Mud puppy had another adventure day yesterday!
We started the day working on the hold foundation exercise that we introduced the previous day. This time, we switched to a new toy that he hasn’t played with before, one that would allow me to present it in a way that looks similar to how I would hold a dowel.
I switched back and forth from the known exercise of throwing the object and presenting it for a hold. I’m hoping that by doing this, he’ll be more likely to open his mouth when I present the toy since he had just picked up the same toy after it was thrown. It worked pretty well! I got a few open mouth attempts on the static toy and that’s more than I had when I tried this last week.
After that, he worked on some crating in the living room while I was working and the other dogs were out. This is such an important skill for him to learn because it will help prevent FOMO (fear of missing out!) when he’s older and needs to be crated in busy environments like trials or training class.
Then in the afternoon, we went to one of my favorite hidden swimming spots. It’s a shallow creek with varying water depths, some areas deep enough to swim but mostly the perfect depth to wade. I love bringing puppies to this spot because I can walk through the water and they can follow, allowing me to introduce them to water and swimming in a low pressure way. I can also bring a water-loving adult dog to show them the ropes and help reassure them that water is fun.
Mud Puppy took to it right away! He was splashing around, chasing his toy and even picking it up out of the water. AND!! He went swimming for the very first time. He was so calm about it and had no problem swimming again a second time immediately after. So proud of him!
We ended the day with some time out with the adult dogs to learn about dog language and appropriate playing and a little tug session to tire him out before bed. I’m happy to say that he slept from 10pm until 6:30am when I had to wake him up to bring him outside! His night time crating is getting so much better.