Porter continues to amaze me. While we haven't worked a on a lot of "tricks" yet, his general training is coming along quite nicely. He walks in loose lead most of the time. When he occasionally pulls, I stop, and he has learned to release the tension by walking back towards me and then we continue forward. His pulling is typically caused by his quick pace. If I keep a very brisk walk then we are fine. His normal walking pace is much faster than mine though so I need to teach him to slow it down a bit especially once his legs grow even longer! I'll be jogging just to keep up on his walk.
When we are training his has great focus while heeling. He turned right very nicely, even doing 360's. I haven't worked on our lefts yet and I need to get on the perch work to help with those left pivots. He is really easy to maneuver into heel position and is learning to sit nice a straight. His preference is still to swing around to my front so I've been heavily rewarding him in heel position and he's doing better at staying there longer. He still stretches out to down so I need to work on teaching him to move his back feet inside so he's still in heel position. None of this is on cue yet.
I am most impressed with his behavior on Saturday. While the older dogs were in a big circle for basic obedience class (and there were over 10 dogs), Porter and I heeled around the outside of the circle and he was able to stay focuses on me (ok, really on my treats but I'll take it).
He also did much better playing with some puppies in class this week. Only once or twice he looked a little stiff. He played the most of a small JRT pup. Many he reminded him of Indigo. :) And as always he's doing great meeting older dogs, even if they are still puppies themselves, just a little older and a little larger.
He had a playdate with the Dalmatians, Kylie and Daisy this week. He has only seen Kylie on leash and even though she can be a pistol they all had a great time after our slow one on one off leash introductions. It was great seeing the three of them romp around together. After they had their fun we did a couple of rounds of Nose Work with them all.
I'm impressed at how quickly Porter picks up on things. He's waiting nicely for his dinner bowl now until I give him the release cue. I still am not waiting too long, but I can walk away a few feet and turn my back on him and he (typically) holds his stay.
His gross motor skills are improving every week. He's much better at walking down our hardwood floor stairs. I still walk in front of him in case he slips or tries to jump too many steps, but he rarely fumbles now. Most of the time he can make it up onto the couch but occasionally scrambles a bit. Jumping off was scary at first since he's take a flying leap and his feet would slip out from under him on the slick floor. I had visions of ACL tears and shoulder injuries dashing before my eyes as his agility career flies out the window. I'm not sure if he's able to control his body better now or if trimming the fur on his pads did the trick, but now he lands firmly. Probably a little bit of both.
I was surprised how well he did when I used the trimmers on his paws. Of course I has my daughter holding a peanut butter kong for him, but his was much more still then when I dremel his nails. He's also getting a little better when I brush him. He's prefer to chew the brush and I'm sure a stuffed kong would solve that but I always seem to decide to brush him at he last minute in between doing other things. I figure if I brush him frequently with the Furminator it will keep down on the fluff flying around the house. When Porter first came home nothing was coming out with the brush but now I do get some clumps of hair.
While he still takes hard naps his wakeful time is increasing. He has some crazy periods but they don't last long. All in all he's pretty chill and settles down very quickly. He's also become a real snuggle bug recently. Since he can jump up on the couch now he'll cuddle up and nap instead of chew on you. When he does try to mouth us, off the couch he goes. He learns quickly and either goes and plays with something else or jumps up and relaxes instead.
He's also, slowly, learning to not bother us if we are eating at the coffee table. Indigo is great with this and will not touch food on the coffee table even if left there for several hours with us out of the house. Porter will try to come up and sniff really close but we body block him and eventually he lays down and naps. Sometimes he gets frustrated and chews on the coffee table but stops if I put a drop or two of bitter apple
on it. I think it's mostly the smell that gets him, or at least he has learned that the smell means it will taste bad so he doesn't even chew it or lick it after Bitter Apple is applied.
Porter has decided he loves pears and harvests the fallen pears from our tree. I'll have to be better about picking them up because last night he threw up a pear stem.
On that note, crate training is going great! When he vomited the pear stem at 3am, I opened the crate to wipe it up and then went back to bed. Porter did the same. I was worried he would want to get out but he didn't. He even let me sleep in until past 6:30 this morning and he didn't ask for a middle of the night pee break! Today he was crated for just shy of 3 hours, his longest time yet, and he seemed just fine when I got home.
We finally finished his bag of kibble and he had his first meal of Honest Kitchen (dehydrated raw) tonight. This week I go buy meat to put him back on a regular raw diet. I need to figure out where to feed him since I was feeding him his raw meals in his crate since I can use clorox wipes there and he's separated from Indi. But now that crate is upstairs in the bedrooms and is just too big and bulky for me to carry up and down daily. I don't think feeding up upstairs will work well since I like to watch him eat just in case he has a problem and he takes while to finish. Downstairs I can get a few things done while watching him.
Porter has outgrown Indi, but he's still clumsy so she continues to get the better of him in their wresting matches.
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