More Matsu- he's 15 weeks old now, and a bit over 20 lbs. Looking more brindley and more grown up, too!
He's very easy going and thoughtful. He's very mild in temperament, where Juno is more impulsive and hunty. Matsu is more people- comfortable than Juno, and I find him to be really resilient in dog-dog interactions (where by comparison Sage is a house of cards.)
his face is growing up
He plays with Juno 90% of the time, but he is playing more with Sage now. Sage has been inviting him to play for a long time, but I think Matsu was a bit intimidated by his intensity. I was a little worried about it, but after tlaking w/ Brad some I took his advice and just let play out. In time (and with Matsu growing bigger) he has responded nicely to Sage's bows...
Playing with (and approaching the size of) Juno
More emulation of Big Brother Sage
Not a great quality photo- but this is what Juno and Matsu do most of the time.
Matsu, Juno and I want to live up to your trust in us and make you proud, Brad! Matsu is sweet and kind, steady, funny and resilient. He is exactly the male I hoped I could have someday. I am really looking forward to taking him out on the summits this summer, and around town when the roads are dry and clear again. For now he is enjoying the snow, and lots of play with the other brindles. We all love him, thank you for once again picking just the right pup for me you are very, very good at assessing/choosing puppies!
Matsu! He's an awesome little guy, such a cute bark! At 00:20 on the video is so funny, after flinching at every bark he looks over and is like "This brat is so yappy!". Him and Juno are going to have a blast with you in the summer
yeah, I love that part where Sage stands up and looks at me like that! he cracks me up... tonight he was laying down and letting Matsu paw at him and bluff at him, and tug on his legs- then he'd jaw wrestle and both of them were laying upside down jawing at each other. I am very pleased with how the boys have developed their relationship. I hope they remain good friends thru Matsu's adolescence.
Matsu is looking really good! I'm guessing he's a couple pounds heavier than Orry....the last time we had him weighed was over two weeks ago and he was 17.5lbs. He's probably near 20lbs now. Orry looks similar in height, but Matsu is definitely more solid. Matsu's coat and color are looking really nice too! I can't believe how much these dogs love the cold. They remind me of huskies that I grew up around in Alaska. I wasn't expecting Kai to be such good cold weather dogs. In our house, Orry walks around until he finds the coldest spot, and that's where he lies down. We've had a cold stretch (-8) too which hasn't slowed him down at all.
How's he doing with his recall? I'm guessing having other dogs like Juno helps a lot. Orry's been testing me more, not out on the trail, but just outside our house. He likes to sit on top of a snow mound, and when I say come to go inside he looks at me and says, "I'll come when I want to!" It's actually kind of funny, except in the middle of the night when it's below zero!
Is he still pretty mouthy? Orry's getting better in the house, but when gloves are on outside, all bets are off. Recall and "mouthyness" are the two things that we seem to be working on the most.
Thanks for posting updated pics of Orry's "big" bro.
He's still bitey, but he's also starting to learn "gentle"- during quiet time we practice this. Jeff calls him "Mighty Bitey," but he's saying it less and less, so i think MAtsu is improving. I dont think he'll get a lot better till he has all his grown up teeth. Its okay, hes just being oral, not "biting."
Recall is going well- I agree that having the other dogs around to carry the culture to him helps, Or maybe he thinks they will all get something good and he wants it too. He is really excited about food, which helps. He never spurns a treat- except when i was feeding him salmon ones and ran out and gave him a peanut butter one- he spit it and looked at me like "Salmon please?- this one was defective..."
I find his coat to be very dense - probably Orry's is too!- nice and thick. and you're right, he is never cold either!
Matsu has a vet checkup Friday, so I'll have an accurate weight for him in a few days.
I am trying to work on his "Drop It" command and mouth handling- sometimes he has things in his mouth he shouldnt have- but he seems to be checking them and spitting them rather than eating them. Still he loves a Keep Away chase with a prize so I am training against that game, and he's figuring it out.
I love seeing pictures and hearing about Orry, as well as Genko, Misaki and Sumiko, so please never hesitate to share. I like how Orry and Matsu are good snow dogs and good hiking brothers I look forward to seeing them as adults, but enjoying this short puppy time too.
