Park and Relaxation Protocol and Ears

This morning Zane got to go to the park for the first time. We were there for Rally practice and he met several new dogs. No growling or snarling! Yay! He worked on eye contact and the "J" leash exercise. He wanted to sniff the ground and didn't want to keep a "J" in the leash at all. Lots of work to do.

We also did a bit of choose to heel here at home. And he worked on the circus elephant trick. He is starting to circle a bit! He doesn't want to turn his back on me yet, so I did a bit of moving with him. Otherwise, he'll only make a half circle then stop. And he worked on retrieve with a dowel, dumbbell, metal article, leather article, and marker. He's still a bit unsure of the metal article, but will bite it. He picked the dowel and dumbbell up off the floor.

I don't know what to call this exercise, but I had him sit in heel position, rewarded several times for eye contact, then released and took a step forward and got him to sit in heel position again (using a hand lure). He does a rock-back sit and not a tuck sit, so he tends to sit behind me instead of in heel. I don't think I'll get a tuck sit out of him although I'll try.

This evening he did Day 1 of the Relaxation Protocol in both a sit and a down. He broke 3 times on the sit, although one of those was just scratching. But scratching is not something I want on a sit, so I considered it a failure. He broke once on the down - after the first reward he decided to pop up, so I put him back in a down and started over. After that he was perfect. But we'll repeat Day 1 until he is 100%.

The vet staff yesterday commented that he's a very serious puppy. And yes, he really is. He's playful and fun and can be a pain in the butt (as any normal puppy can be), but he's also very, very serious. It's going to be interesting to see how he matures.

And the final news is that Zane's ears are now taped. I was hoping to wait a bit longer, but I'd like to have nice, normal ears! Not the wonky things they would turn into. Hmm, it sounds like the old myth - don't cross your eyes because if the wind blows, they'll stick that way. If the wind blows wonky ears, will they stick that way?