing things is also SUPER high value for him. So I've started playing a game of "race me to the bumper." If I get there first, I get it. If he gets there first, he gets it, and so far I have to "let" him win, but still, it seems to be showing promise. He is starting to drive to the bumper with a lot more enthusiasm! 

 I don't know if he will become a dog who places a high value on a game of "fetch," but he's certainly come a long way in literally two weeks. If he had persisted in not valuing toys, despite resolution of his mouth pain, I don't know where we would end up. But luckily his interest in toys has grown naturally, and hopefully I can continue to shape it into a cooperative partnership that he will find more fun than laying down with his toy. 

As far as the rest, Otto continues to blow me away! 

Obedience: 

• Otto is sending to a dumbbell at 10-15', picking up, and returning to me with a quiet mouth. He can sit with the dumbbell in his mouth. We haven't introduced a front with it.
• He has both down-from-stand, and sit-from down on signals only at 10-15' and I've started introducing doing both, one, after the other.
• He has a great moving down with the "follow the food" game, and I've been able to build up to a fast walking speed. He is also doing really well with his moving sit, but we've had that for awhile.
• His heeling is super cute and precise. Endurance is our main struggle with that. I've found that he enjoys trotting after me while I run backwards, so we will use that to help build up some endurance for the head-up position he needs for heeling.
• He's a sent article whiz, with 100% accuracy on mixed articles (no retrieve yet) in all kinds of environments.
• We've started baby directed jumping with cones. 
• He marks and sends to a stanchion at 10-15'
• He marks and sends to a food target at 20 yards
• His sit at a distance is getting there at about 6'
• His front is really coming along, even from extreme angles, and he understands side-passing and pivoting in front position

All in all, he has tiny pieces of almost everything he needs for his obedience career.  He's also in an agility foundations class and he just amazes me every week. We're doing wrapping cones with front and rear crosses, sends through hoops to foot targets, turning on narrow boards, and all kind of other stuff. He just seems to get it, and it's so fun!

Finally, we took a hunting seminar this month. As I note above, he "doesn't have a retrieve" so what we did in class didn't look a whole lot like bird dog work. BUT, it was awesome exposure! He got to hear a lot of gunfire and was unphased. He worked on focus in a hugely distracting environment. He got to pick up both long-dead and freshly killed ducks and run with them in his mouth. He got to practice looking at a mark thrown by another person. It was a great start and we both learned so much!

Otto at 6 Months

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! 

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!

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

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.

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.

Otto's 4th Week

 Otto is 16 weeks old and we've been together for an official month! We had a really great week! 

Housetraining

Perfect week! Gold star! 

Socialization

It was a COLD week here in the frozen north. Not as cold as it's going to get, but colder than it's been. Too cold for bare-fingered treat dispensing for the most part. But we still put in work! On Saturday we went to a friend's hobby farm to look at big animals and birds-not-for-chasing (chickens) and other farm stuff. Otto thought it was great! He was pretty suspicious of the pigs, who were big and moved fast. He didn't mind the cows until they started moving. By the end, we walked past both of their pens without any issues.

Sunday we took out first indoor field trip to Home Depot! Otto was a champ at ignoring people and focusing on me! He tries SO hard! He sees a person and gets excited, but then whips his head back to me with a full-body wiggle! It's adorable! He also climbed on, around, over, and through a bunch of things laying in the aisles.

Monday was class night and we worked attention, loose-leash walking, recall, and tuck sits with human and canine distractions. He rocked it! He attempted to play with Koolie puppy Vivid, who was still a little bit scared of him, but got to play with big Koolie Pan instead!

Tuesday we didn't go anywhere, but he met Jun in the yard for the second time. She ignored him. Works for me. 

