Training Notes/Week 3

Trigger has been with us now for 3 weeks. He is 73 days of age, which is 10 1/2 weeks old.
Current weight is about 15 1/2 pounds. His vet says he has a strong heart, full set of baby teeth and two descended testicles.
He is not a yapper. He is showing excellent self-control by sitting and waiting for a release at doorways. The release is verbal and I am being very careful that he's not releasing on body language cues. I'm staying very aware of not giving verbal cues more than one time and I can almost hear the voice of my trainer, Sandy Rogers, warning about that "slippery slope"!
Sit-Tug-Sit is going well. I'm adding the Tug cue now and I am not really sure if he's made the connection yet. He knows his sit and down cues. We'll start working on getting more speed with his response soon.
He is getting better at getting up from a down to assume a sit upon request. When Trigger returns from a recall or comes to me for a treat, he sits in front of me. Instead of just giving the treat and then reaching for the collar, I am now reaching for his collar area first and giving him some light scruffin' before delivering the treat. I remember John Rogerson's lecture when he said to, "get the tail wagging before you give the treat". That lesson was a bit tough to carry out with my other dog Gladys, as she has only about an inch of stubby screw tail to flail about.
Gladys continues to administer her lessons. She is the BOSS LADY and stays completely in control with him. She loves to play,"Taunt & Flaunt" with her little chew sticks and heartily administers noisy corrections as she deems necessary. Trigger occasionally screams when she admonishes him, but bounces right back into the game for more. I'm not really sure which one is the herding dog when I watch them play. Perhaps the Boston Terrier was actually bred to herd very small animals like mice?
Gladys has been such an incredible role model for Trigger. She is not a yapper either so he is not learning any bad barking habits from her. Tonight we were all outside playing when Randy started running his jig saw about 20 feet away. Gladys didn't blink and so Trigger kept playing too. He checks in with me and with Gladys when there is something new going on, and Gladys has been great at showing him how to play it cool.

Goals for Week 4:
Accelerate recall work.
Continue to work all of the other above training goals as well.
More socialization and car rides.

Continue to work on house-training, frequent relaxed dremmels and grooming, quiet time, cuddles as well as more active tug and wrestle games.

This will bring us right up to puppy kindergarten time. My goals for that are further socialization and Trigger being able to play and then show self-control in an environment filled with distractions.