Spring! Spring!

Weather not so spring, yet. Probably is good.

But grass! Grass is SPRING! On walk today, took long walk past "weer." Went to spring grass! Went so spring off-leash! Went so spring into water and dash all around! Always come so beautifully for kibble and then MORE SPRING!

Have not been too much exercised and funned this week. So had to play own fun games like jump on table and couch and windowsill and steal clothes all over. Think, need more fun.

Will take Jacinta back to spring grass. Will make take pictures and videos. You will enjoy, am sure! Wish all could come with to spring grass.

Of Superdog School

Superdog school has been going very well.

Last week, went through tunnels. Tunnels are so love. When am ready to go, am READY TO GO. Bark and bark to say, "Let go! Am ready to go!" Then zoom through tunnel like superdog, which am. Zoom through tunnel even when Jacinta sends ahead, and even when is very bent tunnel, and will even come to Jacinta's side when out of tunnel. Know will get chicken chunker or play with Pinecone or Rope.

Also worked to go over Jumps. Am getting better at. When am ready to go, am READY TO GO. Bark and bark to say, "Let go! Am ready to go!" Then zoom over jumps to Jacinta's side. Can zoom over two small jumps, but first jump bar leaped at as jumped across. The bar leaped so off jump. Did not bump it. Leaped off.

Can do thing called see-saw. Is plank of wood, so fun to run across but when get to end moves a bit and makes loud noise. Is only about 6 inches off ground so not so scary. But do love to run
over! Already run so faster than Jacinta on it.

Am also making lots of friends. Can not wait to go back next week.
And am sorry for no pictures of Superdog training school. Must have Jacinta training as sidekick rather than being photographer. Good superhero needs good sidekick.

New toys!

Got new chewy this week! Is cow toe. Smells like cow and so good.

Also got new squeak toy because Kanga died. Is nice squeak and fun to run around with and chew and squeak and kill.

Both feel so good on teeth. Am changing teeth. Have big teeth coming in in back of mouth and am loosing little teeth at front of mouth. Feel like am like Babe, with only gums in floppy mouth. Is hurt to get all new teeth but Jacinta is so good to get lots of nice chews for. Not need to chew other things like table leg and shoes and clothes and blankets. Well, only a little bit clothes and blankets because they feel so good.



But today, killed new squeak toy. Killed it dead. Was no more squeak and no more stuffing.

Am famous!

Today on walk, was so assaulted by pupparazi! Lady ask and ask to take pictures of! Am so handsome and clever and nice but is surprise for to have pictures taken of! Had to squiggle and meet her, to be sure was safe but she wanted still. So sat kind of still for food. Kept being cuteness by lying down and being cuteness.

Wow, am so surprised for random people taking pictures of!

New calling in life

Editor's note: Opinions of the superpuppy do not necessarily reflect those of the sidekick.


Other night was new thing for life:
AGILITY TRAINING. Think is called "Agility Training" as cover story but is training school for super dogs.

Went in evening to new place with many dogs. Was so excited to meet all dogs. Soon, was even more excited. Was getting food for to do things like standing on wooden block and jumping over colored foam stick. And then was even more excited for getting to play with tug toy!! Played so much with tug toy then got food for letting go. But was very excited so kept grabbing toy out of Jacinta's pocket.

Went through small tunnel. Was at first nervous but found that could get Jacinta to play with by going through. Now pull to go through.

Do not get to run and leap like other dogs yet though. Something about growing joints. Bark at other dogs. Want to learn superpowers like them. Am so so so so excited. Want to go back and learn more. And get more chicken. And more play.


Then next night was at puppy class. Was frustrated with only normal puppies, not super. Had to bark at because were only boring normal puppies with small puppy brains and were slow to learn. Wanted to learn superpower things. Other puppies so dumb. But no wonder could not learn. Teachers wanted to show other puppies how to learn by "AH-AH" and yanking on leads, not by cooperation and nice food. Use nice food but also use "AH-AH" even when are confused and unsure what to do. Poor dumb normal puppies. Can not learn that way, for only have small brains. Even very big Dozer who is 3 times bigger than has small brain. Needs many treats.

Was good to bond with Jacinta at nights. After sleep in lair for bit, can come up on bed. Love because can cuddle. Am love cuddle. Will sleep on Jacinta's feet or in between legs or on tummy or pressed up against side. Other night slept with Jacinta's arms around. Was so love. Normal dogs not often like so much, but love cuddle.

Now. Must go zoom more. Have been zooming for hour already. Must practice jumping and running under things for "Agility Training" also known as SUPERDOG TRAINING SCHOOL!

Fun that has been this week

As Jacinta may have told, was not feeling well day before yesterday. Tummy was sore and slept all day. Am doing much better now, thank you. And also, have new bag of food!

