A wonderful day, a horrible migraine and a very good dog!

9 months 3 weeks 2 days old

Yesterday was my 1st wedding anniversary. It was a beautiful stunning day and my husband and I had an absolutely wonderful day from the beginning of the day to the end. We started out with wicked but gorgeous pancakes at a restaurant in the inner city for brunch, then took the pup to the dogpark, then off to a fancy dinner and finally ended the day with a movie snuggled on the couch (with Knightley bizarrely watching the movie too!). I hope all our anniversaries are as lovely as yesterday was! Of course today I am completely and absolutely exhausted beyond measure, but it was completely worth it.

Anyway, I am still trying to get rid of a migraine I got on Saturday - as well as a autoimmune/autoinflammatory rash I've had on my face for five or six days now (when biopsied they came up with 10 possibilities, most likely was something rare called lupus tumidus.... but who knows really, sigh). Hubby and I had some shopping to do and I have been sticking to the once a week public outing rule with Knightley until he is a little older and ready for more intensive training, so we took Knightley with us as his weekly trip. The migraine reared its ugly head virtually as soon as we got to the shopping mall (maybe the lighting?) as hubby and I split up to do our separate shopping. By the time we met back up I could barely open my eyes and I was using some of Knightley's natural guiding instincts (going around things or people, or stopping when there was an obstruction) because I was in such a bad shape. Thankfully after hubby rejoined us, Knightley followed hubby and I was virtually able to close my eyes and let the pup lead me through the mall.

The migraines that hit suddenly virtually blind me with photosensitivity, and sometimes, like in the case of this one, give me auras too.... which makes my vision even worse. I really hoped that Knightley was going to be a natural alerter, and tell me when I was going to get one of my sudden migraines, but so far, he isn't giving me any signs I can see. I am thinking that it may be worth training Knightley to do some basic guiding techniques so if I do get a very severe migraine while out I can rely on him to help me to safety. I don't know much about guiding though, in comparison to the research I have done about mobility assistance dog training... so I guess I have a lot of research to do. Mainly the biggest concern is that I don't want him to guide all the time - only when I am such a bad way. Ideally he would just know when to do it, but if not, I would just give him a cue. I just don't know if you can turn guiding on and off like that?? Anyway, he was a very very good boy, and I really don't know if I could have got through the mall alone without him. Even when I was with my hubby, it meant Knightley could lead me and not hubby, who went off to bring the car closer. I was proud of my boy, who is nearly 10 months old, wow!

Where Knightley and I walked this morning. It's a fantastic area
to walk your dog... lots of paths, lots of open grass areas, and
the storm water drain which runs with clear water after rain
(which we haven't had for weeks...) that Knightley gets to splash
around in and run up and down the sides of the drain. We
meet heaps of dogs on our walks too. The weather has been just
stunning over the last couple of weeks as we get to the end of
autumn. The bluest skies you could ever imagine, but some
cold nights well below zero already - and it isn't winter yet!

So, I took a lot of breakthrough medication and much more on Sunday to be able to enjoy my anniversary, but without the breakthrough the migraine is still quite fiercely hanging around. No where near as painful as when it first hit, so perhaps my migraine abortive partially worked, but I am pretty immobile for the moment. Although I did manage to take Knightley for a little walk this morning before it just got too painful to move much, and yesterday's running around doing things caught up with me. I think a doctor appointment may be in order. I refuse to go to the hospital, because I am just too complicated for them.... and I then always end up getting admitted which I **HATE**!! Then comes then scans just in case it's my immune system attacking my brain and so on and so on.... arrggh... I more or less swore to myself after spending my 29th birthday in ICU that I would not be admitted to a hospital unless I was almost literally dying. Thankfully I have been less sick since then anyway, so it hasn't been all that hard to stick to.

Oh, and I've found my perfect training treat! Easy to rip up and free! Knightley tends to eat a fairly lean diet - lots of beef heart, some pork which sometimes is fatty, turkey and occasionally chicken which sometimes has skin, sometimes doesn't... and ox tongue which is very lean. Consequently I supplement with fat from the butcher which he gives to me free as unwanted trimmings. Good fat just pulls apart in your hands easily, so instead of just adding it to his meals, I feed his fat as treats now. He loves it, and it is higher value than his regular meals - which I have a hard time topping these days. His 'flat' is going well now, but I don't use it yet as every day usage - I want to make sure it is absolutely great in every single situation I can think of using shaping and basic operant conditioning, and then slowly fade the treats when it is learnt so I end up with a 100% reliable down. Unlike our last one which slowly grew less reliable and slower over time because I lured too much and faded too fast.

Speaking of raw food, Knightley now only eats one meal a day, and that is working a lot better for us than morning and night. While I was planning on keeping him on two meals a day until 1 year old, he just became uninterested in his morning meal, whilst he will happy eat the whole day's worth at night. Today it was an entire turkey leg which he efficiently cracked and chewed and basically completely devoured. Flesh and skin are natures way of flossing an animals teeth! You should see Knightley's beautiful glowing teeth - he often gets comments at the dog park.