He sounds like he definitely has some of the same personality traits as Orry. Mine too loves the high prized chase game, especially with my daughters' toys...barbies are his fav. Like Matsu though, he pretty much spits everything out and just makes a mess. We've just been using "leave it" with a treat to get him to drop it, which he does. The only problem with this is that it doesn't teach much about the original "chase" part. In one sense, I actually think that it's wrong (and you may agree), because he gets something good after a steal. I don't know though, since it's the only way I could get him to drop the prize from his mouth. Isn't training fun!!?
Curious to hear Matsu's updated weight when you get it...he's seems to be growing fast!
I know your concern about - chase=reward, and that's very real for many dogs who dont get played with a lot. But this is where management comes in. He can;t have access to barbie (or in our case, my socks!) and we need to interrupt when he's got his eye on the prize, when he's *thinking* about grabbing it. You can also do setups with a Decoy Barbie at a tolerable distance. Leave it, good boy! treat, walk on leash past it, treat, barbie is sitting there, but Who cares? because we're playing ball/tug etc... You can set it up- be creative, you'll get there. Or train Find it with one of his toys, Get the ball, bring it here and we play. It all takes time but we'll get there with these boys! I got Juno to drop an ant trap once, so it'll work out.
Matsu is almost 4 months old- he had his last 'puppy' vet visit yesterday and weighed in at 24 lbs. We found a puppy class that I like better than any other class I have taken, so I bought 4 classes for him and then we'll see what comes next!
- What I like about THIS class, and This trainer is that she structures the class with training, play and settle time. So we go in and do walking and getting acclimated, then we settle on blankets and relax with the dogs. We ask for something they know, like a sit, and then remove the leash and say ok! and they can play if they choose. Then we practice recall (or collar taking) away from play and do some more quieter stuff like body handling, settling, or walking around the stuff in the room. There's a little tunnel, a teeter board, a pvc pipe raised ladder thing on the floor that they walk through to step lively or be aware of their back ends, a hula hoop- toys, show gates. (This is so different from Reilly's class 10 years ago- no props at all then, and we did formal obedience stuff only...)
- The trainer saw that Matsu is drawn to the obstacles- he WANTS to do them and get a treat and praise from me. I see that he's a good little worker, and very sociable. Id like to take him to more obstacle classes- maybe agility or rally.
- He greets the dogs very nicely and is never rude, but he's not that interested in playing with them, when he's free in the room he checks out the other puppies, then visits all the people. I figure this is because he gets so much dog-play here with the other brindles.
-He met three new dogs today- one was a 4.5 month old GSD pup in a store. They saw each other a few times before having a greeting, which was very nicely done. The GSD was pretty big compared to M, but very much a puppy. I kept our leash loose but the shepherd's owner had his pretty tight, but he wasn't pulling or excited or anything and it went fine. Only a few circles and butt sniffs before they went on their own ways. nice!
- The next two dogs we met were loose and unattended by any owners in the woods while snowshoeing. They were the coonhounds (redbone and bluetick) from up the road. They are actually really mild mannered, but bellowingly loud, dogs. I just hate that their owner lets them roam. In any case, we heard them barking at us and both my kai, who were ahead, came running back to me, stopped and sat- good dogs, treat, lets go see. The hounds came to us and my guys barked (Matsu found a Big Boy Bark) at them, but having little else to do and knowing these two are really passive I just said "Oh, look! Its C__ and D___! Hi guys! Good dogs, let's go together!" and walked them thru it. I now had 5 dogs in my train. Juno accepted this, everyone sniffed and she went off doing her usual exploring. Matsu kept coming back to me an jumping up on my legs...which I learned from Sage means at least that he needs reassurance and at worst that he doesnt really want this kind of walk and wants me to change things back or take him home. Years ago, when Sage was an adolescent at the dog field, I believed he was being juvenile and RUDE and yelled at him to cut it out and go play- BUT knowing Sage's lesson, I treated Matsu, I petted him, I petted the coonhound and told both them they were good dogs. Later he jumped on me again, so I picked him up and held him for a minute, then put him down and treated him and said lets go! He agreed that these dogs were actually fine (in fact the male had already run away again) and could walk with us. After about a quarter mile, the female saw she was near her house and ran home and we were comfortably Brindles Only again.
