Remy Barbee – Dayschool 06/2017

6/26 Dayschool

Nice to Meet You!

For Remy’s first session today, I wanted to give him an opportunity to feel more comfortable and confident in our training environment, so we went completely at his pace. There seemed to be something in the room that had him a little unsettled, which, again, why we took it nice and slow today. But we were able to get enough practice in to where he was able to understand the association between the sound of the click and the treats that would follow, so I’ll count that as a win in the books today! 🙂 – Casey

Building Attention

Remy and I got to meet today and we started out with some get to know you activities to let him get a chance to meet me and check out the training room again.  Remy was very interested int he room, so I let him explore and would occasionally call him back to me for a reward and release him to continue exploring.  He eventually got more interested in engaging with me and we practiced some recalls, sits, downs, and stays.  He’s a very excited boy! –Jenny

Cali Rosenberg – 6/24 – 7/3

6/24 Handling Acclimation

For Cali’s first session, we did a bit of basic counterconditioning with the sensation of having her feet, ears, eyes, mouth, and tail handled by a new person paired with the deliciousness of peanut butter! Cali wasn’t quite sure at the beginning but warmed up beautifully and made for a great session! It’s always good to see a puppy respond well to these types of sessions. – Casey

6/25 (For 2/24) Play Session

For our second session today we worked on recalls while playing with a ball.  I can tell that she is very toy motivated.  She is soooo cute.  She really enjoyed the session and we did a lot of touching and rewarding for allowing touches on legs, head, face, ears to reinforce what Casey had done with her yesterday.  Liz

6/25 Get to know and recalls

We did a short get to know with her since this was the first time I had seen or worked with her.  It did not take her long to warm up to me so we did some off leash choose to heal games and some name recognition games where we used her name to call her over to the heel side and rewarded for it. She is a very smart pup and I am excited to see her grow 🙂 Liz

6/25 Get to Know / Downs

Cali and I got to know each other by practicing some sits and hand targeting at first. Then I wanted to see if she knew how to down.  It seemed like maybe she knew it a little bit from being lured with food, I noticed it wasn’t very reliable yet. I decided to work a little bit on capturing the down instead. One of the problems that using a food lure to teach down can cause is that there is a lot of pieces that later need to be filtered out of the cue: The food, the leaning over, the hand going down to the floor. Some puppies may even become mouthy with the hand because they know it used to have food in it. My favorite way to teach down is actually by capturing it – waiting for the dog to offer the behavior themselves, and then rewarding and resetting them to offer it again.  I tried doing this a little, but in the open room with so many distractions it was a difficult problem for Cali to solve and lead to her getting a bit frustrated and chewing her leash, which you will see in the video. So then I took a bit more time with her and set her up for better success by using a barrier to make a smaller space (This part of the training was not captured on video as the camera SD card ran out of memory.) In the smaller space there were less distractions and EVENTUALLY Cali got bored enough to lay down – BINGO! I gave her LOTS of treats and then used a treat to pull her back up into a stand. And then again, after a minute or so, she got bored and laid down – jackpot! We captured 4 down this wy with me heavily rewarding each one.  Capturing behavior in this way shows the dog that what they do can lead to reinforcement and helps them begin to learn to think for themselves and offer behavior instead of always waiting to be told what to do. It’s a great skill to teach at a young age! – Paisley

6/26 Handling Acclimation

Cali and I had another session where we continued counter conditioning the manipulation of her ears, eyes, lips, paws, and tail, as well as being brushed. Cali’s mannerisms towards my handling were MUCH improved over last time! She was nice and relaxed throughout the session and even was not biting at the spoon as much as she had the time before. Great improvement! – Casey

6/26 Get to Know / Distraction Focus

Cali and I did a Get to Know session to let us become more comfortable together and then worked on some puppy push ups, holding a down, and some focus around distractions.  Cali was pretty interested in working with me so by the time we started practicing around the distraction (an intructor moving agility equipment from the room), Cali was offering excellent eye contact and looking back to me after checking out the distraction. Good girl! –Jenny

BARBARA:  Callie’s videos are in your DropBox folder…the one I started for Cameron & Cody.  🙂

 

Olivia Harwell – 6/23 – 6/25

6/23 Nice to Meet You!