Anyway time to sleep and hope this silly head settles down. *waves*

Happy 6 month birthday, Knightley! Amazing progress

So, Knightley turned 6 months old today. Time sure has flown! He is becoming much much more easy to care for, taking far less time and attention than he used to. I know a lot of people start having trouble around this age, but so far I am extremely happy with his behaviour. We'll see how the next couple of months shape up. A lot of adolescent dogs are given up to pounds and rescues or even abandoned during that trying age, because their owners just don't know how to handle them. I think by getting a sound general obedience background from an early age, Knightley's trying behaviour should be at least minimised. So far, apart from separation anxiety (which may be somewhat my fault), he is as good as gold.

Knightley very happy (and dirty!) at the dog park. He is getting
good training there to sit infront of people to get attention and pats
instead of jumping up. I haven't seen him jump up on a person
once, although I can see him visibly tempted with the kids that go
with their parents! He really loves kids and they tend to excite him.

One of his more annoying habits was jumping up on people when excited, but I think I have got that fairly well under control now. The cure was simple, but took consistency and treats on hand all day. Basically when he was excited, and it was likely he would jump up, I would start clicking (or saying yes! if I didn't have a clicker on hand) for him keeping all four feet on the floor. If he jumped up, I would freeze and become as boring as possible, until the four feet were on the floor again. I counted 1-thousand 2-thousand after the front feet dropped down, then click/treat and LOTS of praise. I specifically want him to sit to say hello to people, so I am asking for a sit often when I come out in the morning, or come home from work. Now he knows that is what I want, so I click the instant he sits down, and the praise starts.... which is what he really wants in this particular scenario. Usually I focus on treats as the reward, but when he is just itching to be patted, why not use that as the reward? It certainly works, he knows if he wants it, he behaves. Now I just have to take the behaviour into public, because occasionally he lunges at people to jump up on them, so that they'll pay attention to him! Not particularly desirable for a dog who will hopefully be an assistance dog.

We did more nose work today and he is loving it. I had two cotton bags next to each other on the ground, and I'd throw some kibble across the floor, making sure some got into places where he had to sniff them out... then while he was busy I would hide a couple of kibble in one of the two bags. He knew his job was the find kibble and got excited every time he smelt something, his nose working over time. I'd then ask him to sit, pick up and open the bag so he could shove his head in, nose going a million miles again, and snaffle all the kibble.I want the sit to become part of a behaviour chain to signal 'hey mum, I found something!' instead of him just pawing and mouthing at the bag, trying to get to the kibble.

Soon we might start work on something other than food, maybe a cloth with a bit of vanilla on it, or something. Vanilla is often used to mark items for assistance dogs, to make them easier to find. Eg, handbag, sunglasses, or even a phone. All you need is a cue tip with some vanilla on it, and to put a small stripe down part of it where it won't rub onto everything else easily, then just let it dry. You don't want the vanilla to come off onto everything around it, you want it to stay localised to only the object. Some people put snap-lock bags inside their handbags with some scent on it, so the scent very much only stays with the handbag. Then the item has a big scent flashing light on it, so if the dog is asked to 'go get handbag' or similar, it will be much much easier. Knightley obviously really enjoys using his nose, and giving a dog an outlet like with nose work games, even as simple as I am doing, will decrease random sniffing when you don't want it. You can also train a 'sniff/nose to yourself' cue pair, if you have a sniffy dog training to become an assistance dog. This is important in stores where there may be fascinating animal smells, or interesting other scents... and it is *not* considered professional for an assistance dog to start being distracted by the smells - which is where the 'nose to yourself!' cue can come in. I'll just focus on giving him some fun for the moment though.

Learning relax a couple of months ago. It is interesting to see
how he has changed since then! His chest is much deeper,
and he has started getting his 'feathering' (the longer fur
goldens have on their tail, back of the back legs, back of the
front legs, chest and stomach). In a couple of months he is going
to look quite adult, and very handsome, if I say so myself.

We did some work on Knightley's 'relax' today, and it's coming along well. He has to be able to hold the position for a minute, then be excited for a minute, then relax again and so on. He will stay in a relax for about 25 seconds and lift his head up... see me, and then flop back down. We were up to about 45 seconds, which is getting close.to the target. It's rather amazing seeing Knightley going from excited, tugging and running around me, to splayed out on his side all floppy and relaxed in a couple of seconds. It seems this training thing actually works!! Relax is quite obviously a useful command, mostly as notice that I won't be moving for a while, so why don't you have a snooze. Eventually, that is what the relax cue will become.

We did a bit more work on stays, getting the sit stay where I walk around him, and the down stay at a longer distance as I actually do things and take my eye off him. Sit stay is fine unless he is getting a bit bored, and then the long 1 minute sit stay doesn't last and he slides into a down..... There is no stand stay in the Levels, but I have been doing it anyway, to get him generalised on what stay means. The more positions I can do it in, the better, and it will actually help with the individual stays sit and down stays as he really internalises the cue. I practice stay in relax and on your mat, as well as the normal ones. Actually it has been very useful in the relax position, as Knightley has now become a joy to groom. He was the normal baby puppy, trying to chew on his brushes and combs, but now he just likes there in a stay, letting me do what I need to. I just need a cue for him to change the side he's lying on, and I'm set!!