We never see other dogs in this woods, so this was really new to him, and I thought about how weird a coonhound must look to Matsu- I think he 'gets' what a GSD is, but the hounds have ridiculously long floppy ears, huge eyes and short hard coats. He's never seen a dog with ears like that. But now he has met these two and it was short and harmless and he had lots of support from me and Reilly especially. (Reilly has a great deal of cool presence and experience with other dogs- she has met -no lie- several hundreds if not 1000 different dogs in her life, 90% off leash. She is very dog savvy, sets a good example and takes the pressure off.) If we see them again it wont be a surprise!
Nice Matsu update! He is really good size at 24lbs, and it sounds like the puppy class went really well. Orry's been to a few now. He's also really food motivated, but he seems to be very interested in the other pups...probably because he's our only dog.
Thanks for the training tip by the way. I'll keep throwing in subtle questions...your advice is super helpful! It's helpful overall to compare and contrast litter mates and tendencies that they may have, in my opinion.
Both Ayu and Nio are mouthy, Nio was a very mouthy pup. Jen recalls that, I don't, but she says he was really bad about it. So, I would expect these pups to be mouthy... Actually, all Kai pups are pretty mouthy.
Matsu Sushi (my fav sushi place) sounds like he's amazing!!! Sorry it took me so long to respond, I've been catching up on his thread in my spare time. I got really behind. I'm so happy for all of you. I can't wait to see how he grows up.
Mika was very mouthy as a pup! There were times Koda and I actually hid up on the couch from her.
I think there's only so much I can reasonably expect at his age when he is excited, but that said, I think I can get farther quickly with his mouthiness if I took more time to train with him away from the others. I can't even say "AH!" at Mighty Bitey Matsumori because Sage will slink around on eggshells "Oh dear!!". He is so frickin sensitive. So, in the group, I am terribly unstern about things- and they all want to be with me whenever they see I am doing stuff with one of them. Multi dog living is easier if I buckle down and get organized- and separate for certain things. I should be giving each of my males more individual time than I am for a while.
They are all really good at sitting for treats, group sits and downs. Anything I can positively reinforce... Matsu is now going into his crate for Bedtime, and laying down for his snack- no more luring. Behavior first, then treat. Im proud of him for that. And I genuinely believe that he is very smart and willing to work- it is really clear when he isnt doing a thing I ask correctly that he just doesnt know it yet, he is a very good worker.
What a cutie ba-butt! There is just something about Kai and snow that makes me do e mini mental flip. He's very big buffed manly and tough looking. Really beautiful dog. Doggies actually.
Comments
He's very easy going and thoughtful. He's very mild in temperament, where Juno is more impulsive and hunty. Matsu is more people- comfortable than Juno, and I find him to be really resilient in dog-dog interactions (where by comparison Sage is a house of cards.)
his face is growing up
He plays with Juno 90% of the time, but he is playing more with Sage now. Sage has been inviting him to play for a long time, but I think Matsu was a bit intimidated by his intensity. I was a little worried about it, but after tlaking w/ Brad some I took his advice and just let play out. In time (and with Matsu growing bigger) he has responded nicely to Sage's bows...
Playing with (and approaching the size of) Juno
More emulation of Big Brother Sage
Not a great quality photo- but this is what Juno and Matsu do most of the time.
How's he doing with his recall? I'm guessing having other dogs like Juno helps a lot. Orry's been testing me more, not out on the trail, but just outside our house. He likes to sit on top of a snow mound, and when I say come to go inside he looks at me and says, "I'll come when I want to!" It's actually kind of funny, except in the middle of the night when it's below zero!
Is he still pretty mouthy? Orry's getting better in the house, but when gloves are on outside, all bets are off. Recall and "mouthyness" are the two things that we seem to be working on the most.
Thanks for posting updated pics of Orry's "big" bro.
Recall is going well- I agree that having the other dogs around to carry the culture to him helps, Or maybe he thinks they will all get something good and he wants it too.
I find his coat to be very dense - probably Orry's is too!- nice and thick. and you're right, he is never cold either!
Matsu has a vet checkup Friday, so I'll have an accurate weight for him in a few days.
