Day 52

Hops had a busy morning at work with me. I went in early to play with him. We started with tugging then I had him sit and stay while I let out, called him to my side and played tug with him. I did that a few times on both sides before adding in the distraction of the toy dangling in my outside hand. If he came to my inside hand I rewarded by brining the toy over to him. Then I raised criteria again by putting the toy on the ground behind and to the side of me. When I called him, if he came to the side I was cueing I turned away from him (pull) or towards him (front cross) and when the toy was in front of me I released him to it and played tug. He made a few mistakes but seemed to remember the game from yesterday and made the correct choice the majority of the time. We then practiced the tunnel. I started with it straight then slowly curved it, running the outside and rewarding him by tugging when he reached me. He always turned the correct direction coming out of the tunnel and boy is he getting fast! He also taught himself the chute. I was setting it up for a lesson and he went through it! So I rewarded and we practiced the chute, tossing his toy forward as he came out. Smart puppy! We then did a small sequence involving a circle of two jump standards, the tunnel, a tippy board, the chute and the table. He did great and really seemed to love going from obstacle to obstacle! We then practiced heeling and moving sits and downs and he did great with those. I ended the lesson with sending him around a tall trash can. He did a great job and I was able to run away from him and he still went around before chasing me, good puppy! Next Hops had nosework class where he rocked! He did flowerpot container searches for the first time and he had no problem generalizing and searched right away. Then we did interior searches. He found the odor on two different table legs, on a low ledge on the wall, on a walker, under a mat and a threshold. He is great! Hops was perfect in his crate for the two lessons and class I had next. He greeted the klee kai, shiba and frenchie in the last class and was much more confident with them.

 

Hops did great during my second shift at work too. We played before my first class then he slept through that class. He was in the next class, week three of fun and focus one. Because of the weather and illnesses, only one other puppy showed up, a nice sheltie named Zane. Well, he and Hops were a perfect match and they played and played before we started class. So fun to watch! Class started with crate games, working on duration, distance and distractions to their sit stays in the crate with the door open. Hops did great and Jeremiah was able to run all the way across the room before releasing him. Hand targeting was practiced next, then we introduced touching a target plate and sending them to it to touch it. Both puppies played on a tippy board then and banged a teacup teeter, neither having any fear! Next going around a cone was shaped and both dogs did so well they also learned to go around large trash cans. Jeremiah said that Hops went around clockwise better than counterclockwise. Then came quick sits and downs with release to play and they did great. Then the 1-2-3 game (sit stays with distractions). Both puppies did so well again that we added in the distraction of a toy on the floor, behind and on the opposite side of the handler the puppies were being called to. They both did a great job working through the distractions! Fun class!

 

For dinner Hops did pushups and did a good job : )

Day 51

Hops was a very good puppy and let us sleep in again this morning. Now we are paying for it though as he is chock full of energy! Time for a play time! So I brought out a rabbit fur toy that he had never played with and played tug. He loved the new toy but was still able to drop it on cue. I then had him do sit stays while I wiggled the toy and ran away with it. He broke his stay about half the time so I might have made it too difficult but he stayed focused and never seemed to get close to quitting. By the end he was able to stay while I ran about twenty feet away while wiggling the toy. I then did some recalls with the toy as a distraction. I led out, faced away from him with my left hand out and my left shoulder turned back so I was looking at him over my left shoulder. I then wiggled the toy with my right hand and said Hops come! If he came to my left hand, the hand I was cueing him to come to, I brought the toy from my right to my left hand and played tug with him there. If he went to my right side to get the toy I raised it up out of reach and started again. I also tried having the toy a little behind me and to one side then calling him to the other side. If he came to the side I was cueing I turned away from him (pull) or towards him (front cross) and when the toy was in front of me I released him to it. I could see him thinking, working this new game out. He is such a smart puppy!

 

Hops is such an amazing nosework dog! We had some friends over to play and boy did he show off! He did great with searching both in the garage for the first time and with luggage for the first time. He even downed at the odor bag the second time through. Then we did five interior searches, one hide in each room. The first was under a mat, then under some weights, then in the handle of a trash can, then in a toilet paper roll, then on a crate door. Hops was one of the faster dogs for all the hides, some he went straight to and downed! Wow! I cannot wait to trial with this pup!

 

As usual, Hops had a training session for his dinner. We started with backing onto a two inch high box and worked up to backing about six feet to it. He had good duration tonight, staying with his back two feet on the box about two thirds of the time. He did great if I put a cookie out of reach, staying on the box until I released him. Then we worked on going around a bigger stool than last night. The behavior really seemed to click for him tonight. He was easily able to move eight feet away from me to go around the stool. I started to name it around by the end of the lesson. I grabbed the metal dumbbell next and he did great taking it from my hand, then I switched to a lighter one and worked on him picking it up from the ground. He made more progress with this, lifting it up over a foot to my hand about a third of the time. He took it in his mouth every time, it just did not always get as far as my hand. Then we practiced some pushups, in heel with me standing, then roll, then say hello. Whew! We ended with shaping heeling with distractions. I put him on leash, put some kibble on the ground near him and waited. When he moved toward me (he did not do this right away!) I said yes, rewarded by my side and took a step. In the beginning he immediately started staring at the treats again but I just waited every time for him to move closer to me. When he started to move toward me sooner I started taking a step before rewarding him by my side. If he gave me a really good response I rewarded by my side then released him to eat the kibble on the floor. He is a good puppy!

