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Gimli, or really all of us, graduated from puppy class tonight. Puppy class for us was a little like public school is for Calvin—he is doing most of his learning still through home but takes a couple of classes at the public school for the experience and the fun. Well, we still get most of our training tips for Gimli from Zak George via YouTube, but taking puppy class was a means of enrichment for Gimli, and a source of distraction training as well. And I won't lie, the having him do as well as he did at puppy class was very affirming.

Training is going very well at home. We are still doing at least three focused training sessions a day, ideally one session with each of us. He's very solid on all the basic commands and we've had to start adding more tricks to his repertoire to keep him engaged. So far he's got shake, high five, spin, chill, roll over, speak, and weave (between the legs) down pat. We are also introducing distance commands (a method for practicing for distractions), and we've started taking some of our training sessions outside on the long (30 foot) lead. He's a rock star. He loves to learn new things, loves to please, and really, really loves his food. 

Our biggest challenge with Gimli is his really high energy level. Since he's not yet supposed to go for really long walks, we are tackling this issue with increased enrichment, which looks like all those training sessions and new treats, at least one outing per day (a store, a park, etc.), and lots of puzzle feeding. We no longer feed Gimli in a standard bowl. Instead, he gets his meals scattered on the floor, rolled up in a towel, in a treat ball, in a Kong, in any number of interesting ways that require him to think in order to get the food. But for all these workouts, being around visitors, new people, strangers, or other dogs is a major challenge simply because he gets so excited he just cannot mind his manners. So we got to public parks or pet stores multiple times a week to practice those skills and I am trying my hardest not to get discouraged, but it's a really tough job!

Still...here we are, graduated at the top of our puppy class.

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We have had more snow days this year than, well, than the last time we were visited by the polar vortex a few years ago. From a kid's perspective, the term "snow day" brings to mind cozy days stolen away from school and spent cozied up in pajamas, watching the snow fall and fall outside the window. The truth this year has been a little less traditional. We've had multiple "cold days", when the temperature was too low (negative 45 degree wind chill low) for kids to wait safely at bus stops; we've had multiple ice days, when every outdoor surface was encased in at least a quarter inch of solid, stubborn ice; we've had "the storm is coming days" and "the storm is only during the bus travel time" days, and we've had traditional snow days. Since the second week of January the kids in our district haven't had a single week without at least one weather day off of school, usually more than one.

For a homeschooler a snow day can be what they make it. We usually hold to regularly scheduled school day, which, for Calvin, who spends afternoons at the public school, means at least a few extra hours off for hot chocoloate, or snow play (if it's warm enough, and snowy, not icy), or whole days spent in pajamas. They are stolen days of warmth and comfort and self care during a brutal winter.

But that's for the school kids. 

For the families who got puppies for Christmas, snow days are a whole different situation. A whole different, problematic situation. 

After Gimli's first two-hour long puppy play date at the local boarding facility, the staff told us that he was delightful and brilliant, but also the only puppy they'd ever had that never slowed down. The whole two hours and he never slowed down. Then, at his last puppy class the trainer told us how impressed he was with Gimli, but also that he'd never—never—had another puppy in his class with this much energy. One thing that puppy parents often overlook is a puppy's exercise requirements. It varies from dog to dog, depending somewhat on breed, but even more so on the individual, but for a puppy to be healthy, happy, connected, and trainable, he needs his exercise needs met in full. For a puppy with the apparently extreme energy that Gimli had, that means a lot of exercise and entertainment, which is really, really hard to make happen when going outside is dangerous.

The answer? Enrichment. Because exercise means mental as well as physical. Of course, no amount of one type of exercise can eliminate the need for the other, but there's a lot of gray area, or overlap, in the middle. So while the outside has been a complicated place we've had to up our mental stimulation game. We've added tricks to the training sessions, we've tried new games, and we're doing a lot with food. Gimli hasn't eaten out o a bowl in weeks. Instead we are using puzzle feeders and treaters, some store bought, some homemade. Here you see Gimli "finding" his meal, which is hidden in some of the cupcake tins. 

When they say getting a puppy in the winter is hard, they're not just a-kidding.

Photo 37/365, with a training update

Gimli is now almost 14 weeks old. He weighs just shy of twenty pounds, and his ears are considering standing up. At this point we have been training fairly consistently for four or five weeks now using the Zak George Dog Training Revolution, and things are really coming along swimmingly.

With regards to the basics, we haven't had a potty accident in the house that wasn't our fault (i.e. not knowing he was waiting at the front door) in several weeks. Gimli is solid on look at me, leave it, sit, lay down, come, and stay in any controlled environment, and I'd say he's 50/50 in environments with high distraction, which I figure is pretty good for such a young pup! In those situations we are continuing to train with a 1:1 reward ratio to improve results, and the 50/50 is already an improvement over a week ago, so I figure we're on the right track. The other day I had him in a long lead stay in our front driveway when the neighbor drove into their driveway and started unloading the car...and he stayed! 

In the world of fun tricks, Gimli has a pretty solid spin, roll over, and high five. We started working on speak last week but abandoned the effort when it got too noisy. But I sat in on Calvin's training session yesterday and realized that he has started teaching some of the agility practices, including circling, traveling through, and climbing to rest on an elevated surface. The relation to agility I think was just a coincidence—Calvin was just looking for fun new things, but the two of them are doing great together, and I love that. 

Tonight Gimli, although younger than all the other participants and clearly more high strung, maybe due in part to age, was the star of his puppy class, with Calvin performing the duties of handler. 

Love

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Starting to get along. 

Introducing dogs in a household is a complicated task, and can be a long-drawn-out process. Our goal had always been to adopt dogs so that they were four or five years apart in age. Wishes, however, aren't don't always come true. As much as we would have liked Iris to have a companion to play with earlier in life, after our other pets passed away we were never in the right place to adopt again. Until now. Only now Iris is over ten years old, and she's a pretty lazy gal, pretty set in her ways. So when we brought Gimli home we knew Iris wouldn't be head-over-heals for the new family member. We did things by the book—we introduced the pups outside the house in neutral territory—twice—before even bringing Gimli inside. We made sure to feed, pet, treat Iris first, and give her primary access to us, and everything else, for quite some time. The initial days were no slumber party, but they weren't an all-out dog fight, either. 

Iris was not thrilled, but she exhibited no undue stress—nothing that made us fear for Gimli's safety OR for Iris's basic comfort and happiness. So we remained patient, consistent, and steadfast in our efforts to reconcile the two, and, failing that, to at least keep them each safe, healthy, and happy. And for the past month Iris has done her best to ignore the little monster we brought into her midst, but lately she's started to come around. A week or so ago she started allowing him to cuddle with her at night. Then just a day ago she started making play gestures when he was nearby. It's still no slumber party, but we're going in the right direction.