Fantastic retrieve training, paw targeting and my favourite new halter

8 months 3 days old

Knightley holding his dumbell nicely. He can
hold things for 15-20 seconds easily on cue,
and when we are on a walk he will happily hold
a stick for 5 or even 10 minutes. He's definitely
a holdy dog.

So, I am happy to report that Knightley is still doing just awesomely with his retrieve training. I am getting good solid long holds, and we are working on him picking up all sorts of objects for me. He has problems picking up things like plastic lids which are too flat for him to get an easy purchase on. Maybe he needs to use the technique they teach for dogs to pick up credit cards with using their tongue to lift it a bit. Maybe I'll try clicking for seeing tongue contact tomorrow (wait until I see his tongue contact the plastic, then I click/treat immediately before he has even picked it up, so that he learns to use his tongue with certain objects). Either way, he often can't get it up, and starts pawing it frustratedly. It sometimes happens with pieces of paper too, leaving the paper worse for wear!! With everything else though, he is doing really well. His holds are in the correct place, just behind the two canines, as you can sort of see in the second dumbell photo. Dumbells are good practice for picking things up, because they kind of force him to pick it up in the middle (good practice for balancing awkward items), and are comfortable for him to hold because they are purposely made for this, and fit nicely behind his canines.

Showing the correct hold position, directly behind the pair of
canines, which is a good secure position to hold something,
and is comfortable for the dog.

It's important that I don't do too much practice with the dumbell. People that were training for obedience and not assistance work would just use the dumbell and nothing else, but in my case it's real world items I want Knightley to pick up. I don't want to do obedience or dogsports, I want him to make my life a bit easier. So we do gloves, spoons, pens and pencils, plastic lids and containers, pieces of paper, letters, his leash (I will train that to a specific cue) and really anything I can think of. He is doing very well and I am very happy and proud of him. It is amazing how fast he has picked it up since I started concentrating on it. It does show the temperament testing I did on him did seem to get it right!

The Infin8 halter from Black Dog. The black part with the two
D rings is where your leash clips onto. You can clip the two
D rings together, or undo the clip to take the collar off very
easily. The thick red part of the halter is the other side of the
adjustable collar that goes around the front of the dogs neck.
The thin red part is the adjustable strip that you wrap under
your dogs muzzle, then over it, then back under it and clip it
to the clip you see in the bottom of the photo. It makes a figure
of 8 when you view your dogs head from below. 

 I am very happy with the new Infin8 halter I got for Knightley. It is my firm favourite out of the Gentle Leader (a rather heavy handed, overly firm halter) and the Comfort Trainer (better, but still bothered Knightley quite a lot). For those of you who have tried halters and think your dog just can't tolerate them, take a peak at Black Dog. They are an Australian company who ships overseas, make a bunch of fantastic quality dog gear, aimed at dogsport people, and I am truly impressed with their Infin8 halter. It is different to any halter I have ever seen - really it's a mixture of a collar and a halter, and it allows a transition back to a collar better than any halter I've seen before. It is a clever design too, when your leash tightens, the collar tightens (it is a martingale collar), and the figure of 8 halter also tightens (also almost a martingale.... one side of the halter is on a running O ring). As soon as the tension is released, the nose band becomes quite lose, as does of course the collar part. The leash attaches to the collar.

Knightley with the Infin8 halter on. I got the red colour
because dogs see red very badly. If they had sold a tan
colour I would have got that, but the red has been fine,
actually. Visual disturbance is one of the reasons
why dogs don't like halters.

When your dog has been wearing the halter for a while you can start to loosen the long muzzle strap until it is extremely loose, and the dog is reacting almost entirely to the collar pressure. It doesn't matter at all if the looseness causes the noseband part to come off as the dog has a secure collar on as part of the halter. When
the dog is used to functioning without the noseband doing anything much, then it's time to slowly go back to your collar. This is partly why I think this halter is so superior - it actually helps your dog learn to walk on a collar, as well as give good head control.

Knightley with only the collar part of the Infin8 halter done up.
The part that goes around his muzzle is shown laid out with the
clip at the end. You can see the martingale D rings at Knightley's
neck where you clip the collar to. These things are what makes
this halter so different from others I have seen and used.