Olivia worked with a new person today, and so it was their intention originally to do plenty of work on her polite greeting manners. Amanda said that, while she had an instance of jumping up on someone in the lobby on their way there, that she couldn’t get her to replicate that behavior once the camera was on. So, instead, they did a little bit of recall and then some work on taking the treats politely since Livy started to get a little sharky. – Casey

6/23 Tunnel Time

We were going to try and practice some drop its for this session, but Livy had no interest in the toys I’d planned on using. So I set up the tunnel for her instead and we worked her up to running back and forth through that. It was a lot of fun!  – Casey

6/24 Leave-It Field

I had several different items scattered around the floor which also included a box and dish with a large piece of hot dog in each of them.  I started with a basic leave-it by tossing out a pice of hot dog and holding the leash so that Olivia couldn’t reach the hot dog but I did not pull on the leash so as soon as Olivia relaxed the tension on the leash, I marked this and Olivia got a high value treat from me.  We repeated this several times and then I started to move around the room with Olivia passing the different items on the floor, Olivia did better with this part of the game than the first basic leave-it’s we did at the beginning of the session.  Olivia walked so nicely beside me and gave me lots of focus. we were able to walk between the items on the floor and also we practiced some stays and short recalls down the middle.  Great job Olivia!!  Mandy

6/25 (For 6/24) Today we did a general session on basic commands to see where she was and what we could focus on during our next session.  We played hide and seek recalls, mat stays, attention walking, come when called.  She is a smart girl.  We did some stays on the mat so I decided to do an additional session with her to really try to focus in on this as her last session before she went home.  Good girl Liz

6/25 (Extra Session)

Today we worked on stays and mat work with Olivia.  She seems to want to be with you if you step to far away from her so I tried to keep the distance and duration short and set her up for success.  I noticed when I gave her the wait command and didn’t hold my hand up in the wait position and stared to back up, she would come over and not hold her stay.  However, when I asked for a stay and backed away and kept my hand out in the stay position she held the stay much better and for a longer duration.  We will continue to work, next time on her stay and duration. Well done seet girl. Liz

6/26 (for 6/25) Red-Light, Green-Light Walk

Olivia and I had a walk outside this morning where we worked on her loose leash walking manners by playing a game of red-light-green-light. If she began pulling too hard on her harness/leash, that became my cue to stop for a red light. Once she released the tension or checked in–green light! We could move again. This is an easy game to play when you’re out and about because there are no treats or toys required–simply getting to move forward is reward enough. After I turned the camera off, we also did a few leave its and a little bit of the name game as well. – Casey

Colbie Siew – 6/20/17 – 7/31/17

6/21 Life Skills Walk

I took Colbie on a walk around the business park, she was very excited to be outside with all the new smells and sights.  I can see she would be a very strong puller without training but she was so responsive to me when I asked for focus and reinforced that focus with treats.  We worked on name response, each time I said her name, she would turn towards me and I reinforced that and then I also reinforced anytime she offered focus towards me.  I also worked extensively on giving her good feedback all the time she was beside me but if she pulled out hard in front of me, I stopped and encouraged her to resume the walk beside me.  This a work in progress, loose leash walking is tough for a young dog but Colbie wants to learn.  Mandy

6/21 House Manners

Colbie and I worked on some “house manners” and attention work in the front lobby of the building.  I wanted to see if Colbie would be interested in counter surfing or jumping up on me, but after the first couple of rewards for sitting or making eye contact, she was all about the work! We continued to practice attention and then worked on some gentle handling.  Colbie got a little excited when the petting started, but otherwise was a very polite girl. –Jenny

6/22 Life Skills Walk

Colbie and I started out the day with a nice loose leash walk around the business park.  I fitted Colbie into a front clipping harness to start practicing her loose leash walking and attentiveness around distractions outside.  There was a lot to look at today with the wetter weather so Colbie’s nose was in over drive!  After letting her sniff around a bit, she became much more focused and we practiced loose leash walking around the building.  Colbie was very attentive and when distracted, only needed to be called away and rewarded for eye contact to continue walking very nicely at heel.  –Jenny

