Knightley 10 months old, new sleeping arrangements, hip injections and deposit on car!

10 months old

Well I usually get photos on the day of every month birthday, but today was just a bit too busy! I'll try to get some tomorrow. It seems sooo short between each month birthday, it seems only a week or at the most two since I was saying he was 9 months old. He neeeeeeearly lifted a leg when peeing against a tree today. My boy really is growing up. He also has new sleeping arrangements as of tonight. For the first couple of months of his life with us he slept closed in his crate, then after that we graduated to sleeping in a rather large pen (because he liked chewing things and destroying things a little too much... just loves things in his mouth - still does), and then today graduated to having the kitchen and dog/dining area to himself every night. It's extremely neat tonight, which is certainly important for the first night so he doesn't get into something on the first night and get into a habit after that. The main reason it's perfect in its neatness, and the reason I decided to make the change now, is that we have a rental inspection tomorrow (usually every 6 months, but it will be 9.5 months this time) and I wanted to put away the pen. When I went to check on Knightley after finishing cleaning the bathrooms to a soft gleam (! or trying, as far as rental houses can be pushed towards gleaming!) he was lying virtually in the middle of the floor, but I kind of expect him to be in his crate when we come out in the morning.... that is usually where he is in the morning.

It's just totally amazing how fast he has grown up. People who meet him when we are doing our public access training no longer recognise him as a puppy, although they often realise he is on the young side. When I tell them he is nearly 10 months old they are amazed how big he is (I don't really think he is big! compared to some other breeds he is rather medium sized!) and how well behaved he is for a puppy. If only they could see him when he grabs some contraband!! Still, he is a darling pup. Only two more months and we'll be getting hip x-rays which will tell us his future with me and whether he can truly be a working assistance dog. Unfortunately Golden Retrievers have quite bad hips, and while I am doing what I can to end up with good hips on Knightley, you can never know.

Anyway, today I had a couple of injections into my 'bad' hip, my right hip. Last time I had this done I was virtually immobile for a week.... I woke up the day after the injections and could barely move my leg. The injections were painful today, and they also did a nerve block for the first time, so we'll see what happens there.... but if they help this time, it'll be worth it. I expected to barely be able to clean the house tonight because of my hip but it has been ok, as long as I don't stay still for too long because then I start to seize up. It could be very bad tomorrow. I got a call from the place I work/volunteer and they are begging me to come in tomorrow as there has been a crisis and we have an important event coming up on the weekend. Rather stupidly I said yes, so I am quite sure I will need a wheelchair. It isn't going to be a very wheelchair friendly office, but I'll cope. I find it very hard to say no when people actually *want* me. It is something I have to work on - saying no for the sake of my health.

In case your missed the photo in my last blog post, our new
car! Plenty of room for dog face (my loving name for Knightley!)
in the wagon part. The car is in good nick although I would have
rathered a few less kms on the clock, but we don't expect it to last
forever - just until my hubby gets some well deserved raises at
work over the next couple of years! The car is exactly what we
wanted though. Definitely want to take it on a weekend away!

After the hip injections hubby and I and my parents went to the other side of town to check out the car we were interested in again (a used car, see previous post for details). To cut a long story short, we have put a deposit on it, and are buying it!!! It's 'our' first car, and has plenty of room for passengers, and Knightley too as it's a stationwagon. It's fitted out for a roof-rack as well, so we may look into that too for flexibility. Anyway, it has a few easily fixed minor issues, so we will be picking it up on Thursday arvo (Monday night now) when everything is fixed. The only problem is because it's a stationwagon, to go in the wagon part Knightley will have to really jump and he is *SOOO* bad at jumping lol. He can't jump into the back seat of a normal sedan - he sort of pulls himself up. I know it's partly a puppy thing... but hopefully he will learn to jump soon. He actually can jump quite well when he wants to, so we just have to harness that. Maybe big chunks of beef heart (his favourite) in the back after fasting him for a day!

Speaking of fasting for a day.... I mentioned in my last post that Knightley had had a bad tummy. I decided to fast him for a day to let his stomach settle down. It's always a good move to make, it means that any last diarrhea can make its way out and it also means you won't irritate the stomach again before it's ready. Bone if good to stop the runs, so I wanted to feed chicken+bone with large percentages of bone tonight, but the silly hubby forgot to get the chicken wings I asked him to, and we have no chicken in the freezer. He did however get a nice cheap pork leg roast - so Knightley got a smallish serving of that with the leg bones. Leg bones of the larger ruminants - cow, deer etc are not safe to raw feed as they can break your dogs teeth. However, small animals like rabbit and chicken are absolutely fine, and so is everything up to pig and sheep. Try to cut down on fat when your dog's stomach is upset too, just feed chicken or turkey. If you can't feed those, pork is the next best choice. My poor boy was obviously very hungry, and like usual it was great to see him happily gnawing and crunching away, but we'll see how his stomach is tomorrow.

Anyway, tomorrow I need to get up early to do some finishes to the house, so it's sleep time for me. Cross fingers for me that I can actually walk! Wish I could take Knightley to the office already for his retrieve, dropping things in a wheelchair is going to the awkward as I'm usually with a family member when I'm in the chair......

