Obedience Training.

[Jamie]

So Lola has been in her obedience class for about five weeks now. She is doing great. Honestly we haven't had a lot of time to spend training her on the stuff and she still has it down. She can now sit, stay, lay down, leave food or treats, watch, and she can even play dead. She loves doing that one. We haven't been able to work on loose leash training mostly because of the ice and snow. She is pulling a little less however with the little we have been able to do.

She has been doing great with her bells as well, except for when she wants to go and play of course. She will also ring the bells if "daddy" has gone upstairs, to see if he will come down to get her. Which he usually does. Or if she isn't getting enough attention she will ring them for us to take her out. She has had a couple accidents after her baths, but she really dislikes her bath and gets really riled up after. And we don't like to take her out wet into the cold.

Other good news is she really has been doing great with the separation anxiety. She hasn't been fretting as much and does well for two to three hours at a time by herself. The trainer in her class said puppies are funny sometimes in that they will have things they will be afraid of for a couple of weeks and then they get over it and move on to something else. She did say it was a good confidence boost to help them get over their fears. So far we have dealt with fear of the front door opening, fear of being left alone, and now we have a fear of the stairs that lead to her bath.

She is growing so fast and is just a great addition to our family. The little stinker is teething right now though so we have had to be extra careful with biting. In about a month our baby will be going to spayed! I cannot believe how fast time is going by. Pretty soon she won't be our little puppy any more.

[Richard Crowe]

Doodles maturity cycle. Somewhere, on some long forgotton website, I read of maturity cycles for Doodle (and perhaps other breed) puppies. Over the first weeks and months, they will change their behaviors in certain fairly predictable ways. They will be timid during one cycle and adventurous in another cycle. Obviously, different individual dogs will not all act indentically but, the cycle information was interesting. Unfortunately, I no longer have that link. If any DK members know of it, please post it. The information might be interesting toJamie.