Week Eight: 4 months old

MILESTONE WEEK: No more counting in weeks. Landry is growing up! He is 4 months old. But his eighth week in San Diego and Week 6 of his training.

A good time to review where we are and what we have achieved.

Landry has passed Level One. He can do Level One cold both at Lily's and at home. For Lynn and for Dale. At Lily's, he has the focus and attention to do Level One, cold, in every room of the house, in both the front courtyard and the back patio. He can focus and do his behaviors with Lily right there beside him as a distraction, but when Shayla enters the picture, he is over his threshold. Here is where Before Moving On becomes crucial. Both Dale and I need to make the time and effort to take Landry On the Road, repeating Level 1 in situations like we did at the flight line and at the Il Fornaio parking lot.

He is working on Level 2 now: Zen, Come, Leash, Watch, Crate, Go to Mat, Stand. We have begun Down Stay and Sit Stay. His Eye Lock is really getting good - especially with Dale - and we both play The Get Lost Game with him. We are working on Retrieve. I have introduced "two-fers" but he doesn't yet understand. He needs LOTS more practice free-shaping. He can target both hands, the scent stick and has been introduced to the target stick and the Alley Oop. Dale is going to teach him Distance (Go Around). We are working on L2 Down - with treats not on the trainer's body. He plays with metal objects as easily as any other objects and will nose touch anything you present him with. He is learning a default Sit at the exterior door both coming in and going out. He easily stays in the crate and the x-pen for extended periods and enters the crate willingly and on cue. Today I began teaching him to recall to the whistle.

He rides in the car in a small crate and/or on a restraint harness. His toileting cue is, "Get Busy". He is pretty well house broken, although occasionally deficates in my office, for some reason. At home he navigates the doggy door. He understands Chutes and Ladders and responds well to it. In the yard he is a digger. He entertains himself well alone outside.

He is teething and enjoys mouthing his crate bumpers. We are giving him frozen, knotted wash cloths to chew during this teething period.

We are making an effort to socialize him to the real world, asking for focus and attention in the car before putting him down on the ground, where we are now able to get Level 1 behaviors.

We are training Lazy Leash L2 from Sue's new book. We have gotten him a Sensible Harness to wear in those situations when we can't maintain "the pledge" - no tight leashes. He keeps getting better and better. We are spending a lot of time on Step 1 (giving to collar pressure)....and need even more practice.

His training sessions are short. Landry still chews every morsel at least 100 times so the pace of training is relaxed and slow, but he usually stays In the Game. His On the Road sessions need to last only as long as he remains In the Game as well. More and more this responsibility will fall on Dale on the weekends.

He has attended one FD class where he was fairly content watching everything from the x-pen. This Wednesday he begins a 5 week Puppy Class at the SD Humane Society. What a great little dog!!!

Friday at Lily's

Today we had several successful Lazy Leashes between the gate and the parkway. Landry is standing from a Sit on handsignal only - no food lure. The luring motion has turned into a lovely handsignal. We worked on settle by my chair with Landry on his white bumper. He remained on a 2' leash on the bumper for 30 minutes. Lily and Shayla were crated upstairs. He is reliably coming when called from the backyard into the house and from upstairs to downstairs ... and always gets a HVT for a job well done.

More work today on free shaping. CRITERIA? Interact in any way with the little white stool. Purpose? Teaching Landry to think. To figure out that it is HE who makes the click happen. Very basic introductory shaping. No behavior sought.