Day 50

Hops decided to spend the morning redecorating the house. First he dragged and pushed his toy box around the living room, then he dumped all the toys out of it and started tossing the box itself around! Then came the zoomies, round and round the house he went! When he settled down we had him do lots of posing for camera, replicating shots of when he was younger. We plan to do this several more times as he grows up.

 

 

Hops is growing bigger!

 

Hops again had fun chasing Rice chasing a tennis ball. This time Hops ran ahead of Rice several times and not only grabbed the ball but brought it back over one hundred feet! Good puppy! Rice is such a push over. Today when Hops met him half way when he was returning the ball, Rice stopped and did not move on. So I turned it into a recall exercise and practiced calling Hops away form a distraction (Rice). He got pretty good at it and was coming right away by the end (at first I had to call Rice in to get Hops in).

 

 

For dinner Hops practiced backing onto a two inch high box, roll, heel and rear cross sit stays. I also shaped him to go around a bar stool for the first time. He did a great job, quickly figuring it out.

Day 49

Hops had fun chasing Rice and Dillon today who were chasing tennis balls in the yard. Hops would reliably chase them halfway, then wait for them to bring the ball back to where he was and chase them or run ahead of them back to me. After the boys were tired I put them inside and Hops retrieved a ball about six times before he started coming back without it. Not bad!

 

 

Hops was brushed and had his nails clipped for the first part of his dinner. He did great with the brushing (though we need to work on stand stay in combination with it) but he was fussier than usual for his nails being trimmed. A little later Hops did some say hello work and lots of pushups for the rest of his dinner. He is doing great with lifting up his paws with say hello. With pushups I focused on duration with all three positions and on only rewarding downs when he downed evenly, not but first. He did a great job!

 

 

Day 48

Hops practiced back and take for his breakfast and made progress with both. With backing, I upped the anti by having him back onto a two inch high by one foot wide box instead of the half inch high mat that is very long. He had a fairly high rate of failure in the beginning (he worked through it well, no giving up), even though I had him very close to the box. He did lots of sidewise and backward steps and it took some effort on his part to figure out to lift his back legs up onto the box. He did get it though and by the end of the session he was able to back up four feet straight to the box, lift his back feet up onto it and stay there. Then we practiced take with a metal obedience dumbbell. He is doing much better with this and even lifted the dumbbell up sixteen inches off the ground to my hand! Good boy!

 

 

That afternoon Hops went to work with me and was as usual, very good. His crate was uncovered all day and he was quiet and spent his time working on food toys, watching classes or sleeping. In little bits throughout the day he practiced sit and down and stay, heeling, getting into heel, downs on the table and walking on various items. Once when I was dragging a large, wide plank, he hopped onto it and rode on it while I moved it around! Hops played lots of tug at home and had a say hello session for dinner. He is clearly lifting both paws when I put my hand near them so I started adding the word. He even lifted them for Jeremiah tonight, good puppy!

Day 47

Hops went to work with me today and had a blast chasing Rice around the arena before my first class. He was uncovered all day when he was crated and was quiet 99% of the time. The one time he made noise I told him to be quiet and he went to the back of the crate and went to sleep. Good boy! He said hello to people and dogs between classes and did some playing and practicing too. On the way home we stopped by the bank and he chilled on the counter during the transaction. Hops continues to be calm and quiet in the car too.

We did a bunch of nosework with all three boys tonight. We started with containers with each dog then had them do seven interior hides in a row, one per room, all easy, accessible hides. There was one that was a little more difficult for Hops as it was higher than he has done in the house, about two feet up on the corner of a cupboard. His nose was high the entire time he searched and he did not give up until he found it! A couple of the hides he went straight to and downed, the others he searched for a little while but found them pretty quickly.

Birch, in a plastic tube, in the bottom of the collapsed ready jump.

Birch, in a tin, on the leg of the easel, near the bottom.

Birch, in a chap stick container, top off, behind the wheel of the bed.

I played some it’s your choice with tug this evening with Hops. I asked for a sit, let out, wiggled the toy, then released him to play. He did great with the toy being swung around but made a few mistakes when I ran away with the toy. He always stayed in the game though and was soon able to sit until I said release when I ran away with the toy. Smart puppy! I also did some collar grabs with fetch (grab collar, toss toy, say, reeaadyy, get it! and let go!). After the first two he got smart and tried to run out to where I was tossing the toy. I did not toss but called him back, grabbed his collar then tossed. As he started to understand the criteria, I kept my hand near my leg instead of reaching out for his collar. It took him a few times but he soon learned to bring his collar to my hand so I would toss the toy! I love this puppy!

For the rest of his dinner Hops worked on various it's your choice exercises (food on his paws and surrounding him, tossing kibble, releasing him to one kibble on the ground but not another, etc), rolling over, hand targeting and say hello. Something really clicked for him tonight with say hello. He is now quickly and easily lifting his paws when I reach for them, no touching needed, good boy!

Day 46

Hops had a slow day today as I had a migraine most of the day. He let me sleep in and was good throughout the day. Before my head was too bad I did some vacuuming and he settled into a down about six feet away from me and calmly watched. Good boy! We did do some roll over, some pushups, some moving sits and downs and I tried calling him past food on the ground for the first time which he did great with. Jeremiah took him to preschool class where he and his sister Love graduated. They practiced handling and Jeremiah said Hops did great and let him do whatever he wanted to do to him!