A 'new' down, lifting crutches, a migraine, and a good shop trip

8 months 4 weeks 2 days old

Firstly, just a quick note - the 7th Assistance Dog Blog Carnival submission date has been extended due to lack of entries (mine was the only one!). So, if you have a service/assistance dog, if you raise puppies for programs, if you have a partner with a service/assistance dog, or if you're an interested member of the public with something to say about assistance dogs....  As long as you have access to a blog, and reply to the topic (it has changed a bit with the extension), you are very welcome to participate in the Blog Carnival. If you're interested (you should be!), go to http://playswithpuppies.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/adbc-call-for-submissions-take-2.html

I'm working on training a 'new' down with Knightley. The cue is flat!, which is nicely different from boring down. I am trying to resist luring it (using a piece of food to urge to dog into a down position) as that will make for a weaker behaviour. I did a fair bit of luring around the first time, I have to say, but I was still a clicker novice and Knightley and I weren't very good at shaping together. So now he kinda gets clicking a fair bit more, I'm going all the way back to Level 1, and getting myself a brand new shiny down with shaping. I'm also going to try (and I mean try - with his level of distraction outside), to shape it outdoors as well. This will lead to a super strong behaviour.

I did something similar with his cue to go into his crate. Once again, I had lured quite a bit and slowly as I stopped luring and started treating only, then even faded the treats..... eventually the behaviour fell apart. I mean, the cue still worked about 70% of the time, but I had to repeat myself an unacceptable number of times. So I retrained the behaviour with mostly shaping, and a new cue (instead of crate! the new behaviour was box!). He is much more reliable now, and is faster going in too. So far his flat is a much faster, more prompt behaviour than his old down, although if I need him in that position at the moment I am asking for a down until flat is completely trained.

A couple of days ago some cord loops arrived for my crutches, so that in order to lift them off the ground so that I can then get them (if they fall, or if I am forced to put them on the ground somewhere) Knightley can grab the loops. I have put some work into trying to get him to grasp the crutches themselves, but for whatever reason he has a bit of a phobia. Perhaps I have accidentally side swiped him with one before and now he's a bit leery of them? Or he just doesn't like holding cold metal in his mouth? Either way, these loops will work if all I want is him to lift them up for me. So far he is nicely happy to hold the loops, but we are taking it slowly. He has never really held anything of any weight in his mouth during our sessions - although you should see the size of the branches he likes to carry on our walks!!

I'm recovering from a migraine I got two nights ago. Pretty sure I've beaten it but it wasn't what I needed! I really hoped that Knightley would alert to my migraines naturally, as often I have little warning before they hit - sometimes quite savagely. However, so far I have seen no sign of a natural alerting ability. He certainly reacts to me and my moods when I am especially sick, but doesn't give any warning, unfortunately. I do wonder whether migraine alerting can be trained. I certainly know dogs can be trained to alert for conditions like diabetes and other blood sugar related conditions. I've heard about it for heart conditions too. I haven't actually heard about it for epilepsy though, and that is a migraine sufferers nearest comparison. These days they say migraines are indeed related to seizures. Oh well, in the future I shall look into it.

Last night I took Knightley up to (and inside, as we have permission) the local shops briefly and we really worked hard on getting a nice loose leash and keeping a solid 'service dog walk'. At first I was by myself, but then hubby joined me. It was really quite easy getting him to focus and be nice and loose without hubby there, but when hubby arrived things did go out the window a bit. He often walks a bit ahead of me (I am veeerrry slow) and so Knightley thinks he should be keeping up with his Daddy, not dawdling on with his slowpoke of a Mummy. He got rather frustrated when everytime he tried to rush forward to Daddy, he ended up further away because I would walk backwards. He did get the message though, and he settled down walking beside me, nice and solid, plod plod plod. His sniffing was at a minimum, and he was in general just very polite in his behaviour. I was very happy with him. I have been thinking about teaching a no-sniff cue... but I may talk about that later.

For the next bunch of posts I'm going to spend a bit of time answering some of the regular Google queries that I get. Some of them I already answer a bit in my posts, but I'll do some short posts answering them explicitly because there are obviously people looking for information they are struggling to find - which I can answer. So when I leave my normal format, don't be surprised.

Great training session, good training walk! Great puppy!

7 months 3 weeks 1 day old 

This is an oldish photo, but still demonstrates the variety of
objects I am getting Knightley used to holding. Once I am sure
his mouth is soft and controlled, I will move to personal things
that I might actually drop and want him to pick up. One of the
things I am going to be asking him to pick up is my handbag,
when it's on the floor, so I am going to perhaps reinforce part
of the strap to also give him a target to know where to grip.

Knightley and I had a really good training session today, especially with our retrieve training. I worked on getting him to reach for his dumbell up and down, very close to the floor... then moving it so he had to twist around to grab it, or even take a couple of steps. We are working just on a good hold... getting some good 5-6 seconds quite reliably. I was even able to take my hand off the dumbell for like half a second and he held it nice and securely, like the champ he is! He tends to love holding things - when we go for walks he'll trot along with a stick for 5-10 minutes, so if I can just tap into that frame of mind, I think this part of the retrieve will be sorted. I have started saying 'thank you!' as his cue to give me the object, instead of 'yes!' which is my normal finishing marker. I like the idea of being courteous to your dog. Tomorrow I'll do some work with other objects, like spoons, pencils and the like.

We did some great eye contact work, then finished it up by working on the speed of Knightley's downs. Sometimes he isn't exactly prompt! I was thinking of completely retraining it, giving it a new cue and everything. We'll see I guess. That's what I've done with Knightley's "crate!". He wasn't all that good about obeying the "crate!" cue, so I started retraining from the beginning, then gave it the "box!" cue. It is working much better so far.

