A not so long time ago in a galaxy not that far away... Here's Wuki!

Hi.

Wuki and the kids are bonding a little more, though I'm suffering the consequences of using my hands as shields for them. Oh, my hands never hurt so much!

Otoh, potty time is starting to work. Wuki is asking to go out of is pen and poop outside. He barks quickly until someone gets him out. Cute little beast called 3 times today, only poo'ed once inside because we got delayed.

 

Welcome to the forum. Great name

 

Welcome Wuki and you human beans
jac

 

Wuki still a crocopup. Actually we're at the verge of giving him the second nick-name Chewey, because he does chew a lot! On a side note Han Solo calls Chewbaka Chewey a couple times on the Series...

 

BTW, here's a little shot of Wuki... He's with that guilty look because he had just ate a rock from the garden.
Almost took me a finger to take it out of his mouth... :/

 

Aw, butter wouldn't melt!

 

Completely gorgeous!!!

 

Just saying hi and welcome x

 

Tearing the new bed apart...

 

BTW, for the people who's been following, i bought a new harness and a new home line (here in the pic). It's harder to get out from this harness, but he can still do it!!! Can you believe it???

 

Nah....he looks totally innocent....

 

Definitely no mischief there. Nope. None.

 

New day!

Started the morning doing some training. I didn't stress Wuki too much with training, i didn't want to boss him around so young, and the past week we just worked on sit and stay positions. The only Queues i gave him this days were his name and "Come".

Wuki already responds to his name but this works better if he's not focused on other stuff, specially doggy stuff, like scratching an itch, or smelling some stuff. The call Come is also working great, thought again sometimes if he's bothered with something else, He'll keep to his own business.

Wuki also learned "Home", which came out quite nicely, almost without training (or so i thought). Basically i say Home, and he goes to the improvised pen (a pen is too small imho, so we have a section of a room separated with a baby gate with a blanket and his stuff). But he enters his home, and sits waiting for a little treat, and hence he gets it!

Today it was a different day, i started by adding the queue to sit. He already sat well, though the last few days he started being too eager to get the food, and jumped at my hand. However today, i changed position (me standing, he was in the floor) and we started working on sit, in the morning before eating. I'm using mostly kibble, separating a part of his food for treats. This way i can still work with him, keep him not too satisfied as food is really important for the training, and i don't have to go for extra juicy treats that will get him fat.

I did 5 bait repetitions, followed by 10 repetitions with the queue sit right at the moment he sat. Then we rested for a while, done his business in the grass, went home got back half hour later, we played a bit, then got to business again. 10 repetitions with the qeue, then started calling for sit first, while i start getting some movement. Got back to the queue again while he sat, then queued him again. At some point Wuki started sitting on command. Success... More or less. Again, if Wuki is doing his dog business, he almost ignores me, but once i can get his attention i say Sit, and he sits.

It wasn't only a day of work, we passed the whole week with the luring exercises, but still from lure to queue was really fast!

Anyway... Next week is going to be important, and it will have a big change for me and Wuki. I'm getting back to work, so Wuki will have to stay alone for some time in the day. I managed to get home for lunch, so my out time will be around 4,5 hours (it takes me 15 minutes to comute from home to work). To make this work, i managed to get Wuki on a nice schedule for eating (he is eating at 7, 13 and 19), we gradually reduced from 4 meals to 3 also, with some extra treats for light training. In result he poops also 3 times a day, but the bigger issue next week will be bladder. He still needs to go a lot, so he'll need to go in the pen. We're using puppy pads, but he manages to unglue them from the floor and thare them apart... We might have to rethink and retrain to to it on the pads, but lets see how it goes.

 

Hey that's the same look Stryker gave me when I caught him destroying the chair. I have a picture of it on my phone but can't transfer it because he ate the charger cord too.

Such a good looking pup and the perfect name too. I just got a clicker today and we're going to start soon with "charging." Keep up the good work Wuki!

 

I'm using finger snaps as behavior signaling. Working great so far. I have a strong good whistle too, so when i call him, i use my whistle to get his focus. If he turns oblivious to finger snaps and my whistle I'll get a dog whistle and a clicker. But until now, it's been great. I marked silence with finger snaps, and Wuki has been really silent through the nights so the snaps worked.

 

I was going to use the whistle technique but my previous dog and I were playing and he headbutted me in the mouth and knocked out 4 of my front teeth so when I try to whistle super loud, the partial I now wear comes flying out. Great entertainment for others but at times can be embarrassing.

 

Ouch...

 

So, good news about job and commute.

For at least the next month I'll be able to either work some hours from home or reduce somewhat my work day. I'll be able to go home for lunch and be a while with Wuki, and also come home early in the evening.

I'll most probably will go to clients and this might change the month after, at least the lunch i can always do but the reduced hours, or working from home... not so much as clients expect to see me there!

Meanwhile, i had a little trouble with some night poo the other day. Wuki's schedule is quite regular but one of these days, he jinked me completely... He still calls me in the morning to go poo, though.

Sit, Home and Come are getting more and more responsive day to day. Started working on Down, but it's taking a bit longer as he gets a little confused from the sit to the down. Lets see. When he learns down, next I'll try to teach him to release stuff.

BTW, he started fetching a lot more, and he likes to play tug with the home line. I'm thinking i will need to get a tug-o-war toy, i'm afraid to hurt him with the line.

 

Just a log from the first work day. I'm licking documentation for a proposal and came home early for lunch and worked from home the rest of the day.
I couldn't be with Wuky 100% of the day (i really had to work) so i just gave him some attention from time to time. Wuky not only behaved, as also asked to go to the bathroom for nº 1 and nº 2!!! What a blessed puppy!

BTW, we're still working on Down, it seems to be a tad harder than sit. But he'll get to that. Meanwhile, as Wuki is getting more focused, today he started to "Stay" without much work. I ask for a sit, and then don't give the treat right away. I say stay, stay, until the split second he goes up and i get the treat down and give it. 10 repetitions + another 10, and the stays are getting longer (not much longer than 20 or 30 seconds yet).

 

So, you're waiting until he breaks the stay to give him the treat? That's reinforcing him breaking it.... you want to mark and treat before he moves, and gradually extend that time. Set him up for success, not failure. You should also only be delivering your cue once, otherwise he's learning that he only has to stay all the time you're repeating "stay, stay, stay".