This post is part of our weekly series on raising our Vizsla puppy, Zooka.  You can use our posts as a guide to help raise your own puppy, regardless of breed. Keep in mind that different breeds might develop at different rates, so while you can do these things with any breed, your breed might need certain things at slightly different stages or ages.  Click here to see our list of all updates.

Notes from week 19

• Continue housetraining
  • no accidents this week
  • despite no accidents for a while, we do not yet assume he is fully housetrained!
• Continue training for meals
  • and short sessions between meal times
  • continue with everything we've been doing so far
  • continue building duration on things like Eye Contact and Kennel Up/Crate Training
  • raising expectations on things like Heel
    • • adding in platform work this week to help straighten out his Heel position
  • continuing with a variety of objects for shaping/capturing sessions
  • continuing to watch for new behaviors and encourage previous behaviors we like during shaping/capturing sessions
• Continue with group training classes
  • Puppy Class, Ed attends Sue's class on Sundays with him
  • starting to attend Polite Pooches in Public Class as well
    • too young to be a full-fledged member of the class
    • attends to acclimate to the other dogs in class
    • attends to acclimate to all the distractions of public places
    • keeping expectations low in regard to listening and “obedience” type stuff just yet
• Nail trims and muzzle training, continued
• Backyard access
  • gaining more freedom slowly after the rock-eating incident
  • has discovered the JOY OF DIGGING HOLES!
    • we will take hole-digging over eating rocks any day!
    • we do not mind some digging in our yard since the back yard is for the dogs
    • we try to limit to a few certain areas to keep contained and not everywhere in the yard
    • we fill holes back in periodically
    • it's a great energy-burner for puppies!
• More walks on property trails
  • loves climbing on our Parkour obstacles
  • primarily using 20 foot line
• Field trips
  • • Pool party
      • same place as before, our friends' house
      • more comfortable this time, wanting to get in but still not quite sure about taking that first step off the shallow step
      • swam on his own once in the pool, just across the shallow end and back to the step
      • when Sue moves into the pool, he watches very closely and wants to join her. . .
      • when his buddy Loki the Golden Retriever showed him how to JUMP in, he was VERY interested!
        • watched mostly
        • a couple of times, actually went in on his own to meet Loki when he was only a short distance from the steps!
    • Local park, to meet up with the Polite Pooches Class
      • not working on too much “obedience” yet in these high distraction areas
      • learning how to tune in even with his new friends nearby
      • learning how to keep a loose leash and do some checking in despite all the distractions
      • a definite work-in-progress on this!
    • Outlet mall
      • working on leash manners on a shorter leash than we use on our regular walks or even in the park
      • working on polite greetings with people
      • working on polite manners when entering dog-friendly stores
      • saw himself in a mirror for the first time!
        • wow, he was so excited about meeting another Vizsla puppy who was as handsome as he is!
        • not sure if he did figure out it was not another real puppy
      • got to hang out for a bit with a young girl who just loved him and he just LOVED her!
        • very excited but very polite
        • did not jump on or nip at her
        • good boy!
• Play dates
  • Play time at the end of Puppy Class, as usual
  • Chocolate Lab puppy (from his Puppy Class)
    • same puppy we played with last week
  • Mixed breed adult female
    • played with her Week 14 also
  • Golden Retriever
    • return visit to his house, he's the one with the swimming pool!
    • after swimming, they played again – mostly wrestling (of course!)
• Diet
  • continue with the frozen snacks while he is still teething
  • continue to feed him approx 36 ounces per day for meals over three meals, not including treats and items to chew on.

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