Today has been a busy one for Logan. He woke me up at 5:15 am with some light whining (as has become routine), and clearly didn't appreciate the extra sleep time we tried to squeeze in after his early-morning tour of the back yard. This morning we tried Sarah McLaughlin to quiet him, given that we've heard Ray Lamontagne (who has worked wonders in this capacity) too many times over the past couple of weeks. He was pretty mouthy when we got up at 7:00 - and thus the taming of those sharp puppy teeth continues. Food, play, some "sit", "down", and lead training. Then it was off to the vet at 8:40 am for his bordetella snort and booster shot. (Yep, we're pro-vaxxers.)
Today's temperature climbed above freezing for the first time in awhile, and so I decided to test how well Logan would do on lead outside. I started connecting a light lead to his collar a couple of days ago and letting him pull it around, but all he really wanted to do was play with his new toy. Predictably, the first several times I tried to lead him were pretty much like he was a fish-on-a-line. Lately, though, he's seemed to really take to the game of following back and forth though the house between the living room, kitchen, and bedrooms (even if he pulls sideways once in awhile and almost always bites the lead). This morning's vet visit was stressful enough on him that I led him around the parking lot on lead, and he did really well. So, when I got home during today's lunch break I decided to see how well he'd do on a walk around the block.
My long-term goal with Logan is that he'll one day be able to safely and controllably walk off-lead; this made walking Donjek a real joy. The first step with this training is to teach him to sit at every lane and road crossing, every time. I wasn't sure how this would go, given that Logan always seems too distracted to even sit on command (which he's already pretty good at) whenever the lead is attached to his collar. With the new distraction of being outside, however, he was amazingly good: he rarely held the lead in his mouth, was generally happy to follow along in the direction and at the speed I set (no stops to check out other dogs' markings, given that his vaccine course isn't complete), and even consistently sat on command during the walk. Only near the end of the walk did he start trying to change the direction we were going by attempting to head up each house's walkway. (I think he wanted to go back inside, but doesn't yet recognize our house.) He also wasn't a big fan of the noisy snow-blower a neighbor was operating, and really didn't want to sit at the last lane crossing (though a treat reward took care of that). At our own walkway we were met by a retired couple out for a walk, and they fawned over him as expected. If I had a dollar every time I heard someone say that they want to take Logan home with them, I'm pretty sure my vet bills would be covered.
Tonight we're taking him to puppy socialization class, and are planning a Saturday play date with his litter-mate Red. Last night Logan got to visit the bank and say hello to all of the tellers. Socialization can be tough during Edmonton winters, but we're working on it.