Most fun thing want to talk about is the river. On Sunday, took first time down to river and let off leash. Shh, don't tell council! Am very good dog off leash, okay? Okay.

Well, is best to explain by pictures!

And also a video, when it decides to work.

Other things this week:
Have gone to dog park three times. Am unsure still of other dogs, because what if are supervillians? But maybe are not so bad after all. Take Jacinta to park and play on other side of fence. While other dogs are stuck in fence, can play fun noise game and cuddles with Jacinta. Also can sniff and will not pounce on.
In class today, played nicely with all puppy friends. Not nervous even!

Am teaching Jacinta few new things to feed for. Mostly, am teaching to feed when stay still. When sit and sit and sit and stare at her she feed! Not just one kibble but keep feeding as long as sit and sit and sit! Also teaching her when look at her eyes, to feed. Am so cute when ask. Am always cute but am so cute because nod head like am saying "yes, feed!" Also am teaching, when sit straight in front, to feed. Will not feed unless am sitting right facing her. Not facing to left. Not facing to right. Must line tail and nose up with feet. And on walks, can get her to feed if run to her when she says certain noise! Also can get fed by picking twig up and when says certain noise, drop twig.

Want to fly. Am superdog, wonder if can fly. When walk over bridge always stick head out to see water below, and think about flying.

A Jacinta Entry

Vertigo sadly isn't feeling well today. We bought dog food that was past its expiry date, because it is much cheaper, and it was fine last time. This time, the food was completely stale. Neither Vertigo nor I noticed at first, although I did think it smelt rather more like cardboard than usual. So he ate about a breakfast worth and then I think it made him start to feel ill and he has refused to eat any more. He's not a picky eater and this is food he will normally work for in high distractions. Luckily, we had other dog food around the house but it's obvious he's still not feeling well because he would eat it but not voraciously, and he has hardly been a brat at all. And he's not even feeling up to blogging! Tomorrow I will be attempting to take the food back to the pet shop, because paying less for old food shouldn't mean buying food that is off, it should just mean buying food that is slightly less nutritionally sound. Fingers crossed that they'll see that, even though their receipt says "no returns on sale items". If they don't take it back, they've lost MY patronage (and of course, Vertigo's).

Anyway, I've been thinking about something that happened last week and what it's taught me about dog training.

Vertigo and I were at our puppy training class and of course he was doing awesomely. Close to the end, we were all working on "sit" and as he already knows it with a verbal cue I figured I would work on physical manipulation with him. However, all he wanted to do was chew on me every time I got my hand near his collar. So I pulled out the clicker and started fixing it by putting my hand hear him and clicking before he went nuts. The head trainer came and watched for a while and pointed out I was clicking a fraction of a second too late. In her words, Vertigo has me all figured out. Which, if you have been following my blog, you know is true. He thinks he's trained me to feed him for so much! But what she saw was happening was Vertigo playing with my hands so that I would touch his collar again so that I would click.

First of all, although everybody who knows me KNOWS that I hate admitting I'm wrong, it was a really good experience to be told this, especially since I'm still pretty new at clicker training. Also, it's much easier to see the mistakes that somebody else is doing in training than yourself, so I'm glad she picked up on it for me.

Second of all though, she's advocating verbal corrections, and while I don't have an issue with them, Vertigo WAS going to be my "experiment dog" for raising a dog without "positive punishment". Although the head trainer obviously respects me enough that she said, and not in a condescending way, that I should train him the way I want, I admit that since then I've been using verbal corrections a lot more with him. Again, this isn't a bad thing, it's just different than my original plan.

C. No wait, Third. And this is the huge thing I really learned from this experience. The next day I decided to be proactive and work on his collar sensitivity, and he was one hundred percent fine. I could lead him around by the collar, grab him by the collar, hold him by the collar. So what was the issue? I realized that what I SHOULD have realized was that Vertigo was completely overstimulated. We'd been training for an hour and he'd been in the midst of half a dozen other puppies, and he'd been focusing INCREDIBLY well. I should have taken him off to the side and let him calm down instead of trying to fix the issue. After all, one of the big underlying issues in positive training is the idea of fixing the underlying emotion. I was just trying to fix the symptom of his overstimulation.

I continue to forget that at this point he is only 15 weeks old, meaning I've only had him for 6 weeks. He's still a little guy and he has his limits.

On that note, we're proactively working on his issues with other dogs, but when he's feeling better I'll let him tell you all about that. After all, my training ramblings surely can't be as interesting as hearing his point of view.

'Till next time I have some huge training revelation,
Jacinta (the Chauffeur/Sidekick and sometimes Mummy)
XOXOXO