Well, I just did another age progression set of photos and it's clear he's not a puppy anymore. Not sure if I'm happy or sad about that. :-) He really looks like a miniature Malinois now. I'm sure he will continue to mature, but it's harder to tell he's a puppy in his photos now. He is just shy of 20" in height and he's only 1 week over 4 months old! That's only 3 or 4 inches below the minimum height for an adult Malinois (AKC is 24" and UKC is 23") And he still has a lot of growing to do. It wouldn't surprize me if he was over the maximum heights of 26 and 26.5" But I'm not showing him in conformation, so I don't care about that. His dad was 27" tall, so I think he'll be at least that tall. I AM glad I'm not having to bend over nearly as much to train him!
He still has his baby canine teeth, but the front teeth between them are all adult and look like they are almost all the way grown in. I'm sure it won't be long before he has adult canines; I'm checking them every day. :-) So far, I have only found the one baby tooth I collected and saved.
I'm thrilled with his training progress. Today we worked on go outs (which he loves!) and go around's using first a narrow/tall box, then the upended tunnel. He seems to like these also. I had him go across the raised ladder, but he's still not sure of where his feet are and he tries to rush across. He was starting to purposefully place his back feet when we called it quits this evening.
He has developed the bad habit of rushing through the basement door and flying down the steps. So this evening, I put his collar and leash on before we got down there and practiced waiting at the door till it was fully open and I went through. It was really hard for him to contain himself, but he did. It's similar to his getting out of the van. He wants to bolt out, but is learning he has to wait till I tell him he can get out. Self-control is so hard for a young dog, but he's doing really well!
He's also doing exceptionally well working with food all over the floor. He's completely ignoring it and even chose not to dive on a treat I was giving him that fell to the floor. He looked at it as it fell and hit, then looked right back to me. Big jackpot for that!
I had a meeting today in Indy and took him along. He was a perfect gentleman and stayed in a down next to me the whole 2 hr meeting. He slept through a large part of it, but I had to wake him up when he started barking quietly in his dream! He went right back to sleep and seemed to have dreams that didn't involve barking. :-)