It's actually quite impressive how much more Knightley likes this halter than the other two. From the beginning, there was very very little pawing at it. With the GL and the CT, if I took the leash off him and left him alone he would begin pawing at the noseband until he got it off. With the Infin8 he just completely leaves it alone. So, I will continue to use it until Knightley is not pulling at all around children, other dogs and birds, and then I will slowly loosen the noseband until it may as well not be there. Then I think I will transfer him to a martingale collar from Black Dog. Why, you may ask? Well, firstly I *love* the quality of the halter, and they have lovely martingales too. But if I get a red martingale, it will nearly be identical to the halter, just minus the long wrap around bit. So it could well evoke those no pull memories. I like the safety of martingales too. When they first came out, people used them as a sort of more humane choke collar.... using them to leash pop, but doing less damage to the dogs throat and trachea. These days they are basically seen as a collar dogs can't get out of, even if they try to back out, because they tighten if the dog puts pressure on the leash. However, unlike a choke chain, they can only tighten so far, and they are made of comfortable nylon. The martingale that is part of the Infin8 has great shiny black nylon (see first photo) which means as soon as the dog releases the tension, the collar and halter are instantly loose, and much looser than a normal flat collar. It is great feedback for the dog. So, that's the plan.

The other thing I've been doing is refreshing Knightley's paw targeting. I was quite cryptic before about training an assistance skill I don't need but that would be fun to have. What I am going to do is train him to turn on a foot light (one of those ones that has a round switch that you turn on with your foot) with his paw. We haven't been doing much paw targeting for a while, so at first it was just basic stuff, getting him to target my hand, then a plastic lid, then eventually the switch. He isn't putting any weight on it yet, which he is definitely going to have to do... and I'm not sure how to do that, so I'll have to think about that.

A little bird told me about this documentary (which I am going to watch soon) that talked about the fact that 75% of successful guide dogs are 'right pawed'.... ie like humans, dogs too often have a dominant paw. I knew Knightley had one but couldn't remember which one it was until I did a bit of testing and observations.... and it is indeed the right. I guess this is a good thing, although assistance/service dogs need quite different skills to a guide dog. It's interesting that dogs have a dominant paw though. I always found it hard to get Knightley to paw things with his other foreleg, so I had wondered, but I thought it could have been due to my training just getting him stuck in a rut!

Hubby back in 6 days! Knightley is going to be happy and unhappy all at once..... he's going to lose his sleeping platform lol.....!

A good day for Knightley, something new!

Knightley, all happy again. Very happy to see it. Love that doggy grin. He'd
just been doing door closing practice, very successfully I might add, and was
very pleased with himself!

5 months 2 weeks 2 days old

So I think the pup is back to his normal dynamic self. He has his frustrated bark back, he is slightly less food obsessed, and is very quick in the grey matter upstairs - which is nice to see.

We did all sorts of training throughout the day, and he was totally In The Game.

His cupboard door closing skills are GREAT now! Two days ago, when he started recovering, we started working on him closing other cupboard doors, and he was fine closing other doors that opened in the same direction that the door I taught him on. Any doors that opened in the opposite direction he just barked in frustration. So I just him to paw my hand whilst standing next to the open cupboard door I wanted him to close, then my leg (good dog! that's it! rake my leg with those nails! excellent! do it again!!) in order to get him pawing a vertical surface right next to where I wanted him to target a slightly different vertical surface, then my hand again, and again, and again..... as I slowly moved my hand closer to the door. Then I had my hand resting on the cupboard door whilst he was pawing it, of course I was click/treating every time he was doing this right. Then the next time he pawed my hand, I pushed the cupboard door closed with the back of my palm and made a HUGE fuss of Knightley with a jackpot of treats and lots of praise. That was all it took. I risked a 'paw' cue without my hand there, and SLAM, the door closed first time. We then went around the kitchen and he closed every door... although one of the cupboard doors is significantly bigger than all the rest, and it took a bit of extra training to get him through his frustration of being unable to close it easily.

My husband was talking about listening to our late night training sessions whilst he is getting ready for bed... and said they sound like "twitter twitter twitter" at the beginning, which is me talking.... then "bark bark" then "bang! click! bang! click! bang! click! twitter twitter twitter! bang! click! bang! click! twitter! bark! bark! bang! click! TWITTER TWITTER!!!!". So that's a cupboard door closing session for me and Knightley heard from half a house away! I found it amusing at least, if somewhat insulting to have my voice described as a twitter.

A 'come' cue in action, doggy on a mission.
Just a bit dream like I thought. The best I
could do whilst actually training without
setting up my tripod and waiting until
 daylight....