He's also getting great at other handling as part of Level 2, for example he is very happy for me to lift up his lips and poke around his mouth now. I do have a doggy toothbrush and toothpaste for him, but he's been pretty wary of them. It's kind of ok for now, he gets a LOT of freeze dried bones to chew on, especially kangaroo tails and water buffalo forelegs (HUGE! we jokingly call them dinosaur bones)..... but these are his adult teeth for life, just like with humans, so I am working on stroking his teeth with a finger as I lift up his lip. He is being a very good boy about it too. I need to train him to tolerate the sound and feel of something vibrating like clippers on him (never know when your dog will need surgery), and then that part of the handling is pretty much done.

In four months Knightley has really come amazingly far, both in training, and in his maturity. He is turning into a much calmer dog, and remains happy and willing to work. He is confident in new environments and with new people, but still submissive to other dogs (which is what I ideally want). He is very smart, and seemed to just get a brain boost a month or two back. He also loves training, and takes a lot of satisfaction in doing a job right, like closing a door. I am very impressed with him so far.... his breeders obviously did a good job socialising the puppies as he is a nicely balanced dog that is scared of virtually nothing. If he continues like this, we have a good shot at getting him up to working standard by about 18 months. Needless to say, I am thrilled.

Dogsicles, hot weather, another pool swim and teenage tantrums

5 months 1 week old

So it has been pretty hot here the last several days, continuing around 35c (95f), which isn't all that pleasant. It means having to be careful with your dogs, as dogs deal with heat less well than us humans. I've been giving Knightley regular 'dogsicles' to keep up his liquid supply, and keep him a little cooler.

To make dogsicles all you need is some chicken stock (best is to just boil a chicken carcass, then you get heaps, cost was 70 cents AU), a few kibble, maybe 8-10 per dogsicle, then I added a frozen pumpkin cube to each dogsicle, which I use when Knightley's movements are a bit runny. I then filled the small cups I was using as my containers up with stock. I let it sit for a bit, then added a couple of small chunks of banana to each cup, then into the freezer. The kibble swells up hugely and floats to the top, the banana kind of sits in the middle, and the pumpkin makes a layer on the bottom. Knightley is loving them... I get him to go into his crate, then put him in a wait, put the dogsicle on the floor of the crate, then close the crate door, and only then is he allowed to eat his lovely dogsicle. It keeps him busy and well hydrated, and is a good healthy treat for a hot summers day.

What are you doing point that thing at me?? I'm trying to relax
here you know!

Because of my migraine I wasn't well enough for our normal family New Years Day BBQ, but did manage it the following day, and once again Knightley got to swim - although he was a bit more hesitant about jumping in this time! It was one of the hot days, and it was pretty amazing seeing how tired he was, reluctant to move from lying around on the cool tiles... until he got in the water and suddenly he was all ready to go. Just those couple of degrees cooler makes all the difference for dogs and us humans.

Still dry, looking at us in the pool, but really reluctant to
jump in this time... I wasn't sure why, may have to train
a cue to jump into something for next time. He really
wanted to swim, but didn't want to take the plunge.

Here in Aus, at least in the more southern parts (not the tropics, where you do tend to find it), air conditioning is not all that common -

Having a good game of tug with my brother. Finally now
his adult teeth are in (except for the teeth that come in when
 he is 1) he can play tug again without bleeding on all his
toys!

Happy at last, having a good old chew, nice and wet, keeping
a watch on us all.

people occasionally have one room in the house air conditioned, but very very rarely the whole house. Both dogs and humans have to cope... but generally we only have one week, maybe two up around the 35-39c (95-102f) range, and these are the weeks where both dogs and humans risk heat stress/stroke (I've had heat stroke twice). Most of the time however, it isn't all that bad. Nevertheless, it does make me think about what I would do for Knightley if we do become an Assistance dog team. Of course I just couldn't take him out on days *that* hot, but even for the low 30s it is quite dangerous for a dog that needs to walk around and can't just lie down and pant. Anyway, for the last two days when Knightley hasn't had access to a pool, I had had a tub for him to splash around in, and have also been spraying his belly and armpits (or 'forelegpits'??) with a little handspray of water to keep him cooler. Keeping him hydrated is also incredibly
important because a dog can't stay properly cool without a well lubricated mouth (ie lots of icky drool/saliva) coupled with the ability to pant.

Anyway, so he perked up nicely during his swim, and had several good long tours of the pool. He's a great swimmer, good long strokes, nice and calm... although he does tend to forget where the steps to get out are and get a little worried when he can't get out.

His in crate behaviour is going really well these days, absolutely no barking, occasionally a touch of whining... but nothing like it was before. But - he still barks quite a bit in other situations. I asked for advice about his barking and getting overexcited while I was trying to teach him retrieve as part of Sue Ailsby's Training Levels, and someone else labelled it as a tantrum. I think that is pretty much right. He just can't control his displeasure and whenever something happens that he doesn't like he resorts to barking:

• food not coming fast enough = bark, 
• he can't understand what I want him to do = bark,
• I'm eating something and I tell him "leave it" which in that situation basically means 'back off, this is mine' = barkbarkbark, 
• he sees another dog and I won't let him go over and say hi = bark..... 

and so on. He voices his protest. I hope further work on distance, stays, zen and watch will help him develop his patience, because that is what is needed. It is actually quite perfect that I am up to where I am in the Training Levels, because it is starting to focus on behaviours where the dog has to start doing things for longer in order to get their reward. In otherwords - cultivate patience.

