Big improvements

Realised today at breakfast how much the monkey has improved. Previously having food on the table would have had us in full on defence mode and he circled, sniffed and planned his attack. Today I realised how relaxed it was. He managed a lovely 'leave it' when I'd placed a dish of his food on the table in preparation to do a bit of training with him and I'd walked away. So, Mr Monkey, well done you!

We're working the L3 Go to Mat. Need to look at duration now as it's 1 minute. He can now go to mat and lie down in different locations.

This morning I practised his nail filing. Funny how it takes him a while to get started. Without doing a couple of hand touches he often just stares. After the touches he just seems to get it. The touch thing is what I'll often do if he gets stuck in training. Not sure if that is a bad thing or not. It seems to signify to him that he's in the game and off we go.

We also worked on 'stand' and 'sit up', where he comes back into a sit from a 'down'. The sit until released is coming along really nice too. I can now drop a handful of food in the kitchen floor and yesterday a piece of sausage in the park at 10ft from him without him moving until I give him the 'free' release cue.

Still struggling with LLW. He can loose lead walk up to a pile of food on the pavement. But without this obvious training cue, he's still boinging around on the lead like a young puppy. So still not able to go on linear walks into town. For the moment I'm doing little training walks and then the offlead training runs when we've gone out to a field in the car.

Gummy chops

Grey's lost most of his baby teeth now. He's ever so gummy, bless him. No idea where they've all gone to, perhaps he's eaten them! Now we need to monitor how the adult teeth come through and see if any further action needs to be taken.

We went to puppy class last night and we got a 'well done!' card and I got a chocolate. Grey got an extra bit of sausage. He did the down stay while I lay on the floor which was fun practicing this week in the park. He was much calmer in class in general and mostly sat or lay watching me rather than the other dogs. He managed to 'leave' of sausage on the floor for 15 secs and also a down stay of 20 secs in class too. So amazingly well done for a young pup.

I had been thinking of starting him with puppy gundog training, but might think again on it, as some friends have said they think he's too young for all that yet. They're right, there's a whole life of time for that kind of training and we can just carry on working on the basics and enjoying him being a pup.

He's also been much much better on the lead the last few days. I think having the back up of the gentle leader head collar has been brilliant. Just to get through those explosive 5 minutes where not even roast chicken can stop him from dragging me down the street. After he'd calmed down and got used to the idea of not being way up front, I took it off and just did the usual leash training on his flat collar. Not had to go back to the Gentle Leader in days.

I can't stand the rain...

Grey isn't overly enthusiastic about the rain. The last time it rained, Grey decided it was far more appealing to pee in the nice comfy hallway than outside. Can't say I blame him. So this morning we got some practice in before autumn arrives and headed off through Dane park. I got to wear an anorak and Grey had that sad dog face on as he implored me to see sense. He often has a little chimp like whimper when he's facing new situations he's not too sure about. Head was down for much of the walk scenting. He'll pick up every single object he comes to if I don't watch him like a hawk. He's quite good at "leave it", but often crisp packets, fags, banana skins etc. have to be prized from his jaws enroute.

Looking forward to starting his new puppy clicker training class this evening.