Living with Venom has been exciting and busy! He is doing great and progressing beautifully, he also had several "firsts" this week.
On Thursday I took him with me to the kennel to teach classes so that he could spend some time playing with his brother Slick and sisters Pearl and Stella. It was interesting to see how he interacts with his siblings as opposed to the adult dogs at my house. At home he plays almost constantly with Jenny (1 year), Ribbon (6 years) and Winnie (11 years). He also plays a little bit with Sonic (3 years) and Ivy (14 years). At our house he seems almost relentless sometimes. He is confident and bold. With his littermates however, the dynamics are different and he seemed to feel less confident and bullied at times. I had to hold one of them part of the time so that he felt comfortable. It is probably because they all still live together and play together constantly and quite roughly. The adult dogs at my house temper their play with him and while they can get rough from time to time, they are generally pretty gentle and careful with him. It's fascinating to observe the change in Venom with both groups of dogs. It just confirms the fact that a dog's confidence or lack of it depends not only on him or her but also on the other dogs they are interacting with at the time and the relationship between the other animals involved.
After my two classes were finished, Yvonne, my friend and co trainer decided to do some nose work practice with our own dogs. We did some box work outside (a first for Venom) in the training yard. Yvonne used soft, smelly tripe as the hide. He loved it and confidently and quickly found each hide!
The next day I took him with me to my nose work group practice where I am working with my cattle dog Bill. Venom did several runs there, inside my training building, and was again confident and happy. We finished the morning with a play session with my two friends Kathy and Mary. I love that Venom is happy and outgoing with everyone he meets.
That evening, I got a UPS delivery. As the truck pulled up, I decided to grab Venom and some treats so he could meet the UPS man and have a good experience with a "scary man in a uniform". It went great. He ate cookies and wiggled and happily greeting him!
We are also doing training with him on some basic stuff. I have started leash walking, stacking, sit, recall and name recognition and he is doing really well. I will get some pictures this week!
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