We had a great loose leash training walk today. By the end he was really sticking to my side. It takes so much patience though, and completely implacability and unwillingness to compromise. If you let yourself be pulled forward even a couple of steps because you couldn't be bothered, then you have ruined it for who knows how long. Pulling = never ever going forward, must must be the rule. Knightley must always only go forward if he is at my side. If he pulls ahead I walk backwards, pulling lightly on his collar then releasing when a paw moves in the right direction... until he is in the right place at my left side. Then I praise, treat, and proceed.

Anyway, it was a really positive day, although he does have the runs a bit as I fed him raw liver (as I mentioned last time - perhaps it was a bit much) and like quite a few dogs, it just made him a little runny. I should have started smaller, but it's extremely important he has liver in his diet. I thought he likely wouldn't have a problem because he's been having freeze dried liver for many months, but obviously it is a different beastie!

Preparation for halter, socialisation work, crate and stays

6 months 2 weeks 3 days old

As our Comfort Trainer halter is currently winging its way towards us from the US, I thought I might get a headstart on the counter conditioning. This is very much necessary with a halter, so that the dog can happily wear it with little to no effect to its personality and creativity, and without it bothering the dog physically. A lot of people buy a halter for their dog and put it on immediately, impressed when the halter causes the dog to become slow, withdrawn and in the worst cases, depressed. The main cause for this psychological effect is the noseband of the halter - where it sits just below the eyes. When a dog is displaying its overt dominance to another, it sometimes will hold the other dogs muzzle in its mouth, putting pressure in many of the same places a halter puts it. It is hard wired into a dog that this pressure = dominance, which is why you see the psychological effects to halters. Some dogs won't be too bothered. These are the emotionally robust and physically insensitive dogs, however even then they certainly aren't going to like it.

In order to have a dog wear a halter with a little inhibiting effect, you have to do a lot of counter conditioning, and that is something I can do before the halter actually gets here. I plaited three strands of twine into a width of thick string that will be very similar to the width of the noseband of the Comfort Trainer. I then settled down for a clicker session. I held the plaited string out to Knightley, and if he ignored it, he got a click/treat (c/t). I formed a large loop of the string and slowly started moving it towards Knightley's head and muzzle. After every c/t I would withdraw the string as well. This is using the ideas of a technique called Behaviour Adjustment Training (BAT), which is a very geeky dog training technique that involves negative reinforcement (a feeling of pleasurable relief from stress, eg walking away from something stressful as a reward). By with drawing the string as well as c/ting, this let Knightley know that if he behaved nicely, the string (which he didn't much like) would eventually go away. Slowly I increased the time the string stuck around, and also started touching it to Knightley's muzzle and the rest of his head and chest, c/ting if he remained calm. I had to use my zen cue (Leave it!) a couple of times as he thought eating the string would be a good idea lol.

Knightley getting used to having a loop of string around his
muzzle. He did great in his first session of counter conditioning
in preparation for his Comfort Trainer halter. If he is well behaved
the string goes away, and over time I increase the amount of time
and also add a little more pressure. With simply great results.

Eventually I placed the string across the top of Knightley's muzzle, below his eyes - where the halter noseband will sit. I didn't have it in a loop at that stage, I just wanted the feel of the string across the halter to be brief and to link it to food and praise and a quick withdrawal before he tried scratching at it. I kept up a stream of encouragement and praise whenever I put the string across his nose. He was doing well, by and large not trying to bite it (must have been so tempting for my playful puppy), so I put it back into a large loop. I put a kibble in my hand, and put the loop in front of it, so that if Knightley wanted the kibble, he would have to put his muzzle through the loop. He seemed happy to do this, and I didn't try to force him to stay with his muzzle in the loop longer, or to tighten it or anything. We did this several more times until any reluctance had disappeared. I then started c/ting for putting the string under his muzzle, just holding it there for a second before a c/t. At this stage I thought to myself - ok, he's happy with a loose loop around the whole muzzle, he is happy with some pressure on the top of his muzzle and with pressure on the bottom. He knows it isn't going to hurt him, he knows it isn't for eating, and he knows if he is quiet and well behaved the string goes away. After this mental recap, I figured Knightley was ready for the next stage. Forming the loop again, I lured Knightley's muzzle into it the same way, but this time I tightened it a little as he was eating his kibble. Before he could get upset, I released it. We did this again and again, and I was able to holding the loop with gentle pressure for a couple of seconds without Knightley making a fuss - enough to take a photo at least, which wasn't easy let me tell you!!! We left it there for the evening, and I was very very happy with that progress. Slow is fast when it comes to counter conditioning - which is what they call this process.

After writing about my socialisation and public access training plans in my last blog post I felt pretty inspired, so today Knightley and I took a walk up to our local shops. He did great! I focused on a couple of different things:

• Not pulling towards people in order to say hello (if he pulled, we backed up until he was in heel position and was under threshold again)

• Not picking up any leaves, garbage or food from the ground (he did pick up some plastic covered with leaves at one stage, but when I told him 'leave it' he dropped it. Good boy!)

• Staying calm - or at least calming down when asked (we sat down on a bench a couple of times and I had him go into a down - he relaxed nicely, I would like to practice having him calm when people pat him, but there is a lot of work to do there)

• Obeying basic cues (we ran through the basics, especially focusing on our eye contact cue ... he found it difficult with all the distractions but we were able to get up to about 8 seconds with no problems - we can do 30 seconds at home though!)

• Being neither seen nor heard (the ideal for an assistance dog is that no one ever notices that it's there, so we focused on heeling nicely, being quiet and being invisible - I did notice several people startle when they realised there was a fairly large panting dog just lying there)

So far so good! There is a lot more work to be done of course, and I am looking forward to having both the halter and the vest, so that people will leave him alone in public. That will make a lot of difference to our training.

