It's all in your perspective

And it seems that I have gotten a bit. Watson and I seem to be doing better. I attribute this to several factors:

1) We haven't had as many of Ben's friends over playing guitar hero for him to pester. He is really eager to be with people and to please them and to play with them and the boys just want to play their game and don't want to interact with them and he can get insistent. I told them to ignore him and if he jumps up on them, to stand up and walk away and look away, but that is hard to do when you are playing a video game.

2) I sent an email to our former behavioral instructor, Dana Cooper with Woofer's Canine Training (http://wooferscaninetraining.com/). She reminded me of the lessons about shunning the dog if he is jumping up and that I should take my hands out of reach and look away and walk away until the dog calms down. This seems to be working pretty well. The other important lesson that I went back to is that dogs try to use space as a sign of dominance. If a dog is in your way, walk right through them, don't walk around or yield.

3) I am reminding myself that he is a puppy and he needs more exercising. He doesn't want to just go out and run around by himself. He is much more social than Hermes and he wants to play and he will fetch and bring back a tug toy (or a ball, but less so with a ball). He wants to play tug with it and then have me throw it. The weather has been colder and rainy so that the rope toys in the yard are a wet/cold mess, but I have been going out and doing it and keeping up the walks and he seems to be doing ok there.

On another front, I have been winding down for the year at work and only working 1/2 days. Most of my calls / meetings are in the morning, so I have been mostly working from home. This gives me extra time with him. I have experimented the past 2 mornings with just leaving him in the house to have free roam except with all the bedroom doors closed when I take Ben to school. I even ran a quick errand yesterday after dropoff. I haven't had any issues. When I came home, Watson was laying on his comforter just hanging out waiting for me to return. I have been crating him still if I am going to be gone for an hour plus, but I think I will try to loosen up on that.