I also like Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol for cultivating patience, and Knightley and I are still working on Day 1 (of 15 days)- we're not rushing it. It involves basically just sitting for certainly periods of time, sometimes walking away from him, sometimes counting aloud, sometimes softly clapping aloud, sometimes just sitting for a good 20 seconds or so. That is day 1. Knightley is ok at it, he just tends to slide into a down when he gets bored. So once he has stopped doing that, we shall proceed. It definitely does relax him though, which is the object.

A very very happy dog.

Thankfully my migraine is receeding, so Knightley and I are slowly getting back to our normal training schedule. I'll see what damage a few days absence has done!

No puppy teeth left, training going well, a social season

4 months 3 weeks 4 days old

Poor Knightley has been losing so many teeth this week, and has been bleeding all over his toys.  From what I can see he now has none of his puppy teeth left - the last one came out last night... and his big adult teeth are coming in extremely quickly. He also has very very little puppy fluff left - just a tiny bit on his ears. The next photo here shows him lying down, doing one of his tricks that doubles as his relax command, and it shows how sleek his fur is now. His tail is beginning to feather, but apart from that he looks like a lab!

Doing his "bang" trick, where he goes into this position
when I say "bang!". He's getting better at it, but is sometimes
still reluctant to put his head fully down.

He's getting pretty big these days... when people meet him and I introduce him as "still little more than a baby" they say he doesn't look like one! It is fairly true, he's heading towards 21 inches at the shoulder, only another 3 to go at most to still remain inside the breed standard.

Training continues to be very good. We are working on a heel cue now - not a really formal heel, just a "walk at my left side" type heel. I will later train a "side" cue, which will get him walking at my right side. It is very useful for assistance dogs to be flexible in whichever side they walk on, as shops can sometimes be set out in strange

Another photo showing his coat without its fluff. He's
wearing his new Freedom Harness in this photo, which I
am really enjoying! He doesn't seem to mind it, although he
 isn't keen on it going on. I should train it really!

In a nice sit stay outside.

ways, and you may wish to look at isles without a dog in the way - so that the dog needs to walk comfortably on the other side. But I won't start training that for a good while yet. He is doing very well with the heel command inside, off the leash, with a medium level of distraction, but we haven't even taken it to the backyard, or added a leash.

We've also started retrieve training. You are meant to follow Sue Ailsby's New Levels (the books I just received) as they come.... but as a trained retrieve would really help me, I skipped ahead some. It starts in Level 3 (the second book)

Performing his "under" cue. Very helpful when out in cafes,
restaurants and the like. He has a firm grasp of the command
and will get under whatever it is possible to get under. I need
to start proofing outside now, and also asking for duration.

and has many little steps that teaches the formal retrieve - very much like an assistance retrieve. The first step gave a warning it may take a couple of days for the dog to get it - it took Knightley about 10 minutes!!! Wow he is sure getting this shaping and training thing now. For a while he was rather stuck on shaping, but definitely not now. His only problem is barking when he gets frustrated by me upping the criteria.

We are working on the second step now, where he has to be able to grab three different objects twice for one c/t. This is to increase the time he holds the object, so that in the end he doesn't bother to let go for long at all because he knows he has to hold on twice anyway for the click. Occasionally you need to click for one hold just to keep the dog in the game! Knightley found this pretty frustrating, that's for sure. But he definitely understood it. He just didn't like the change! What a silly clever puppy.

Socialising with one of the kids on the street. He gets along
so very well with children, it is great to see. It will be a
challenge, when the time comes, to stop him from wanting
to say hello to every single one when he is working.

He recently went to a big picnic I am not sure if I mentioned was happening in one of my previous posts, and behaved very well. There was even a noisy jumping castle, a face painter, a Santa, and quite a few kids. He showed no worry at any of these things. We took along his portable fabric crate with a nice freeze dried kangaroo tail to devour so we could get some time out from having to watch over him and actually eat and socialise. But he really was a pretty good boy. He did do some digging in the grass, and a little whining occasionally, but that was all. I was very happy with him. At one stage my husband and I left him in the portable crate under the watchful eye of one of my husband's colleges, and as we both walked away from him, he let out a huge loud upset howl/whine/bark, which continued until someone went over to comfort him. I found it very very hard to leave him when he was making those noises! Not surprisingly he was very happy to see us back minutes later. Poor puppy, you realise how attached he is to his 'family' when things like that happen.

