Amber,

Being around you should help your pup gain more comfort in the world around him, provided he is perceiving you as a strong leader. Everything he is learning now is being learned from you (potentially other people close to the pup) whether you realize it or not. The energy you pup into the dog is what you will get back from him. If you are confident this will go a long way in the dog's development. What Eva suggested has a lot of merit but be careful, not all dog are the same and their uniqueness will also play a major factor in their development. The thing with the manhole covers sounds familiar to me. LOL. When my dog was young she saw one of those construction zone stands, with the blinking light on it, for the first time. We came around a corner on one of our walks and there it was.. this "thing" that had never been there before. She was having no part of it. With my dog I didn't say anything to her because I knew (from experience with her) that if I tried to verbally make light of it that would work to increase her anxiety instead of relieve it. So I just casually walked over to it and leaned on the thing as though I had put it there myself for a resting place or what ever. Seeing that this object posed no threat or caused any fear for me she got up the courage to slink over and check it out. But with my pup I didn't say a word or even acknowledge.. not even look at her, while she did this. I let it be HER learning experience not OURS. Then after her body loosened up a bit we just carried on as though nothing had happened. I'm not saying Eva was wrong in her approach, obviously she most definately was not, I just want to demonstrate that each situation has to be gauged differently and all situations should be gauged considering each dogs own temperament.

Back to topic, if you had a successful 10 seconds that is fantastic! But do not become a "PT" (pushy trainer ) and expect any more than ten. I would even move along at 8 or 9 seconds if the dog can be predicted to fail at the 10 mark. When Eva mentioned pushing the pup's comfort boudaries she is bang on, but it should be noted that this has to be done within the dog's abilities. If the dog fails at 10 or 11 seconds you do not want to push that boudary to say 15 seconds. By then the dog will have already long since failed and it would be because the trainer exceeded the dog's ability. To push the boudary first you need to get a few successful attempts in that "zone" before you try to exceed it. I don't really have anything to add to Eva's advise but I agree fully when she suggested to push those boudaries slowly! The more success the dog has the quicker his progress will get, but like Eva said... start slow.