6/23 Leave It

Colbie and I worked on forming a basic leave it today. Colbie must have had work on this before because even through a little bit of stubbornness, she caught on to what I was asking of her quite quickly! We worked with just a milkbone as our practice leave it object and she demonstrated moments where she understood that she was not to go for it and was to leave it alone. She also had moments where she dove in and tried to get said milkbone, but I think that was more of her deciding to take a calculated risk and losing. – Casey

6/23 No Jump

Colbie session where we worked on her polite greeting manners went pretty well for the most part. What we want to teach them is that their actions have consequences, good and bad, and that they have control over how they want their interaction to go. If they choose to keep all fours on the ground and keep their impulse control in check, they’ll get rewarded with attention, praise, petting, and even treats! On the other hand, if they choose to jump up, mouth, or nip at us, they are thereby choosing to have the interaction end and any potential rewards for good behavior go away. In Colbie’s session, we used a long line tethered to the wall to make those consequences a little more clear by having the “Good Manners Zone” that the handler could come and go from depending on how Colbie acted. I think this clarification helped Colbie, as I have been able to put her harness/leash on and take it off her without a single incident of jumping or mouthing since we did this session. Now, we just have to generalize that behavior! 🙂 – Casey

6/24 Handling Acclimation

Colbie hasn’t shown any troubles with being handled by us, which means it’s a great time to continue reinforcing that good behavior! Using basic counter-conditioning, we paired the feeling of her ears, feet, eyes, mouth, and tail being handled with the deliciousness of peanut butter. Colbie handled (hah) this session very nicely, though I think she was a little curiously concerned about the voices around us (we were located in a hallway between a lobby and a classroom). She wasn’t super keen on her paws being handled, but that’s part of the benefit of these sessions. By starting them when she’s only unsure and not grouchy about it, we can continue moving her forward into being more comfortable. – Casey

 

6/24 Off-Switch Game

The off-switch game is a good way to help a dog learn to move from a high arousal level to calm and relaxed.  The game uses a mat to teach the relaxation part of the game, this is not a ‘go-to’ mat but a mat that you stay with the dog and work on relaxation techniques.   I started with a towel on the floor and any interaction that Colbie gave with the mat made cookies rain onto the mat, this was repeated several times until Colbie was laying on the mat and I started to add duration.  The duration was encouraged by counting variable amounts of time until Colbie could lay there for about 10 seconds.  I then released her from the mat and then engaged her in a rousing game of ball, Colbie thought this was lots of fun.  After a couple of minutes of this game, I brought her back to the mat and encouraged her to relax by giving her feedback from me, like taking a deep slow breath.   Colbie really responded to this and her own breathing slowed down.   We repeated the steps again and I was really excited with the way Colbie responded to this game.   Mandy

6/25 No Jumping and Loose Leash Walking Manners

Today I did some loose leash walking with Colbie and some ball play to see how motivated she was.  She was a little distracted by all of the smells in the room.  She did however do some really nice no jumping when I was seated in the chair.  She is a sweet smart girl and I am looking forward to working with her. Liz

6/25 Get To Know / Adding Duration to Down

Colbie and I have not worked together before so I took a few minutes just to get to know her and see a little of what she knows. She is a very sweet energetic girl! One of the things I noticed was that she has a fantastic down cue, completely verbal with a very quick response. However, she has what I call a “pop up” down. This is where a dog has learned that the cue “Down” means to lay down and jump right back up. I would like to build on this great cue response and begin teaching duration on the down so that the  cue means – “lay down, and stay laying down until I ask you to do something different”. We began working on that by just putting her in the and rapid fire reinforcing the position with treats. Gradually I will be able to reduce the number of treats / extend the time between treats to extend the duration of her down. She’s off to a great start! – Paisley

6/25 Make Up Session – Shaping – Pedestal

For this session Colbie and I worked on some shaping – which she found a little difficult! I wanted to eventually get her to put her feet on the small pedestal I had out. She had a little bit of difficult with the task, which is totally normal if she is new to shaping. Eventually we did reach out goal of having her feet on the pedestal but with the help of a little luring. – Paisley

