It warmed up a few times in the last couple of weeks, so we took advantage of the lull from -40* weather and spent some time outside. Jan 5th was a beautiful day for puppy spam... so I took a ton of 12 week Laddie pics. Here are a few- more of them can be viewed on my fb page.
Laddie waited on this rock for me to take piles of pics without getting up or shifting around once... Apparently he knows he's "all that" :p
Then he enjoyed some snow play.
And time with the cat...
Last week we had a couple of bus days due to the cold. I finally had some peeps home to run camera for me so I was looking forward to doing another training video but I fell and flared up an old back injury, so it took a few days of NSAIDs and heating pads before I was up to capturing some of the training Laddie & I have been doing. (He had a few days off formal work during that time, too.)
However, I got some cuddle time in at least; he seemed to realize that I was in pain and was extra gentle :)
He also loves to lay at my feet.
I am so thankful for my guys, who pitched in and looked after everything while I was down & out. We did a quick bit of supervised tether work on one of the informal days- this is a lot like horse training in that it just gets him used to giving to the leash. I attached the leash to a solid object, and he resisted it until he realized that there was no point and settled down. I used a small choke chain as the length of leash closest to him - snapped to the collar rather than around his neck - to discourage chewing of the leash. It took less than 5 minutes.
And now Laddie is 13 weeks old and growing in leaps and bounds; he's 24.2 lbs as of today. (Isn't he adorbs with his ears inside out? lol )
In the first videos, there's a couple of pauses. That's because Laddie's learned so much that I've actually had to start a list of tricks to remember what all of them are (We're up to 36 - not including the variations or behaviors that aren't yet named). So those pauses are me looking at the list, lol. Some of them he's got down pat (like sit), and some we're just starting or tweaking (like back, & turn). I still try to do all of his tricks with him throughout the day, but am focusing on just capturing the new ones on video for now. (Once you've clicked the links, click on the videos in the new page to get them to load fully.)
Video 1 Laddie - assortment of commands
Again, not perfection and everything still needs proofing with distractions, but it's a work in progress.
He spins easily one direction, but often gets bouncy and stops turning the other. That's a handler error. When I slow down and get him focused, he does it well. We'll keep working on that.
He's usually spot on with his touches but I made a couple of mistakes in the video. I marked 'yes' when he touched the side of the flashlight rather than the top one of the times, another I couldn't see well enough to determine if he'd touched it - he *had* - and so he offered several other behaviors before going back to nose on the top of it where I could see & mark.
Video 2 Laddie- Back, Stand
Video 3 Laddie - Into crate, Wait and release
We did this a bit differently than normal- usually he backs to the far end of the crate and sits down to wait, but you wouldn't have been able to see anything, so I had him stay closer to the front of the crate. Video 4 Laddie - Take & Hold
Video 5 Laddie - Leave it
One of the things I didn't include in the videos is the collar grabs I've been doing. I haven't given it a name, so it wasn't on the list :p Basically, I move my hand quickly towards him from any direction - over, under, side of his head and grab his collar. If he just stays put and allows it without trying to avoid, he gets a treat. The purpose for this training is to encourage the dog to welcome a hand moving quickly from any direction towards his head and collar. This helps prevent nips if children make quick movements towards the dog's head from odd angles- something they're prone to do - as well as helps prevent ducking and dodging in situations where a dog needs to be grabbed quickly.
This boy is as smart as a whip. And so sweet. Love him :)