Wednesday we went for a walk around the block. We haven't done much walking in our neighborhood yet, so it was very exciting! We walked past a dog that barked at him and he did great pulling himself together and walking past with focus! I like to use a "follow" cue for these situations ( follow me as I walk backwards) rather than having the dog walk beside me. Easier for them to stay focused. We also went to class and worked on quiet in a crate, which was not as successful as last week because now he has FRIENDS at class! At the end of class, we worked restrained recalls and then my so-called "obedience friends" encouraged all kinds of naughtiness and he just ran from person to person getting treats and loves. He had a great time! 

Thursday we hosted a playdate with a lab puppy, Cedar, we tried to play with over the weekend. Cedar was too scared to play on Saturday, but we tried again and he brought his big sis Arrow along for confidence. Otto enjoyed playing with Arrow and even convinced Cedar to warm up to him after awhile! 

Manners

We had a couple of really great days with excellent crate and pen manners. Others were harder. He's doing great with quiet during his daily crate time. He goes in his crate for 1-2 hours a day, either while I'm home or when I go out for a bit. This week we've had no barking, maybe because I left his crate covered like I do for bedtime. Pen time has been mixed. He is getting more active and wants to be out with everyone else, but when he's out he spends all his time being naughty, so loose time is only under strict supervision.

We are working on quiet while I do things with the other dogs. This week he's been much better about quiet in his pen while I take the other dogs out to play frisbee. Just a little barking before he stops. Going to the basement is still tough. Training the dogs upstairs in front of his pen started to be tough this week. Especially his "best friend" Ira. He just can't stand that Ira is having fun and he's not! 

He learned about staying on the deck, while I go in and out the gate to the back yard. In general, he's so polite with thresholds and waiting for release. He needs reminders in his car crate, but otherwise waits for the ok to leave any confinement. I hate door bolting more than anything, so we're putting in the work up front on this!

He is mostly a good, good puppy, doing a good job learning patience and waiting!

Training

His focus and stamina for work amazes me! He's like the energizer bunny, he just keeps going and going! "Wearing him out" with mental exercise just doesn't happen. 

This week we focused on:

• Attention and focus. Always.

• Marking - this will be a crucial skill for his future sports of obedience and hunting and for some reason it makes me super nervous to teach, even though it is simple. Put a reinforcer out, send while they're looking at it. Gah! But Ira is a terrible marker and so I'm worried I'll screw it up. However, Otto is not a herding dog and has completely different tendencies. It's going much better this time. He's finding his target on the word "mark" and running to get his cookies!

• Wrapping a cone. We added a cue "loop" and he is really gaining confidence with this behavior and gaining speed as he does! He seems to be having fun with it!

• We played around more with luring a tuck sit and that's coming along nicely. I broke down and decided to teach "sit" (put your butt on the ground) and not worry too much about how he gets into a sit. I will continue to work on building good sit mechanics and hopefully they will transfer over. And eventually his tuck sit will be on a different cue if needed. I first tried to capture/shape a sit but was getting too much extraneous behavior, so I went to luring it, and faded the lure to an empty hand, and then just the verbal. We've only had a couple of sessions, so this is nowhere near fluent, but coming along. This is another cue I get overwhelmed with because in theory it's so simple (every dog knows how to sit, right?) but in practice I need a dog who sits instantly on the first cue regardless of his position in relation to me. So much to mess up! Also another cue that past dogs have had trouble with (I'm looking at you, Lok). But Lok was a very "sticky" border collie and I'm a much better trainer now. So....I need to just get over it.

• Ball pick-up. I successfully shaped a pick-up from the floor with a tennis ball. We had been having a pretty tough time getting mouth-related behaviors. Part of this is, he tends to lie down a lot and then when he's lying down he doesn't necessarily re-offer what I want. So I got him out of that by tossing treats for each rep (kudos to Jo Laurens' method in Force-Free Gundog Training) and then we worked a HIGH ROR and high number of reps to fluence at each step on looking, nose-touching, mouth-open touch, partial bite, full-mouth bite, and finally the lift. I revisited this behavior because he's supposed to be doing ball therapy for a maloccluded canine and he's just not into balls at this point, as a play object. But I don't think I'm going to continue. A) Per google research, ball therapy doesn't work on baby teeth, it should be done while the adult canine is erupting, B) the divot in his mouth is so deep I worry I'll do more damage if the tooth shifts a tiny bit but not fully to where it needs to be, C) he needs to carry the ball for 15 minutes 3x/day to have an effect and there's no way I'm going to get that kind of duration in such a short period of time without building all sorts of undesirable behaviors into his shaped retrieve. I will leave this here until we move to bumper and dumbbell retrieves

• Superdog! His first trick! Sat down for a free-shaping session and that's just what he offered me. 