I decided a couple of days ago to do something about Knightley's 'crate' behaviour. He is very eager to obey if, and generally only if, I have some nice food. If he knows I don't have any food, he certainly isn't eager to get in the crate, and when he does get in, it is very slowly and sometimes he doesn't even go into a down once he is in - and that is absolutely *required* as part of the behaviour. So, I decided to teach the behaviour again, from scratch. I didn't actually teach 'crate' very well, it was my earlier days with Knightley, and I have learnt so much since then. We are putting a new cue to it - 'box' - and I have shaped it from the beginning. It is looking like it will be a faster version of the cue, and Knightley is always going into a down at the end of the behaviour chain. I think this is one of the very best things about clicker training (and something that more 'traditional methods' completely fails at!), that if you don't like a behaviour that you have trained, that you can train it again completely from scratch and get it better the next time around.

The last big thing we worked on yesterday - apart from loose leash, which is a given! - is our stays. We are getting really really close to properly passing Level 2 now. The Manners Minder (MM) is definitely helping. Knightley gets a bit bored in a sit stay and used to slide down into a down... so I put the MM on top of something so the chute was more at his mouth level and it wouldn't tempt him to go into a down when the treat came out, but would instead *keep* him in a sit. It worked very well, and I slowly walked around the room with Knightley in a stay, at first giving a treat at 10 seconds, then 15, then 20, then 25 - which took us to 1 minute 5 seconds. I then returned to him and gave him a big chunk of dried liver. Then we tried again, starting at 15, then 25, then 30 and returned to him. I then did some shorter sit stays, about 10 seconds. It's important to sometimes make it easy, not always just hard hard hard, or the dog will give up. We then started again, 15 seconds, then 25, then 35, then 40... which added up to a whole lot more than 1 minute, although of course he was getting reinforcement. He did almost break in that last one, his butt did come off the floor, but I quickly said 'sit!!!' in a deep authoritative voice and he sat back down.... and I hit the treat button twice in a row on the MM and praised him gently as we were at a distance from each other and effusive praise can make a dog break. We did another set of times, and got up to 45 seconds with no treat in between, which is our longest sit without him sliding down... but if you look at the amount of time between me giving the stay cue and returning to him, many of those times it was well over a minute. So I was very happy with our progress. We worked on our down stay in much the same way, and then later in the day did it without the MM. We got up to 50 seconds at the required 6m (20 feet).

So Level 2 is getting so very close to being done.....! I am going to try making a video of some of the things in Level 2 - there are too many things to get them all in, but we'll have a go. 

Heeling work, relax, stays and counter conditioning

Taking a small break from munching on a bone, still damp from
loose leash training outside. This morning there actually was
some improvement!!! I think there may be a steady dog inside
Knightley who will be able to walk nicely on his normal flat
collar. It's just going to take some more work.

Knightley and I have both come in wet from the rain (what a strange Australian summer it is!!) and I have given him some nice juicy bones to keep his teeth nice and clean, and to let a dog be a dog. I'm listening to him get really into it, it sounds like he's having fun.

I'm still struggling with my health a bit more than normal, which is why this post has taken several days to write, but Knightley and I are able to train reasonably normally. I'm doing a lot of heeling work offleash inside and in the backyard, getting him used to being beside me at all times. He is absolutely great inside and really knows where he is meant to be, but does get distracted outside.

Eventually, in addition to the 'heel' cue telling him to walk at my left hand side, I will teach him 'side', a cue to walk on my right hand side. In shops, especially places like clothes stores where the places to walk can be tight, and what you may want to look at doesn't involve looking over a dogs back, it makes sense to swap your dog briefly to the other side. This is why I will teach the other cue. For now however, we are working on teaching Knightley where I want him. The other thing to consider is, when he is finally starting to wear a mobility harness, he will need to walk slightly ahead of me, whereas in a classic heel position, his head should be equal with my knee. I am guess the equipment itself will act as a cue. Often this learning of equipment and what is expected because of certain equipment is called 'equipment association' and can be helpful - or can be rather annoying because a dog knows he can get away with worse behaviour in a particular collar.

We're also doing loose leash work - basically the heeling but with the leash on, but trying to pretend the leash isn't there. I am keeping the click/treating super regular to try to keep the leash completely loose, even out the front in the street. It works well if I keep up the level of reinforcement and there are no serious distractions. I think we are just about at the standard to pass Level 2 loose leash, but we have some more work to do on his relax and stays, so loose leash will get more work done on it. Yesterday evening we were out in the street practicing loose leash, and the people who live across the road called out to us, calling Knightley's name..... sigh. So much for loose leash. With a serious distraction like that there is no hope! However, I think we may be actually getting somewhere. It wasn't a pretty heel or anything, but we went for a little walk in the rain today and he was quite loose the whole way..... until anything happened that is, sigh.

Knightley on his new bed, with lots of things to play with and
chew around him. He still lies in his crate sometimes, but now
he has the choice. He has grown so much... at first we thought
the size of the crate was absolutely ridiculous, but now when he
is stretched out it is almost too small!!

The house is still in disarray after my brother moved out, but it has meant that instead of being in his crate when we go out every day, I have let Knightley have the run of his pen because that room is yet to be filled with furniture. He is definitely completely house trained, we have no accidents at all... and I think he enjoys the extra freedom of the pen. There are more things to chew on, extra things to lie on, and I have the two doors of the crate open, which he seems to like. He has a new bed too, as he had outgrown his original one, and he is becoming quite fond of it.

