9 months old today!

9 months old

I can't believe Knightley is 9 months old.... that's 3/4 of a year!! It isn't long at all until he's a year old. If I were a puppy raiser there wouldn't be all that much time left, assuming I was giving him up at a year old like with most programs.

It has been a good long while since I have posted many photos of Knightley, so today I went and took a bunch to record his 9 month birthday. All the photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. The main change recently has been in sheer bulk - he has really filled out in the chest and doesn't look all that much like a puppy anymore. His weigh in last weekend put him at 31kg (68lbs), so he's certainly getting up there in weight. The other change has been in his feathering and coat in general... especially his tail and hind legs. He is certainly going to be a well feathered and furred dog, as he is definitely very furry already!

These are a couple of photos comparing Knightley now to how he was at 14 weeks old.

Knightley today lying in much the same place as
he did nearly 6 months ago in the next photo.

Knightley all fuzzy and cute at 14 weeks old, lying in the same
place as the previous photo.

Knightley sitting today, 9 months old.

Knightley sitting at 14 weeks, he was so cute... what happened!

Knightley may not be so cute anymore, but he is becoming quite
  the handsome dog. Today was a beautiful day, it's really starting
to cool down here and the leaves on the deciduous trees are falling
(it's autumn in the southern hemisphere).

You can see in this photo how furry our Knightley is beginning to
get! Especially his tail and hind legs...! His coat won't be fully grown
until he's at least two years old, if not three years old.

Knightley gazing at birds as he sits in the sun.

Trotting around happily in the sun as I struggle to get a good
photo!

He's really really growing up now, as you can see. Very soon he will be a year old, it will be time for hip x-rays to check for signs of hip dysplasia, and I'll know if it's full steam ahead for more advanced training. I had heard of so many dogs owners that had horrible times at the 7-10 month old period, and I was worried that we would go through that with Knightley... especially because Knightley is still 'intact' so he is going through some pretty severe hormonal change at the moment. However, so far things are going well.

We still have some resource guarding issues, although they are less than previously. While he doesn't care at all if I put my hands near him if he is eating kibble (he has eaten kibble recently once or twice), big chunks of red meat are another matter (as he is raw fed), although we are working at it and things are definitely improving. Occasionally he'll also grab bits and pieces inside that house that he shouldn't have that he doesn't want to give up (although he is giving them to me more readily now). While I know how to deal with it, it's a little hard to convince the hubby to never just reach for whatever Knightley might have. Instead, I'm trying to get hubby to trade for whatever Knightley may have got.

We're doing lots of practice with assistance retrieves, and I think giving up items as part of a controlled retrieve gives him opportunity to get over this bit of resource guarding. He has absolutely no problem when it's part of his 'work', so I'll just keep practicing. He is getting really good at helping me when we're inside, and he's able to pick up all sorts of tricky items - although when he fails several times in a row on a new item he will starting barking with frustration (which is actually kind of amusing when you see the look on his face, ie. 'how DARE you defy me you stupid shiny flat thingy, why won't you just GET IN MY MOUTH ALREADY!!!'... the barks are mixed in with all sorts of moans and grumbles too, it can be so funny, it's like he's trying to talk - oh and the shiny flat thingy was a hand mirror he had trouble with yesterday). It stops when he figures out the item, though, and he's always seems to be happy to be able to work out how to pick it up more easily. To those people who still don't believe that animals have emotions... they should look at my teenage pup!

Anyway, it has been a wonderful 7 months with Knightley so far. He has made a huge difference to my life, and I'm looking forward to a lot more time with him.

Great training sessions! Retrieve basics,eye contact and resource guarding

7 months 4 weeks old

We've had some great training sessions in the last couple of days, really getting back to where we were before on our retrieve holds (and more!) before I stopped training them in order to concentrate on finishing Level 2. We've got to the point where Knightley will walk three or four steps on cue, take an object from my hand, and hold it with me for at least 10 seconds, 5 of which he is holding it by himself. I then start holding it with him again, then tell him "thank you!" and he gives it to me. The next step is to get him walking more like 4-5 steps in order to get the object, then to let go and have him walk to me to deliver it, hold it together, then tell him thank you. I have managed to get him maybe half a step towards me to give me his dumbell, but I'm going to wait until we have at least a 15 second hold (together) until I push for a couple of steps walk towards me to deliver. Today I did manage to get him to take the dumbell from a stool on cue for the first time. It was the first time he didn't just take it from my hand. So we're definitely getting there!

