Naptime and shaping

Look at Zane and Bella napping together. Awwww!


Zane worked on his sits and downs - starting to anticipate his downs, and he's folding. Yay! He's still working on going to his mat for his breakfast.

Tonight in an Orientation class I used him to demonstrate shaping. His first time to demo! Big night for the little boy.

We had a major scare today. Jade, my youngest daughter, walked home from the bus with a friend, then they both came here. They played a bit, then informed me that one of the friend's puppies is sick - dying sick. She didn't know if it was parvo, but did know that the pup had diarrhea. Crap! Later that evening she called to tell us the pup tested negative for parvo. I'm still not completely free of fear, but I have more hope!

Wraps and Tunnels and Nicknames

Don't all dogs collect nicknames? Zane sure does. Some of his from early days:
Zaney Brainy
Zaney McBrainy
Zanish McTavish (after DH said he needed a Scottish name as he's a redhead)
Toadbelly
Doodlebug
Duder-head

And more recent ones (based on his growing up and pushing limits):
Butthead
Booger-butt

And when he's being adorable and a butthead, he is:
Boogerbutteriness


Spent several short sessions yesterday working on downs and tuck sits - going for speed on both. No more thinking about it! Just do it. Also did a quickie with his retrieve articles. Just asking for the bite - no hold yet. Every morning for breakfast he is learning to go to his mat and lie down. I'm now working on duration with that.

This morning we went out to the agility field. He loves the tunnel! But look at the legs on that boy. He's all legs right now!



He is also learning to wrap around a cone. This is a new technique for me. . . I've always shaped it, but found a segment on the Control Unleashed Games DVDs interesting, so thought I'd give it a try.

Seminar

So many things to report. . . it will take a couple of days to get it all! Last Thursday Zane, Bella, 2 friends and their dogs, and I headed to Phoenix for a Laura Romanik seminar. We learned so much. I'll be sharing some of what I learned, but here are some fun pictures from the trip.

On the way to Phoenix, we stopped at a rest stop to potty the dogs and eat lunch. While we ate, I stuck Zane in Bella's crate with the top open for air. He likes a sun roof!








At the hotel, Zane got to do stairs for the first time.



The hotel also had a nice grassy area where the dogs could play. (Thank goodness!) Zane liked to grab Bella's leash and pull her around.



And now some posed pictures:









Zane was an absolute angel for the most part. We'd get up at 4:30, I'd potty the dogs, then back inside for their breakfast, then we'd go walking. We walked and walked and walked, then played in the grassy area for quite a while, then laps around the hotel, then left the hotel at 7:30 each morning. Then he slept quietly in his crate at the seminar until the first break. I'd take him to potty, then back to his crate. Then a long walk at lunch and playtime, then back in his crate. He never made a peep except on the last day when a clueless Dobie owner kept letting her dog get all over his crate. He still has some dog issues and did some barking and growling at the dog. (Lots of dog don't like other dogs by their crates and sniffing them in their crates. Please teach your dog to not approach a dog in a crate or x-pen.) I ended up moving his crate since this woman couldn't keep her dog away from him.

He met some other dogs and was fine. And thanks to some great advice from Laura, we're getting faster downs and even some offered downs. Yay!

I have so much to process from this weekend. If you have a chance to see her, go!

Meeting dogs, stacking, and helping ourselves

Zane was only scared of one dog at the big event at the park. No, it was 2 dogs, but they were together. They were Old English Sheepdogs. Then Monday morning he saw Rusty, the border collie, again and was perfectly happy to interact with him. He's been worried about Rusty before but has turned the corner with him. He also met Spice, a golden retriever, and had no problem with her (went right up to her and was almost rude!). And he sniffed Wally, the Australian Terrier, again. So the dog issues are improving drastically.

Zane loves ice. Any time he hears us open the freezer, he comes running.

Sitting and waiting for his ice. (Bella loves ices too).


If you're too slow, he tries to help himself.


I finally pulled out a box for his toys so they aren't scattered everywhere. He likes to pull them all out.


And here he is stacked at 14.5 weeks.


He finally starting going down on a verbal cue, but. . . it's not a fold-back down. He's just kind of flopping. So I'm back to shaping a head drop and rewarding in such a way that it's easier to go down to get the reward. We'll get it.

I am still putting him on the Happy Legs for a short amount of time most days. Then putting him on the floor to stack. He won't move, even on the floor! When we were taking the above stacked photo, I dropped a piece of roast beef, and he really, really wanted it. He reached and stretched and folded his legs as much as he could. . . but he never moved the feet.

RDO events

I've spent the last couple of days doing final preparation for today's big Responsible Dog Owner event, so not much training happened.

A friend let me borrow her Happy Legs. Here's Zane's first time on them.


At the RDO event, he made lots of new friends:








It got to the point where people would ask to pet him and I'd have to point to him already rolling at their feet and say, "I don't think you have a choice!"

And he got to play in the pile of dumped ice:

Stop!

This morning's walk was almost too quiet. We went all the way around the block, and on the back side we finally came across several yards of dogs. Zane jumped and ran ahead at the first one, then walked with me for the rest. I need to find some noisy busy areas to work in. I thought of the Walmart shopping center, but that's where people bring puppies from Mexico to sell, and I'm too worried about germs there. He's been to the hardware stores. Gotta' put the mind in gear!

On the circus elephant, he can turn until his back is to me, then get stuck. So I step to the other side of him and he continues his circle. Soon he'll be doing the whole thing. He still isn't getting the verbal down. He just stands there and looks at me. It will come.

Today he started to learn "Stop". Some people call this "wait", but wait is one of my stay commands, so this is "stop" - as in stop all forward motion and just stand there (or sit there for now).

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?