• Its Yer Choice with odor. Step 1: tin in one hand, cookies in the other. Step 2: tin on the ground. His first scent work! He's learning that the odor pays! I love teaching nosework as a foundational step to obedience scent discrimination and also as a fun activity to burn energy in the winter months.

• He's starting to like the hand touch more! I've been just asking for a few reps here and there and not pushing it. I really started to notice a difference in his enthusiasm when I added a level of difficulty by adding hand touches into his impulse control work. He has to leave the food on the floor to do a hand touch. So, as always, making the behavior harder is making it stronger.

Goals: take marking outside/build distance, generalize "sit" to different locations, work duration on stationing, progress nosework exercises.

Otto's Third Week

We are really getting into a grove here at Casa De Misfit Dogs! We have a good routine. There is less screaming. Otto is really picking up on how things work here and how to be a patient puppy! He had his 15-week shots and weighed in at 20.2lb. I swear I put him in his pen for a nap and when he woke up his nose had grown an inch! I moved him from a 24" crate in the car to the variocage and he now sleeps in a 36" crate!

Our third week together focused on getting outside and working focus and attention! We did not do as much with training fun behaviors, but we did make some progress on a few things. We took lots and lots of field trips! 

I was a little alarmed when he first came home by his BIG reactions to dogs and people out and about, staring and barking/boofing even at people 100 yards away. Turns out I needn't have worried. We got on that behavior fast and he is VERY quickly learning alternate behaviors for dealing with things out and about. 

He has quickly caught onto a "look" cue (Leslie McDevitt's "Look At That" game) so I am now able to cue and reinforce looking at distractions in his environment that might otherwise surprise him. He's really good at this game and the time he needs to process what he is seeing is decreasing.

We've also been working on auto-reorienting. In other words, people, dogs, and other "things" in the environment are cues to look back at mom rather than cues to stare and escalate arousal. Again, he is doing GREAT with this. On one outing he saw the first person before I did and quickly snapped his attention to me! I had to look around to see what had cued him. 

We worked: 

• In the yard (Otto big, tough, guard dog!)
• A spot in the neighborhood adjacent to a walking path
• At Monday night training (worked around other people he did not get to greet and focused around another dog working)
• At the gym, watching people doing all kinds of crazy stuff
• At a park
• In the grocery store parking lot (at the back the first day, and worked up to the sidewalk on day 2)
• At a different park on a walk with Stafford puppy friend Cicely
• At Wednesday night training (barked at his new friends until they got down on his level, but they were close and staring at him, so that was a tough one)
• On a walking path with Terv friend Nova (joggers and bikers!)

I'm super, super happy with how his focus is coming along and how well he's learning to handle all the exciting things in the environment.

Otto and Cicely. Photo credit: Laura McKinney

Housetraining

The momma has been trained! If one thinks "maybe I should take the puppy out"....one takes the puppy out. One does not justify that he "should" be fine because he was just out fifteen minutes ago. 

Otto apparently decided that litter boxes are for babies and so that thing in his pen must be a weird kind of bed/chewing station. So we no longer have a litter box. 

Socialization

Daily outings, as described above. We had a nice reprieve from winter here in Minnesota (temps in the mid 30s or above) since Otto came home, but we are about to enter the deep, cold, dark. I will be keeping up as best I can and hoping I only lose a couple fingers to frostbite. Luckily, Otto will soon be able to go to indoor locations to work.

