Behaviors Introduced

Good news!! Just like all my other dogs large and small, William is food motivated - yaayyyyy! Therefore since I already have his undivided attention with him just "suspecting" that I have food, I've decided to introduce basic behaviors (sit, down, stand) without or very limited luring. He learned "sit" quickly merely with me standing in front of him and taking a step toward him. As soon as his little tushie hit the deck, I clicked and treated. I added the word fairly quickly and he was doing it pretty consistently ..... until I introduced "stand."

Right now William is a little confused as to whether I want a "stand" or a "sit" when I am standing in front of him, but I believe this will work itself out once he gets comfortable with the word cues. But to be honest, right now, I'd rather his default behavior (when I am standing in front of him) to be a "stand" since I will be showing him in breed. I am going to try to associate "sit" with me standing next to him as opposed of in front of him. We'll see how that goes.

I've also introduced "touch" and he is consistently and eagerly touching both my right and left hand quickly on the first cue.

Potty training is going well. Within the three weeks he's been with us he has had exactly 4 "poop" accidents in the house The first one was on my watch, totally my fault for not tethering him. I learned my lesson The last three have been on my husband's watch who is already just putting William outside with the other dogs and expecting William to be like Nike and "just do it." William comes in, my husband let's him run around unsupervised and untethered, and wallah, poop accident. So, students listen up, even we trainers must struggle with uncooperative family members. (Love you honey!) He has had a couple of #1 potty accidents in his crate and one poop accident while crated at Pup 'N Iron. All these attributed to him not being taken out when he should have been because he is very quick to urinate upon being taken out. That is the first thing he does. So I truly feel these accidents will certainly lesson as his bladder control improves AND my husband starts cooperating. (Love you honey!)