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So... We've been taking Elliott to puppy training and Saturday was week 4 of a 6 week program. It's all about the rewards, and working through distraction, but we're making progress. For the most part, he understands sit/stand/wait/come/place/free and will do them on command reasonably well, depending on the surroundings at any given time. There are three other large dogs in his class (English Mastiff, St. Bernard and something else) and they play HARD. They run into each other and crash like cars without brakes at a 4-way stop .

He had a vet visit after class to get a booster shot and he's gained 13 pounds in 3 weeks. At 4 1/2 months he's up to 52 pounds

what a face!

Beautiful!

Healthy lookin' pup.

Our pup's at 5 and a half months and she's fast approaching sixty pounds herself. She's already taller than her four year old sister and no sign she's slowing down anytime soon. We're not at all sure what kind of monster we're going to end up with.

nightflameauto wrote:Healthy lookin' pup.

Our pup's at 5 and a half months and she's fast approaching sixty pounds herself. She's already taller than her four year old sister and no sign she's slowing down anytime soon. We're not at all sure what kind of monster we're going to end up with.

What a sweet little pup!

JiveTurkey wrote:What a sweet little pup!

He's a miniature bulldozer. Solid muscle and cuteness

Damn dude, he already outweighs my 11 year old dog! Freakin adorable face too. Hope the training continues to go well, Indy.

itchyfingers wrote:Damn dude, he already outweighs my 11 year old dog! Freakin adorable face too. Hope the training continues to go well, Indy.

Thanks.

As soon as we finish the STAR training I'll be signing him up for the follow-on courses. At some point (not sure where in the progression...), it becomes a once a week, one-on-one effort with a trainer. You drop them off, they keep them all day and alternate training sessions with play time and then work with you and the dog at the end of the day to transfer the skills. As big as he's going to be, I want him to behave.

Good stuff man, way to train!

Big boy is straight adorable too!

That's awesome. Super cute picture.

Such a cute pup, those jowels!! lol

Well, "Sir Elliott Buster Bear" (it's a cool name, come at me, Bro ) graduated from S.T.A.R. training last week. He's already enrolled for the next class, but we get a couple of weekends off before it starts.

Size Check: He was 52 pounds at 4 1/2 months (he had gained 13 pounds in the 3 weeks leading up to that vet visit...) and he is almost 62 pounds at 5 months and 3 days. That's an additional 10 pounds in 17 days, folks!

Fit, lean and strong as F@#$

Anyway, threads are worthless without pics, so...

wow... 62lbs at 5 months old... he's gonna be a big ole boy

Probably packing on some muscle with the training. Nice work getting that taken care of before he goes full fledged giant on you.

nightflameauto wrote:Probably packing on some muscle with the training. Nice work getting that taken care of before he goes full fledged giant on you.

AKA Self-Preservation

IndyWS6 wrote:Well, "Sir Elliott Buster Bear" (it's a cool name, come at me, Bro ) graduated from S.T.A.R. training last week. He's already enrolled for the next class, but we get a couple of weekends off before it starts.

Size Check: He was 52 pounds at 4 1/2 months (he had gained 13 pounds in the 3 weeks leading up to that vet visit...) and he is almost 62 pounds at 5 months and 3 days. That's an additional 10 pounds in 17 days, folks!

Fit, lean and strong as F@#$

Anyway, threads are worthless without pics, so...

Now that's adorable

Sir Elliot Buster Bear has Samuel L. Jackson eyes!

ajaxlepinski wrote:Sir Elliot Buster Bear has Samuel L. Jackson eyes!

Someday he is going to eat you.

TurboPablo wrote:Someday he is going to eat you.

I considered that possibility during the selection process

We started Basic Training last Saturday. Essentially, it's more of the same, but more intense and without the play time. You work to reinforce the core skills and they work to help you teach the dog. From the start, it seemed like he was destined to be a "C" student (talking too much, sniffing skirts, hanging with the dudes in the smoking section...), but he got his crap together after about 15 minutes and did really well. He just gets so excited and wants play with the other pups - especially the girl Mastiff he knows from his first class

Puppy Update - Corona Edition...

Not surprisingly, Sir Elliott's Basic Training classes were cancelled after the second week due to the COVID stuff. The training center is being great about it and will start them over from the beginning as soon as we get an all clear. I hate missing them at this stage. I work with him, but he's all puppy - and massive - so expert guidance would be helpful. One of the biggest losses is just group/social interaction with other people and dogs. We'll need to double down and look at some private training on top of the group stuff when we get back in the swing of things.

We took him to the vet (we stayed in the car in the parking lot) two weeks ago for a nail trim and a 3-month follow-up on a treatment for a minor worm issue. He was 6 1/2 months old and weighed in at 80 pounds. He's outgrown the XL kennel so we just got the XXL version. If he outgrows that one, I'm in trouble...

Here's a couple of pictures: Sweet puppy vs. bone-crusher puppy

Had a neighbor that got a new rescue; pulled up in my car and got out and this dog went nuts. She’s trying to talk to us and this dog is barking and lunging and shit and she’s apologizing profusely and saying she doesn’t know what to do, that he keeps doing this and she doesn’t know how to make it stop.

I ask her for the leash and she gives it up and this dog does a complete 180 with me in charge. He heels, he sits on command, he started to bark at P and I popped him with the leash and he stopped immediately. Shit was hysterical, this chick looked at me like I was a dog god.

Consistency is gonna be key; he’s gonna be huge. Walk him on the same side every time, make him stop and sit etc every couple mins. Tell people with dogs that are gonna be huge, you gotta MAKE him respect that you and your wife are in charge, because there’s going to come a time when he’s going to be able to pull you off your feet, and certainly your wife.

Just keep taking him for walks and reiterating that you’re in charge, if he’s got a decent temperament it should be fine until you can get back into classes.

Steinmetzify wrote:Had a neighbor that got a new rescue; pulled up in my car and got out and this dog went nuts. She’s trying to talk to us and this dog is barking and lunging and shit and she’s apologizing profusely and saying she doesn’t know what to do, that he keeps doing this and she doesn’t know how to make it stop.

I ask her for the leash and she gives it up and this dog does a complete 180 with me in charge. He heels, he sits on command, he started to bark at P and I popped him with the leash and he stopped immediately. Shit was hysterical, this chick looked at me like I was a dog god.

Consistency is gonna be key; he’s gonna be huge. Walk him on the same side every time, make him stop and sit etc every couple mins. Tell people with dogs that are gonna be huge, you gotta MAKE him respect that you and your wife are in charge, because there’s going to come a time when he’s going to be able to pull you off your feet, and certainly your wife.

Just keep taking him for walks and reiterating that you’re in charge, if he’s got a decent temperament it should be fine until you can get back into classes.

True... We made it through the puppy training class and we were ready for week three of the second class when it got pulled. Overall, he's a great dog, but there are realities to him being a gigantic puppy. He does basic commands sit/wait/come/stand/kennel (place) really well, given some motivation and depending on circumstances. We should be more weaned away from training rewards than we are for those things, but he's not too far out of line. On walks, it's loose leash with an occasional reminder and he all but ignores other people and dogs, so we're good there. He wants to chew every damn twig, stick and rock he sees on the street, though. Needs work there, for sure. The biggest issues right now are getting him to come when there is a distraction (like when he's running the fence with the neighbor dog) and getting him to "leave it" when he has or is doing something he shouldn't. He's 95% awesome and 5% hellspawn