From June 3rd, 2016- Voodoo did great at the mall! It was the first bit of extended walking on leash that we have done and he stayed right with me! It was hard to get a photo of him since he was wanting to be right next to me. I had to toss some food on the ground 🙂
Tried to get him to potty on mulch again, but he wasn’t having it. Also walked around in the parking garage a bit, with cars going by. No problems.
I took Voodoo back to Petsmart to get more food, including Instinct dry to use as treats and he rode in the cart like a champ. While there, (across the parking lot) I tried to get him to potty on mulch, but I gave in before he did. I took him near some ducks/geese and actually had a hard time getting him to focus on them for a photo. So we got in a lot of ‘eye contact with me around distractions’ training.
He was interested in their poop, but not obsessively so. Reminds me I DO need to work on “leave it” with him! Haven’t worked on that cue yet.
Today’s training sessions focused on acclimation to noises and movement, but he is already beyond where I started him today thanks to all that his breeder has done with him! But I like to start where it is fun and easy and work up from there.
I wanted to start with some bubble wrap with nice big bubbles, but quickly found out the darn stuff is not “pop-able”! Should be illegal! Who makes bubble wrap you can’t pop!? While I couldn’t pop it, Voodoo’s sharp teeth had no problems and he had the whole sheet flat in a matter of seconds. LOL
So I started with the “pillows” you see in the video. The pops on the ones that actually popped (instead of fizzling) were rather loud, but he didn’t even seem to notice. I heard they were doing construction near the puppy pens before I got him, so the litter was exposed to hammering, saws, etc. and this training session was super easy for him. I upped the difficulty by using the board, but even there I started really easy and will increase the force I use to make the noise louder in future sessions. Notice his tail rarely stops moving 🙂
He has been watching Dazzle use the dog door and I could tell he really wanted to figure it out. So I did a little more work on that today and after a minute or so of yowling outside, he got it, twice! I’m sure he will be racing through it full speed like Dazzle in no time at all!
Also worked on potty on different surfaces today. So far he had pottied on grass (his strong preference), concrete, gravel, mulch, and not on purpose- carpet. And he lifted his leg really high today when he peed on the fence! Laura said he hiked his leg when she had him too (8.5 weeks)! He has amazing balance and strength for his age!
Which is evident in the last part of the video. I normally wouldn’t have started with something so hard, but I knew it would be a piece of cake for him and I was right. His balance and strength for a 9.5 week old pup is incredible! And has made a few of the items I bought for the purpose obsolete 🙂
Another big T-storm is rolling through. Dazzle is medicated, so he’s laying quietly outside the gate to the office and voodoo is busy ripping apart a cardboard box. He has stopped to listen occasionally to the big booms, but then goes right back to shredding. 🙂 Also peed again in the rain and saw me with a huge umbrella that I opened in front of me with him in my arms without thinking, but thankfully he had zero reaction to it!
This year is just flying by! Today we did some fun stuff and some training stuff.
For fun, here is video of Voodoo playing in my basement and doing a Master level barn hunt tunnel! It is pitch black inside, so I think he got a bit lost, but managed to find the end. This was the second time he went through, the first time I didn’t get on video. He’s also playing with the tether tug after seeing Dazzle do it 🙂 And we have a little ditch in the yard from the drain pipe we installed several years ago. And voodoo loves to follow it with his nose. So I included a little clip of that.
We also did some training today. Worked on the pivot bowl, but still too early for him to realize it’s the movement of his back feet that are getting clicked. Had to include his little improvisation as well. It was really hard not to click for all 4 feet on the little bowl! Also worked on releasing the tug toy on cue. He’s SOOO much better about this than Dazzle was. 🙂 And then we did a short session of hand zen (don’t mug my hand) and eye contact gets clicked/rewarded.
