It has been a good month now since we've had Ace, and he has made a lot of progress with us. He's still quite aloof and will only wag his tail when he's A) seeing Mom & Dad for the first time in the morning, and B) herding the cats. I had a Basenji when growing up and even though she had that famous double curl tail, it still shook furiously whenever I did the high-pitched PUPPY! voice. Ace couldn't care less about what voice or funny moves I put on for him; he remains rather neutral to my presence overall.

We're looking into group training sessions to get him socialized a bit more with other dogs (he seems to only like female dogs larger than him), and to get a better recall + leave it, vital things for a city-dwelling pup. I plan on working his recall at home once our new flat is furnished - we get the keys tomorrow! It'll be great not having a billion things lying around to distract him.

Ace was 7.1 kg just shy of the 5 month old mark, and I'm starting to feel it. Carrying him around when there's too much foot traffic in the city is really taxing on my weak nerd muscles. I try to take quieter routes to avoid the crowds, but somehow they always end up finding us. Ace does very well even in great masses of people, but I don't want him to be stepped on or smacked in the head by a stray briefcase or purse. He's low to the ground, but not that low!

Things to work on for his six month birthday are: vital commands (bomb-proof recall foremost), further socializing with other dogs, and keeping his figure nice and trim in the winter months. He gets a lot of exercise every day, but I do tend to be a little generous when clicker training. I hope I can back off on the cheese and use drier, lower calorie doggie treats but to get new behaviors right now, I gotta haul out the big guns. The smellier, the better!