Well, this is mostly an update from yesterday, but a little from this morning...well, here goes:

I had him in at church again yesterday to get him socialized more.  There was a VERY little baby there...could teeter around a little bit on two feet as long as her dad was holding her arms in the air.  She was looking at Samson, and Samson at her, so her dad brought her over.  I kept careful hold on his leash, in case I needed to pull back...

Now, some background information - he's a little bit nippy, not bad, but a little nippy when greeting people, both new and old.  We've been yelling "ouch!" and ignoring him for a few seconds when he bites, and that's slowly starting to knock off the behavior.

Samson didn't trot over to see her (he will do this if there are only one or two people, otherwise with a ton of people he gets nervous and clings to me), he sat down and waited for her to come to him, and very gently reached his nose out, and licked her hand - just a little, with the tip of his tongue, not the whole thing, and not roughly - just an incredibly gentle lick.  He stayed there sitting, very silent while two adults hovered over him, but his attention focused on making sure this baby stayed calm and didn't get scared (she'd never seen a dog before!).

These dogs just "sense" people and what is safe to act like around them...it's incredible.  He had some children run at him today, which scared him a little (he was in a new building, away from home, with tons of new people!) and he barked a few times.  I told the kids (ranging age 7-10? maybe) to walk up to him, and pet him on the side or his chest before they went to his head.  Samson stayed sitting in my lap, very calm after that, with about seven or eight tiny little hands all coming in to pet him and touch him, some right on the head despite what I'd said...he didn't mind in the least.  He slowly reached up to sniff/lick the hands, and see who these kids were.  He has NEVER seen kids before today.  Just adults.

I can still barely believe this and I saw it with my own eyes...but he knows "stay" now.  From both the "down" and "sit" positions.  I tried to trick him by having him in down as I backed up and told him "stay" but he knew what I was up to.  I think I must have been nearly thirty, maybe thirty-five feet away from him, but he STAYED until I said "yesssss!!!  good boy!!!!" (I exaggerate the yes it to make a point in his mind).  I am not sure if I should have let him come to me to get the treat, but he was looking for a marker from me for permission to break stay (I open my fist and say good boy) so I think all is well there?  The "Yessss!!!" definitely wasn't the permission marker because I tried keeping my fist closed and saying that, he waited until he saw the open fist.  I gave him lots and lots of praise, of course :).  I hadn't really expected him to understand that command.  He didn't do the command very well with added distractions in.  I used a part of my house where there weren't any people or interesting smells or sounds in between him and me.  But like I said, that is a lot from him, at his age, so I will work on the "stay" with no distractions until I am sure that is as cemented as "sit" in his mind.

I also switched to his new, bigger ceramic bowls today as he already outgrew the little plastic ones I've been using.  I am uploading a video to youtube as I write of him attempting to flip over the ceramic water bowl (it is weighted so he cannot do so).  Eventually he got frustrated enough, stood up, dipped his paw in...and flicked water everywhere!  I guess that will teach me to give him water in a weighted bowl.

I'm either going to have to go back to restricting water intake after 7pm or 8pm, or keep him in his cage at nightas he has decided a small corner of my room is an okay place to pee in.  He did not do so before, I guess this is just a consequence of having a much fuller bladder.  He is doing okay with his cage, though, yesterday he even willingly went inside as he was playing to chew on his stuffed bear (don't worry, I keep careful eye on him so he doesn't rip it open and ingest all the stuffing - it's a well-made item).

Yesterday he also decided it was okay to play out in the back yard without any people around.  Good for him!  I want that independence, I don't want him miserable if nobody can be with him.  Of course we kept eye on him so we knew what he was doing.

We were also wondering if maybe he is not eating enough, as usually I have to distract him back to his meals, as he likes to go off and do other things in between mouthfuls, and his appetite at mealtimes varies greatly...but I checked this morning and I am bringing up about four cups of kibble a day (as well as plenty of tasty meat treats during training), and he seems to be very energetic and playful, and putting on weight and all.

This morning I found a tick on him, as I did my usual "comb-over" with my hands to check to see if anything is wrong.  What on earth?  Even in the summer I might get one tick on me.  I would not be surprised if it were below zero outside this morning.  It is at least in the single digits.  I held him still (he did NOT enjoy this) and mom got it out.  It was not fat so it hadn't been feeding.  I don't know how it could have survived these cold temperatures.