Yoshi – 12 Week Journey

Training Begins: March 30th, 2025 | Training Ends: June 23rd, 2025

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

BEHAVIOR	6 Weeks In Training
Sit	Yoshi is a master at “sit”! He sits for attention, to be released from doorways, for his food (though he still gets a little impatient about that and doesn’t sit for long, we are working on building duration with “sit” around mealtime), and for many other rewards throughout the day!
Down	Yoshi knows down very well with a visual cue (pointing at the ground) and is just starting to respond to a verbal cue. When he doesn’t respond to the verbal cue, I just give him the hand signal to remind him and he does his “down” right away.
Name Recognition	Yoshi knows his name and reacts to it instantly unless he is really, really distracted.
Touch	Yoshi loves to “touch”! “Touch” is when I hold my hand out and they touch their nose to my hand. I use this to redirect them, get their attention, or for an easy cue to distract them or help them settle down.
Recalls	Yoshi does a phenomenal job with recalls! He gets a treat every single time (and he should always get a reward for recalls) which has made him respond to them nearly instantly every time.
Go Into Crate	Yoshi loves his crate and eagerly goes into it for nap and bed times. During the day he naps for 2-3 hours at a time just fine. Overnight he is sleeping the entire night without a peep.
Leash Walking	Yoshi is doing very well with loose leash walking, though he does have a tendency to still get excited and go to the end of the leash sometimes, or get a little too rambunctious on the leash. Standing still and waiting for him to calm down and come back to me, as well as rewarding him frequently for walking by my side, have helped him come a long way with his leash walking.
Place	Yoshi does a good job with “place” and is starting to go to his “place” with just a verbal cue instead of me needing to point to it. When introducing new “place” spots, he will need them pointed at for a while until he gets accustomed to them.
Stay	Yoshi does pretty well with “stay” as long as he is in a training mindset! If he’s very distracted or having a hard time focusing, I make it easier for him, and when he’s got his head in the game, I am able to walk all the way across the room and back with no problems. If he’s not completely into the training session, it’s best he succeeds so we keep it easier at 3-5 steps and back.
Drop It	Yoshi isn’t a big tugger so we haven’t gotten to work on this too much, but he does drop things instantly when I say “Drop it” and present a treat to him. He’s starting to respond to “drop it” without needing a treat to prompt him.
Leave It	Yoshi is doing very well with “leave it” and is starting to work on a “leave it” with food being dropped on the floor. Since he loves food so much, this has been a challenge for him but he’s successful with food dropped from a small height!
Wait	Yoshi does well with “wait” and is often the last puppy out of gates/doors.
Potty Training	Yoshi has not had an accident since his first week here. He holds it for 1-2 hours just fine now. He still doesn’t have a super strong signal, but generally walking near the door is a pretty good sign he needs to potty.

Yoshi’s Midway Update

Yoshi is the “Gentle Giant” of the group – he is so sweet with the tiny puppies and gets along so well with everyone! He’s also the class clown, always being a big goofball and making everyone laugh. He is still getting used to his legs and stumbles around a lot and trips on everything; I’m not sure he really even tries to walk, I think he’s a bit lazy about it! He is always so happy and just loves life, and that love for life spreads to everyone around him.

With his goofy personality comes one trait that can be a little tough – he not only walks into everything in his environment, but also commonly walks into the backs of my legs or will sometimes run full force into me with no cares in the world. As we continue to work on him walking by my side it helps, but I encourage everyone to stay out of his way when he’s got zoomies! He also is a bit mouthy (so is his sister – I am starting to discover the Bernedoodles mature a little more slowly and are mouthier dogs) but he’s gentle about it and redirects to toys very easily. Having toys throughout the home for people to have easy access to something that is ok for him to chew on will help tremendously until he gets out of the teething stage. I do not encourage any rough housing with him since he is already mouthy and it will only encourage it and potentially cause it to become a long term behavior. Play with him with toys only, not with hands! If he’s getting too mouthy, changing things up and doing a short training session and ending play helps as well. He’s only mouthy toward the end of his awake time or when he gets very riled up, so it’s often a good indicator it’s time to wind things down.

Yoshi is a very smart puppy who really loves his training sessions – in short bursts! He gets distracted if I push a training session past 10 minutes, so keeping all sessions at 5-10 minutes, and sprinkling impromptu training moments throughout the day works best with him. This also means leash walks need to remain on the shorter side, because he will do the same thing on walks – he starts out really well but if the walk goes on for too long he will start to leash bite, get zoomies, etc. He still has 6 weeks of training left and some time to mature, so I imagine a lot of these behaviors will continue to fade before he goes home, but it’s something to keep in mind as you plan for his arrival.

He has turned into a very social puppy despite his rather shy beginnings. He gets so excited on his outings and loves to greet people of all ages. He also gets along with every dog he’s met. He’s just an easy guy to love! I cannot wait to get him on the ground in public to see how he does – we are very close to the end of his vaccines when we can start having public outings on the ground and I will of course keep you posted on how he does!

Yoshi has been a joy to have in training and I know he’s going to be a joy to have as a lifelong companion. It’s very hard to be sad around Yoshi – he makes everyone laugh and provides the absolute best cuddles!