Kastle in the Sunshine

Kastle's colors are striking and rich in the sunlight - which is rare to see in the winter, in Michigan. Especially with no snow. In fact, it's been beautiful and warm and sunny, unnaturally so.

 He can be a little silly sometimes.

The dark and the light.

Basement Heeling

Between heeling is really starting to look nice, like we are walking together as a team. Kastle's coordination has caught up and now when he spurts ahead a bit he makes an effort to match his pace to mine. I like that a lot. We have the start of a smooth turn, the mechanics are there but I have to slow it down into smaller pieces to make sure we make the turn together.

I have been dying to teach him to heel backwards under me but physically he couldn't do it and luring that position is really hard. Instead, I've been marking and rewarding when he offers it randomly. Which, he has been doing :-) I have to walk backwards but again, the basics are there!

We've had a breakthrough on the find-the-left-leg exercise. Primarily, he now understands he's to be following my leg :-)

His focused heeling is starting to resemble real heeling, with a series of steps. I am loving how it looks right now.

The Wild Pack

First time attempting to get a picture of Ike, Kastle, Dottie and Eden all together, in the same pose, next to each other = disaster. Ike was out. of. control. He was way too hyper, way too happy and way too disobedient. We started the photo session with this:

Yeah...he fell down...and got stuck on his head. Only Ikie LOL It was hard to top that one but between Ike racing off and sitting on Kastle, Kastle barking and trying to bite me, Dottie wandering off to smell smells and Eden insisting that she must lay in front of everyone with her legs sprawled like some playboy hussy...it was utter chaos. It was a miracle we got any photos of all four together in any way, shape or form.

My Two Perk-Eared Pups

Love my two dogs, they both suit me to the ground :-)

And my absolute favorite :-D

Here I am trying to get them to pose...Eden is being overly cooperative with her posing and Kastle is under-cooperating as usual LOL

Finally!

7 Months Old!

Kastle is 7 months old and 54 lbs now. He's really getting even darker and has filled out a lot this last month. His chest is deeper and more masculine and his head and neck got broader and thicker. He looks like a dog now, not my little puppy.

I'm not able to stack him like I used to, I can't get his rear as stretched out. Not sure if that's because he can't do it or because he was really antsy and riled up when I tried to do this. Or both.

 

The photos with me were a lot harder to get because he wanted to explore the new park so bad. Trying to hold back demon puppy:

The one keeper:

The picking up photo was...interesting. I can't get my hands around his back legs anymore so I had to scoop him around the middle - causing a huge grunt and a disbelief that I wouldn't drop him but we did succeed!

So we switched to the other pick up picture I want to do when I can no longer pick him up - he was equally thrilled with that...

And the pouting.

Before we got the final pic.

Some comparisons from last month.

Non-Lured Heeling and Dowel Hold

We have finally transitioned to taking steps in heeling with no lure. We can solidly and consistently manage 3 steps of heeling with proper positioning and focus. Tonight he nailed about 6 steps and I love how he looks! Really excited with the way that's going and can't wait to be able to heel more extensively. We also practiced his sit and down out of motion, which went fine. I occasionally forget to switch from my out-of-motion pretend-walking and do it in Fuss position - silly me!

We also worked on his dowel hold. Eeee! He's finally caught on I think :-) He will hold it while I support him with one hand and I can tug the string pretty hard. The length of time is much longer too. I am so pleased with him! :-D

Changes and Growing Up

There have been some big changes going on with Kastle lately. This weekend is the first weekend that he's been primarily out of his crate the whole time. He's been sooooo good. Just hangs out in the living room, plays with his toys and naps.

Not so long ago and he would not have settled down enough to nap. This morning, I was awake and restless early and brought him back to bed with me at 530am and he just snuggled right down and slept with me for 3 hours. It was wonderful :-)

He's also started to bark at the big picture window looking out on the front yard and sidewalk/road. He is barking when someone comes into his "territory" and then quiets as soon as they leave. A really deep, intimidating bark - love it. I also love that he settles immediately when I check the situation out or the "threat" goes out of range. Our landlord stopped by unexpectedly today as well. He knocked on the door and when Jason opened it, holding Kastle's collar, Kastle just stood calmly next to him. His tail was wagging slowly and he was attentive but totally relaxed. I called him to me to sit and politely wait and he was wonderful. I know he has the stable temperament I wanted but it makes my day every time I see it exemplified so clearly. What a great puppy!