We did a HEAP of recalls (come) during the day, often calling him away from things he didn't want to leave, which was great practice. Still need a lot more practice of course, but it was a good start to my come focus from now on.

We also started something completely NEW! I've always been interested in the idea of doing a little nose work with him. Nose work is basically a new dog sport based around scenting games. It has brought the ideas behind drug, quarantine and bomb detection to the average dog owner interested in training their dog to use their nose on command. So we started a few scenting games, mostly just relying upon his sight on this early stage, only a tiny bit on scent. The idea is trying to get the idea in his head that I have hidden something for him and he needs to use his nose to find it - something we haven't done before. We'll do more of it later.

The website I was getting my inspiration from (although I did modify their directions when I saw fit) told you to put a cue/command to the searching behaviour immediately, and I tell you what, Knightley understood that part right away! lol ... Firstly you just throw some treats on the floor and tell him "find it!" and repeat that step several times.... and then have him avert his eyes while you do it and again you say "find it!", repeat step.... and then you start putting the treats in funny spots and avert his eyes and tell him "find it!" and so on until you have treats wrapped up in clothing, under magazines, in boxes and so on. At that stage I would probably teach an alert 'I've found it!' behaviour and plug it into the sequence to make a behaviour chain. Every time I said 'find it' Knightley absolutely raced off to find the treats he knew were somewhere to be found. He really enjoyed that part, it was great to see. Intensive nose work is very tiring to a dog, owners report after 20 minutes of structured scenting they are often as tired out as they would be from an hour long walk. It is a good idea to give your dog mental stimulation like this, physical is great of course, but both keeps your dog balanced and not bored! Which in turn leads to a satisfied dog who is less likely to indulge in problem behaviours.

Knightley following a 'relax' cue. He is pretty good with this
one, will follow it promptly, but gets bored on his side
easily. He is happier to stay in a down where he can see what
is going on, than a relax where he can't see a thing. I am going
to focus on really making him sleepy every time I get him into
a relax, with music, massage, and shaping.

We also did more of our normal training today. We focused a lot on Relax, as I would like that one on cue for when I start taking him out more to cafes and anywhere that allows dogs. I can't believe he isn't much off 6 months! His relax is pretty good, he does fully relax, we just need to work on duration now. I plan to use Through A Dogs Ear, a CD of classical music arranged in order to calm and relax dogs, and in the past has worked on Knightley. So whenever we do a relax session, I'll put that on. I'll also do a little doggy massage when Knightley is in his relax position. I would really love the DVD and books for the TTouch method by Linda Tellington Jones, but until then I massage Knightley as best I know how - down his sides in circles, his ears, the sides of his muzzle which can carry a lot of tension. I am not talking about stroking either.... I am talking about a deliberate more clinical touch. Knightley definitely enjoys it, and when I get it right, he almost drops off to sleep then and there.

In addition to the music and massage, I will also quietly say 'yes' and give him treats when his eyes blink/droop, when he yawns, when his breathing slows, when he does that big sudden dog sigh release of tension we all love..... and so on. Shaping can be very effective at deepening the relaxation of a dog, and thereby increasing the likelihood of duration. I will also train duration the normal way, first clicking and treating after 10 seconds of relax (about where we are up to), then 11, 12, 13 and so on. If he breaks, I go back to 10 because he is very solid at 10 at the moment. If he breaks at 10! Well, I can go back to 1 second if I have to. When I start getting up to 30 seconds, I can try increasing by 2 seconds at a time. When increasing from 1 minute, I could increase by 5 seconds at a time. So that will be my multi-pronged approach on relax.

There is so much material in Level 2 of the Training Levels, it is almost wearying to make sure we pass it all before moving on!

Knightley and cupboards, loose leash, back to work

5 months 1 week 5 days old

So the pup still has a bad stomach, although it seems to be a little better. He is sure enjoying his rice and chicken meals.... they smell so good I wouldn't mind eating them!! I am using them for his training, and he will do just about anything to get his greedy maw on them, so that is useful.

We're doing more work on his cupboard closing skills. 

Paw there Mr Knightley!

Bullseye!

Yes!

Yes!!

Have some yummy chicken and rice
for being such a very good boy.

Big whack incoming!! This one closed
the door.

Our next challenge, which wasn't in the original levels, but is in the new books, is to teach Knightley to target my feet. This would be an especially useful first step if you had serious mobility problems and wanted to teach your dog to take off your socks in the future. So maybe later today we'll try doing the foot targeting. I don't anticipate much trouble, he has always enjoyed nose targeting on my hand and on wands and other objects. I actually enjoy teaching brand new things, now that he *gets* shaping watching him learn is just fascinating and really addictive. 