I am trying to work on his "Drop It" command and mouth handling- sometimes he has things in his mouth he shouldnt have- but he seems to be checking them and spitting them rather than eating them. Still he loves a Keep Away chase with a prize so I am training against that game, and he's figuring it out.
I love seeing pictures and hearing about Orry, as well as Genko, Misaki and Sumiko, so please never hesitate to share. I like how Orry and Matsu are good snow dogs and good hiking brothers
Curious to hear Matsu's updated weight when you get it...he's seems to be growing fast!
You have really beautiful brindle pack!
- What I like about THIS class, and This trainer is that she structures the class with training, play and settle time. So we go in and do walking and getting acclimated, then we settle on blankets and relax with the dogs. We ask for something they know, like a sit, and then remove the leash and say ok! and they can play if they choose. Then we practice recall (or collar taking) away from play and do some more quieter stuff like body handling, settling, or walking around the stuff in the room. There's a little tunnel, a teeter board, a pvc pipe raised ladder thing on the floor that they walk through to step lively or be aware of their back ends, a hula hoop- toys, show gates. (This is so different from Reilly's class 10 years ago- no props at all then, and we did formal obedience stuff only...)
- The trainer saw that Matsu is drawn to the obstacles- he WANTS to do them and get a treat and praise from me. I see that he's a good little worker, and very sociable. Id like to take him to more obstacle classes- maybe agility or rally.
- He greets the dogs very nicely and is never rude, but he's not that interested in playing with them, when he's free in the room he checks out the other puppies, then visits all the people. I figure this is because he gets so much dog-play here with the other brindles.
-He met three new dogs today- one was a 4.5 month old GSD pup in a store. They saw each other a few times before having a greeting, which was very nicely done. The GSD was pretty big compared to M, but very much a puppy. I kept our leash loose but the shepherd's owner had his pretty tight, but he wasn't pulling or excited or anything and it went fine. Only a few circles and butt sniffs before they went on their own ways. nice!
- The next two dogs we met were loose and unattended by any owners in the woods while snowshoeing. They were the coonhounds (redbone and bluetick) from up the road. They are actually really mild mannered, but bellowingly loud, dogs. I just hate that their owner lets them roam. In any case, we heard them barking at us and both my kai, who were ahead, came running back to me, stopped and sat- good dogs, treat, lets go see. The hounds came to us and my guys barked (Matsu found a Big Boy Bark) at them, but having little else to do and knowing these two are really passive I just said "Oh, look! Its C__ and D___! Hi guys! Good dogs, let's go together!" and walked them thru it. I now had 5 dogs in my train. Juno accepted this, everyone sniffed and she went off doing her usual exploring. Matsu kept coming back to me an jumping up on my legs...which I learned from Sage means at least that he needs reassurance and at worst that he doesnt really want this kind of walk and wants me to change things back or take him home. Years ago, when Sage was an adolescent at the dog field, I believed he was being juvenile and RUDE and yelled at him to cut it out and go play- BUT knowing Sage's lesson, I treated Matsu, I petted him, I petted the coonhound and told both them they were good dogs. Later he jumped on me again, so I picked him up and held him for a minute, then put him down and treated him and said lets go!
We never see other dogs in this woods, so this was really new to him, and I thought about how weird a coonhound must look to Matsu- I think he 'gets' what a GSD is, but the hounds have ridiculously long floppy ears, huge eyes and short hard coats. He's never seen a dog with ears like that. But now he has met these two and it was short and harmless and he had lots of support from me and Reilly especially. (Reilly has a great deal of cool presence and experience with other dogs- she has met -no lie- several hundreds if not 1000 different dogs in her life, 90% off leash. She is very dog savvy, sets a good example and takes the pressure off.) If we see them again it wont be a surprise!
Thanks for the training tip by the way. I'll keep throwing in subtle questions...your advice is super helpful! It's helpful overall to compare and contrast litter mates and tendencies that they may have, in my opinion.
Mika was very mouthy as a pup! There were times Koda and I actually hid up on the couch from her.
They are all really good at sitting for treats, group sits and downs. Anything I can positively reinforce...
wearing his new pack
stripey boy on stripey rock
a handsome face
the big fella on a hike this week