4/21 Life Skills Walk (no video)
Puffin and I took advantage of the great weather today and took a walk around the business park. Other than pulling a handful of times here and there, he was pretty good on his walk and listened for his name and my surprise recalls. – Casey
4/21 Matwork
Maxx and I started working on some Matwork today. He was a bit unsure about his suroundings and avoided the mat. He didn’t want to interact with me either. Towards the end of the session I did some focus work with him – rewarding him for focusing on me – he did really good for a first session on this – Cat
4/21 Life Skills Walk (no video)
Maxx started off quite brave today and allowed me to put a harness on him so we could go for a walk around the business complex. Once we got outside, he looked a lot more confident and even solicited some attention from me as we went. He also listened nicely for his name along the way. – Casey
4/22 Life Skills Walk
Maxximus and I went on a walk this afternoon. We were supposed to practice walking by another dog (Gunner) with good manners, but Maxximus was more interested in checking out his surroundings, so that’s what we did! By the end of the walk he was a lot more acclimated to his surroundings and he was a happy little dog. – Robin
4/21 Matwork
I introduced Gunner to a mat today. This is really useful skill for all dogs to have. He actively avoided the mat – even jumping over it and going around it at first. So I was rewarding him for any interaction with the mat at all and he really progresssed during this session. Perhaps we need to do some surface training with him in a future session – Cat
4/21 Life Skills Walk (no video)
Gunner and I had a great walk around the business complex this afternoon. He was a happy-go-lucky guy and mostly responded to his name and little surprise recalls that we had along the way. – Casey
4/22 Life Skills Walk
Gunner went on walk this afternoon. At first he was very excited about checking out his new surroundings, but then he settled down and was ready to practice walking by another dog (Maxximus). Great work, Gunner! – Robin
4/20 HI THERE
Gracie and I had an acclimation session to start with. This session started off camera with me going into her room and when she was comfortable putting her harness on. This happened relatively quickly. Then we went outside to sniff and walk around (also off camera). Finally, we went into the training room. I allowed Gracie to sniff and explore – she loved the pretty girl in the mirror. She came up to me readily and was rewarded for this. She responded to a sit and a down for me. Then she went behind me for the first time – obviously my backside is scary – because that is when she realized I was a stranger she should approach with caution. I rewarded her steps towards me while allowing her space for the rest of the session. When the session ended I asked for a sit to clip the leash back on and she obgliged a bit warily. Cat
4/21 matwork
Gracie acted like she had never seen a mat before and was a bit suspicious at first. I rewarded any interaction she gave at all. she was progressing and then midway through she lost interest again – I think it was the pitch of my voice – one of the other trainers said when they made certain noises they bothered her – so we will keep this sound sensitivity in mind for future sessions – Cat
4/21 Life Skills Walk (no video)
Gracie had a session with me today where we took a walk around the business park to get her in a somewhat more familiar environment doing a pretty familiar thing to help her feel more comfortable. Her tail was up and waggy as we walked although she wasn’t always sure about her interactions with me, but that’s okay. Slow and steady will get it done. 🙂 – Casey
4/22 Life Skills Walk (no video)
Gracie went on a walk with Eugene this afternoon. They worked on heeling and focus by playing fun heeling games like choose to heel and red-light green-light.
4/20 Take a Bow!
Tessa and I started a fun little trick today that we normally call Bravo but you can call it whatever you want! It’s where the dog performs a play bow on cue which I’m sure the kids will love to do with her. She had a bit of a tough time differentiating it from a ‘down’, but she had some good moments of success. I think we would need to do more work on this before it would be ready to show off. – Casey
4/20 Polite Greetings
Today We worked on polite greetings with one trainer – to show you how you can work on this at home if you are alone. I would approach Tessa and not come close until she was sitting – then I would reach to pet her – then I would reward her – if she stood up, nipped or jumped at any point I simply left without interacting with her (or stopped the interaction and left). I rewarded her initially while I petted her and then started rewarding her after I pet her. By the end of the session she was doing great – this will take a lot of practice however – Cat
4/20 Leave It
Tessa practiced her leave it training. This was a bit hard for her at first – eventually she remembered what she was supposed to do — Great job Tessa – Cat
4/21 Hide and Seek!
Tessa and I played a fun game of hide and seek for her second session today. Playing it this way not only works on their recall, but builds problem solving skills, encourages persistence at finding you, gives them practice at locating you based on the sound of your voice, and gets them physically exercised and mentally stimulated… plus it’s fun! Tessa had a blast with this game and was a good, persistent seeker. Sometimes it took her a little bit, but she always found me, and that’s what we’re looking for! – Casey
4/22 Basics
Today we did our first session with Tessa on basics. She was a little over excited at first and was very jumpy but quickly settled down into her routine. She did a great job today. She tends to be a little sharky with taking treats so I would like to work on this on the next session. Overall a great session with a smart girl. Liz
4/22 Puzzle Toy and Shaping
Tessa started out the session with a fun puzzle toy. Then we reviewed drop it, touch, and look. I tried to teach her a paw target but she was more interested in playing with the target so I switched it up. I set an object on the floor and waited for her to interact with it (biting, nosing, pawing, scratching, etc). Every time she did any of those behaviors, I clicked and treated. It was like she was teaching herself a new trick. By the end of the session she would put her front paws on the book for a treat. What a smart girl! – Robin
4/20 Wave Hello!
