Stats, blood draw, San Pablo, training update

Today Chimera Monstra is:
15 weeks and 3 days old
5.25 pounds
9.5 inches tall

This morning we went to the vet. He was due for his third set of distemper/parvo shots, but instead of automatically administering them, I decided to do a titer first. I had my vet draw the blood and I'm mailing it to Hemopet for analysis, since it's cheaper than having my vet run the titer test.

He was sleepy after his blood draw and we didn't do much else in the morning. He was somewhat barky when I got back from my daily dog hike. I played with him to get some energy out, and then he rode to the grocery store and slept in his crate while I shopped. Then we walked along San Pablo Ave for a few blocks one way and back, stopping in a salvage yard along the way.

Training update:
Trying to put sit on a hand signal, as he offers it a lot but doesn't understand any cue for it. I had a problem with him jumping up excessively when I tried in earlier sessions. Today I tried doing a constrast between the hand signals for down (which he gets, because I lured that one) and sit. Saw more understanding.

I started working on fronts since he was sitting in front anyway. Due to me stepping away from him if he was jumping, and his then offering a sit, stepping back while facing him has become a cue for sitting in front. Not bad at all! The jumping is slowly fading away.

He's consistently putting his front two feet on the ceramic tile, so I started luring him to pivot on it with his back feet. I'm not free-shaping this one because he would very quickly get frustrated and stop putting his front feet on it.

Dumbell: puts his mouth on it about 50% of the time while it's on the ground, 80% while it's held in my hand.

I've also started building focus forward. I put a little bowl with some treats down on the floor, place him down a couple of feet away, and restrain him at the shoulders. When he looks forward at the food, I say "get it!" and let him go. This is mainly agility foundation (it will teach him to focus on obstacles ahead, run forward away from me, and eventually to take obstacles in his path on the way to the food), but it will also help with any other distance behaviors in obedience or freestyle.

Of course we continue to regularly work on tolerating handling.