Wooton – 10 Week Journey

Training Begins: October 6th, 2024 | Training Ends: December 15th, 2024

Behaviors Wooton will learn or begin learning during his stay here:

BEHAVIOR	Week 5
Sit	Wooton is great at a verbal and visual cue for “sit”. He sits to be let out of his playpen, sits for his dinner… I use “sit” for nearly everything they earn and he’s doing a great job following that guideline!
Down	I have begun introducing the verbal cue now that Wooton is following the hand signal reliably! The verbal cue is taught by saying “Wooton, down”, pausing, and then pointing to the ground. The verbal cue for down varies greatly between puppies on how fast they learn it, but I’m sure he will figure it out soon!
Name Recognition	Wooton responds to his name very well indoors, but is still spotty outdoors if he gets busy playing. He is getting far better but is not reliable off leash outside of the yard yet because of this. With a long line on I am able to give him a slight tug on the leash when I call his name and he will re-focus on me. I am using very high value treats for him responding to his name.
Touch	Touches nose to hand reliably as long as I know he has his focus on me.
Recalls	Wooton has been a little behind on this skill. He does great indoors, but is still learning to come to me outside when he is busy. He definitely finds his environment highly rewarding and perhaps doesn’t find me and the treats quite as much! He is getting much better, especially when having a long line on him for backup to make sure he follows through with recalls. This is probably his biggest struggle since he tends to get fixated on other things and tunes me out.
Go Into Crate	Wooton eagerly enters his crate for daytime and nighttime crating – he loves his frozen treats! At night, he rarely ever makes a peep aside from digging around in his crate for a little while. During the day, there is occasional vocalizing when initially going inside, but it doesn’t last long anymore (1-2 minutes).
Leash Walking	Wooton is doing very well with off leash heeling and is starting to wear a leash more and more often. He is very distracted by the leash, however, and often is busy biting it instead of focusing on walking. We are working on a “leave it” to get him to start ignoring his leash more. He is doing well heeling for short periods of time and stays close to me on all of our walks!
Place	Curiously jumps onto place and is rewarded. Is not yet eagerly running to his place but is starting to show the motions for that behavior. I do think within the next week he will be actively seeking out the “place”.
Stay	Began “stay” via feeding treats intermittently while he remained on his “place”. Have progressed to me walking across the room or taking several steps away when outdoors. He definitely does better indoors than out. When outside if I walk too far away he will just get up and start wandering to explore again. Very gradually increasing distance and duration at Wooton’s pace.
Drop It	Wooton is not much of a tugger yet so there haven’t been many opportunities to practice this skill yet.
Leave It	Wooton started learning with food in a closed hand and has progressed to leaving food in an open hand. The next step will be food dropped on the floor, but I am still working on him doing a solid “leave it” with food close to him in an open hand. He has been moving through this very steadily!
Wait	Wooton is excellent at following a “wait” to leave his crate and playpen. We are working on a food “wait” where he waits to be released to eat his meals which has been a little harder for him but he’s getting there!
Potty Training	Wooton has been doing a really good job with potty training. He is starting to give subtle cues (goes to the door frequently when he needs to potty). Basically any time he is wandering around near the door, I let him out and he has to pee every time. I have been keeping his play area near the door to allow him the option to ask to go out easily. He has not had an accident in a couple of weeks (and that accident was in his playpen while I was gone for a couple of hours). He has never soiled his crate.

Wooton’s Midway Update

Wooton is an incredibly sweet puppy who often seeks out attention and wants to be near the humans of the household as much as possible. He loves climbing on my lap when I sit on the ground and loves to shower people in kisses! He very rarely nibbles on me anymore (and when he does, it is gentle) which has made cuddle time much more enjoyable lately!

Because he loves his humans so much, Wooton often expresses when he is upset about humans walking away from him by vocalizing. When I initially got Wooton, the vocalizing was loud (and included some very sad sounding howling, even if I was just across the room) and he sustained it for long durations. Today, through continued ignoring of vocalizing, he will vocalize for a few minutes when I leave a room at max, but often is only vocalizing for the first minute or so. He is starting to understand fussing isn’t going to earn him what he seeks, but silence does! Every time Wooton is quiet I make sure to stop by and give him attention when I am busy and he is in his playpen and it has been working to curb the upset vocalizing. In his crate, Wooton rarely makes a peep anymore and does wonderfully being left alone (he really loves listening to podcasts and falls asleep very quickly to them!)

Wooton is steadily learning his cues. He is a bit of a distracted puppy still and has a hard time focusing, so he learns best in a very boring and quiet space. We practice around a lot of distractions as well, but Wooton is the type of puppy who will definitely benefit from learning in a boring space before gradually adding in distractions. When we are outdoors I can only get a few seconds of focusing from him at a time before he wants to do something else. He finds his environment very rewarding and even with my best treats on hand (deli meat and cheese) it’s often not enough to hold his attention. I am still experimenting with new treats all the time trying to find something that he absolutely cannot resist but haven’t found it yet. Every puppy has a different learning style, and Wooton is showing he benefits from having individual training sessions in my puppy room where he can focus on me and have fun without the other dogs or environmental stimuli distracting him. He also benefits from multiple short training sessions sprinkled throughout the day rather than long sessions (2-3 minute sessions instead of 10-20+ minute sessions). This lack of focus is completely normal for puppies and you (and I) should see him slowly gaining more and more focus as he matures.

He has been a great little walking buddy and we go on several walks a day through my property’s trails. He sticks right by my side while only slightly veering off to sniff things now and then. I have been using deli meat on our walks and it does keep him focused long enough to check in with me and stay near my left side for the majority of our walks! I am reinforcing him staying beside me heavily and it is definitely starting to show and pay off. This is probably one of his biggest strengths!

I am excited to get to know and work with Wooton over the remaining 5 weeks of his training. I always love to write these midway reports because they change so much from week to week once they get past the 3 month old mark, and I often look back at these and think “Wow, was that really him?” He is a fabulous, sweet boy who is doing so, so well in so many ways! If I can just figure out something that really captures his focus – we are working on it every day and I look forward to the continued challenge of finding Wooton’s most favorite treat!