Here is my favourite guy at very nearly 4 months old now...
He is so much fun. He is just a family pet and he won't be used for any sort of shows or competitions, but we love training him. He can do the basics at the moment..
sit
down
stay
place
paw
high five
roll over
find (search for treats)
Our current one that we are working on his "Bang Bang" and then he must play dead.
He is getting the hang of not biting the kids, he stopped biting adults a while back, but the kids get him all worked up and he forgets so they are still bearing a few scars.
He loves going down to the beach and playing with the other dogs there and in the waves but we haven't been able to go the last couple of weeks because we've been struggling with a yeast infection in his ears.
Here are a couple of pics. His left ear is up consistently now, but the right one changes every 10 minutes... up down up down... who knows :smile2:
Enjoying a chicken foot and playing with his rope.
Nice job with training. They are so easy to train especially when they are young and eager to please (or get treats). One caution about finding treats. My feeling is that I don't want my dog picking up stuff off the ground and eating it. Something to consider. My friends did the find the treats game with their dogs. One of them has eaten mushrooms twice now resulting in ER visits and almost liver failure. My gut tells me if they didn't train the dogs to pick up food off the ground and eat it, this may not have happened. Maybe I'm wrong.
"Place" command is a very important command. It tells the dog to go to a mat and stay there till further notice. We use it every time someone comes into the house. Every time we enter the house after the walk or playing. He goes to the place, waits for his paws to be cleaned and then he is released.
Good point about the "find" - at this stage we are hiding the treats under cups/boxes for him to move and look under the right one (one person holds him in a sit whilst he watches the other person hide a treat under a cup, then the cups are all shuffled around and then he is let go to go and get the right cup)... I will look/think some more about finding food items randomly in the garden.
Edited to add...
Actually, I might change it to an object he must find under the cups and then if he gets it right first time we give him a treat... that solves the issue of picking up random food off the ground doesn't it?
Here is Kaiser at 4 months old with his serious face on
He is just a big softie and loves nothing more than playing with kids.
We took him to an outdoor cinema on Saturday and he sat next to us throughout the whole movie with no issues. Once the movie was done and it was time to go home, he was off playing with all the kids... it amazing that even though he is still a baby, he knew the difference between the big kids who he could be rough with and the little kids who he slowed down for and gently licked.
He is such a good boy!
Kaiser has just passed his 5 month old mark and I feel like a little brag
1. Kaiser has been down to the kids school to pick them up with me on 3 occasions in total. His 3rd occasion was just last Wednesday... and he actually knew the way to my daughter's class. On the previous two occasions we had gone to my daughter's class first and then on to my son's class. On Wednesday I decided to do it the other way around... son first then daughter. Kaiser was pulling to go in the direction of my daughter's class... I was amazed that he actually knew where to go after only 2 trips there.
2. On Thursday we went to our obedience training - he was the only puppy there, all the others (usually 6 of us) had decided to have a night off, lol. We then had to go join in with the 1yr olds and I was super proud to see he managed to do all the stuff the big dogs were doing... I was so chuffed that he wasn't the naughty puppy in the class!
3. Our trips to the beach are getting better, he only jumped on two little dogs instead of every one he saw... much better manners
4. He has such fantastic nerves!! I was making a cake on the weekend. Kaiser was lying on his "place" in the kitchen. I got chocolate slabs out the freezer, put them in the food processor and without even thinking switched it on. It was so loud, it hurt my ears. The kids jumped and shouted "Moooommmm" and Kaiser lay in his place and tilted his head at me. A noise he'd never heard, a loud scary one at that, and he didn't even flinch.
I had him weighed last week - he now weighs 55 pounds.
We've got 4 weeks to practice for our graduation from the pre-kindy class at obedience training. I'm so nervous about this, being in the ring, with judges and strangers watching us. I'm not sure I have the nerves for this.
Here are some updated pics of Kaiser now at 7 months old.
We haven't been to training for a while... we were on holiday, then I was sick, then it was Mother's Day... we are hoping to get to the club this sunday.
He seems to be going though a little bit of a defiant stage... I call him and he just stands and looks at me like "what???!!??" so we def need to get back into all our training. He was getting better down at the beach but he now just runs off and won't come back... very annoying but at least he isn't jumping on little dogs any more.
It is meant to rain all weekend here but I am hoping we'll be able to get out for a nice walk in one of the national parks.
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