Update on Amber's life

Amber is now 1 year and 5 months old, there had been changes in her lifestyle and attitude throughout this year and we think it is good to share them.

Play bites 

picture of a mischievous 3 month old Amber 

We had almost fully eliminated Amber's play bite problem until when we return from our trip, she became much more playful and always want to play bite with us, we have put a lot of work into this and Amber knows it but she needs more time, we understand as she is only with us for 3 weeks since our return.

70% done for play bites.


Housebreaking

Amber loves her pee tray on just her 2nd day(3 months old)

Amber has totally no problem doing business on her pee tray, there is not once she pee or poo outside the tray for about 4 months already, her dominant tendency seemed to be cleared.

Amber tends to pee and poo during walks, we are currently training her to do it near rubbish chutes at the start of walks to make things picking us easier for us. 

100% done for housebreaking.


Wearing clothes

Amber is back to hating her clothes when we returned from our trip, we are currently practicing positive reinforcement by wearing and removing the clothes and giving treats, she seems to hate anything that touches her butt area.

50% done for wearing clothes.


Health

Amber's last checkup states that she is underweight, she always had problem with finishing her food since young, we had change different flavors from the same brand but she gets sick of it after a week, even topping some cottage cheese was futile, she would learn to just suck all the cheese and spit the kibbles out. We are currently purchasing coconut oil to see if it helps with her appetite. Other than that vet says even though Amber is skinny, she is very healthy and growing up well!


Obedience level

By far among all dogs we have owned or seen, Amber is a really tough one to train, her energy level is very high, it can be drained after 30 minutes of exercises and games but she would go back to her hyper self after an hour of rest, she is like a playful puppy inside an adult dog, often we would need to calm her down by not doing anything for about 20 seconds before she give up. The good side of her is that she does not snap or get aggressive without reason, Amber is taught to be defensive and we have seen the attitude we want from her on this area.

After coming back from our trip Amber also learned to whine a little when we ask her to wait before letting her out, or wait before going into the carrier, today after 3 weeks with us Amber had stopped whining.

Amber is still ongoing training to be fully off leashed, on a leash she rarely pulls, she heels and do things like sitting before the road automatically, she also stopped being afraid of stepping on metal drains, Amber is also more calm in the presence of people, off leash wise she is still good but often too tempted to walk in front of us, she also sometimes stop to gain attention when people smile or talk to her. Overall we are very pleased with her behavior.

70% done for obedience training.



Command/tricks

Amber learned a few new commands/tricks, currently she knows more than 20 different command plus tricks

Commands/words: 
Sit 
Hand sign for "Sit" 
Down 
Hand sign for "Down" 
Wait 
Hand sign for "Wait" 
Go back 
Hand sign for "Go back"
Left Hand sign for "Left 
No 
No bite 
Good 
Hey/Shh 
Come 
Hand sign for come 
Go 
Fetch 
Off 
Shee shee 
Up

Tricks: 
Lie 
Hand sign for "Lie" 
Roll 
Hand sign for "Roll" 
Shake hands(left and right) 
Crawl 
Cross 
Beg 
Bow 
High five 
Over

We would like to take our free time to teach Amber and hopefully she will be ready to be fully off leashed by the end of the year, also to at least learn 3 more different tricks.