Loki is doing a great job. As I mentioned earlier he is here for some behavior modification and some refreshing of his obedience. His obedience is great and he is also doing much better on Placemat. He stayed on his mat for an hour this afternoon without needing any correction at all.
He has been pretty rude about stairways. He tends to get very pushy and then rush down the steps. We have worked on him waiting patiently at not just the top and bottom of the steps but at all doorways. I aim to have him able to wait patiently while I go all the way up or down a flight of steps before allowing him to follow. While that may be a bit extreme for day to day it is a good exercise in self restraint.
When it comes to "drop it" and his thieving we have been pretty strict. I am going to have his owner set up situations to work on this at home. We will purposely leave a sock or a tissue (anything he might like to steal) in his line of sight and if he even looks at the object he will get a mild correction. I am hoping he will learn to ignore those things he would normally steal and focus on his toys. If he does happen to steal something the handler has to remain calm. If Loki feels that someone is rushing to him to take something from him he immediately starts gobbling. He got ahold of a yogurt lid and by remaining very calm we were able to sidle over and take it out of his mouth. He got a little stiff because he wanted to keep the lid but it did not escalate beyond that point. However, if I had made a commotion about taking it from him he most certainly would have just swallowed the little piece of foil. I then gave him a nylabone to chew on and he was a happy camper again.
So his parents will still need to work on things but I will be able to send them home with guidelines for his behavior and how to appropriately react to situations.
We are going to take him swimming on Saturday. He will lay down and wallow in our kiddie pool and so the hope is that he will monkey-see-monkey-do our dogs, who both love to swim, and start actually swimming himself.
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