This week has seen a lot of consolidation work and bite inhibition work. Waffles continues to be a very good boy and his chompiness is improving.

This said, the Teething Fairy has definitely set up camp in our household!

With his older brother on crate rest, poor Waffles hasn’t had his usual romp-in-the-yard parties this week. He has made the most of it, though, and has begun fetching in earnest.

He’s working very hard on impulse control and patience. It’s hard when you’re not even four months old yet!

He still really enjoys shredding a good box or three, and is a big fan of his new chews. He’s still not sure about Jacques. Jacques is equally not too sure about him, since he’s still “cat size” (by cat standards.) Having been through this before, I know it’ll settle over time, especially as Waffles turns more into a dog-sized dog and Jacques feels less territorial about it.

We’re making steady progress on distraction work and focus. Waffles is very toy-motivated and food-motivated, so that helps tremendously. Overall, he’s just a very happy guy! We’re really looking forward to being able to go on real neighborhood walks. Out of an overabundance of caution, he’s been restricted to safe places, the yard, and school as there have been cases of parvo in our area and in neighboring counties.

Next week will involve a good number of public visits (5 minutes at a time!) to work on focus and attention. These things take time!

Here’s to the new week — full of attention span and impulse control games, consolidation of old skills, and working on incrementally increasing our ability to “stay” before we attach a word to it. Loose Leash Heeling is also going to be worked on pretty heavily this week along with the fetch and drop. Hooray!

He’s a “Healthy Velcro” dog in that he is fine with separation but loves sitting close and keeping a paw on the Mama when chewing a chew or hanging out. This is a good trait for a service dog in training, as long as it’s not coming from a place of anxiety or possessiveness.

Have a great week, breakfast gang!