Good Friends, Good Boy

Yesterday we met our good friends, whom we hadn't seen in about four years, at Sea Sea Riders for lunch.  We, of course, brought Jam with us because they have a a yellow lab and have kids and are dog friendly.

Anna, their little girl, was over the moon to meet Jam.  She and Kate met us outside the restaurant and walked us in to our table.  Jam was very good and did a smooth down under when we got to the table.  Then he started to lick Kate's toes.

Jam lying down in front of Anna, Cheryl, Kate and Will

He was great during the whole meal.  Didn't move around or get up much at all.  Although at one point, someone had dropped a fork and Jam found it and was about to eat it.  Anna pointed it out to Fred who retrieve the fork.

Fred, Jam, Will and Jay standing in front of the tree for a photo of the boys.  Will is wearing his black lab shirt.

After lunch, we went outside and took off his coat so that everyone could pet Jam.  At this point he was very calm and collected and didn't jump at all.

Fred is showing Anna how soft Jam's ears are.  Jam is in a sit and Anna is patting his head.

He was able to do the meet and greets with aplomb.  Yea Jam!

Getting Ready for IFT: Sit-Stay and Down

Jam had his birthday a couple of weeks ago and his in for training (IFT) day we estimate is July 21st.  So, after I completed his CBARQ questionnaire, I went looking for the 12-month evaluation form for puppies.  But there wasn't one.  There was one for 14-month old puppies, so I looked at it.  

I noticed that there is a list of commands that all the puppies should know (and this list is up on our pantry).  However, on the 14-month eval, there are some details that the manual doesn't give you, such as time limits for a sit-stay and a down command (see below list). 

Jam, sitting down and looking up at the camera.

Commands Puppy Should Know:

• Forward (got it covered)
• Sit (working on his placement)
• Sit-Stay (3 min. Hmmmm)
• Down (5 min. Double HMMMMM)
• Stand (knows it, but doesn't always do it)
• Come (knows it, but we try only to do it with the leash on)
• Heel (knows it, but since the new Blue Coat Journal came out, we will be revisiting this)
• Switch (got it covered!)

Oh my.  A three-minute sit stay?  A five-minute down stay?  We hadn't really been timing them.  It was a good thing I had looked at the evaluation form because we now had our work cut out for us.  I decided we needed to do a baseline test to see what he could do. 


Let's see where we stood for the down command:

About a minute and a half in Jam gets bored and stretches, but doesn't break the down.

Jam finally rests about 3 minutes in.

The beeping of the camera disturbs him and he breaks the down at 3:21.  Over all, though a good down.

Now, for the sit-stay.

Jammy is in the sit position.

Jammy is getting sleepy about 45 seconds in and wants to lie down! No, Jammy!

Jammy is back in a sit, but still wants to lie down.

3:06 seconds.  We made it, but Jam tried to lie down three times.  I think that counts as breaking the sit-stay.  This sit-stay is going to be the hard one.  Jammy is a very lazy boy.

I think the sit-stay is going to be much harder than the down-stay.  Jam loves to lie down.  He isn't much for sitting.  Most of his sits merge into a down.  So, now we have a goal.  A 3-minute sit-stay.


We can practice this when he is in the library by my side at the table.  I'll start timing him.  We have two months. 


Not a problem.

Table Manners

Jam is something of a glutton. If he could, he would eat all day like Augustus Gloop of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.



Of course, we don't allow unlimited eating. He gets fed three times a day. You can imagine that his internal food clock is very accurate, but a bit fast. At around 4 am, he will start to cry (he gets fed between 5:30 and 6 am). At 11 am if he is downstairs he will go to the end of the tie-down and stair at the magic door, convinced that sheer will can make it give up the kibble. And at 4 pm, again, the magic door stare down.

We usually move him to some other place in the house and try to distract him from his internal food clock. But you can see it in his eyes that he knows what we are doing. Soon, the magic door will open and kibble will be given out.

That is why we are working hard on table manners. Right now, we are just doing a sit-stay. It used to be that when we brought out his bowl with kibble, he used to go into fits. Now we can get him to sit and calm down. We've now progressed to making him sit until we actually put the bowl on the ground and say "Take a Break!"

With a puppy, we kind of do this at the same time as Jam is doing pretty good just to sit patiently. It took him a couple of days to even do this. Getting him to understand the concept of sitting before food was a chore. That boy wanted to EAT!

But is he now a very polite little sitter. I'm proud of him. When he is older, we will progress to a down stay and then leave the food bowls down and walk out of the room and come back and do a release. That day is a long way off.

Until then, please enjoy watching this one hungry pup vibrate with happiness at the sight of his kibble.