Project Go Chunk!

For our last weekend off in this long break, we had Chunk over!

Hi. Cute.

He is still a big boy, our Nephew is, no telling how big he will really be though. Chunk is in a long 'n lanky stage now and I can see his back legs are gearing up for a sprout. Who knows though? Puppies. Quite the guessing game.

He is also still a FUN boy! Toys toys toys. Toys. Tugging? Yes! Retrieve? Yes! Girly squeal throughout? YES. That's all good.

Mission with him though has been bringing up the food drive. I was able to make a connection with him and free shaping with a toy (somehow we got a great back up out of that!), but I want all the tools in our basket. Must work for food.

Smart smart smart!

After cycling through three kinds of treats, we found a winner? Well, a wiener. Turkey dogs. Num. He decided he could do some shaping for treats after all. Of course, I'm no fool (MOST days) so I used the almighty toy as the mega jackpot communicator. Ding ding ding! So many lightbulbs flickering. The power company was probably getting phone calls about all the electrical surges...

We worked on 'four feet in a box' to start, and he gathered fairly quickly that 4 feet go in boxes. This was a major improvement from the first attempt at a simple paw target where he wasn't able to connect the dots. I think some more work on general tasks (all feet or any feet) will lead the way to the finer and more selective tasks. Experiment!

We also did some table foundations and introduced the auto drop on a tabletop. (Rhymes! Yay!) I'm lucky that he does a down as a default, but it was still a waiting game to start. A little help from the ball and he caught on really fast.

CUTE. And tired from workin'!

Other new games we played were cone shaping and wobble boarding. He thought the cone work was sketchy, but I think he was intentionally moving behind it. I'll see what it looks like next time. Wobble board is merely at the contact/duration stage. He loves bounding off the big ones like they are a spring board, so we had to work on a) having him realize he is controlling the movement an b) remaining on the board while he does this. I think he got it, after awhile he was just wavering back and forth like a buoy. Adorable.

Video:

Plan for him going forward includes lots of total body awareness. And teaching a really good GO. Family genes say he will be more inclined to turn in so I want him to understand that me running straight equals him running straight. People are not sheep!!

After play time with me, The Pup got her chance to take him to school. She sure loves her boyfriend, but she sure loves to kick his butt too.