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

Crate Time, Playtime, and a Little Cleaning

So sleepy that anything becomes a pillow

Belly rubs are the greatest!

Doppler spent a lot of time in his crate yesterday, but not because he was misbehaving. He had extra crate time as part of his house training.

I sort of figured out Doppler’s “get busy” schedule. (SSD wants pottying to be on cue, and the cue is “get busy.”) He comes out of his crate? Take him out to get busy. He eats? Take him out to get busy. He stops playing and starts sniffing around? Scoop that puppy up and take him outside.

Yesterday, however, when I took him outside for his post-dinner get busy break, he wouldn’t do anything. I think he was too excited about having a new playmate (more about that in a little bit), and he just didn’t want to waste time taking care of his business. Little did he know that if he didn’t get busy, he’d have to spend some time in his crate. I didn’t want to give him the opportunity to pee on my carpet, so into the crate he went. It’s not punishment. It’s management. 

Twenty minutes later, we tried again, with the same results. Back into the crate he went. After a third round, I decided that I’d just watch him like a hawk rather than crate him. It was getting later in the evening, and I really wanted him to sleep through the night. If you know me, you know I value my sleep and I hate being woken up in the middle of the night. So Doppler got to play and wrestle with his new playmate, Hamlet, while I kept a close watch. No accidents! He did great!

And even better, he got so tired playing with Hamlet that he slept from 10 p.m. until 5:45 a.m., and I have a feeling he would have slept longer if I hadn’t decided I was done sleeping.

Now, on to Doppler’s new playmate. Before I started raising Doppler, I watched SSD Hamlet on weekends. Hamlet is in advanced training, which means he’s on the last leg of his journey to becoming a service dog. If all continues to go well, he’ll be placed in June and become a working service dog.

The dogs in advanced training live at the kennel Monday through Friday while they’re being trained by SSD’s trainers. On weekends, they go home with their puppy raisers. Hamlet’s puppy raiser, however, lives near State College, and since the kennel is in Harrisburg, it just wasn’t possible for him to go home with his puppy raiser every weekend. I became Hamlet’s regular weekend sitter.

Hamlet and Doppler hit it off right away and immediately started playing together. I’m absolutely fascinated by the interactions between the three dogs in my apartment right now. Fire tends to hang out by himself and chew on his toy of choice while the other two chase each other around. Unless, of course, Fire decides that he’s going to play, and then he’s all in, bouncing around like a giant, mutant bunny. Last night, Fire jumped in when Doppler and Hamlet were playing tug with the squeaky snake. Little Doppler tried to keep up for about two seconds, but then he scrabbled out from the eight big dog legs and sat off to the side, just watching the two big dogs tug and chase each other around the kitchen table.

What’s really fascinating to me, though, is the way the big dogs interact with Doppler. Fire will play with the little guy and let him crawl over him, but as soon as Doppler uses his little needle teeth, Fire growls. If Doppler persists, Fire pulls out the big dog bark. The puppy is usually very good about listening to Fire’s cues to back off.

Hamlet, on the other hand, lets Doppler get away with everything. If Doppler tries to take the toy Hamlet’s chewing on, Hammie gets up and runs away, which of course, only encourages Doppler to chase him. Hamlet lets Doppler nip at him and they roll around on the floor together. Poor Hamlet hasn’t had a moment’s peace because he won’t put the puppy in his place. Right now, everyone is sleeping, but that’s just because I’m giving Doppler some crate time.

In terms of training, Doppler is learning quickly. He knows he has to sit at doors and wait for me to say “okay” before he can go through. He knows his name, as well as some variations. (I’ve been calling him “Dop-Dop.” It seems to fit him, and I think it sounds much better than “Doppy.”) And, most importantly, he comes when I call him. In fact, Doppler even comes to me when I’m vacuuming.

My parents are coming to visit today to meet Doppler, which means I vacuumed my entire apartment. Doppler needs to learn that vacuums (a.k.a loud noises and moving objects) aren’t scary things. I thought about just crating him with some awesome treats, but then changed my mind. I’m so glad I did.

I let Doppler roam free. When I opened the closet to get the vacuum, Doppler came trotting right over. After all, something new was happening. I gave him some treats as I wheeled the vacuum out and continued to treat him for investigating it and then sitting beside it, all without any prompting from me. Without turning the vacuum on, I slowly moved it, giving Doppler some treats for staying calm. Since he seemed to be okay with that, I stopped moving it, bent down to give Doppler a treat, and switched on the vacuum.

Poor Doppler jumped out of his skin. He didn’t run away, though, and I kept giving him treats. In a few seconds, he was sitting next to the strange roaring monster and staring at me, waiting for his next treat. I started slowly moving the vacuum across the carpet, still giving Doppler treats the whole time. He was a champ. After a while, he wandered off. Periodically, I called him to me while I was still vacuuming, and he came running. No problem.

Doppler’s first experience with a vacuum: complete success!

I wish I could say the same for housetraining. I think he’s peed inside as often as he did outside. Totally my fault, though. I wasn’t watching how much water he was drinking. This puppy drinks more than Fire!

Here's a fun video of Doppler playing in the snow, back when we had nice fluffy snow. A few minutes before I took this video, he had sprint-flopped through the green tunnel at least six times. I had hoped to capture it on camera, but as you can see, he was done going through the tunnel.