6/25 Make Up Session – Mat Work

This time Colbie and I did a little more shaping, but it seemed like she was more familar with mat work than the pedestal. She gave me some great automatic downs and we gradually began adding in some duration. Mat work is an excellent skill for any dog, it helps them to learn relaxation around distractions. -Paisley

6/26 Recall Ball Outside

Colbie did some recalls with me outside which turned into a fun game of fetch.  Colbie was very intersted in sniffing around in the grass at first, but would let me call her away several times for treats.  When I got out a tennis ball, I started to toss that to get her to move away from me and then reward her with a “treat trade” for the ball so we could start again.  –Jenny

6/26 Drop It Tug

Colbie practiced some “drop it” behaviors with a game of tug in this session.  We would play and play and play and then I would show her I had a treat and trade her for the tug toy.  When she dropped the tug, I clicked and released the treat for her.  Colbie caught on to this very nicely and I was able to use the verbal cue “drop it” and she got it each time! –Jenny

Katie Shippee – Dayschool 06/2017

6/22 Dayschool

Nice to Meet You!

I had a nice easy session with Katie to start where we worked on basic polite greeting manners, a little bit of recall, and engagement work. She was a little shy for me at first but got more comfortable as we went along. She did have too many instances of jumping or nipping, but again that’s probably because she was a little on the shy side today. I’m sure the more we work with her the more she’ll begin showing us! 🙂

Work to Play with Blue

Katie and Blue had another fun session of work to play together today.  They were able to play a bit more in this session as we had an idea of how they would engage from the last time they had met.  Katie was very excited to see Blue at first, but gave some very nice focus and then would bound away when released to play. –Jenny

Mabel Grove – Dayschool 06/2017

6/22 Dayschool

Life Skills Walk

Mabel had some trouble focusing on her walk today, so I had to work with what she would give. She was all about sniffing today and seemed to have her ears closed. Even with trying to wait her out to even offer me a sliver of a check-in, we were waiting close to minutes each time! What she did offer, however, were some good recalls, so I focused on getting plenty of those in for today. It was strange–she responded to those beautifully and as if we’d been engaged the entire walk, but as soon as I released her to go walk again–out of sight, out of mind, ears closed ’till next recall. But of all the things for her to still retain, recall is probably the best one, so I’ll take it. – Casey

Dummy Dog Game

Mabel and I had a session today where there were stuffed dogs in different places around the room, and I wanted to work on her initial reaction about seeing them. We did some loose-leash walking and other quick little focus tricks as we walked around the room, and whenever she would see one of the dummy dogs, I would let her make the decision on how she wanted to approach. If she needed a reminder on what kind of manners were the best way to handle the situation, I was there to help her, but I’m very pleased to say she made all the right choices and handled herself very appropriately! Yay, Mabel! – Casey

Tosca Lopez

6/21 I love Tosca’s attitude, she wants to work and she wants to work now.  I had the pleasure of meeting Tosca and she immediately went into work mode.  I started with the ping pong game, I tossed a treat out on the floor away from me so that Tosca had to run for it and then as soon as she had eaten the treat I said her name and clicked as soon as she responded (which was instant) and then tossed a treat in the other direction so that I could repeat the exercise.  Tosca loved this as it involved a lot of running.  We then moved onto me running across the room away from Tosca so that she would run after me but before she had a chance to jump up on me I asked for a sit which was heavily reinforced.  Again we repeated this several times and this was a good chance for her to use some impulse control as there was a game of chase involved but I asked for a sit before she had time to think about jumping.  Next, I slowed things down with working on thresholds, asking Tosca to sit and wait while passed through a jump standard which I was using for our threshold and then releasing Tosca through.  Tosca did really well and we finished the session with a game of ball.   Great job Tosca!!  Mandy.

