I am resting here. I did not use this chair to climb on the table.
This week we learned to use the ChuckIt. I had never used one before and my attempts were quite embarrassing. I was glad no one was around to watch.
Viktor helped as a demo dog in a few ‘big dog classes’ this week. It’s fun to alternate between him and Griffin, depending on who will be a better example for an activity. I know what Griffin will do and so he’s more of a ‘safe’ demonstration partner, but Viktor provides a ore realistic beginning level training steps – when he goes along with the activity. Occasionally I have to stop and work on another piece or narrate a temporary deviation of the plan.
Viktor isn’t as bitey or mouthy as I expect for this age, I’m not sure how much of that is him or my careful attempts to not reward those behaviors. His counter jumping has drastically decreased, he hasn’t even made an attempt in the last 2-3 days – though earlier in the week he did use the office chair to reach the table.
Our chew/bone supply has been replenished – we haven’t had fresh bones for almost 6 weeks. Unsurprisingly, there was a resource guarding challenge this time. The first day all the dogs went their separate ways to chew on bones. The next days as they rtoated he did sometimes want to run over and guard all the bones. Blaze and Griffin are great – when Viktor gets snarly they just ignore him. His responses are decreasing – partly thanks to the older dog’s non response (rather than if they were righting back) and also because we do activities to practice sharing and care to not give Viktor chances to resource guard. He is getting more respectful – if the others have something he will not come over angry and expecting to take it away. I am concerned about how this will progress as he gets bigger (and safety risks increase). I’m hoping with training and management we will continue to be able to let everyone loose with bones and chews.
Informal Training
We did more trips walking in pubic, participating in classes, and training on our own. The long walks in public are great. We often can time walks in the neighborhood near the training center – there’s an elementary school next to a playground so we get a crowd of kids and kids playing behind the fence.
Formal Training
We got some great fetching and play sessions. I can usually get him to engage without too much effort. He doesn’t have the retrieve motor pattern that I desperately wanted but we will end up with a passable trained retrieve.
We are doing lots of fun things in classes and in our training. Here’s a video with a go around the cone – we have started it previously, look at the similarities (response to frustration) and differences (fluency, distance).
I kind of want to get into a real life class, I think one of the ‘mistakes’ with Griffin was not taking him to more classes. On the other hand, this is a different dog and maybe it won’t be as important for Viktor long term. Unfortunately with my schedule it’s hard to find something else that will work.
I am experimenting with some new (to me) record keeping strategies. I haven’t posted about it for a long time (see here and here). Things have changed some since then – I was very detailed for about 22 months and since then I’ve only done a little bit of daily notes. But with working two dogs, maintaining a third, and then thinking about all the client dogs in classes and lessons now (about 20 classes per week right now!). I really just can’t keep everything in my head.
Next: More outdoor time in neighborhoods and other places. We need to do our homework for the class we’re taking. I need to do more time with him crated in the room while I’m teaching – I have done a few sessions but only with a helper.