14 Weeks!

Of course I want to sleep on this shelf 4′ off the ground!

It’s been another week of too many single digit temperatures.  On Friday we went to a group training class and Saturday morning was puppy class. He did such an amazing job sitting at my feet while I was teaching. Sometimes I left him in an open crate with a Kong while I would go around helping others.  Some of the afternoon and evening classes were canceled due to weather, instead we went to a local pet store. Viktor still hasn’t finished his vaccinations so I carried him around. He climbed out of my arms into a dog bed where he curled up and wanted to stay on the shelf (I was standing – he was far off the ground!). I let him smell a lot of treats and toys – he thinks the pet store trips are great. We can see a lot of people and some dogs.

photos by nm

Monday was another class-canceled day, but I was already at the training center so we got to do a lot of playing and exercising before going home.  It’s been so great to have a safe, indoor exercise option for a puppy – it must be so hard for everyone without that option.

We’ve had some impressive physical feats – last night he jumped on a platform, onto the top of an agility tunnel and then tried to go an 18″ gap onto a bench – he didn’t quite make it (front half only). He climbed on my office chair last night  – at 8 weeks had had wedge himself under the arm rest/chair part and wedged himself up slowly – but until last night he had not tried it again!

Viktor continues to be a very cuddly dog – he loves to be in my lap, even upside down. He’s not jumping on people as much as I would expect for a puppy this age. He likes to lean up against people and lick faces.

We saw some resource guarding with the other dogs that started just last week (though possibly several weeks ago in puppy class?). We started working on that right away – staying still while other dogs get a treat or dropped treats off the floor, self control games (don’t dive after dropped treats) and sharing  – others get a treat and you do too!  It seems to be going well – obviously things aren’t 100% fixed in a week – but we limit opportunities to practice the unwanted behavior and we’re working to create new habits. Interestingly, he doesn’t guard toys or toys with food in them.

Informal Training: We finally have a crate set up at home, we did some training for going in there, staying in the crate, and chewing delicious things while in the crate. Our daily routine is continuing to change as he spends more time awake – but we still have a few hours of napping in the late morning.

Formal Training: Nail trims! A little bit of heeling, beginning stays, and more go outs. Most of our training time has been the activities for online class.