Taboo has been doing very well with his potty training.  We very rarely have any accidents in the house now.  He will first scratch at the door to be let out.  If he don’t hear him doing that, he’ll bark at the door.  If we ignore that, he’ll run into whatever room we are in and bark and jump around like crazy.  IF we ignore that, he leaves a trailing lake all over the house on the way to the door lol  He’s the only puppy I know that will walk and pee at the same time haha

He’s learned what “Taboo”, “outside”, “inside”, “truck ride” “get your {name of toy - fish, cheeseburger, alien, spaghetti monster, chewie, frisbee, ball, rope}” and “beach” mean and the commands “sit”, “off”, “down” and “come” are done almost instantly - most of the time.  He still gets easily distracted though and forgets what he is supposed to be doing.  Butterflies, dragonflies, flies, leaves falling, wind blowing, shiny things, sticks, rocks, strings on my hoodie, shoelaces…  All distracting items LOL!

Pointing to the floor makes him sit or lay down (usually).  Pointing in a direction makes him look that way or fetch an item.  Pointing at him makes him pay attention to what is being said to him (though sometimes, it makes him jump in the air trying to eat the pointing finger LOL).  Pointing at the door of a room makes him leave the room and sit in the hallway (usually).

We’re still working on “stay” and “wait”.  I’ll be using “stay” for when I want him to stay in place for a longer period of time, and  “wait” when it’s just going to be a moment or so (like getting out of the truck or opening a door, or setting down his food bowl). He’s learning that humans go first in/out of doorways, out of vehicles, etc. This will help keep him from getting stepped on or from knocking people older when he gets bigger.

We’ve been practicing having him sit when construction equipment and big trucks go by on our walks along the side of the streets, as he’s still terrified of them. (we don’t have a lot of areas with sidewalks here).  I try to not baby him, as that fosters the cowering and shaking behaviours.  I just command him to “SIT, TABOO, SIT!” and gently rub my foot down his back til he sits down if he doesn’t do it right away.  Then I’ll tell him to “WAIT” and put my hand down in front of his eyes and nose, so he concentrates on that.

We’re still working on getting him to not pull or tug on the leash.  Sometimes he gets silly and tries to walk himself by putting the slack part of the leash in his mouth.  We’re still trying to get him to understand “human pack leader first, dog follows” part of the walk.  Our goal is to have him walk without getting distracted by anything and to be able to walk him without having to have a death grip on the leash all the time.

He is learning that we humans are the pack leaders.  He lets me put my hand in his food bowl while he’s eating out of it -no growling or anything.  He’ll even eat his puppy food out of my hand. He also lets us know when we are late with his 6 pm dish of wet food mixed with dry kibbles (we only give him a little bit each night to supplement his diet with more fats/protein.)

He lets me take bones/inappropriate objects (like rocks, water bottle caps) out his mouth without a fuss.  Erm, usually.  Sometimes he clamps those jaws shut and I can’t pry them open.  Or if I can, he sucks his huge boxer lips in and I can’t find whatever I was trying to get out of his mouth LOL

He’s completely stopped barking at the washing machine and dishwasher.  The mixer and blender still scare him - but not as often.

He tries to fit under the bed when one of us isn’t home.  Whomever isn’t home is the side of the bed he tries to fit under LOL  I got home from work last night and his head/front paws were under my side of the bed.  He also pulled all MY stuff out of the bedroom and put it in the hallway - slippers, my bathtowel, clothes, robe, pillows…  When my boyfriend isn’t here, he does the same thing to his stuff/his side of the bed.  It’s become a game to him I think.  When I get home, “Where are you Taboo?” and I’ll hear *thumpthumpTHUMPTHUMP* as he wags his tail and bangs into the wall with it.  As I get closer to the bedroom, I can hear him trying to get out from under the bed LOL

He’s still teething.  So… he’s chewing and drooling - a lot.  Thankfully, not chewing on the furniture or shoes or anything other than his toys/blanket.  He leaves drool on everything though LOL

He’s also learned that when Mommy is FIRMing, to stay out of the way.  Mommy’s yoga mat is not a bed when its on the floor and the Sculpting stick and dumbbells are not chewies.  He liked jumping over the TransFIRMer when I was doing leg presses, but stopped doing that when he misjudged the height, ran into it and bonked his head on it then it fell over (glad I was done then!).  He still likes trying to help me warm up - he jumps up in the air to catch my flailing arms or flying around ponytail, or tries to eat my socks or shoelaces on step touches or hamstring curls lol

Taboo waking up from his nap. The futon cushion is loveseat sized.

Shelby - the other rescued dog that shares our yard.

Taboo and Shelby getting ready to play.

Chew chew chew! He's teething!