Kaline and I had a great training session this afternoon. I finally feel like he's starting to get some of this stuff, rather than just following the treat. His sit-stay is getting really good! Well, except when he's supposed to be sitting and staying, waiting for me to put down his food bowl, but that's a bit of a different situation. So here's our progress.
Sit—Easily sits for lure; usually sits for verbal cue; oddly sits the slowest for hand signal. He will hold a sit-stay fairly well and for a decent length of time without distractions. If Juno gets up from her down-stay, usually all bets are off! I was able to circle Kaline both directions with him staying and watching, and play "Beat the Clock."
Down—Generally, but not always, goes down for lure; still haven't moved on to verbal cue or formal hand signal. Watch/stay in a down is inconsistent but getting better. Once he rolled onto one hip, I was able to circle him and play "Beat the Clock" with success. I also straddled him with no issues. The way he's reacted to basically everything, I wasn't real surprised that he wasn't fazed by having me stand over him.
Stand—Goes into position with lure fairly easily, and tends to stay in position while nibbling chicken. Given his background as a show puppy, this is also not surprising (although super awesome from my point of view). I can stroke his back without him sitting, and pick up all his feet with no problems.
Come—Kaline comes with great enthusiasm! Since he's still little, I haven't started saying "Come" until he's already committed to doing it. He has stopped jumping up when he gets to me, and will either sit automatically or sit quickly in response to a verbal cue. He'll turn away from something he's interested in to come.
No Mouthing—Thank goodness for Kikopup, amirite?! We are, predictably, dealing with a ton of mouthiness from the pup. Gradually, using the clicker, I got him to where I was waggling my fingers ridiculously around his snout with no mouthy reaction, as well as giving him butt scratches. We're going to have to work on that a lot more and in more locations, but I'm encouraged! I also worked on him not mouthing his leash.
No Mugging/Leave it—Well, it goes. Sometimes I can't tell if he's actually leaving it, or if his puppy-ADD has kicked in and he's just having a *SQUIRREL!!* moment. But he did have a moment where I held out a piece of chicken in an open hand in front of his nose, and he just stared straight into my eyes and didn't go for it. Yay. So "leave it": not too bad, but "no mugging": gaaaah, still working on it.
Heel—Kaline walks nicely in the heel position already when he's on leash and we're just out walking, but today in the living room we worked on turning and automatic sits when I stop. I'm not terribly concerned about the auto-sit at this point, because he does stop when I stop, when we're out and about. He's quite good about that. And when he's actually working, in the future, I actually prefer stopping in a stand rather than a sit. Better for blocking, being there for me to put a hand on, keeping one's tail out of danger (yeah, that's more of a Juno concern!).
Kaline has also spent a decent amount of time in his crate today, napping. He just woke up though and is now yowling. Time for a pee break!
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