Getting To Be a Big Dog

So many cool toys, but...can we go home now?

I love love love that Doppler now goes to the door when he needs to go out. It’s great—as long as I see him do it. There have been a few times when I only saw him walking back from the door area, and then suddenly, piddle on the floor. But for the most part, house training has been going great.

Doppler is growing like crazy. There are days when I swear he goes to bed one size and wakes up bigger. He’s now as long as his current crate. I estimate that he has about two to three more weeks with this crate, maybe an entire month. He’s the big guy of his litter, which I absolutely love. 

Little crate, big dog

His training has also been coming along nicely. It’s funny, though, how you can change one seemingly tiny thing in the environment and suddenly your dog acts like they have no idea what to do. Take Doppler and stairs, for instance. He used to bark several times before going down my apartment stairs. We had gotten to the point where he only grumbled about 50% of the time we went down the stairs at home.

Move to the three short, yet wide, steps leading from the back door at work, however, and Doppler becomes a barking machine. He pulls out his big, tough guy bark for those little stairs before he goes down them. You would think that because these stairs are more Doppler-sized, he would have an easier time handling them. Nope. He has to bark loudly at least two to three times before he’ll go down.

I realized that these stairs aren’t carpeted like my apartment stairs, which makes a huge difference in his world. Carpeted stairs? Sure, fine, whatever, only need to sometimes bark at those. Tiled stairs? WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS?

Amanda, Susquehanna Service Dog’s training coordinator, suggested dropping a handful of treats at the top of the stairs, so it would seem like the stairs were giving him the treats. Well, that didn’t work like I had hoped. I tried it a few times, but it actually caused him to bark more, and since I have neighbors in my apartment complex and people often hold meetings in the room near the three little stairs at work, I couldn’t have him barking every time we needed to go down stairs.

So I decided to shape him to go down the stairs. First, I clicked him just for looking at the top step, then for stepping forward, then for going down the first step. He continued—quietly—down the rest of the steps. Success! He got a jackpot of treats and tons of praise. He went down the little stairs at work quietly once, and so far today, he has gone down my apartment stairs silently every time. Woo hoo! (He’s also getting big enough to go down the stairs like a big dog—one foot on each stair rather than bunny hopping up and down.)

Hamlet is visiting this weekend, so I currently have three dogs hanging out in my apartment. Doppler is slowly learning how to play like a big dog. How do I know this? Fire will actually play with him. Fire will not put up with puppy nips. He asked for—no, demanded—Doppler’s respect right from the get go. If Doppler used his sharp little needle teeth, he growled and barked at him. And Doppler backed off. 

Now, however, Doppler will pay tug with a toy, instead of trying to play tug with Fire’s face. Here's a video of Fire and Doppler playing.

And he plays tug with Hamlet about 30% of the time rather than just trying to nip and pull at the fat on his face and neck 100% of the time. It’s great. Here's Doppler playing with Hamlet like a big dog. 

I especially love that Hamlet can catch a nap without me having to put Doppler in his crate. Since Hamlet is in advanced training and works hard learning to be a service dog during the week, he tends to be extremely sleepy on the weekends. Instead of having to play with Doppler the whole time (because Hamlet will never turn down an opportunity to play), he can catch those extra Zs he needs.

All three dogs sleeping, or at least relaxing