18 weeks and counting

Photo by Andrea Dexter

Well, it has been an eventful month. At 18 weeks, Rye is now 28lbs. Each week he seems to alternate between growing body vs. legs. This is a body week. Next week perhaps his legs will catch up to his body again. He has lost all of his incisors and 2 canines, but is still working on his premolars. Teething needs many outlets. I have been going easy on his tugging with his teeth being loose, but it does not seem to get him down.

Rye has gone on a bunch of field trip, including:

- Luther Burbank park
- Grandview dogpark
- Argus ranch
- Agilityflix
- Lake Tapps park
- Agility center
- Obedience center
- Sheepdog trials
- Fido's farm
- Deltabluez farm
- Ronnie's

Zora and Rye doing their special licking game

He has made a bunch of friends, both human and canine. He is largely housetrained, 1 accident in the last 3 weeks. We had a good news/bad news on that last week. He is normally behind a 30" baby gate in my office at work. Well, the housetraining is definitely kicking in: he jumped the baby gate to run to the back door to be let out because he did not want to pee in the office. The bad news: he then realized that jumping the baby gate is easy. Solution: 42" baby gate.



The thing that made me the happiest was this past weekend. We had a very nice lesson with Andrea and she thinks he is coming along well with foundation work. It is nice to have her help, because of course I look at him and worry I am breaking him all the time.




Then on Saturday and Sunday we went to Argus Ranch because Zora was entered in the agility trial. This was Rye's first time on the grounds of an agility trial -- a highly stimulating environment.

Alternate toy carrying methods

He is not a terrific spectator, too stimulated by the dogs running. However, he did walk through the arena 4x per day and was very, very good. Nice and relaxed, able to follow instructions. We also played tug-release-sit and sit-stay-release inside the arena, outside the arena and in the off-leash area. This went VERY well and I was wonderfully pleased with him. He was completely able to engage with me and focus on playing with me even with the large crowd of people in a small space and the dozens of dogs in every direction. I was incredibly proud of him.

Notice neither of them is hanging onto the toy?

He also got to spend a lot of time off leash playing with other dogs. He did well and he got 90% on his recalls. 1 fail each day. He also did great engaging with me and tugging even when Lucy was present and running around.

Photo evidence:



Between the hard work and the hard play, he was completely flat on Saturday night. The most tired I have ever seen him. He was rearing to go this morning though, and he had more energy left tonight than last night.



I am feeling optimistic about his ability to be comfortable in agility environments as of now. Clearly the most challenging thing for us will be dealing with all the other dogs in rapid motion. At least we have a couple of years to practice it before he is ready to go.

I am really enjoying him and we have a great time together.

Must. Tug.

Things he can do so far:

Tug-release-behavior
Releasing an object (legal or illegal) on a verbal cue
Recall has gone away temporarily but will be back
Sit
Sit-stay for up to 3 minutes
Go to your bed
Stay on your bed (settle down) for up to 5 minutes even with other dogs in class
Tethering
Eye contact
Target hands
Target plate
Target stick
Go to your kennel from 3 different rooms
Settle down (lie down at my feet while I am chatting, teaching, etc)
Differentiate verbal cues for urination and defecation
Comply with elimination cues even if only a small elimination is required
Tunnel
Plank
Table, sit, down, touch, tug on table
Wobble board with all feet, front feet or rear feet
Pedestal with front feet, still figuring out rear feet
Switching between tasks is improving
Switching between treats, toys, praise as reinforcement




Needs work:
Recall, recall, recall
Quiet in crate when I am working other dogs
Quiet in the house even if exciting things are happening
Stay in your crate even with the door open
Duration and distraction on stays
LEASH WALKING. Oy.
Hand targeting needs better speed when a competing stimulus is present
All skills need better speed when a competing stimulus is present

Spoiled much?