In the last three days I have started extensive counter conditioning to get Knightley to accept the feel of a buzzing tool (in this case a battery powered lint shaver) against him voluntarily. This is part of Level 2, and is to make grooming easier (pet clippers), and also in case your dog ever needs to be shaved for surgery. The idea is to get Knightley actually liking the buzzing sound and feel by associating it with food and praise. So I started with just showing him the shaver, and telling him to 'touch' it, so that he reached out with his nose and touched it. This is a good way to introduce a dog to an unfamiliar object. I then turned it on at a good distance from Knightley (far enough away that he was unsettled but happy to stay there voluntarily) and instantly started click/treating him very quickly. As soon as I turned the shaver off, the kibble stopped. I turned it back on, and the shower of kibble started again. By that technique I was trying to get into his mind 'great things happen when the buzzing starts! it isn't scary at all!' He had definitely relaxed about the sound after several repetitions.

After doing that quite a bit, I turned the shaver off, and brought it close to Knightley, but he had become scared of it, so I held both kibble and the shaver in the same hand, which got him nice and close to it again, and he realised it wasn't eating him. As I moved the shaver towards his body, he shied away, but came back for more kibble, and I started click/treating like mad as he relaxed next to the shaver. I managed to briefly touch it to him while it was off and still have him relaxed, and have it on, a good metre (3.3 feet) away and have him only a little tense. We left the first session there.

The second session was more of the same, I just started bringing the shaver closer to him whilst it was on, until it was only 50cm or so (1 1/2 feet or so) away from him. He was happy to have it against him for a couple of seconds while it was off, but was quite scared of it when it was on still. I had to be careful I didn't push him too far - I wanted him to be able to be completely relaxed by the end of the process. I started throwing 6-7 kibble on the floor, but holding the on shaver in the midst of the scattered kibble, so that Knightley had to choose to come near in order to get the kibble, but I didn't stop him from backing off if he felt he needed to. After a few tries of that, he was definitely getting a lot braver.

I have been intrigued by the training technique called Behaviour Adjustment Training (known in dog training geek circles as BAT), which uses small amounts of stress and negative reinforcement to teach new reactions to situations. For instance, say there is a dog who is scared of and stressed out by strangers, and starts barking at any when they come too close. Using BAT, you would get yourself a stranger to train with, increase your dogs stress by going towards the stranger, and judge it so that the dog is stressed but is still calm and not barking.... and if the dog is doing well and behaving itself, you reward it by walking away from the stranger (this 'pleasureable' relief from stress is known as negative reinforcement, as opposed to something like a treat, which is positive reinforcement). It is very empowering for a dog to realise that its behaviour can actually control the environment like that, whereas its barking rarely did what it wanted. Further sessions would involve going closer and closer to strangers, and rewarding good behaviour with a withdrawal... until the dogs stress level would go down and down, as it knows that sooner or later it will leave and be able to relax, it just needs to keep being polite.

I was thinking about BAT as I was doing the third shaver session, so decided to use the ideas involved a little more deliberately. If Knightley let the shaver get really close to him whilst it was on without getting too worried, I would reward him with both treats, and removing the shaver entirely, and turning it off. If he was upset I would concentrate on click/treating calming signals and slowly moving the shaver further away and closer until he settled down a bit. When he really did well and went a step further than previously, I would take it away entirely and turn it off. It seemed to make sense to Knightley, because the clicker coupled with these ideas really made progress. By the end of the session, I was turning on the shaver against him for a second or so, with little reaction. I've done one more session since then, and I think I've nearly completed this part of Level 2. It can sit against him, continuously on, and he is happy to lie down on the couch next to me, just feeling it buzzing on him. Tomorrow I will make sure he is happy to have it all over him - ears, feet, tail etc. He has done very well though, and every bit of handling we work on the better.

You know what, I would use this technique for any sound or sensation I wanted to get a dog used to. This is pretty much how I got Knightley used to being brushed happily, how I got him happily to have his teeth fiddled with and now is just about happy to have them brushed, to have his nails clipped (a big one for many dogs), to get used to a vacuum cleaner, to get used to something like a coffee grinder or dishwasher that makes an odd noise. Of course some of these things you can't physically move around, so for the BAT techniques of negative reinforcement, I would actually move away with your dog for a short time if it had done well, praising and treating all the time. So many of the techniques I use to train aren't just for the behaviour I use them for - they can be used for so so many things and once you realise how adaptable they can be..... you're always going to have an idea to solve a training problem... or three or four....    

Knightley's relax got up to 35 seconds tonight, which isn't bad. We are having trouble making that minute though. He stays lying down, but his head pops out of relax position. We're also having trouble with the one minute down stay at 6m (20 feet).... we get to about 30 seconds or so, before he decides he is bored and there are more interesting things to do. He is better in the sit because it is closer, but still isn't rock solid. He is doing better in stays than many 6 month old clicker trained dogs - from what I have heard..... but still, this is really what is holding us back now - the duration behaviours.

We also did some towel zen this evening. It has been raining today, so Knightley has needed drying off most times he comes in from outside, and somewhat foolishly, from when we got Knightley as a tiny puppy he has been allowed to play with the towel when being dried, the favourite being tug. Sometimes I don't mind, because he really does love the 'towel game' as we call it. Sometimes however, when I'm trying to dry his feet or his ears, I would appreciate a quiet dog. So we practiced him spitting out the towel and not touching it until given clearance to do so (leave it..... OK!). He actually did very well, I was able to drape the towel around his head and everything, without him latching on, which is usually a given. Our zen cue is soooo useful! If you weren't to teach all of Sue Ailsby's Levels, but were to pick and choose, I would go for zen as my number 1 behaviour. Zen creates a dog with self control, who thinks before it acts. I am a huge fan.