6/21 Play with Ball (no video)

Tosca remembered her fetching skills! Right after arriving we went straight into a play session with a tennis ball (I tried some other toys as well, but the tennis ball was the favorite!).  We played several rounds of fetch and Tosca did a great job with her play manners – dropping the ball upon returning and even doing some sits and downs before I would throw the ball again.  –Jenny

6/22 Life Skills Walk

Tosca and I went for a walk around the area where we worked on some distraction-proofing behaviors and continuing to reinforce her loose-leash walking manners. On this walk we used the gentle leader, and I was so impressed with how well she’s adapted to it! Last time we worked with her, it was quite a struggle to put it on her, but this time she let me slip it on without a fuss. Then when we were outside, she never used her leash as a tug toy and was extremely responsive to me and the sound of the click (though, that’s not a change). When we were walking with the gentle leader, she had a few instances of pulling forward, but began to relent the more we worked. She definitely wanted to keep her head on a swivel and make sure that everything around her was where it should be, but even still she hardly missed a beat whenever I asked for her attention. Stellar walk today, Tosca! – Casey

6/22 Class Control  (video cut-off midway)

Tosca practiced some impulse control on leash today by helping set-up for puppy class! Casey and Mandy (trainers) were busy setting up chairs for class and provided some great distractions for Tosca to work with.  It started with some chairs moving around and Casey walking back and forth.  Then Casey really got things going and started banging chairs together, dropping things, walking a “dummy” dog by Tosca, and even pushing a skateboard by her! About halfway through Mandy walked into the room (a new person to Tosca) and things got really tricky. Tosca was a little startled by some of these distractions, but after her initial interest or barking, she refocused very nicely.  I made sure to keep up a high rate of reinforcement with the distractions around and only asked her for easy things like sits and looks.  At the end of our session, Tosca did some hand touches with Mandy for some polite greeting practice.  Well done wild child! –Jenny

6/23 Distraction Proofing

It is really evident how much hard work has gone into Tosca’s focusing skills! We did some hard core distraction proofing and she maintained excellent focus. We worked on eye contact, hand targeting, loose leash walking and cue response in the face of a LOT of different distractions. From blankets, skateboards, skipping dog trainers and even toilet paper! This was my first time working with Tosca and I was VERY impressed and have fallen head over heels for her. I look forward to working with her again! – Paisley

Distraction Proofing Round Two

Tosca had ANOTHER excellent distraction proofing with some leave its thrown in. She really does have impressive focus.  She had a little accident on the floor of the training room, but hey accidents happen and when you gotta go, you gotta go! – Paisley

6/24 Leave-It Field

I had several different items scattered around the floor which also included a box and dish with a large piece of hot dog in each of them.  I started with a basic leave-it by tossing out a pice of hot dog and holding the leash so that Tosca couldn’t reach the hot dog but I did not pull on the leash so as soon as Tosca relaxed the tension on the leash, I marked this and Tosca got a high value treat from me.  We repeated this several times and then I started to move around the room with Tosca passing the different items on the floor, Tosca impressed me with her response to the leave-it’s and we were able to work between the items.  We finished this part of the session with some stays in the middle of the distraction field and some small recalls but then I repeated the whole session without her gentle leader on.  Tosca was a champ, I thought she might be more tempted to try and reach some of the leave-it’s but she was very focused on me and the work we were doing.  Very Well Done Tosca!!  Mandy

6/25 (For 6/24) Play and Tire Agility

Since Tosca had such a great time playing ball I decided to use this to my advantage and make her work for a few moments and then use play as a reward.  We started the seeion by throwing and asking her to returnto me with the  ball, she was a superstar!! Then I brought out the tire and we did some basic lead through drills to show her that I wanted to get her to go through the tire for a treat.  It took about twice for her to pick up on this and then she would zoom through to chase her ball.  She is such a smart girl and is so much fun to train with 🙂 Liz

6/25 Recalls with Ball and Loose Leash Walking

For our first session today we did some ball throwing and retrieving to help her get some of her initial energy out and then we stopped playing ball and asked her to work a little for me by doing some attention walking and some come when called.  She seemed to really be able to brake from play to work quickly.  She has not forgotten what she learned and did an awesome job today.  She still gets super excited when you come get her from her suite but seems to be quicker to settle down after.  Liz

