oh to be a little black dog

this has been such a whirlwind of a week i am not sure where to even start hahaha. been back to work for a week now, he started off screaming the entire time he was in his crate in the office but has done a great job learning quickly and is now just whining a bit. we've figured out a very nice routine/rhythm, and it's helping a lot. he's started playing tug with his leash constantly, wants to dig every chance he gets, and picks up every stick, leaf and piece of garbage he sees. today while at the beach without me, he took off after some birds and would not recall off of them-- he's also not even 4 months old, so i am very much not concerned in the long term. we will just need to work on stimulation spikes & ignoring them (specifically with birds, but in general too-- I've noticed this in regards to him interacting with our cats too. he gets super super excited and gets the zoomies-- doesn't chase per se, but will run around/past them in an attempt to initiate play). he's super solid on sit, okay on down, surprisingly good on wait, and his leash manners are getting better every day. he's gotten great at settling and just existing if it's just him and I, but the moment anyone else is around us he's antsy and hyper-- Roxy will not listen to me in saying she needs to stop initiating interaction with him every single time she sees him/he approaches her, and Avis is awful at correcting him (will just let him misbehave, including jumping all over them). he's gone from being somewhat fearful/very unsure about big dogs to "egging them on" (sam's words not mine), lmao. he's in love with my boss's dog, Carlos (the English lab in pic 2). i know i personally need to be more consistent on corrections, need to not let myself make excuses to myself ("im tired of redirecting him, it's fine if i don't correct this one time"). i also need to listen to his tells when he needs to go outside to go potty; ive been catching them just a tad late mostly because i am awful at pausing tasks (i.e. i will tell myself "i can complete this task and then take him out" when i should be pausing to take him out, not putting it off). i am very ready to be able to take him more places (namely the off leash park our friend group frequents).

taking him to work tomorrow will be a rude awakening in regards to crate training, I just know it 🙃

mostly all sleeping pics today lol. we had a pretty fruitful day, went to Lowe's and did a lot of "Wow That Was Weird Huh! Anyways" type socialization. spent a lot of the day doing very targeted training and socializing: bikes, kids, basketballs (VERY strange), all flavors of people, walking manners, "leave it", settling in car kennel, "wait", reenforcing "sit", small introduction to "down". i am finding that he's already generalizing incredibly well; i did next to zero work with him in his house crates today (though it was my intention), but just now when going to bed he offered to go into his bedroom crate before I even asked! and settled immediately! and didn't make a single peep or try to bolt when I went to close the door or put his blanket down. he just keeps impressing me. i swear, even though i know i am putting loads of work into him, it doesn't even feel like it because of how absolutely excellent he is. (i can hear him snoring right now oh my god he's so cute okay anyways) tomorrow we NEED to work on confidence in being crated alone with me out of eyeshot, and quite a bit more on "leave it". he loves picking up trash and just holding it in his mouth 🙃 or chewing on it 🙃🙃 or chewing on anything and everything he can find 🙃🙃🙃 but if those are the only problems im having, we are in phenomenal shape.