Anyway, this has ended up as a huge massive post, congratulations and a click & treat if you read the entire thing!

So much in Level 2 but nearly there!

Zen

5 months 2 weeks 6 days old

Well, we are getting kind of close to finishing Level 2 of Sue Ailsby's Training Levels. We have a little more work to do, but compared to the HUGE amount of training contained in Level 2, we are close. The photos in this post come from over the last three months of training since Knightley was a little baby pup. Here's where Knightley and I stand.





Zen = complete, can leave treats alone on the floor in front of him for 1 minute.

Focus

Focus (eye contact) = complete except for using it through a car window which should be simple to polish off

Come

Come = not complete, we are getting a lot better, in a controlled environment he is good, but the final steps are coming 12m (40 foot) and proofing it everywhere. He is good at home, but on public grass I can't hope for more than a 75% response which isn't good enough.

Down

Down = not complete, but very nearly there, just have to do final steps that ask for a distance of 6m (20 feet) stay for 1 minute whilst walking around and talking, also being able to step over him and do it with kids around.

Sit

Sit = complete


Lazy (loose) leash = not complete, great inside at all steps involved but needs more work outside. Fine on a hard surface, but on grass he gets distracted.


Target = complete

Go to mat

Go to mat = complete, although may need a refresher







Tricks = not complete, have started training a new trick, should be finished and proofed soon

Crate

Crate = complete in his day to day crate, not complete in his portable crate



Handling = not complete, all complete except for the fourth step which is allowing clippers, pills, thermometers and toothbrushes. Need a little more work there.

Distance

Distance = complete 




Jump = not complete, nearly all done, just have to introduce him to some new jumps, then make put a mat and jump side by side and ask for cues one by one to test cue recognition

Relax

Relax = not complete, nearly done, just have to make sure he can go from excited for 1 minute, then relaxed for 1 minute, to excited for 1 minute etc. We've done it for less time but haven't pushed it to 1 minute.



Communication 2 = not complete, have only just started this one, Knightley will back up on cue, will move out of my personal space, but won't move out of my personal space automatically to my left yet, he doesn't yet know how to untangle a leash from his own front leg, nor from a pole if he got tangled in one. Of everything, the most work to be done is here.

Homework = not complete, I have to list 10 reasons a dog might not "obey a command".

It's actually really good for me to summarise it, so I am very clear what I have left to do.


While I am rather close to finishing, the last minute of doing all the little bits to finish may take longer than I expected. Normally you are expected to do everything in order, but that was not so much the case in Sue Ailsby's older levels, which is what I started Knightley on first. So that's why I'm a bit all over the place. Level 3 I will follow through as she suggests.

Looking ahead at Level 3, I have been doing a surprising amount of it already - quite as an accident though, simply as a consequence of pushing Knightley just a bit further on my own. For example, Level 3 sit is made up from mostly teaching your dog to go from a down to a sit then doing it at varying distances from you. We've done LOTS of that, so that will be very easy. Zen 3 is to wait to go through a door until the dog gets an invitation - we do that already. Focus (eye contact) starts with holding eye contact for 15 seconds, we can do up to 25 seconds with no problems. If you've been reading my blog much you will already know I have already been doing Level 3 retrieve - more than half of the steps involved - and I don't think it is going to be all that hard to polish it off. The amount of distance we were doing for the 'distance' behaviour was already Level 3 standard when I thought it was Level 2 (book is written all in feet and I'm very much a metres girl!) Also, some of Communication 3 we have already done, like paw targeting. So I have a headstart for Level 3, when I fix these last outstanding Level 2 behaviours.

I'm proud of my puppy. Myself too actually, as this is the first clicker training I've done, and it appears I'm not bad at it.

Improving rapidly with food, back into training with a hungry dog!

5 months 2 weeks old

So far Knightley has eaten two small meals, both chicken and rice, with a little kibble. He was going NUTS when I started preparing the first meal - he hadn't seen that dog bowl come out for about 30 hours, and for a growing puppy who'd been losing his meals via diarrhea for a couple of days previous anyway, he must have been absolutely and completely famished. I didn't even try to stop him barking at it, I knew it would be futile. He often barks just a little when I am preparing his food... I have worked on it, but I need to do more concentrated work obviously - because this time he was barking loud enough to wake the dead! Definitely more spark there!!

The first meal I just hand fed without training much, just a bit of zen. I hand fed to stop him gobbling it quickly, so his stomach would have time to get used to eating again, and he'd be less likely to get an upset stomach from it. After no bad reaction to that meal, I gave him another one later, but this one we did a little training with it, as his previous meal had almost taken him back to himself in terms of energy. 

His reaction times were great (sharpened by hunger and the fact he loved the food), and we went back over old ground of Sue Ailsby's Training Levels, refreshing cues, doing a little bit of shaping, closing the cupboard doors, doing some 'go around' with a soda bottle, then with absolutely nothing there, with was new for us (look up 'distance' in the glossary to find out which behaviour I am talking about). We did some more zen too. His zen is getting really good these days, we are getting closer to passing L2 zen, he just has to stay off a treat on the floor for 1 minute just using his willpower now. He has gone 30 seconds. We need to take it outside also, as like I've mentioned before, his brains fly out his ears outside. I'd rather he ate less random garbage, dirt, sticks, grass etc when we are out together, I will work on zen in an outdoor setting for specifically that reason. 

