nostalgia :)

The following is another post re accounting for my experiences with Mango before I started keeping this blog.

When Mango was about four months old, him and I had a week-long sleepover at a friend's house. Up to this time there were inconsistencies in his training at my house due to several factors, but this was not a problem over here. Mango got alot of very much needed intensive training, and in this short period of time he learned 'sit' much better, he learned 'down', and 'come' became alot more consistent as well. Also, we took on alot of training to curb his habit of biting. We tried several methods, but the one we found the most helpful is as follows:

Treat the puppy as his mother would treat him. For example, squeal when his mouth touches your skin and pull away, ignoring him. All he wants is attention, so when he figures out that biting deprives him of this, he will start to stop biting.

Continue to do this for longer and longer. If it is not working (which with Mango, this was the case most of the time) get up and walk away completely.

If this still is not working, 'growl' at him by scolding in a very deep voice. If anything, he will get the hint by knowing that you're angry with his behavior.

Another thing I learned during this time was a way to curb his eating so quickly. Probably due to the fact that he's a hungry boy whose only fed 3 times a day, whenever he went to eat he gobbled his food down so fast I was afraid he would hurt himself or throw up (which he sometimes did!)
The way I slowed down this bad habit was by feeding him his bowl of food by hand. Not only did this help him to slow down, but it re-established my authority as 'pack leader'.
i also would pour his food onto the floor, so that he would be forced to slow down with his eating. This was not as effective, however, because it also caused him to scramble to eat his food so that my other dog wouldn't eat it. I don't recommend this as being an effective strategy for curbing this behavior.
As he's gotten older, he has slowed down A LOT. I don't know if this is due to what I mentioned above or simply because he has matured, but whatever the case these strategies did help to some extent.

The family that we stayed with is ALWAYS on the move. Because we were always out and about, when we got home Mango was exhausted and only wanted to sleep. (This is also the week I learned that a tired puppy is a happy puppy :D) We had a lot of adventures, including going to a doctor's office, a dance studio, up stairs (because they don't want him going up an escalator), elevators, many, many different restaurants, strange houses, parks, play-dates with other puppies, and way too many more to mention.

The biggest adventure we had was at the library. The owner of the house we were staying at (and also the biggest help with Mango and his training!) is a teacher at an elementary school in Rochester. We took an evening and actually visited the library. Because it was vacant (it was a vacation), we allowed Mango to run around inside. This library is HUGE, mind you. This may seem juvenile now when compared to the progress Mango has made, but he would actually COME and STAY when called! He got the chance to run around inside and play with his toys, and he didn't pull any books off of shelves or any other bad behavior. This was towards the end of our stay, and the progress that he showed in that single evening was absolutely amazing. That night he also got to go up in an elevator, and we also practiced loose-leash walking.