He wasn’t sure about the hard rain hitting the sliding glass door at first, but we played lots of games and he got lots of chicken and when the storm slowed down a bit (& Voodoo indicated he needed to go outside) we tried it. He didn’t want to come through the door with the rain hitting him in the face. So I carried him into the yard and then he ran around and played (& pooped). There was a close and loud rumble of thunder that spooked him a bit and he ran toward the house, but I got happy excited “yea! What a cool sound!” and he came to me and got him a bunch of chicken and I think he recovered well. Hopefully all he remembers about storms is that they bring fun and lots of treats. 🙂
Voodoo caught a bee on his first potty trip outside this morning and got stung in his mouth. I didn’t see at first what happened and thought he was choking on something. Looked like he was trying to spit something out and couldn’t (as he was running in circles), but when I caught him, I didn’t see anything in his mouth/throat and he seemed better . It wasn’t till he then tentatively went back to the spot where he got stung and sniffed that I saw the bee and realized what happened. Thankfully, no allergic reaction of any kind and within about 60 sec. he was back to play as usual.
He is growing! I’ll measure him again at 10 weeks on Saturday, but we can see he is clearly taller. He’s also getting faster and more coordinated and is now able to keep up with Dazzle when Dazzle is trotting (puppy at full run) which he couldn’t do before. His stamina is increasing too 🙂 I’m sure that may be a curse soon LOL But at least with him I have Dazzle to help wear him out (which I didn’t have when Dazzle was a non-stop puppy).
We did a session on “take it-give it” this morning (didn’t get video) and he was doing well with take/tug and give, but it might be a bit before he has the “bring” part of a retrieve 🙂 I’ve been calling him when he has a toy, hoping he will bring it when he recalls, but so far no luck. He drops it and then comes running.
He had a blast in the basement again and figured out where the loose piles of straw allowed him to get ON the bales! I lifted him down, but he is definitely part monkey! Dazzle was having fun running around the course without touching the floor where Voodoo was chasing him, but it won’t be long before that high ground won’t save him 🙂
I have caught Dazzle sniffing Voodoo and wagging his tail a few times. I think he wants to play and he has teased him with a toy briefly a few times too. Just little glimmers of play so far, but I don’t think it will be long. They have been doing better than I ever could have hoped so far! <knock on wood> Dazzle lets him take his toys right out from under his nose and even the bully sticks! He doesn’t care if I’m training the puppy and is happy with just a few treats at the end of the session (if he wants any at all). And Voodoo is SO respectful of him! He barks at him because he REALLY wants to play with Dazzle, but he respects his space for the most part and the few times he’s crossed the line, Dazzle has very appropriately corrected him. Hopefully they will have good play established before his puppy license (to do as he pleases) runs out.
He sleeps on the A/C vents all the time and has often barked and flopped around in frustration when the vent is not blowing cool air 🙂 But he is gaining heat tolerance and is able to play outside much longer before “melting”. He figured out shade is cooler pretty quick too and has sought out the baby pool to wade through to cool his feet and get a drink.
He’s still struggling with how to tell me when he needs to go potty. I think he understands that he’s supposed to go outside, but when he’s contained in the office with me, he doesn’t know how to tell me when he needs out. I get a little whine about 2 sec. before he squats, so I have been very attentive to that little whine 🙂 When I get up fast enough, he is able to hold it till he goes out. But sometimes he whines and lays back down to go back to sleep (just readjusting) and other times it means he is bored. So we’re both still learning. I may try some bells. I have stopped giving treats for potty outside and just use praise because he was no longer emptying himself completely, in order to get the treat faster. Not saying anything when he starts and just giving praise when he’s done seems to be working better. 🙂
He slept through the night again last night! VERY thankful for that! I don’t recall having a puppy that started doing a full 8 hours through the night so young! But I haven’t tried having the puppy sleep in bed with me with any of my other pups. Not sure if that made a difference, but it made MY nights much better not having to listen to puppy barking and howling till exhaustion set in. Voodoo is VERY comfortable in a crate, any crate, so that helps as well! Thank-you to Erin, his breeder, who did crate work before sending the pups home!
Here are the training videos from yesterday (since it’s now after midnight). He did great learning that putting his front feet on the pivot platform is a really good thing!
I also did 2 more harness sessions that wrap up that training. He LOVES his harness (a goal of mine) and has zero issues wearing it (another goal). Now I’ll have to work on “keep your feet still while I fasten the harness”, but that might be awhile 🙂 For now, a pile of treats scattered on the ground is a decent distraction.
And a few photos:
Raising a Genius Puppy 