Ark was an eager beaver for his training session today! We built off his paw trick to build a new trick where he waves back at someone who waves hello at him. It was a bit tricky to get a good rhythm with the repetition of this trick, but he demonstrated that he understood what was being asked of him… unfortunately, this is a trick that we don’t want him to offer all the time as that could get pretty annoying and escalate, so I couldn’t reward him for offering it! But the good news is we were able to progress from a slightly differed paw trick to a full blown waving motion so long as it was within his normal paw range. Well done, Ark! – Casey
4/22 Buddy Walk with Mabel
Ark went on a walk with another dog named Mabel. He did a really good job and kept a beautiful loose leash the entire time. There were a few moments when he was interested in Mabel but he focused back in nicely – Robin
4/20 Drop It
Scout and I started out the session with practicing some drop it, but part way into the session after we’d had a few successful drops, she started to get a little anxious with the sound of the other dogs barking and so was less inclined to want to play. So, instead, we practiced a little four-on-the-floor to end the session. – Casey
4/21 Hide and Seek!
Tessa and I played a fun game of hide and seek for her second session today. Playing it this way not only works on their recall, but builds problem solving skills, encourages persistence at finding you, gives them practice at locating you based on the sound of your voice, and gets them physically exercised and mentally stimulated… plus it’s fun! We had a little hiccup in the beginning where Scout was having trouble following where I’d toss the treat, but once I changed my treats and we had a few “practice” throws, she was able to follow them well enough to play the game with me and I think she had a good time. – Casey
4/20 Nice to Meet You!
Beau and I had a nice easy session to start his stay with us where I just wanted to let him explore the room and help him cope with the stress of all the change. He loved to be loved on and would take treats from me, but since I let him engage and disengage as he pleased, he did a lot of roaming the room trying to get acclimated–and that’s totally fine! A normal part of the process. 🙂 – Casey
4/20 Acclimation
Just like the earlier session – the focus was to make Beau comfortable in the training room – to allow him to explore it and to understand that really wonderful things happen in that room. He was more relaxed than his earlier session so I did ask for a few behaviors to see where we were starting at – and he was enthusiastic with the ones he performed. Welcome to Teamworks Beau – Cat
4/21 matwork
We started matwork today. Beau didn’t want to get on the mat and at first avoided it. I was clicking and treating for any interaction and he didn’t seem to understand what the clicker was – so I had to actually show him the treat with every click. By the end of the session he was looking up at hearing the click and putting 1 paw on the mat – Great job Beau – Cat
4/22 Acclimation and Attention Walking
Today was the first time I had ever worked with Beau. So we took the first couple of minutes to get to know one another. After I felt he was comfortable working with me we started working on our attention skills and attention walking. Beau did a great job. We worked on some of the leave it commands as well with a piece of treat in my hand and then on the floor so I could see how he did with leave its. He did a great job and is such a sweet boy. Liz
4/22 Life Skills Walk (no video)
Beau went on a walk with Eugene this afternoon. They worked on heeling and focus by playing fun heeling games like choose to heel and red-light green-light.
4/20 Nice to Meet You!
Abbey’s first session was spent giving her a good time in the training room playing and taking treats from me. I let her explore the room, say hi to me, we played some ball, and she even offered me some very nice sits in exchange for some treats or the ball. I think it was a good experience overall for her and I’m hoping that she’ll be able to build on this and learn that training can be fun! – Casey
4/20 Acclimation and Skill Review
With this first session with me, I again let Abbey explore her surroundings and rewarded her for interacting with me – which she really wanted to do. We also did a brief skills review and a walk outside off camera. I did notice that she appeared to be more comfortable off leash than on=leash. Welcome to Teamworks Abbey – Cat
4/21 matwork
we started out really well – Abbey at first avoided the mat – so I was clicking and rewarded any interaction suddenly she simply stopped and avoided looking at me – not sure what brought this on – maybe the clicker? maybe the surrounding noises? I talked to the camera and gave her long slow strokes until she decided to join in again – we did a few more reps and then we called it quits – Coming back around was hard work for her – great job Abbey – Cat
4/22 Get to Know
Abbey was very shy this morning when we had out first session. So we took some time to allow her to get more comfortable with me. It took a few minutes but she did warm up to me. We did a few come when called and we kept the session going at her pace because I did not want to stress her out. She is a sweetie. I am wondering if next session we include her sibling in the room and this may result in more confidence. Liz
4/22 Life Skills Walk (no video)
Abbey went on a walk with Eugene this afternoon. They worked on heeling and focus by playing fun heeling games like choose to heel and red-light green-light.
4/20 Drop and Stop
We started out Shemar’s session today working on drop it, but quickly found that Shemar had less interest in the toy than he did getting all worked up and wanting to do the happy hips dance on me. Well, that’s not very nice. So, instead, we worked on building up a reinforcement history of keeping four on the floor even when he was getting worked up. To his credit, when I would have to give him collar time-outs, he would settle himself down and cease the behavior. Way to use your brain, Shemar. – Casey
4/21 Life Skills Walk (no video)
Shemar and I went on a walk around the business park and practiced his leash manners. The boy could not decide which side he wanted to walk on and kept cutting across me so we had lots of stumbles as we went. But the good news is he seemed cognizant about when he would hit the end of the leash to pause for a second to release the tension before going again. – Casey
4/21 Hide and Seek!
Shemar and I played a fun game of hide and seek for his second session today. Playing it this way not only works on their recall, but builds problem solving skills, encourages persistence at finding you, gives them practice at locating you based on the sound of your voice, and gets them physically exercised and mentally stimulated… plus it’s fun! Shemar seemed to really enjoy this game and had a great time running around and finding me. I was proud of him, too, as we didn’t have any instances of jumping up or doing the happy hips dance, even though he was quite happy and wound up. Good thinking, Shemar! – Casey
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