Zumi 15wks

The Duck is 15wks now and 17lbs!  Her tail is starting to look like one of those deep undersea creatures that taunt prey to swim closer, the Angler Fish.  Picture does not do it justice!

Still in a little bit of a fear period.  Less so with noises now but collar grabs or anything going towards her, or with a previous association of going towards her, is terrifying.  Needless to say I've done a ton of get dressed training with a leash loop and now her new martingale agility leash!  And also brush=cool practice.

Not quite sure what to with herself when she's the only dog at work!

I'm proud of myself for making a breakthrough with her shaped retrieve training! I just was not having any luck with getting Zumi to open her mouth onto an object and I tried a variety of items from the dumbbell to her toys.  As soon as food/shaping was involved she didn't believe that "playing" was what I wanted her to do.  We did get a cute sticky target to an item with her nose though!
So 3 sessions ago I switched to getting our other training out of the way first, letting her eat the rest of her meal from her dish, and then grabbing a toy to continue our shaping.  Zumi bit easily onto the toy as clearly work was over and it was time for play!  I clicked and gave her a kibble and then presented the toy again.  Very confused look but she bit hesitantly again to be rewarded with another click/treat.  A little bit back to offering pawing and nose touches as she tried to think too much, but then gave up and bit again to start play.  After about 4 bites and rewarding with food I do a little bit of tug play with her and then stop.  This last session went pretty much the same, but Zumi seems to be more purposefully offering a bite now vs being confused as to whether we're "training" or "playing."  I'm not expecting any difficulty on getting the bite behavior to transfer to other items as it turns into a thoughtful behavior and enters into her repertoire of offered behaviors.

The Duck's also starting to get the concept of verbal cues.  I haven't been in a hurry to introduce words but I think she is close to reliably understanding right, down, and ok! Outside of a training session I wouldn't bet money on her doing anything on a verbal only.  

Playing fetch still needs work.  Zumi doesn't really run away with the toy anymore but doesn't exactly bring it to my hand no matter how exciting I try to be or how far I back away.  She likes to stop a foot away and mostly is good about letting me grab an end.  Usually playing lots of tug has given puppies a reason to bring a toy to my hand but I'm not having much success with Zumi as even when I let her win she still backs away versus coming forward back to me.  Throwing the toy seems to be a tiny bit more exciting than tugging right now.

Toys are very fun to bring onto the couch though.