Things (weird sculptures, workout equipment), noises (dropping barbells, dropping stuff in the kitchen, loud music, shaking open a garbage bag), surfaces, obstacles, all continue to pass without notice or with happy, curious interest. So confident! 

Goal for this week: A trip to Home Depot, a trip to a farm, a trip downtown.

Manners

He's so good! This week I've been able to go to "the fun places" (outside and the basement) without him with....less....freaking out. He came to Wednesday night class to hang out in a crate, and he was quiet the whole time, even while I worked Jun! Good boy!

Training

This week we focused on:

• Focus and attention, as described above
• Recalls and cued collar grab (put your collar in my hand)
• Shaping rear foot movement on a pivot disc. What a super-star!
• Go to mat - I still have not managed to turn a camera on for this. Right now I'm teaching his mat as more of just a foot target. No particular behavior is expected on the mat. I just want him to run to it with enthusiasm. And since he LOVES slapping things with his paws, he thinks this game is great! I'm working on both send AWAY from me, and stopping on the mat on the mat while running back TOWARDS me (foundational concept for drop-on-recall).
• Release cue: worked on adding some duration with my movement to his crate behavior. It's so cute, when he self-releases he corrects himself and goes right back in. Worked on stationary duration on his pet cot (up to 10 second).
•  Nose touch. This is my most interesting challenge with him so far. This week we worked on a nose touch to an electrical plate instead of my hand to see if he would be more into it. My training mechanics are atrocious, so no video, lol. My click timing is bad and he really wants to get his paws in there and I keep accidentally clicking paw movements. He's only offering me super light nose contact and sometimes it's hard to tell if he even made contact or not. I will keep puzzling through this one. I have an idea of teaching him to put his nose in a little nose-sized box attached to my target with duration and then cutting down the box over time. Do I NEED a nose touch? No, but I like a sustained nose touch for scent indication. And if I can get a sustained nose touch to my hand, that will help with retrieve to hand. 
• Stationing. Introduced the pet cot and the idea of a required position on a station (a down). Adding a cue "place."
• Added distance and varied my position on his kennel sends. 
• Worked on luring tuck sit.
• I did not get around to playing with scent. Next week, hopefully.

Goals for next week: Introduce stimulus control, now that he has at least one verbal (kennel send only pays when I say "kennel."). Add duration to stationing. To teach a sit or not teach a sit (yet), that is the question.....

Play Skills

Fave toys this week were mostly trash and recycling, haha! But he's getting a super nice trash retrieve and learning about reusing and recycling! 

Grooming

Face done, ears cleaned, brushing done a couple times, feet....(why do his nails grow SO fast?!)...check and check. One of these days he should get a bath.

Hunting

The most anticipated event of the week! My sweet puppy is a mighty hunter! I introduced him to live pigeons and he took to them right away. Feathers are tasty, tasty snacks! This is totally new to me, so I am doing tons of research to try to educate myself. Currently reading "Force-Free Gundog Training" by Jo Laurens, and really enjoying it.

Just Otto Things

He is an absolute joy and makes me laugh! His first priority in the morning is cuddles and he will cuddle as long as I let him. This dog LOVES physical contact and personal play. We end every training session with personal play. He loves to have his neck and back scratched and will droop his head down, his nose just about touching the ground and just stand to be scratched. He loves having his belly scratched/rubbed. Basically, the dog just loves being doted upon. 

Sometimes in the house or the yard or on walks, he just stops and stares at me. I have no idea what he's thinking or waiting for.

He REALLY loves Ira and tries to get him to play every day with wiggles and bounces. It's adorable! Sorry, buddy, Ira is lame. 

His favorite chew is a pig's ear. Everything else is meh.

Otto's Second Week

 Otto had a BIG week! So many new things to experience! We introduced a lot more behaviors this week, went on more outings, and met more people and dogs. Here's the recap:

Potty Training

Going great overall, all the mistakes are mine. I finally got my litter order, so now he has a litter pan in his pen and that's a big help. He has an appropriate place to go if he needs to and I don't have to stress over accidents. I've learned that yes, he still does need to go out before/after training/playing and I can't just use the clock to know when to take him out.