I'm trying not to rush this, but I'd really really love a trained assistance retrieve a bit ahead of schedule!! I have actually used Knightley to pick up things before, but in that case it is moreso his curiosity. For instance, I've dropped my keys, and I nudged them with my foot and made them 'dance' a bit to get Knightley interested as cold metal isn't hugely fun, then when he picked them up, I praised like crazy and lightly held his collar to stop him retreating to inspect his new toy, while quickly grabbing a treat from my pocket which I exchanged for the keys with again, lots of praise. The technique works to an extent, but only if I can tempt him to pick it up. It needs to be a cued behaviour - in this case, 'get it'. So, it's going pretty well.

Our eye contact, where Knightley needs to keep 15 seconds eye contact with me without me actually looking at him, is going well. We are up to 15 inside, but not outside. Focusing outside is not Knightley's strong point, especially around GEE - ARR - EEH - ESS - ESS ! (Better spell it out right now or he'll wake up as he lies beside me on the bed! That's how much it excites him! Although we are working on it). We did some eye contact work up at the local shops today. He really does find it pretty hard to focus with all those fascinating people around. I think it's a perfect place to work on this actually, but it's going to be hard to get up to 15 seconds in a very high distraction place like the local shops after 5 on a weekday.

The Infin8 halter by Black Dog. It is a martingale collar, with a
figure of 8 halter that wraps around the muzzle. You can start
with the figure of 8 part fairly tight, giving you good control,
then slowly loosen and loosen it, until really the dog is just
wearing a collar. It's a great way to transition from a halter to
a collar successfully. Unfortunately they don't have a tan
option, so as to cause less visual disturbance to Knightley,
so I went with red as dogs see red very badly.

We are working hard on our loose leash - SIGH! I wrote an email to the trainer I wanted to work with, and got a reply saying she is taking a break at the moment.... grrrr. I did talk to a guy a while back about helping me, just not sure if he was the right fit. Maybe I should just try him anyway. I think Knightley *is* learning to give to the leash pressure and fight it less in the face of high distractions. He loses his focus on me though, and if there is something like a possum around (there was one walking along the fence just now outside, Knightley was quivering like a violin string!) I simply may as well not exist and it takes some significant force on his collar to get him moving. I am trying *one* more halter as a training device.... it's one I considered before, the infin8 by Black Dog. We'll see how it goes.

I did make an interesting discovery though. When we are doing public 'assistance dog' training, Knightley automatically goes into 'assistance dog walk', which is a very measured walk, almost a plod lol. Last time we were out practicing our public manners, I tried him with only his collar, and he was actually quite good, there was barely any pulling. Far better than he is just doing loose leash. I suppose there could be a few different reasons for this, but whatever the reason, perhaps I won't actually need the halter much afterall.....

I have noticed something a little worrying in the last week or so - the development of a small amount of resource guarding. He growled at me and did a wrinkly face when I tried to take a bottle cap from him, and I was pretty shocked. He has also been very protective of the food I've been feeding him, which obviously being raw, is very high value, so isn't that surprising. I was pretty shocked about the bottle cap though. I am being very very careful to 'trade', giving good treats for whatever Knightley might have in his mouth (he is a golden retriever puppy afterall, and despite his training, he likes getting things in his mouth as much as possible!), and giving him total privacy when he is eating so he can relax with the food.

Immediately after the bottle cap incident I went and ordered the book Mine! by Jean Donaldson, which is meant to be *the* best book for resource guarding problems, so hopefully I can nip any behaviour in the bud. I've also ordered some new equipment from my custom leash/harness maker, and one of those is a leash belt, with specially made double ended leash, so I think we might do a bit of umbilical leashing to put Knightley in his place., I'm thinking some other techniques from Sue Ailsby's "Leading The Dance" wouldn't go astray either, which is a program for behaviour problems that includes operant conditioning techniques (clicker training, basically!). Follow the link to Sue's page on the link sidebar if you're interested in reading about Leading the Dance. I am not hugely surprised about the timing this has come up - 8 months is a big time of change and hormones for dogs, I was almost waiting for something to happen with my almost perfect pup! If this is all, I will be lucky!