We've been doing more LLW practice, as is in the Training Level books by Sue Ailsby. Firstly I put him in a sit/down and then pulling gently on a flat/martingale collar until he moves into the pressure, then immediately c/t. Then the second exercise is slowly walking around with him on a leash inside, and change directions suddenly so that there is some pressure on the leash. When he moves into the pressure and the tightness stops, I quickly c/t and give him lots of praise. If I am giving him lots of leash space, then when I give the treat I drop it at my feet to encourage him to hang around me despite the relative freedom. He is a long way away from staying loose on his flat/martingale collar. 

Doing Loose Leash Walking (LLW) practice, so that if Knightley
feels any pressure on the leash he is to slow down  and turn
 into me.  Dogs, and indeed all animals, have the instinct to push 
   *into* the pressure in order to escape, which is why they tend
 to pull so much. To reverse that  instinct every time the dog actually
    moves *towards*  the pressure you must make it a pleasurable
experience, so that the dog will start doing it every time it feels the
 leash pressure. It does take a long time, but it is very much worth it.

We need to do a lot more practice with this, although he is pretty good at it inside. Take the treats away, go outside where there are lots of big parrots and exciting people and dogs, and what he has learnt flies out the window. So lots more practice inside until it's completely perfect, including keeping it lose around treats on the floor, then practice in the backyard, then back and forward in the street.... THEN we will start venturing afield. They say keeping a loose leash is perhaps the hardest thing to teach. I would have to agree. Teaching Knightley to close the kitchen cupboard door was so simple compared to keeping his leash loose on a flat collar. He's pretty good on his front buckle harness, but sigh. We'll get there!

We also do heel training inside the house, without the leash. This is a more formal heel, with his spine aligned at right angles to the direction I am facing. I keep up the clicking when he is in good alignment, and do things like put him in a wait, turn at right angles, and then ask him to heel and watch him turn the corner so he will sit at my left again. We also practice finishes, although it is 'just' the traditional behind finish, where the dog goes from in front of you, walks to your right side, still facing you, then goes behind you, heading for your left side.... and ends up in a sit at your left side. 

We haven't done much work on the swing finish (only a little pivot work), which is much more difficult. The dogs front paws move just a little to where they will be in their final position by your side, then the dog swings on the spot - the front paws almost glued to the spot and the back legs doing all the walking around for 180 degrees until the dog has turned all the way around, and then the dog sits. As I said, much harder!

My husband and I both go back to work this week. Hubby already went back this morning, I am not back until Thursday. He wasn't looking forward to it after our couple of weeks off over Christmas, could have done with a couple more weeks off I think. However, I am looking forward to it a lot. I am finally starting my paid position there in a couple of weeks. I have been a volunteer up until now, just working on getting my stamina for paid work up, and finally I am at that point where a small amount of paid work is possible for me. It has been more than three years since I have been well enough to commit to paid work, so this is a big step for me. They seem to like me so much there that they have chosen me for a paid contract position for a project that has come up with some government funding. I will stay as a volunteer for events and some extra hours that they may need me for, but it will be great to be actually working again. I look forward to a future where having a canine companion may help me do longer hours at places further out of the way. Not to mention the independence to actually shop on my own! Which I haven't done for over three years. 

I think those small things are what I miss the most. I truly hope Knightley brings me some of that independence I long for so very much. He is turning out to be such a lovely dog, and a smart one as well! Just thinking of him always brings a smile to my face. I think he has a good chance of making it as an assistance dog. But you never know how dogs will change over their lifetimes. Keep it slow and try not to expect too much, Lyssa!

WOW!! Closing a cupboard door, and confidence building

5 months 1 week 4 days old

My Knightley, starting to look more grown up. These
adventures really help me realise he is definitely growing up
mentally. I am lucky I have such a quick smart dog.

Wow, like seriously..... wow. I am in shock. Knightley is one seriously smart puppy. I wish I had recorded the training session that we just had because it was very serious testament to how far Knightley has come. We were working on paw targeting, and as I mentioned in my last post, a checklist for the new Training Levels have recently become available which has shown any gaps I may have as for a long time I was training from the free levels online, not the books. The behaviour I had to catch up on was to get Knightley to close a cupboard door with his paw. Pretty advanced really, and I hadn't even transitioned him from paw targeting my hand, or a lid on the floor, to a vertical surface. So last night I did a short session, recapping what I did with him about a month ago - and he got that very quickly.