Socialization

• Met a few more people at small family thanksgiving and adored them all.
• Had a photo shoot, met the photographer and saw (and bit) camera equipment
• Met dog friends! Nova and Eevee the Tervurens. He hung back and watched them mostly, but played with Eevee a bit at the end. BC puppy Everest! They were great playmates. He met Everest's brother Meru the Koolie as well.
• We went to the (empty, closed) gym to check out the sights. He was a confident puppy and happily explored.
• Came to training on Monday. Explored the space, no problems! Walked on different surfaces. Met three people, and worked on supervised separation to prep for the CGC. He did great!
• Went to petsmart to get some of his favorite pig ears (I carried him so he wouldn't be exposed to germs). He was VERY excited to see other dogs. I thought he was shaking at one point, but it was just his tail wagging so hard!
• Out and about in the big wide world is harder. People are bark-worthy and he's a bit environmental. He does a lot of looking and freezing and needs time to process. As we get out more, his body language is changing to happier and more playful, so that's good to see. Working on a plan to change his response to seeing strangers and strange dogs at a distance out in the world.

Goals for the coming week: We exceeded last week's goals! This week we plan to meet at least two dogs, get outside for outings every day, and go to Monday and Wednesday night training.

House Manners

What a good, patient puppy! Confinement is an unfortunate reality of life in the House of Misfit Dogs, and he's rocking it. We have a good routine down. Train and play in the morning. Go in the ex pen with a chewie for some chew time and a nap. He's been spending a couple hours in the pen in the living room while I work in my office and is such a good, quiet puppy! We've been introducing crate time in the office while I work, and he's happy either with a chewie or napping. We've been introducing crate or pen time while I leave the house for an hour or two. He gets a stuffed Kong and has been calm and happy when I get back. He's figured out that the basement and outside are fun places and he freaks out if he's in his pen and sees me go to those places, especially if I take another dog with me. We're working on counter-conditioning that. He picks up on the rule structure of "just chill out" very quickly. He's good at chilling, which I'm thankful for.

He's got pen and crate exit manners (wait for release) down pat. We're working on staying off the counters. Overall, he's just a super easy, good, willing to please little pup.

Training

SO many things this week!

Review:

• Name game/recalls. We've taken this on the road. He's done recalls in the yard, at puppy playdates, at the gym, in public. Yesterday he recalled away from barking at kids at the fence. What a good boy!
• Collar grabs are super easy now.
• Crate games: Added a verbal cue ("kennel"), he sends from about 3' now, gives eye contact to wait for his release, releases on "ok." Adding my movement into his stay.
• Puppy zen/reverse luring: Gives eye contact with treats in my hands and treats on the floor. Stays with eye contact to wait for release to his food bowl. Added zen hand into his chin rest and stand-stay.
• Shaped mouth behavior/hold. This one is still tough. We're taking it slow. We have a full-mouthed bite from my hand and a bite and pick up on the floor. 
• Lured positions: more work on this, started asking for a tuck sit, which is hard!
• Lured heeling: more work on duration sitting in heel and got some advice on getting a prancy heel with food follows, so working that on the right side. He's still little for this, so not doing very much.

New this week:

• Free shaping! First session he turned on 30 seconds in and starting offering a back up. We will keep playing with this here and there.
• Chin rest. His FAVORITE trick!! He learned this in about 10 seconds and we are adding duration with eye contact, adding distraction with motion, and varying my hand position. 
• Go to mat. Shaped this as basically a paw target. I am not requiring any position on the mat and prefer to keep him up and moving. Vary my position and distance in relation to the mat. He thinks this one is fun too!
• Hand touch. He is just really not a fan of this for some reason. It helps to work on it with motion in between other behaviors. Doing it sparingly. Honestly, it's not something I need from him, so not a big deal.
• Drive-to-target with restraint/opposition reflex, focus forward. We're starting this with a food bowl. I figured he would happily run to food and I was right. 
• Shaping a wrap of a jump stanchion. He picked it up, but wasn't a super-fan. Figuring out this feature with him. He offered a few reps and then laid down. I'm not sure if this was confusion, him just being lower energy when we worked this, or what I keep hearing about poodles not liking repetition. My hunch is he just didn't really get the point. We will revisit this in the future. I think he'd like it more if it were higher-energy, but his toy play is not there yet to reward with a toy.
• Shaped two-feet up on a pivot platform. No problem! He got this very quickly! 

Goals for next week: Introduce scent work, continue to build previous behaviors, shape some rear-end movement on his pivot platform.

Play Skills

Coming along! His retrieve this week is a bit stronger than his tug. Last week he really wasn't fetching at all. This week he's happily chasing toys of all kinds and his instinct is usually to bring them back to me to play together. He doesn't really drop for another throw right away, but that's ok. He definitely prefers to play together rather than on his own, which I love about him! The udder tug is his favorite and his tugging is getting stronger. I bought him some fur tugs, but he's not a super-fan. He prefers rope/fringy tugs. We started working on some two-toy games. He easily switches to the toy I'm asking him to engage with. I found that I really don't enjoy working on play skills, and having rules I'm supposed to follow. It's a buzz kill for me. I prefer to just play, engage naturally with him, and have a good time. He likes this better too, so we will skill build gradually as his drive increases. He also really loves personal play and I love that about him, so we build that in to all of our play and training sessions and throughout the day as well. 

Grooming

We did his face twice, his feet once, and brushed twice! He is great with his feet and ok with brushing. He is not a fan of the face clipping. On the advice of a groomer friend, I am being firm but patient with him. That and working on it after a nap while he he's still a little sleepy seems to work best.

Hunting!!

Next Friday....Otto meets birds!!

New Adventures

Meet Otto (Waypoint's Step 4 Stroke of Luck)! He is my first poodle, my first puppy, and my first purpose-bred dogs. Well, my other dogs may or may not have been bred for a purpose, I guess I'll never know, but this pup is the first dog whose lineage and upbringing I know everything about. He had a great start for the first 12 weeks of his life in his breeders home. I brought him home one week ago and so much has happened already! I needed a place to document and log this experience, so here I am. 

Potty Training

Super, super easy! He was litter trained at his breeder's home. He has only had two accidents (my fault, of course). My goal was to really ace housetraining, since I have not done so great a job with my past foster puppies. His breeder made my job pretty easy, since he already understands the concept of holding it and appropriate places to go. But I'm taking some credit for keeping an eagle eye on him and taking him out 50,000 times a day.

Socialization

He has been to my mom's twice and was a happy, friendly, playful, outgoing puppy! He went to the vet. He went to a friend's house and met her in her yard. 

He loves everyone. He has no fear of objects, surfaces, or noises. He's adventurous and loves running over, under, and through things! He has not met any new dogs yet, but has seen Jun through barriers and in my arms, and has seen Ira in multiple contexts. We have been slowly exploring the big yard and he's getting more confident running around. He's a little unsure of people and dogs at a distance out in public. We had our first big parking lot outing yesterday and he spent a lot of time looking at things. He did a great job processing, shaking off, and reorienting to me for cookies. If only it were not winter, my hands are going to freeze socializing him outside, but it will be worth it when he is happy and confident in public places this summer! Puppy K was canceled due to Covid, so this is all on me, and I'm up for it! 

Goals for the coming week: Meet two friendly dogs, come to training groups on Monday and Wednesday to hang and take it all in, go on two outdoor adventures.