Poor Knightley had a badly upset tummy yesterday and did a big gooey mess on the carpet. I had let him out of his crate after coming home from work, and he had gone to the front door and looked like he wanted to go out. I know he never needs to go immediately, so I was getting around to taking him out. But I should have looked at his insistence more closely, because next I knew he couldn't hold it in and half of it all came out on the carpet. It was his reaction that was most interesting. Shame is the closest I could describe it as. As soon as the poor thing had finished, he kind of slinked away, wouldn't meet my eye, tail was between his legs, his head was low to the ground. I hadn't scolded him or anything (I never did anyway of course), but he was obviously upset at his own behaviour. I asked my husband to take him outside while I started the cleanup, and he went again several times. I took him for a walk later and he went again and again. Poor little puppy. His first accident in many many weeks. Judging by his reaction to the unavoidable slip up, I think he can certainly be called house trained. He absolutely knew that he shouldn't be doing it there! He seems ok today though, and I've made sure he has had a lot to drink. I bet he ate something he shouldn't have.

Christmas Day is looking like it will be a fairly hot one... December so far has been a pretty unseasonably cool month but looks like Christmas Day may be one of its hottest days. We usually spend the day over at my parents house, and this year will be no exception. They have a nice pool, so I will take Knightley's quite newly arrived life jacket with us, and we may well go swimming together. Looking forward to it. Will get some photos if it happens! Leaving you with my cute Knightley photo for the week!

Great training sessions, some barking help, finding dog teeth everywhere!

Giving me a "Watch me" cue, one of the behaviours we are doing
as part of Sue Ailsby's Training Levels. I like to reinforce eye
contact even when I am not asking for a formal Watch me, so I
often give him treats during the day for it.

4 months 2 weeks 3 days old

Knightley is really getting into his training these days. There was a time I was really worried he wasn't "in the game" as they say, but that time is truly long gone. We've had some absolutely terrific sessions lately, where everything has been spot on, and he improves and learns effortlessly.

We continue to work on his "Shake", as like most dogs, he's a bit foot touchy, so I try to take the foot holding part of the behaviour slowly. He is happy to touch my hand with his foot, but when I start holding it, he isn't happy. He will also touch his paw to my hand in nearly any position, even jumping into a "beg" position in order to reach my hand with his paw. So cute.

His mat got wet a while back and has been outside, then got even wetter in the storms we had, and I was too slack and tired to clean it until now. But it's back in the house, and it has been at least four weeks since we worked on mat behaviours, and I never really moved it around the house, testing out whether he really knew what "Go to mat" meant. Well, I can tell you that dogs have really excellent memories. He basically did it perfectly, and was really getting into it, tail wagging madly. I moved it into three separate rooms, and he was throwing himself eagerly on the mat every time. This was only using kibble as a treat too! So much for the puppy who wasn't food motivated!!

Here's a list of the things my 4.5 month old Knightley can do now, most are Training Level behaviours:

• Sit
• Down (working on getting down quicker, at the moment it's quite slow)
• Stand
• Wait
• Stay (sit stay, and down stay, not done much work on stand stay)
• Watch
• Touch (hand, wand and surface target with nose)
• On your mat
• Paw (hand and object target with paw)
• Come (not as solid as I would like)
• Through (run between my legs, very recent trick, so quickly learnt!)
• Shake hands
• Hi-five
• Speak (very happy to do this one!!)
• Quiet (not so good at this one, does it, but it doesn't last as long as I would like when he wants to bark)
• Off (get off furniture, get your front paws off something, stop jumping up)
• Up (jump onto something, front paws up eg to give me things when I'm sitting)
• Give (release objects he has in his mouth to my hand, not completely solid)
• Bang! (basically my relax cue, has him lying on his side with his head relaxed on the floor, no tension in his body)
• Crate (go into your crate, recently taught)
• Zen (leave it, with food and other items, not default how I would like it to be but working on it)
• "Looloo" and "Go toilet" for doing number 1 and number 2 respectively
• LLW skills

Plus he is.....

• House (potty) trained
• Quiet and relaxed in the car

Wow, writing it out like that makes me realise how much he knows!! Not bad for a pup who is somewhere between baby and adolescent. Bratty child is probably the best description for now!

A couple of days ago I asked for help on the Training Levels yahoo list re: Knightley's barking issues. One of the replies, from Sue Ailsby herself seems to have done some good. She suggested using the Speak cue/Quiet cue pair, but in a slightly different way, a way apparently Karen Pryor has talked about. Instead of just starting the dog off barking and then trying to get quiet and then click/treating and eventually teaching the cue, Sue/Karen say to instead have the dog bark until he really really wants to stop, keeping on giving the bark cue until he wants to stop because he knows when he stops he will get lots of treats. Knightley seems to really get something out of his barking, but the first time I did this it really did seem to do something good. It hasn't been quite as effective since then, but perhaps that is my fault. I will certainly persist.

Knightley is certainly loosing more teeth. At least two in two days, possibly three. I need to be careful when I play with him because he loves tug, and a couple of times I have played with him, the toys have ended up with quite a bit of blood on them, and I have felt terribly guilty. Apparently Golden Retrievers have extremely high pain tolerances, but I think we'll take tug easy until all his teeth are out - much to his disgust I am sure, he will still dump sodden toys in my lap expecting me to take the other end for his amusement! Poor pup will probably get quite annoyed at my refusal!

