Holiday break

Typical nap position.

This holiday break between school semesters we got a little break from Hamlet, too. Well, Daisy got a big break, and is missing him I'm sure! She has been in Spain the past couple weeks. This week Hamlet is at a puppy sitter's house from SSD. I think Martha has fallen in love with our sweet Hamlet; she said she'll miss him when I pick him up tomorrow!

From what I've heard, Hamlet has been a good boy this past week. Also, another dog lives there, so he has gotten to play with Dee a lot! (I'm sure he will be super tired and probably need a day or two to recover, haha. When we had Kindle with him for just one day + night in early December and he needed a whole day or two to recover! And by recover, I mean sleep even more than normal...) And of course Martha has gotten to experience the joy that is Hamlet sleeping... I love it when he is upside-down like this! Apparently he got tired of watching the squirrels scamper through the snow, so it became nap time!

Yay, paper!

In other news, I brought Hamlet with me down to MD and VA for the family gathering and to Williamsburg. Althogh he has helped us open boxes before (we keep 'em coming from Amazon), he had his first chance with wrapping paper! Needless to say everyone was amused. He also got to meet the Murray side of the family. :)




That is all for now, Daisy is going to bring the camera back when she returns to PA tomorrow, and we'll get more pictures of Hamlet in the snow!

Hamlet and Kindle at the dog park.

They did this kind of stuff non-stop, no wonder he was tired!

Hamlet got really dirty at a muddy dog park in MD. Then, we went to the grocery
store and someone said he was beautiful! I guess he does look more like a 'yellow' lab.

Oh no!! Hamlet is bleeding! j/k. Actually we spilt chili on him - chili dog!

Sad, sad Hamlet!! There is a lesson here:
don't stick your nose under another dog's diarrhea.

Outside in the fall, November

Our hikes have continued. One challenge are the ticks in PA. SSD gave us this essential oil / alcohol / water spray to keep away / kill the ticks, but it doesn't work super great. However, last week we got a real treatment - that stuff that comes in a tube that is supposed to last a month. I'm totally stoked about that, except I think most of the ticks are dead now that we've had a few frosts. By the way, if you've never used one of those tick remover tools, they are so awesome compared to tweezers!

Hamlet sometimes upgrades to large sticks!

Exploring another surface

Yay, water!
(This photo was so fun we decided to post it again, larger.)

Training #1: Get Busy to Let's Go

Hamlet is 5 months old today, and he sure has learned a lot. It is finally time for us to let you in on a few of his (not so secret) tricks! I've tried to organize them in the rough order that he learned them. Here we go...

GET BUSY - The first and most important skill - to pee/poo on command. Daisy started this from the very first day. You observe your dog, and right before they are about to 'get busy' you say it and they will start to associate the command with the action. This is very useful, especially as we come into the winter months and we don't want to be waiting outside in the cold/rain/snow/etc. while Hamlet is deciding whether he actually wants to pee!

HAMLET - He responds wonderfully to his name. When saying 'Hamlet' he is supposed to give the speaker his attention. This didn't take long, especially if you say it in a slightly altered voice (yes, he responds better to a higher pitched or patronizing voice, like many dogs, and much to Jason's agony [although he's getting used to it]). SSD also reccommends using 'puppy, puppy' in a moderate to high pitched voice. Currently if we say this he'll come over to you and sit down -- and be expecting a piece of kibble.

O.K. - I must admit that Hamlet really had some issues with this. For example, O.K. is used during meal times. The dog must sit down and not lunge for the food as you place the bowl on the floor. Then, you give the command 'okay' to signal that they may start eating. Hamlet was so timid/relaxed/lazy that often he didn't respond to the command and would just sit there looking timid/sad/confused. Honestly, he is still a little slow at this. This is so strange, because all of the other dogs will rush to the food and you must work to hold them back!

SIT - This command is very self explanatory, and the first real command that we used the clicker for. When doing a clicker training session, you click right as the dog is doing the behavior that they want, and then the click means they get a treat for a good behavior. In the case of sit, we stood in front of him and waited. (And sometimes waited, and waited at first, but usually not too long because he is kind of lazy and likes to lay down...) As soon as his hips started to rotate as he started to sit down we would click. After he got used to that, slowly lengthen the behavior and would wait to click until he sat and was looking up for a couple seconds. The 'sit' position is great because it is the default good boy wait position in Hamlet's puppy life.