House Manners 

Otto is settling into a routine nicely! We get up in the morning and train and play, and then he goes into his pen for a chewie. Pig ears are his favorite and keep him entertained for quite awhile. After a noisy first day, he's generally pretty good in his pen. He has slept all night since day 1 and only barked about 30 seconds the first night. We went from a crate on my bed for a few nights to a crate on the floor next to my bed. He has been on several car adventures and has gotten comfortable in his car crate and rides quietly. We are also learning about quiet crate behavior in other places: he hangs out in a crate in my office for a couple hours a day while I work, and hung out in a crate during dinner at my mom's. 

I am teaching quiet mostly by ignoring barking and whining. I'm finding it unproductive to randomly reward quiet in his pen. All that seems to do is break him out of "settled" behavior and start the cycle over. I have found it productive to systematically teach quiet on car rides and in his crate. Since he's a smart puppy, I'm being careful not to let his whining be a reminder to me to reward quiet. I count. Starting at 5 seconds quiet. Working up from there and ping-ponging between longer and shorter intervals. If he whines/barks, I start over on whatever number I was working on. I haven't needed to work to more than 45 seconds. After he makes it that long, he's usually nicely settled. 

Today we started working on "paws up" and "off."

He's working on waiting for a release to leave his ex pen, although he's basically doing this automatically so maybe his breeder worked on this.

Training

• Name Game. We started with Puppy Ping-Pong and now I am working on calling him randomly throughout the day. He comes to me prancing and enthusiastic!
• Collar grabs. He likes to wiggle away from me. My criteria is I will not chase you or grab for you. You will come very close to my hand so I can grab your collar. Sometimes I catch him and other times he gets a treat and gets lets go to play.
• Crate games. I used the crate to start shaping with him. We shaped a crate entry. We are shaping a stay. And he has learned, and loves, the Release. It's so cute, when he self-releases and realizes he gets nothing he turns around and goes right back in. Next step will be building duration in the crate, adding distance to the send, and putting a cue on it.
• Nose touch. Surprisingly, this is not his favorite. He does better with it out of motion. If he's sitting he doesn't want to break his sit and look away from me to go for the touch.
• Puppy Zen. Working auto-leave-it and eye contact in the presence of treats in a hand and just started with treats on the floor. Also working on an auto-sit and leave-it while I put down his food bowl. This kind of blows his mind, but he's getting it! I'm trying not to do too much control work, since his favorite thing in the world is to sit and stare at me. We need motion and energy!
• Shaped hold. Starting with a sponge, a welcoming texture for a little puppy mouth! He gave me three nose touches and then gave me teeth on the sponge, and now the criteria is a "full-mouth" grab, and then will start adding some duration. Mostly, I am looking to teach the concept of interacting with objects with your mouth.  
• Luring: sit, down-from-sit, stand-from-down, fold-back down from stand, spin/twist, through my legs. Just to build the skill of following a lure and build some muscle memory for behaviors I will teach later.
• Building value for heel position. Every day we spend some time sitting at heel and walking in heel with a lure. Again, building muscle memory and value for a position.

Goals for next week: continue the above, introduce foot targeting with a mat, shape a chin rest to introduce stationary face behavior, restrained recalls.

Play Skills

Play is coming along. He really loves the Udder Tug and will focus on that for a good while. He has played fetch with me a couple times for a few throws with a rattley stuffed cow. Mostly, he loves Things That Are Not Toys, like shoes, rugs, and human flesh. The building blocks are there and we will keep working on it. My favorite thing right now is that his instinct is always to bring his toy to me and play with it in my lap or nearby. 

Grooming

I am excited to learn to do my own grooming! We have dremmeled nails twice and trimmed feet once. He is great for that! Face trimming didn't go so well, but that is my inexperience. I am not used to taking the "this is just the way it's going to be" approach to grooming, but apparently that's how you do it with poodle puppies, so we will try again this week. We have handled ears a bunch, but not cleaned them yet.

Poodle vs. BC

This is my first non-herding-breed dog. So far, I haven't noted any major differences that I consider to be breed-related. He is naturally straight in heel position vs. Ira who came to me C-shaped and that is just an absolute gift! Reinforcing that a whole bunch right from the start!