Update 5 April 2012: Just wanted to say that While I trained Knightley to close cupboards and doors with his paw first, I then trained him to close them with his nose. The nose close is actually more useful because it doesn't have the potential to mark furniture, but both are good to have the dog know. If a public door is not moving because it is particularly heavy, a paw swipe may get it moving, and then it can be closed by nose the rest of the way. I am not sure which way around it was better to have trained it, but I was happy with training it this way. I just had to do LOTS of nose targeting and no rewarding for closing with paw for the nose to stick as a cue after I had taught paw first. Now if nose isn't working after several goes he will automatically swap to giving it a single whack with his paw to get it moving, and I am happy with that. Nose targeting technique is quite similar. Send me a msg on my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DownunderAssistanceDog if you want more details on training a nose cupboard/door/drawer close.

I'm just going to quickly go through the training prerequisites if you want to go ahead and train the cupboard close as it assumes that your dog can paw target an object. Something like a yogurt or tupperware lid is perfect, if it's clear that is better still, but make sure the lid is tall enough from the ground so that you can fit a treat under it. To start give your dog several treats, either clicking a clicker first or saying 'yes!', so that he knows when you click (you can even use the click of a ball point pen), or say 'yes' that he will get a treat. 


You then show him a treat, and very obviously put it under the lid on the floor. Make sure your dog can't flip over the lid, you may have to hold it down. He'll try to lick it, bite it, but most of all, he will try to paw it. The *instant*! he paws it, or his paw even moves towards it, click/say yes, lift up the lid so he can get the treat from under the lid and then give him a second treat from your hand. Some dogs will get the idea very quickly, even if new to this type of training. Sometime it will take some persistence. After a while, stop lifting up the lid for the treat, and simply hand him the treat from your hand only. Then remove the treat from under the lid entirely. 


Once he is pawing well, hitting the lid every time and knows exactly what you want you can add the cue! I use the word 'paw!'. As his paw connects with the lid say 'paw' and click/say yes. You have to say it quite a few times for it to stick. Eventually he will wait to hear paw before he does it. Then you can start putting your hand underneath the lid, still very close to the floor, but slowly higher and higher. You can use this method to teach 'shake' and 'hi-five' very effectively. Then replace the yogurt lid with a large sticker. Then start reducing the size of the sticker slowly until he will simply target your hand - and it is all done! That should all take maybe 5-6 sessions for a fairly smart dog, although it will vary widely with attention span, prior training etc. Always end your sessions on a high and keep them short.

So, this is how I trained Knightley to close my kitchen cupboard door. First I got a big white sticker, stuck it to my palm, and had him paw target that. Then I put the palm with the sticker next to my leg and asked him to paw that. He seemed to think I was asking for a touch or something, or maybe he just wanted to eat it (he tries to eat most things in the world afterall!).... because I got some paws, but some 'eat the sticker'. So that didn't work quite right. So I did some sticker zen. I know I've talked about zen a lot, but I may not have been absolutely explicit as to what it means. Zen basically means 'calm down, centre yourself, leave it'. My cue for zen is 'leave it', for instance I will put a large treat in front of him - say, a nice warm sausage - and tell him 'leave it', and he will back up slightly, sit, and look right at me. No fuss, no upset...  just a calm dog accepting what I wish, with heaps of self control, which is why it is called zen. Anyway, so he had tried to eat the sticker, so I told him to leave it, and every time I flapped the sticker in front of his face, whilst telling him leave it, and he successfully did it, I gave him lots of treats. Once I had established it was not for his mouth/nose etc, we went back to paw targeting. This time we were good. He was pawing my hand rather painfully, well done! good pup! (lol)

So, then I took it another step forward and put the sticker on my leg, but left my hand next to it. Not very different, and after a few hiccups, he was targeting my leg. Very slowly I started pulling my hand away, and didn't pause with cues and treats, until he was confidently tearing my leg to pieces with his nasty little nails, lol! We stopped there that night. All that took maybe 5 minutes, and was a very successful recap.

