We are making some progress. Daito is definitely learning every day. Not many new commands but getting more controlled and repeatable.
We have learnt one major new one which is very useful. Always in a positive way and never as a punishment.
“On ya bed” to go into his crate and sit.
This one has been quite easy to train as we already give him all his food there. Kongs are also something he loves, but he carries them around so they go in there too. And now we have a couple lick mats that’s also exciting to have in there. We only had to use the command each time we gave him a tasty treat or dinner and he pretty much got it. We are working on commanding him and pointing from a distance which sometimes works.
We have realised that we don’t have a release word. He is just getting up and walking away when he wants to. This is not ideal because we really want him to stay still until we give him a command that he can go do what he wants or we have another command for him. If he’s getting up and leaving before this, then we lose that control. We sort of use “go on then” when out on walks to tell the boys to go about their sniffy business ahead of us, so that works but might be a bit long. Maybe just “go on”.
What we have been getting more and more of are dead bits of stuffed toy laying around. He’s always loved a squeaker and furry toys to chew on, but now he’s more powerful he’s chewing them up. He will happily knaw the tail or ear off a stuffed toy in minutes that we have had for years with Haku and Kayto. Doesn’t really matter. It’s cheaper to chew up toys than sofas. Being home all the time means we can instantly correct him on the rare occasion he has started to chew the coffee table so it’s not become a thing yet. Hopefully the destruction will be limited to toys… but that might be wishful thinking.