6/25 Mat Relaxtion

Tosca is UP UP UP all the time it seems! So I wanted to build some relaxation skills into her repertoire of awesome. It was obvious she had done mat work before, but this time instead of just working on distraction proofing on the mat, I wanted to focus on relaxed body language like a turned hip and resting chin. Tosca is fast dog and will keep a trainer on her toes, so at first we had some mixed signals about what my criteria was – trainer oops! But we quickly settled on working on “head down”. I plan to carry this over for our next session! Nice work Tosca! – Paisley

6/25 Make Up Session – Mat training

Tosca and I built on our earlier work and continued shaping the head down. We didn’t get all the way down because we were interrupted, but she is definitely making progress! – Paisey

6/26 Rally Obedience to Nosework

Tosca and I had a fun session today where she got to try a little bit of Rally-Obedience that concluded with a little bit of sniffy-sleuthing! She would respond to most of her cues but I think she was wanting more-more-more and faster-faster-faster! Next time we do something like this I’ll have to upgrade her to agility. 🙂 – Casey

6/26 Polite Greetings

Tosca practiced some hand touches and started to work on polite greetings in this session.  She was pretty excited to see her trainer Casey for this greeting so we started by trying to teach her another cue called “Say Hi” where she touches the greeting person’s hand.  This was a little too exciting for Tosca and it made her a little frustrated.  With some advice from Bernice (a trainer who also worked with her in Youngsville) we’ll continue forward with her polite greetings by keeping the greetings much shorter – she did much better with that.  Then we can gradually increase the duration of time the person spends next to Tosca so as not to get her as frustrated (which seems to lead to her over the top bouts of excitement).  –Jenny

 

Bubba Powell

6/22 Life Skills Walk

Bubba and I had a nice walk around the area this morning where at first he tried getting in all the cars we passed by. Once he realized that wasn’t what we were doing, he shook off and started walking nicely with me. I let him do plenty of sniffing the first couple of minutes and just rewarded him for checking in. As we went on, I started asking him for more check ins and we had to do a little bit of reminding him on how he’s not supposed to be pulling on his leash. By the end, he’d turned into the very well-mannered little gentleman we know he can be! 🙂 – Casey

6/22 Password

This write up will be completed this weekend due to time constraints–sorry! – Casey

6/23 Focus skills and NoseWork

Nosework is a fun way to provide mental stimulation and confidence building as the dog learns to independently manipulate their environment to find treats. First though we worked on attention and focus skills in the presence of another dog, which he was absolutely fantastic with. Bubba did a great job staying focused on me while we practiced hand targeting, loose leash walking, and some cues. I was very impressed! Then I let him have at it with the nose work set up. He really enjoyed exploring the objects and getting those treats! -Paisley

6/23 Up and Off

Today we worked on his “up” for barnhunt! Since we don’t have any haybails here, we had to work with an agility table, but Bubba didn’t seem to mind. He went to work right away on his “ups” and “offs”, looking more and more confident each time! Eventually I was able to start sending him from a distance to go do his “up” while I hung back. What a great session! – Casey

6/24 Snapshots of a Life Skills Walk

Bubba and I had a good time taking a walk out in the sun today. I took the camera with me and we were able to make a little montage of some of the stuff we did/encountered on our walk. Bubba was good for the most part about not pulling on his leash with a few exceptions. But once we started to get more in the swing of it, he was very good about keeping an nice, easy pace. Always happy to respond for treats, too! At one point, he started scent rolling in the grass, and another time he did a log roll down a small hill! I wish I could’ve gotten those on camera, he just looked so happy!! – Casey

 

6/24 Off- Switch Game

I repeated the same session with Bubba as I had done with Sarge (please see Sarge’s write-up), the only difference was that Bubba was not interested in the ball so we played running around the room where I encouraged Bubba to run with me and then I intermittently asked for a sit, this went well for Bubba and he seemed to enjoy this game.   I switched between this game and the mat work and Bubba did a really good job!!  Mandy.

