Shaman's Training begins

Shaman is learning manners. He has learned the commands, sit, down and left and right. We are working on down stay, which he will do for a short time. We need to work on this as he will need to be at a down stay very often and he must stay for as long as I need him to. I had some trouble at the left turn. He would turn right ok, but did not want to turn left. This has improved. He is very responsive to the clicker training. I was taking laundry off the cloths line the other night and dropped a cloths pin. Shaman picked it up. I told him, "what a good boy you are," and I got him to give it to me. He is a natural retriever! We will work on this to expand on other items such as keys, pens, ect. Nick, my trainer has been working Shaman on the bus and at the Mall. He goes up on the lift with no trouble and rides the bus calmly. He behaves well. I have been taking him for walks around the neighborhood. Loose dogs are a problem. Shaman is still very young at 11 months. A lot of puppy still there.He gets distracted easily at loose dogs. I took Nala, and Nick took Shaman to the street fair. Over all, he did very well, but he did bark at some of the other dogs there. We will have to work on this. He is shedding out now and his beautiful fluffy long coat has thined out considerably. I am concerned as he is scratching and chewing him self. We have checked for fleas, but found none. Consulted with the vet. He was put on Benadryl to see if that helps. I changed his food to Lamb and Rice. He does not scratch as much, but has not stopped completely. I am hoping this is just a seasonal alergy. We will have to go back to the vet for some tests. He is also on a supplament to help with the shedding. To be continued.....................