We are having lots of Christmas parties of various sorts at the moment, for both my husband's work and mine. This weekend his work is having a Christmas party that includes the children of people who work for his company, and we have been sort of invited to bring along Knightley, as a couple of the people there have been wanting to meet him since he was a baby puppy. There is going to be face painting and a bouncing castle and everything - very chaotic, and I certainly wouldn't have taken him pre-16 weeks to something like that in the fear of him being seriously spooked and traumatised.... but he turns 20 weeks today, so I think he is ready for something like this. As I said in my previous post, he coped with the bustle of our town centre without so much as blinking, so I think he'll be fine. He looooves children too, I just hope they don't run too much around him, or at least listen to me if I tell them to stop, because he does get a little spooked by that sometimes.

He really is a good puppy, despite the barking. I really do adore him so very much. I do think I chose the right dog. His eagerness to train these days makes me feel so happy at the end of every training session. I can almost envisage going out in public with him, having him help me, saving me energy, reducing my pain levels and need for medication. I so so so hope it all works out. He and I are certainly making a good start of it. He was sleeping on the couch, curled up against me, with his chin on my lap yesterday, and I couldn't stop watching him. He is turning into a very handsome dog, and I love him dearly!

Barking issues continue, food change, Knightley nearly 20 weeks!

4 months 2 weeks old

Knightley definitely isn't so little anymore. He's continuing to shoot up - perhaps even faster than before. You are certainly not meant to increase food around this age, but he was really looking quite skinny, so I have increased the amount I am feeding him.

Knightley showing his much less fluffy coat off. In parts
it is very much an adult coat. He really only has puppy fluff
left on his head. It is sad to say goodbye to it! He has
also lost his first 'canine' tooth. From what I've read they
all kind of go quickly from now on. Poor pup.

It is somewhat difficult to keep him at a good weight as I am going through a long swap over from one food to another. I had him on Nutro's Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy - which whilst it isn't a great food, it was the best I could get my hands on in Australia without having to travel hours, or having to make it myself. I recently bought a bag of Canidae's All Life Stages to swap him over onto. Theoretically I could have had him on it from the beginning, seeing as it brands itself as for puppies, as well as adults and seniors - but I wanted a food that was higher in protein (28%) for his first four months of life and the associated growth spurt. Now I would rather slow down that growth, although it is still reasonably high in protein at 24.2%. The most important thing is it is a high quality food, much better than the vast majority of muck for sale in Australia. It is a food imported from the US, which has only become available here in the last year or so... and you can only get it over the internet. Oh, and it costs quite a bit. Still, it is worth it. Knightley will even train for it dry, he likes it so much! Considering the slow growth plan has kept him smaller than he could have been, I think he will be quite large when fully grown. He is already 51cm (20 inches) at withers height, which is the minimum height for a female golden - so he's definitely on his way already. He should only grow another 10cm (4inches) or so as he reaches maturity.

Looking handsome. He has no feathering to speak of yet
of course, although his tail seems to be starting. Other than
that, and the fluff on his head, he looks almost like a Labrador!
If another person tells me that he's a Lab I'll scream!

We've had a few good outings in public with Knightley - and as long as he doesn't get frustrated by anything, he generally doesn't start his rather ridiculous barking. We took him into our town centre this last weekend, and he was extremely well behaved. It was the first time he has been around semi heavy traffic, and he didn't seem to notice it. I think it was partly because when he was quite young we used to take him up to our local shops every evening to get him used to people and bustle, and inadvertently, traffic. Upping the number of cars, and speed, didn't daunt him at all. It was a hot day, so we didn't spend much time walking around, but what we did do I was extremely pleased with. My husband and I then took Knightley, along with a rather late lunch for ourselves, down to our local lake, for a rather pleasant romp for Knightley. He even got his feet wet in the lake! But I hadn't brought a towel, so I couldn't let him swim. I was actually surprised at the number of people swimming in the lake. I used to swim in it occasionally when I was about 4 years old, but since then it hardly has the reputation of cleanliness.

Random photo of Knightley, soaked after we've gone for a
slow but longish (for me!) walk together. Whenever it's humid
or we go during a hottish part of the day, I make sure I cool him
down when we get back. Dogs can overheat much more easily
than humans, and Knightley enjoys getting wet, then dirty.

We continue to have barking issues though. I am getting a little stumped with it all. I don't know why he suddenly became barky. He wasn't at all as a baby, when we got him. He basically barks from frustration... for instance, if he's: penned, tethered, ignored for a long time, crated if we're still in the room, if I'm eating, if I have high value treats and he wants them NOW, when we are doing zen work, if we are out somewhere and he wants to say hello to someone (especially another dog) and I won't let him. He is now starting to bark just during normal day to day training, so what I am doing is just not working to stop the gratuitous barking. Some days the barking is almost nil, and I think the techniques I am using are working, and then there will be a bad day. Sigh!

All wet from playing in pool, check. Lying in dirt, check.
Mummy looking quite cross, check (heh heh heh always
so fun). Right, time to eat leaves and dirt and get really
 gross and mucky!!!