We also did a bit of relax, working on putting to the cue to the behaviour. I can cheat a bit here because I've already trained 'bang', which is the trick where the dog is meant to fall over and act dead in response to being shot. While I want more duration from relax, and want him to let go of his bodily tension some more, I do like the position he goes in for bang - lying on his side, legs all out to the side, head on the ground. This is what I want for relax, so I am using the hand cue for bang, whilst telling him relax as he does it. I tested it once or twice, and he reacted to just the verbal cue! Yay. Next session I will start putting a new 'relax' hand cue to the behaviour, and then we'll start working on truly completely relaxing and duration, but it's a good start.

Knightley in a sit stay giving good eye contact nearly two weeks
ago during our day down at the lake where he had such a wonderful
time. I am a bit biased but... isn't he just the most gorgeous puppy?!

We also worked on stays a bit during the afternoon with a bit of plain kibble. His stay is getting really good, but I am very careful to increase it by a second or two at a time only. To pass Level 2 he needs to do a 1 minute stay at 3 metres (10 feet) from me for a sit, 6 metres (20 feet) for a down. He can do 30 seconds at a distance of 3 metres whilst at home (with no distractions) for the both of them. It shouldn't be too hard to increase that. 

Duration behaviours are meant to be the one thing that is 'harder' with clicker training, rather than traditional training, but I have to say, I haven't found that at all. Even when he was a little puppy he could do 10 second stays. We haven't worked on them a great deal because they were never a trouble spot, or I think he'd be up to that 1 minute mark already. We also use the 'wait' cue, as well as 'stay' - although 'wait' is not in the Levels. I use wait in a situation where I am not going to return to Knightley to release him. Stay means stay where you are, always just stay don't move don't do anything until I return to you and say you can. Wait means don't move until I give you my next cue or release you to move. I find wait a VERY useful cue, and an easy one to train. 

I use it every time I feed him - I usually use his meals to train, but leave him a small amount to eat from his bowl to ensure we keep his bowl manners. I ask him to get in his crate and he goes into a down (a requirement in Level 2). I tell him to wait, then put the bowl in the crate with him but slightly out of reach. I wait 10 seconds or so, then tell him 'Go eat'. I also use wait in sitatuions like when I am going through the baby gate and he obviously wants to come with me. I'll put him in a wait, then go through the gate, and release him once I have gone through (I plan to train this with a better solution, using the concepts of zen, just haven't got around to it yet... so much to train!!). It's just a very useful cue. As is stay of course, but I like having both.

Anyway, it's great getting back to our training. Hopefully tomorrow he will nearly be back to his normal smarty pants self. Late this evening outside he picked up a big branch, tried to carry it inside with him, and was generally very proud of himself, tail wagging happily like a flag.... That's more the Knightley we all know and love. Had to disappoint him with the branch though.

Pup recovering, a short early morning walk

5 months 2 weeks old

Well, the pup seems to be recovering. He has a bit more spark today, he's interested in more attention and so far is spending more time with me. Yesterday he lay down in a different room, which is very rare... usually he stays in sight of me at all times.

Knightley still looking a bit sad and sorry for himself the
morning after the vet visit. He is happier than yesterday
though.

He's actually chewing on a toy right now, so that's really good to see. He's still a bit... well, I think serious is the right word for it. I think you can see what I mean in the photo. I think he's getting hungry too, he seems to be sniffing around quite obsessively for crumbs of any sort. Ooh, I just got a wag. Yep, my boy is going to be just fine I think. A little patience and we'll be back to our walks soon enough. We did go for a short one this morning - VERY early, at about 5:30am. I got up super early to give him his next antibiotic and take him out just in case his tummy was hurting him. It was a beautiful morning outside, although the coldest and windiest we've had for a while, which was actually quite refreshing! I was inspired to take him for a short walk because he seemed to have a reasonable amount of spark and hadn't been for a walk for two days. He did well, wagging a fair bit of the way, keeping a nice loose leash, just being a good boy and forgetting about his ouchy tummy despite the lack of food in his world. He is less happy inside the house, I guess the walk helps him forget out the stomach cramps.

The annoying thing is even if he starts to feel better later in the day, we can't train! I mean, I could try using toys as rewards, instead of treats, but I don't think he'd be quite up to tugging or running after a ball.

The other issue this no eating rule has brought up is FADING TREATS. Now, I am not one of those trainers who don't even want to fade treats. We faded treats for sit pretty early, and faded them for down probably too early. However, I hadn't started trying to fade treats for getting into the crate, and sometimes at night he just doesn't want to get into his crate. If he knows I have treats, that's fine, he'll obey the cue. But, I have discovered, if he thinks there is absolutely no food in the offing, he will jump in the crate, then jump out immediately. A cheeky way of doing what I want without actually completing the whole behaviour. I need to start keeping treats in my pocket to surprise him with - or wear my treat pouch ALL the time so he doesn't know when a treat is coming, since a good chunk of my clothing doesn't have pockets. It was the same at the vets yesterday... there were several behaviours I could have had him do to make him more manageable, but without treats to get his attention in a place as exciting as the vets.... well it was useless even trying. Giving treats only occasionally for behaviours is meant to be very effective, based on the gamblers principle... eg will I get one this time? Maybe I will this time! I'll try again because maybe it will be this time?

Anyway, the pup will be allowed to eat again late today, and he's only had one lot of diarrhea today and it was small. So all is looking good. I am going to work harder on his zen when out and about with me so he doesn't eat random things, so that it reduces the likelihood of this happening again.

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!

Shaping success, a heavy puppy!