Then this evening we did our very awesomely cool session. I had new treats, we had got some fresh 'all natural' pre-prepared dog food in chicken, rice and veggies to use as training treats because they came in little nuggets, and this was the first time I had tried it, and they were a HIT. I started with him targeting the sticker on my hand, then my leg, and then I stuck it on the bottom of the couch... low enough so his paw could get to it. This was the really big moment, the massive huge mental leap. What leap, says Knightley, whapping the couch with his paw!!! And again, and again, and again! Wowsers! I was sitting there grinning like an idiot!

Learning to close the cupboard door. That's my amazing
puppy!

So, keeping in mind the behaviour is to actually close a cupboard door, we then moved into the kitchen, where I briefly retaught what we had just done (dogs need to relearn new behaviours when they move rooms/places). He confidently pawed my leg on cue, so I stood closer and closer to the cupboard and then put a fresh sticker right on the cupboard at about the same height. He didn't see it at first, so as I cued paw, I tried pointing at it, and he tried to paw my pointing hand... sigh.... but I persisted... patting the sticker, showing it to him, and then cuing 'paw!' again. Finally there is a half hearted wave of his foreleg, and I treated him like he did the most wonderful thing in the world. I gave him tiny treats for any wave, big treats for contact with the door of the cupboard, then eventually only treats for contact. I was actually handing him the treats at first, but found that tossing the treats aside gave him a few steps to centre himself on the sticker/door and put some force behind the whack.

After that change he started doing some really good whacks, and I was thrilled. I then wondered whether he could actually close it, although the doors do need a reasonable push to close. So I open it a touch, and we start trying. Tiny treats for soft touches, big treats for solid hits. Eventually only c/t for solid hits, which frustrated him for a while and he started his annoyed barking. Then he realised when I had stopped giving him treats if he didn't hit it and started putting his effort into actually pawing it solidly. Suddenly, *bang!*, the cupboard door closed, and Knightley jumped a little - I think I did too.... and I absolutely stuffed that dog full of treats, told him he was the very best puppy in the world, and he started wagging madly!!! We worked at it more until he managed to close it another three times, then stopped on a high. I was completely thrilled and completely blown away. Moving from a horizontal paw target to a vertical is meant to be a big leap... let alone manipulating that object!!! It showed me once and for all what Knightley is capable of. I am still almost in shock. He isn't meant to learn that fast!!                                                                                                                                                          

Getting a wash with some nice new 2in1
very natural shampoo after his swim. He
still doesn't like it very much but he is
tolerating it. I should really put my skills
to actually making him actively like it.
Now THAT would be a challenge!

Anyway, onto other topics. Earlier that day I went over to my parents place with the specific mission to get him over his reluctance for getting into the pool. His first trip over there he had been so eager to get in he had conquered any misgivings and jumped in, but the second trip over there he only jumped in once as he was just not happy with launching himself. Once he was in he always really enjoyed himself, but he didn't like having to jump. So I fed him a very small breakfast and saved the rest up in order to lure him into the pool.

At first I just fed him for leaning over, using the marker word "yes!" instead of clicking, trying to help him feel that leaning towards the water wasn't something to be afraid of. There are some steps that he hadn't realised were there previously, so I started to lure him with food and his Wubba (which he adores) at the steps, giving him treats whenever he leaned over again. I also took off his life jacket so he would feel freer to move and less encumbered. He was obviously pretty hungry because he was leaning further and further out until eventually, suddenly, a foot went over the edge and there was one on the first step. I shovelled buckets of food into his mouth then used his Wubba to lure him off the step. He grabbed hold of the Wubba, had a bit of a tour of the pool, then eventually climbed out at the steps.

That was pretty much how the session went, with me trying to make him feel more confident about getting in the pool, giving him treats for getting his feet on the steps, sometimes treats for getting in too if his head was far enough out of the water. After a few dips in I put his life jacket back on to save him some energy and because I noticed his strokes weren't as smooth and calm without it. Eventually he started to tire, but I was very very pleased with his progress... he even jumped in once after a big palm leaf. I'll keep working on it the same way, and will put a cue to it when it's a solid behaviour. There is a deeper step on the other side of the pool, so my aim will be to have him getting in there eventually - and then back to just jumping in.

I gave him a wash with my new lovely 2in1 pet shampoo, which is very natural, biodegradable, a natural fleaicide and very very good for sensitive dogs. Not to mention perfect for easy washing after a swim. Then that night we had the amazing success with the cupboard door.

As the days go by I am more and more sure about my choice. His focus is well ahead of other puppies his age... I just need to work on it outside the house, because his brains fly out his ears when we go outside.... What a day though. One to remember.