LET'S GO - We use this command to indicate that Hamlet should begin moving and/or catch up to the speaker if he is walking behind them. We use this if he is standing still and we want to move, or if we're on a walk and he is spending too much time sniffing at something. Sometimes he gets a treat for this, and other times just verbal praise. As mentioned, Hamlet is a little lazy, so he has had a tendency to lag behind us on neighborhood walks (dependent on his mood, of course), this command is great because then we don't need to pull the leash to get him moving again.

A few unrelated photos

This was when Hamlet was less than 3 months old! One of his first adventures  -
to Crickfest in Coburn, PA. Many animal distractions...

Extra skin anyone?

Happy Halloween from the headless puppy!

Yet another awkward sleeping position.

Hamlet loves his newly dumpstered dog toys, especially the
plush orange fish.

Who's that beautiful puppy? ... Yes, he stops by for a look when walking by.

4 months... 42 pounds... lots of adventures!

It's true.  Hamlet weighed 42 pounds at 4 months 11 days.  He's huge!! My last dog, Lois, was 45 pounds when she went to advanced training at 14 months.  Hamlet will pass that before he makes it to 5 months.  He already seems big...  I just feel lucky that he's such a sweet, amenable puppy.  He's so easy to handle!

All dogs should have some self control, but it's especially important for a service dog, and even more so for a massive service dog.  That's why we teach him things like the command 'leave it'.  First, we tempt him with something he wants, like kibble.  Then, when he shows that he can resist temptation we reward him with something even better - like cheese!  He prefers sharp cheddar, just like his mama...

Hamlet looks tortured as he resists the temptation of treats on his toes

The Leave it challenge complete!

We've been working with kibble and dog treats for a while, but recently Hamlet has been acing these distractions.  It was time for something bigger... the leave it challenge.  In this challenge, I tell Hamlet to  'leave it', and then I use kibble to spell his name on the ground.  At first, I could only spell Ham.  Then Haml, Hamle, and finally...  Hamlet!  He did it!  And here's the evidence.

Steady Hamlet... you can do it!

Of course, we haven't just been practicing leave it for the last little bit... Hamlet grew so much he needs an EXTRA large crate.  That means I can fit in there too (I being Daisy).  It's cozy!

 Hamlet has also been getting his share of hikes in.  The ticks have been awful, but luckily he's so white that we can see them easily.  His tick repellent makes him smell like a cinnamon roll, but he still hates it.  He loves running outside though!

Hikes!

Hamlet in Rothrock.

Hamlet gets his exercise. Beyond walking a few miles each day to get to school and back, we routinely take him on walks on weekday evenings, and longer hikes on the weekends. These longer hikes are great -- we're out in the woods by ourselves and we let him off leash to explore the world a little more freely. Most of the time we head to our local state forest, Rothrock, which has a large variety of hiking trails. (It is also great for biking, by the way...)

Since he is still a puppy (and in general) we don't let him off leash without a back-up plan! Our strategy: always be equipped with chicken. If we need him to "come" in any situation chicken is his reward -- and he definitely responds! However, we don't really need it on hikes, because he stays pretty close of his own accord. I take that as a sign that he likes us. ;)

(Drinking, err...) Playing in the water

Fall is here, and the ferns are changing color!

Hide & seek

Happiness

More happiness

Tired? ... nah.

Sometimes he'll pretend to be tired. At that point he'll lay down in the middle of the path and kick out his hind legs to rest his full underbelly on the ground. Of course, as soon as we offer a few words of encouragement or praise he is back up and running along!

Super-puppy ears.

Stairs and Sleeping

Hamlet learning the stairs. At first he would sit down
awkwardly and look sad when he got nervous.

The first few weeks we had Hamlet he didn't like stairs. He was small and they were big and steep. We'd just carry him so he didn't hurt himself.

Gradually he became more comfortable, and we carried him down all but the last two or three -- then left some food at the bottom to give him an incentive. We slowly worked our way up to the whole flight in our house.

Now he can handle their size fine, and I think he doesn't mind them so much. However, I think he does take advantage of us a little -- instead of coming down the stairs he will just sit at the top and wait for you to offer a treat. After you put a piece of food at the bottom of the stairs he'll come right down. (He does this, ummm, every morning... haha. I guess that is what you get some times when you use a food-reward system.)

"Do I have to come down?"

Sleeping, on the other hand, was always Hamlet's strong suit. From the first day we had him he always tended to be calm. I know that puppies tend to sleep a lot and there are always cute puppy photos of them sleeping next to cats and such. However, I didn't think that Hamlet would sleep in such strange positions. (And, how often the same strange positions would repeat themselves.) Here is one of my favorites...

The upside-down sleeping puppy trick.

 No one can say he doesn't find his crate comfortable!