4 months 3 weeks old

Well, we continue to have some great training sessions. This operant conditioning stuff (in this case, clicker training) really is a marvelous thing. For a long while now Knightley has NOT liked going into his crate. Our usual technique for the first two odd months we had him was to throw some food into the crate and hope that he follows it, them slam the door quickly behind him. Sometimes you'd be too slow and then a wrestling match would ensue. Not exactly ideal, and not something I would recommend! Not really positive training either. Not encouraging respect of his leaders either.... So I knew something had to be done.

Included in Sue Ailsby's Training Levels is a cue to get your dog to go into their crate happily. So I set about training Knightley, keeping in mind we had two months of bad 'getting in crate' memories to work through. It actually went fairly easily, although I guess I did cheat a bit, but will leave you to make your mind up on that! At first I started with traditional shaping, but Knightley and I have had little success with shaping without a fairly large amount of luring also thrown in. So I clicked for looking at it, walking towards it etc. Instead of 'trying to control the click', Knightley tends to be very wooden in these circumstances, but I persisted - making sure that in order to receive his treat he had to enter the crate and take it through the wire (this is the maybe cheating part!). I then threw another treat outside the crate, to 'reset' his position again. Treating at the corner at the very back turned very naturally into a hand signal of pointing directly at the back of the crate, and he slowly got used to that - he knew it meant 'put your head, then your feet, then your whole body in the crate and then suddenly a treat will appear at the place where she is pointing at!' When he was going fully inside before the c/t through the back bars, I added the 'crate' cue.

'Crate' is going well now. I am adding criteria again, working on it without the cue, asking for a down inside the crate before c/t... and I have stopped the treating through the bars. It has served its purpose. For several weeks now, I have Knightley wait until he is released when I open the crate, so at least I don't have to train that part of the crate behaviour. I always make sure I give him a really good pat before I release him, so that I help him see the crate as a good place. I am also feeding him the second half of his meals in there (the first half I use in a training session).

Onto the rather more interesting shaping exercise. This is more an Assistance Dog behaviour, although it could be occasionally useful for pets, and I thought I may as well teach it while he is young as it is simple and behaviours learnt young tend to be retained particularly well. It's the 'under' skill, where you can point at an object such as a chair or table and tell the dog to get under it. I did this as almost purely a shaping exercise, and didn't use any help from books or online. Firstly I moved a chair into the middle of the room, so it was nicely obvious for Knightley. The seat of the chair was only slightly shorter than his back, not so much that he would have to crawl under.

I started by throwing 10 or so treats directly under the chair, so he would realise it was the chair we were going to be working with today. Then came for him the part we are struggling with in shaping. First he tried 'watch me', staring at me very hard trying to get a treat, but I just looked at the chair, then he waved his paw at me as we have been doing quite a lot of hand shakes and high-fives, then a down, staring at me..... then frustration set in as I was just looking at the chair. He started his silly barking problem. I cued quiet, and then move around in a half circle around the chair. I found this to be the key to keep him from getting overly frustrated in the early shaping stages. When he would glance away from me, and happen to glance at the chair, I quickly click/treated. After a while, I did another round of 10 treats under the chair, and then he was definitely looking at the chair, as I slowly moved around it to stop him going into downs etc. I got a few looks with the head really close, almost under the seat, and those got jackpotted (lots of treats), and we continued. Looking from far away became not good enough, and I was only clicking for his head under, or at least close to the chair. This upped his frustration again, just as he thought he had figured out the game!

He started sticking his whole head under the seat, so when I treated, I did a couple actually under the chair, using them to lure him in a bit. If he stayed under the chair after the treat, he got another c/t (click/treat). After about 4 in a row, I would throw the next treat out from the chair, and he would have to figure it out again. This technique really seemed to help. When he was under the chair, he seemed to know that this was exactly what I wanted, and even sometimes went into a down - which is what I want as a finished behaviour, for which he got a jackpot. We finished our first session here.

Second session I started with 10 treats under the chair to re-orient his attention on the chair. He remembered well though. His head under quickly became half his body under, the front half. Sometimes he'd go into a down but because they kind of move backwards when they go down, only his forelegs and head would end up under the chair. I c/t'd because it was fairly good, and threw the treat in front of him so he would crawl forward to get it and be more evenly spaced under the chair. Then when he started doing it of his own accord, jackpot. He was catching on quickly in this second session.... the overnight sleep had helped set the brain patterns. I then started introducing a cue. The instant he actually got under the chair, I said 'under!' in a upbeat voice, very quickly followed by c/t as usual. Rinse and repeat many times. Then I started saying 'under!' when it looked like he was on his way under the chair. By the end of the session I tried out the cue a couple of times, with moderate success.... I had to say it more than once. Still, a great session, showing great focus. I was very proud of my puppy.

Third session was working on getting a down every time, so I removed the 'under' cue from the equation as I worked on it. I lured the down, only clicking for the behaviour after I had done the luring. Then gave a jackpot. Did give a treat for an under with no down, but a very very small one. Big treats for every down. After it was looking good, I reintroduced the 'under' cue.... and that is where we are up to now!

Weighed Knightley yesterday, and he has put on a LOT of weight recently. He is very nearly 20kg (44lbs), possibly due to the fact I have been feeding him a bit more. He was really on the skinny side, and is still slim.... but did need his food increasing. He's put on quite a bit since his last weigh in, so I think it's time to ease back on the food. He's now on pure Canidae All Life Stages, after a long swap from Nutro Natural Choice Large Puppy. He really likes the Canidae, and I can use just his kibble meals to train with. He has come a long way from the puppy who would only eat roast chicken!!!

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!