We’ve had a busy few weeks. We went on our second long trip together – all the dogs went to Minnesota with me. Viktor was great. It was not surprising, but so nice- quiet in the car, happy to get out at each stop at any time of day or night, walking on a leash, going to the bathroom in new places, seeing more people. We did our first elevator ride and he saw a full flight of stairs for the first time (I’m not sure how we missed that in his socialization!).
He’s getting very tall but is only around 25lbs – goldens can range in size quite a bit, but unsurprisingly he does seem to be on the smaller side. He’s barely bigger than some golden puppies in class who are a month younger! Last Saturday he lost a tooth during puppy class – it fell out on the floor after a play demonstration. As long as he seems happy to tug with Griffin, I will continue playing tug games with him even though he is teething.
Informal Training: We’re spending a lot of time sitting in public and doing tricks, settling, walking, and anything else we can think of. He gets to meet a lot of people and really wants to lick faces (ew) as well as roll on his back. His rolling over looks really affiliative – there’s a lot of rolling/scent marking to it. I’m very careful to watch and make sure he’s not actually overwhelmed. It seems like that’s part of his personality. As a vet wrote in some notes last week “Super, great puppy.”
He is still a little spooky about some things he doesn’t expect. We passed construction equipment yesterday – no problem. But a tipped over trashcan that was moving slightly in the wind – that’s scary! I will be interested to see how much of this changes with training and age vs it being a part of his personality. For now, if he is startled, we move away and have delicious treats. He’s not too bothered – he doesn’t try looking back over his shoulders and doesn’t appear to actually be distressed – it’s more like when a person is startled and jumps for a moment.
Formal Training: We go to puppy class when we can and sometimes drop into other classes. Last week he started in an agility class. I’m teaching a level 2 class and it had low enrollment – so he’s in there as a helper dog. It’s really fun to have a dog at the same level as the student dogs and give realistic demonstrations. It’s also good practice for Viktor to be crating in the room – he alternates between doing really well and some barking “Please let me out! hey! Don’t forget me!”
In our online class we’re doing fun things this week like heeling. Here’s one of our early sessions. You can read a rough outline of the brilliant training plan here.
I’m very happy with how the heeling is progressing for how very little we’ve worked on this. It does feel weird to be at this stage of training, my other dogs have been heeling for so long, I forget what it’s like to handle a beginner dog!
What’s Next: We’re going to a 4-H event this weekend where we will be doing a lot of car crating, seeing many new people and dogs and going further East than he’s ever traveled! We’ll have a few more weeks of puppy class left. The parks and public areas are getting more busy with the great weather we’ve had now that it’s actually spring. We’re working on our activities for online class and just learning more about the world and being focused and happy everywhere.