 

 

Sarge Powell

6/22 Life Skills Walk

Sarge and I had a very nice walk this morning where–after waiting for him to give a moment of silence enough to reward and then move on out–I let him spend the first couple minutes having a nice sniff around the area. After he startled to settle in, we were able to do some nice reinforcing of the good leash walking he was offering as well as some check in behaviors. We built on that to encourage him to listen for his handler and the more we went along, the better he became at this skill. He also did well at passing some people at close-ish proximity and another dog at a farther distance without any reaction! Even better, after we finished our walk and were going back to his room, we passed by one of the training rooms where there was a dog that made direct eye contact with him from about 15ft away. They held the stare for a few seconds before I could get Sarge moving again and even though he looked like he was just on the cusp of barking, he moved along without so much as a peep!! I was so proud of him! 🙂 – Casey

6/22 Password

This write up will be completed this weekend due to time constraints–sorry! – Casey

6/23 Life Skills Walk

Sarge and I had a great walk this morning and built on Casey’s work yesterday. Begining with focus and attention inside his room. He was a little stressed this morning on his walk so we really worked hard on focus skills like check ins and hand targeting. It was nice quiet walk with few distractions. Nice job Sarge! – Paisley

6/23 Nosework Fun

Before we even got started, I wanted to say that Sarge has gotten a lot better about his excited barking! He barked when I put his harness on, but then I waited him out and caught a moment of silence enough to click and he right away engaged and never let out another peep! When we went into the training room, he was beautifully engaged and had a great time getting to sniff around. He definitely needed a bit of help with reminding him to work independently, but other than that he had a great session! – Casey

6/24 Snapshots of a Life Skills Walk

Sarge and I went for a walk outside today where we worked on engagement, basic leash manners, and his loose-leash walking. Using the pause function on the camera, we were able to make a montage of some of the stuff we did along the way! He started to get a little tired in the heat so our walk wasn’t as long as Bubba’s, but we still got plenty of good practice in! He’s very biddable once he has his focus on his handler and he loves to work for his treats. 🙂 – Casey

6/24 Off-Switch Game

The off-switch game is a good way to help a dog learn to move from a high arousal level to calm and relaxed.  The game uses a mat to teach the relaxation part of the game, this is not a ‘go-to’ mat but a mat that you stay with the dog and work on relaxation techniques.   I started with a towel on the floor and any interaction that Sarge gave with the mat made cookies rain onto the mat, this was repeated several times until Sarge was laying on the mat and I started to add duration.  The duration was encouraged by counting variable amounts of time until Sarge could lay there for about 10 seconds.  I then released him from the mat and then engaged him in a rousing game of ball, Sarge thought this was lots of fun although I did not through the ball too hard as he is a large dog and the space was small.    After a couple of minutes of this game, I brought him back to the mat and encouraged him to relax by giving him feedback from me, like taking a deep slow breath.   Sarge really responded to this and his own breathing slowed down.   We repeated the steps again and I was really excited with the way Sarge responded to this game.   Mandy

Jenny Pickens – Dayschool

6/21  Getting to Know You

I had the pleasure of working with Jenny first and what a sweetheart she is!  When it is a dog’s first day with us we like to do a basic session so that the dog has a chance to get know us and the training room.  Jenny was very distracted in the training room and seemed a little anxious as if she didn’t know what was going on.  She had difficulty responding to me and didn’t want her treats.  So I changed tactics and decided to play a game with her that I knew she would love due to her breeds……a scenting game.  I tethered Jenny while I set up several empty boxes and put treats in only one of them, I then released Jenny from the tether but holding onto her leash she was free to check out the boxes.  Jenny ran straight to the door but I encouraged her to check out the boxes, her nose immediately went into action and she hunted out the treats, I made a big fuss of this and added more treats as she was eating them.  We repeated this game several times and by the end, Jenny was running to the boxes and not the door.  I also was able to incorporate some sits and hand touches in between the searches.  I really enjoyed working with Jenny, she is a sweet girl!!  Mandy.

6/21 Life Skills Walk

Jenny and I had a nice walk today around the sidewalks of the business park.  Jenny was all about her nose, so we just practiced some attention work by rewarding for eye contact and responding to her name by releasing her to go sniff around and check things out.  She really enjoyed this but did not get too much more attentive – although she liked getting some lovin’ and scratches at the end! –Jenny