Despite the barking problems, I am training a few new things... and Knightley has officially done his first Assistance task for me! He picked up a sock, and gave it to me! Of course he probably wouldn't have been so eager to give it to me if I hadn't had some kibble in my pocket (the curse of the positive trainer!) but, I pointed it out to him, he saw it, picked it up, and came to me. I make sure I try to *always* give him a treat when I take things away from him that he is not meant to have, so that even surrendering things that he really wants becomes a pleasurable experience. I think I am going to have to step this up with even higher value treats because he has figured out that he is now tall enough to "counter surf" (ie, stand on high hind legs and grab things off the kitchen counter), and I want to make sure he at least surrenders them, or preferably brings them to me for treats. So in this case, even though he was meant to have the sock, Goldens have inbuilt sock obsession, and I knew he would need a yummy swap deal to give it up, so I was happy to swap food for a sock. I was happy with him, even though it wasn't a formal Assistance retrieve.


In my last couple of entries I mentioned getting a Freedom harness, made by Wiggles, Wags and Whiskers.... and earlier this last week, it arrived. It has really been great so far, but I plan to do a review entry on it, so I won't say much more about it. Suffice to say it is good for someone who can't risk a dog pulling them over. I am definitely happy with it, although it only *just* fits Knightley, but at least it means he can fit it for a while. It took me a long time to find a site that would ship it to Australia for something less than a house mortgage, but finally found 2 Hounds Design, which was great and has a deal with another company who does their very reasonably priced international postage. So that was great.

I can't believe Knightley is 20 weeks old in just a few days. That means we've had him for 12 weeks, and boy has that time flown. It's almost like I can't remember a time when we haven't had him. Despite whatever challenges there may be, he brings a lot of joy to my life that wasn't there before. Leaving this post with one of my favourite most recent photos of a very dirty Knightley.

Looking beautiful but very mucky. Knightley sees no reason why he can't
go inside, but Mummy sure does!

A change in sleeping arrangements, growing like a weed, food, our bond

Knightley in his crate in the living room, about to go to sleep
without us for the first time since we got him.
I'm such a cruel mummy.

14 weeks 4 days old


Well, our Mr Knightley sure is growing up. Tonight is his first night not sleeping in our bedroom with my husband and I. He's sleeping out in his wire crate in the living room. He seems to be doing fine, I can't hear any whining or anything. It is the crate he spends a fair bit of time in during the week when I am out at my volunteer job, and at various appointments and the like, so it's not like it is a new place for him. About a week ago it got to the point where he could easily sleep through the night without needing to do out to empty his bladder in the middle of the night. When we got him, he slept right beside me on the floor in a mini crate. When that become a touch small, we moved him a full sized adult fabric crate at the end of the bed. At first I was getting up 3-4 times a night to take him out, but over the weeks it slowly dwindled until as I said... at about the age of 13-14 weeks I found he could sleep 6-7 hours and not need to relieve himself. From then on his continued dwelling in our room was on borrowed time!! The only reason he stayed in our room for another week was due to my soft touch of a husband. Anyway, tonight is his first night into the cruel solitary world.

My husband holding Knightley at 7 weeks when we went up
to the Hunter Valley to temperament test his litter.
Knightley was the very last one we tested and I was
 beginning to give up hope!

Already only 9 days after the last photo you can see he
has really grown. He is a touch over 8 weeks here, my
husband holding him again. We've had him for two days and
we're wondering what we have got ourselves into!!

Physically I have really started to notice changes in him recently. He is showing the first signs of starting to get his adult coat by having what they call a 'racing stripe' down his back of differently textured fur. At the moment it is not darker in colour, although judging by the colour of his ears I do expect his adult coat to be darker than his puppy fluff. He has grown so tremendously but sometimes it is so hard to see - so today I took a photo of my hubby holding Knightley as we knew we had a couple of others of him holding him when he was really young. This one on the left was him holding him on the very first day we met him at the age of 7 weeks. He was so tiny then - the length of the hubby's forearm!!! Crazy, when you look at him now.

Today it also looks like he maaay have lost a tooth, although it would be a touch early. Either way, it should start happening in the next several weeks. His teeth look so funny in his mouth. His head has grown so much, but of course his teeth are the same size as they always have been, so it looks rather ridiculous. In a way, it will be just as silly having fully grown adult teeth in a little jaw. It's funny, I don't remember my last dog losing his teeth, although I was only 11 when we got him. They usually go through a stage when they only have a couple of teeth and eating anything much is painful, and they stop playing tug much etc. I really can't remember that with my Clipsy. Some kinda strange people out there have a bit of an obsession with puppy teeth and are rather overly keen to try to get every tooth that their dog looses as they grow up.... to the point of deliberately playing tug when there's a wobbly one, or just yanking them out, sorting through vacuum cleaner bags etc. I'm not fibbing! There's all sorts of weird stuff about people and their puppies teeth. I wouldn't mind Knightley's canines... but as for the little front ones, I don't care at all. Ugly little teeth!! I can't wait until he does get his adult teeth. I am sick of these ultra sharp puppy teeth.

What a huge difference. The hubby holding Knightley today
at 14 and a half weeks old. He has truly sprouted of late.
His adult coat is even showing signs of coming in and I
**think** he may have lost a tooth already.

