Nicky Getting Ready to Show Off . . . to a New Puppy!

Nicky (Nicholas) is 19 weeks old today (Friday)! 

Given my lack of experience with dogs, I have no idea what is poor, typical, or good training at certain ages of (and what breed of) puppies, but we're pretty happy with how Nicky is learning!

He is well, if not perfectly, housebroken. Most nights, Nicky sleeps from around 9:00 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., but sometimes still wakes once to go out to potty. During the day, he indicates when he has to go out. We were told that dog bladders don't reach maturity till around five months, so Nicky has only just graduated to having freedom to walk around a gated-off open area with wooden floors encompassing our kitchen, eating area, and sunroom. He does not have permission yet to walk around the other three rooms downstairs or carpet. Supervising him this closely has supported him in making good choices, so we have faced extremely few incidences of him chewing inappropriate objects and never has he been destructive.

Nicky knows numerous commands, of course performing them better if indoors, not outdoors, and when only one person is speaking to him, not when he has a group of children swirling around him.

YES is our word to confirm he has done the behavior we asked.

SIT

WAIT

COME

SPIN

PAWS UP (put front paws up on a piece of furniture)

SLEEP (meaning, to lay down)

FETCH

DO YOUR BUSINESS (he doesn't go potty on command yet, but he does understand when he is going potty on the grass that this phrase is confirming his behavior)

CRATE. We are teaching him to walk into his crate on his own, which he does some of the time at the command, "crate!" We got into the bad habit of having him eat outside of his crate, so we are working on him learning to eat in his crate. He does not mind sleeping in his crate overnight, but he isn't learning to spend enough time in the crate during the day, so we are trying to teach him to love his crate as a safe and cozy den. Having him love his crate will make it even easier to travel with Nicky (as Cavis love to travel with their families) and to be happily tucked away if guests come over who don't prefer dogs, or if there are too many young children for Nicky to be safe (not uncommon in gatherings of multiple, large Catholic families with our hoards of children!).

Commands and behaviors I am working for him to understand are:

UP (as in, come up on my lap: he may know this command better than we think because he does start scrabbling to try to get up, but at 12" high, he can't jump very high!)

We are trying hard to teach HEEL and to walk on a loose leash, but that is definitely the hardest behavior so far!

We have not yet taught DROP IT (which would be so useful). Nicky still jumps a lot when he is greeting somebody, so we are trying to teach away that behavior with SIT.

Drum Roll, Please

We are having so much fun with this bright new life in our home, that we actually purchased another Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (female, 12 weeks) whom we take possession of tomorrow (Saturday)! We will then introduce you to Tilly (Matilda)!  

(Note for those who will immediately wonder: zero intentions to breed this boy and girl!)

Preview pics of Tilly