His First Birthday is Coming

[SoSa]

It's been a while since I've been active here on Doodle Kisses, so I thought I'd check in with a Doodle Update.

Our Goldendoodle Ace, will be one year old in two weeks. He's been with us since February.

Ace has been thriving since he's been with us and he is definitely a part of our family. You know your doodle has secured is place in the family tree when your husband claims the doodle gets more attention than he does. ;-)

Ace is a standard F1B Goldendoodle. He seems to have settled into his weight. At the last few weigh-ins, he's been at about 69lbs.

In the beginning, I was not sure if Ace would have that typical doodle look because he had a weird coat that was shedding A LOT and he had a muzzle that was very retreiver-ish. However, his coat has transformed. He is curly and has doodled out. He does not really shed anymore.

Ace does have food sensitivities, so we have him on a limited ingredient kibble. We use Petcurean's Go! Limited Ingredient - Venison. We have stopped giving him treats for the most part. For treats, we'll use his kibble. Doing this has helped immensely with digestive issues. His poop has been great.

Ace does suffer from environmental allergies. His allergies cause ear issues and recently he had a breakout on his belly. We've been able to easily treat his symptoms with a special shampoo, spray and ear cleaner given to us by our vet.

Ace has free reign of our home. He has for a while now. We used to crate him for bedtime, but lately, my husband has been allowing him to sleep outside of his crate at night. So far, he's been fine.

Training with Ace has been okay. We still have issues with him going nuts on walks when another dog is nearby and when someone comes to visit. Also, it's hard to take him to stores that are dog friendly because he gets way too excited. He just wants to love everyone he sees. This included lots of jumping and leash pulling. It's been a challenge curbing this behavior.

Ace is a lovable teddy bear and loves to cuddle. He loves car rides of course he loves to play play play. Picture Attached.

[dal]

Ohhh he is SO handsome!!  He has definitely doodled out!

I remember when you were posting, we were going through similar issues with our doodles (my Cooper turned one 11/5).  Cooper was also still struggling when people came to our house as he, too, wants to love everyone he sees.  We were having family come for Thanksgiving and I was dreading it so I did a couple of private training sessions and our trainer totally solved the issue.  It took a lot of work on my part in between visits (she came about a month before Thanksgiving the first time and then again three weeks later) but it worked.  She taught him the "place" command.  Have you tried this yet?  That combined with using the pet convincer literally only one time (a spray of air - not even towards him - the sound alone was enough to deter him) for the jumping curbed the behavior.  If you want me to elaborate on the place command I can.  Let me know.  :)

[SoSa]

Happy birthday Cooper!!! :-)

Ace does know the place command, and obeys the place command until the doorbell rings. He loses all desire to obey "place", "stay", "sit", etc. He has no interest in the high value treats I use to help him obey when the doorbell rings.

Any tips you have, please do share

[dal]

Oh I still have to hold him on place with the leash for a bit as people enter.  But he calms much quicker and then when I let him off, he does not jump on them.  This works for us okay because he can't get to our two entryway doors so even if someone rings and I am home alone and have to answer and he gets off place, the person can come in and I can go bring him back to place without the person getting jumped on.  I just tell them to wait until he is on place.  Then they come in and I tell them to ignore him until he calms.  Once he stops trying to get off place and sits nicely, I let him off.  Also, I do not hold onto the leash anymore while he greets people because he is much calmer off leash.  So i hold onto the leash while on place but when I tell him it's okay to get off, I let go of the leash.

The first time I did this with an actual visitor, he did not jump at first but then got overexcited and did so I just sprayed the pet convincer once and he learned.  So you may have to combine the two methods at first to get Ace to realize exactly what he's not allowed to do.

I hope I explained this okay.  Let me know if you have any questions about any of this.  Oh yeah, the trainer also said to stop with the easy walk harness and train him to walk on a loose leash and she also said no couch for 30 days.  One last thing is that she said to make him obey a command for anything.  So for playtime, make him sit before you throw a ball (only the first time; after that enjoy a game of fetch), sit before he gets let out of crate, sit before he's allowed outside, sit for food etc).  I think all these things were for me to establish myself as a leader.  I think everything combined helped him to see that he really has to listen to me.  He is still very much a work in progress but he is much more manageable now.