So on the left is Knightley now, and wow when I compared the photos myself, especially the 7 weeks to now, it really showed me how fast he has grown. Weight wise he is not even half way to his projected adult weight. For someone who owned a small dog previously, the fact that a 14 week old puppy can be significantly bigger than that previous dog tends to be just a touch weird sometimes. It actually changes how I think about Knightley and what I expect from him. Sometimes I find myself getting annoyed with him, and expecting better behaviour - but the I have to tell myself that despite his size and despite how well he is progressing in our training together.... he is still a baby. Just one growing like a tropical weed on steroids!! The really scary thing is I have him on a slow growth plan, and he is actually **under** the average weight for the plan, although within the suggested weights. On another more extreme plans suggested weight he is over the average a little, although he came to me big and plump for his age and it would have been hard to be that extreme with slowing his growth. I try to keep him nice and lean to help with his joint development, without having him skinny. Sometimes it is hard to get it right, especially as dog treats never have the caloric content on the packages!! He came to us overly plump, but since then I have been happy with his weight, he has a nice 'tuck', and viewed from above he has a nice little waist.
When Knightley came to us, the breeder had been feeding him Supercoat, which in my opinion is a pretty horrible food, so I started the switch to a different food after a couple of days of settling in. Since then I have been feeding him Nutro's Natural Choice - both the dry and wet varieties. At first I added a little puppy milk to the food, simply because the breeder had been doing it, and I wanted to keep his diet relatively similar - plus, he loved it! I also sometimes gave him pumpkin when his movements where a little soft. Whilst Natural Choice (in my opinion) isn't exactly the greatest dog food around, it is much better than some of the absolute crap available, and I knew from the beginning that slow growth plans involve changing your pup over to an adult feed at a fairly young age to keep the growth slow, so I would have more opportunity to find a great quality dog food when that time came. Hence, I am planning to start a slow switch to Canidae's All Life Stages food, which is of a lot higher quality than Natural Choice!! Whilst it is called "All Life Stages" I wasn't happy feeding a food with typical 'adult dog food' protein percentage to a pup so young. So in maybe a month or so I'll start a very slow switch over to the Canidae ALS. It's quite an expensive feed here, as it's imported from the US. Not even my vet had heard of it... it's pretty new in Australia really, but very well known in North America for its quality.

The main problem with the 'bad' dog foods is what 'fillers' they put in to bulk it up, things that dogs largely can't digest well, or even at all. Sometimes dogs can be allergic to the ingredients, sometimes it contributes to tooth decay and so on. Corn is the worst culprit, so if you look at the ingredients list on your dog's food and see corn, especially more than once....... well, unless there is a very good reason to keep him on it, I'd be changing the food. The better foods are made of just one meat, whereas the dodgier foods often have a list like "Lamb, chicken, beef, turkey...". That is also something to steer clear of. Try for one meat, or two if you have to. Some dogs have a problem with wheat, some or ok. Canidae makes a range of grain free foods, as do quite a few other brands available in countries OTHER than Australia! If a food is good, your dog should be producing small droppings. I have considered feeding a raw diet (muscle meat, organ meat and bone in specific proportions, not as simple as chucking random meat at your dog), but decided that while my dog is still growing I would keep his nutritional requirements in the hands of the dog food companies. Maybe I will try it in the future.

Knightley half asleep in one of his normal sleeping positions.
He spends a lot of time sleeping around my feet when I am
sitting on the couch. The positions he gets into are absolutely
mad. I encourage him settling at my feet deliberately with treats,
because a defeat 'settle at my feet when I am sitting' could be
extremely useful if he does end up a working dog. It could work
 in a cafe, work place, visiting somewhere, medical appointments
.... anything really.

Training continues well. I have started trying to train a new trick, although so far it isn't going anywhere fast!! A lot of my time is training manners, things like training him not to eat brushes when I groom him, or to accept me brushing his teeth. Recently I have started training a positive interrupter noise, as I would definitely rather not use the 'ah-ah' I have been using. All the training and playing and just the time we spend together is really creating a close bond between us though. A friend who moved to Melbourne a while back came to meet Knightley a couple of nights ago after we all went out to dinner. After letting him out of his crate, instead of running to say hello to the new person, he ran to me to say hello, then to the new person, then back to me, then the new person, then to my husband, then the new person got most of the attention from then on. It is sweet how he follows me from the room if I move, how his eyes follow me. Recently I have been reading Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening our Relationship with Dogs by Suzanne Clothier and partly inspired by that I have been really concentrating on the relationship between Knightley and I. When he doesn't do something I want him to do, or he suddenly acts mopey and tired when I know very well two seconds ago he was chasing something madly I pause and try to put myself in his place as a dog, try to get into his thoughts, so that I don't react in a way that may harm our relationship in even a small way. I feel really close to him, and he has been teaching me things about myself. I am proud of our progress together and so far he is still looking like a viable assistance dog prospect, although I am completely aware I have done no more than the beginning of the puppy raising stage. However, what I see so far is great. Now.... if only he would be more interested in taking treats... especially outisde...! We are now doing training sessions in the backyard, instead of outside. As long as I really keep up the rate of reinforcement he does pretty well. It is when we go into the street that his brain virtually evaporates. We'll keep working on it, and I'll try to keep trying to think like a dog!