Viktor – 7? Months

If we count in months he’s not yet 7 months, but if we count in weeks he may be a bit older. Viktor still a very, very small dog. He’s only around 35 pounds -male goldens on average are 55lbs at this age! That may biased towards show dogs who are structurally much larger and tend to be kept at a bit heavier weight. He is almost as tall as Griffin but not nearly as long and he just looks really small. I can still carry him one arm (two is more comfortable!)

Informal Training: We’ve now finished puppy class and have tried dropping in manners classes when we can – but that’s not often recently due to conflicts with my classes. Viktor still on restricted activity and not allowed to run or even go for walks. We’ll share more about those reasons soon – hopefully we’ll know more in a couple weeks. He needs more time around other dogs – so this week I’ve had him in class as a demo dog again. We were doing this a while ago, but we probably haven’t for at least six weeks. He did great in class tonight, hanging out with me, in a crate, and tethered with the PetTutor. I was extremely happy with how he did – we had a little barking towards the end of the second class. Here’s a short video clip, the whole thing was too long and boring because he is so good. Note the metal bowl is full of beef dog treats and was accidentally placed there. In the long video he looked at it but never went for it – he has not had training to specifically leave a bowl near him alone, I’m extra impressed!

We’ve been working on swimming – he’s not sure if he likes it or not. Every time I think he won’t go in, he then goes in for a nice little swim on his own – but then he might not do it again the next day. A few days he seemed very happy about it and went in multiple times.

At home he spends time tethered near where I work – mostly so he doesn’t run around (vet restrictions!). He settles in so quickly and seems much more calm than the other two.  He’s a really easy dog to live with – so many people think field dogs are very hyper and energetic – Viktor can be, but also we’re easily surviving these weeks without being able to run and exercise.

Formal Training: This has been limited for obvious reasons. Stay training and with distractions. Heeling has been amazing and making amazing progress. Here’s a session where he made a huge jump from only doing turning around to many steps forward.

We’re doing training on parts of the retrieve, a stationary contact behavior, some tricks, and position changes (sit/down/stand).

What’s Next:  In two weeks we’ll have another update on his health and know more about what’s happening. Working in class as a demo dog gives him more training time and time around other dogs and people. He’ll be hanging out at his first dog shows soon (not entered!). We may have found a group class we can attend.