Oscar Twum-Baah 12/31/19 – 1/8/20

12/31 Polite Greetings

This was a tough one for Oscar! He was so excited and really wanted to play, but we kept getting him refocused and sitting politely. He was able to even lie down and start to relax while Carson was at a distance but had more trouble as she got closer. He made progress but needs more practice with this – Whitney

1/1 Impulse Control and Drop It

Oscar had a blast today with one of our favorite training tools called a flirt pole (check out the training video for more information). Oscar enjoyed playing with the rope toy and I would use that as his reward for a “sit and stay,” which was extremely hard for him given the high value he placed on the flirt pole. We also worked on “drop it” whenever I wanted to reset him into a new “sit and stay” and he did a great job with that exercise. Once he was tired from playing with the rope toy, we also worked a little bit keeping four paws on the floor. Good job, Oscar! -Gloria

1/1 Distractions

We worked around stuffed toys, an open jar of PB, an open container of dehydrated hot dogs, a rope toy, and a ball for distractions! Oscar did a stellar job with this! I was thoroughly impressed with his focus and responses! Good boy!  Remy

1/2 Basics Outside

This was a little too distracting for Oscar, I think he needs some more work inside before we move outside with his sessions for proofing. – Whitney

1/3 Work 4 Play

Oscar did a great job with this! He was well focused, and progressed nicely with this skill! Good boy!  Remy

1/3 Focus with Distractions

Oscar did a great job with this! We practiced focus around another dog. Oscar did well and was consistent with his responses! Good boy!  Remy

1/5 Work For Play

Oscar did excellent in his session this morning! He had to keep his manners while we were playing and not jump/mouth. He did so well with this that I challenged him and had him do a “sit” or “down” or another basic cue before I would throw the ball for him. It was a fun session! – Robin

1/5 Basics

I started out the session letting Oscar play with the tennis ball to get some of his energy out. Then we were able to work on recalls, sit, downs, stays, look, and his leash manners without him getting frustrated and mouthy. His leash manners, stay, and recall could use some more practice but his sit, down, and look are really solid! – Robin

1/6 Polite Greeting/Focus

My intention was to do some polite greetings with Oscar but he was very excited during this session and I did not have Jackie, the assistant, approach. I wanted Oscar to be able to remain more calm and show more impulse control so that we could make him successful with not jumping. So I had Jackie walk around the room while I worked on Oscar’s focus. – Whitney

1/7 Table Stays

Today I worked with Oscar on his impulse control and stays on the agility table. This went really well after I got him more focused. He had already done a play session and a training session before I had worked with him and this seemed to get some of his extra energy out so he was much more focused today! – Whitney

1/7 “Up” and “Off”

We worked on building an “off” cue that comes paired with an “up” cue, for training purposes. The “off” cue can be used to help communicate what we’d prefer to see instead of a jumping behavior. Oscar did a great job progressing with this new skill set, but will benefit from a little fine tuning to solidify these new cues!  Remy

1/8 Distractions

Oscar did well with this! It was tough at the start of our session, but he quickly rose to the challenge and adapted to the added difficulty. Overall, I was pleased with his progression and progress throughout our session. Good boy!  Remy

1/8 Polite Greetings continued…

Today Oscar and I continued to work on polite greetings with assistance from Carson. Oscar is making great progress! He did a great job keeping his focus on me throughout the session and having good impulse control (especially challenging since Carson is usually running his daily play sessions). Further work with this will continue to help perfect this skill. Good job, Oscar! -Gloria

Monty Schick 12/30/19 – 1/6/20

12/31 Leave It

Today I set some toys out on the floor of the classroom and Monty and I worked on leave it. He was initially very interested in the toys but caught on really quickly to what I was asking of him. He settled in and gave me attention and looked away from the toys. He is such a smart, good boy! – Whitney

1/1 Stay, Wait

Monty and I started off the New Year working on “stay” and “wait.” He had the added difficulty of staying while I was dropping treats on the floor. Good impulse control and excellent work. Monty! -Gloria

1/3 Dog focus and Agility with Maggie Hoffman

Monty and I had such a great time with some small jumps and focus work / stays. Hes confidence was out of this world! Even though he was not used to the jumps he got though them with ease! I am incredibly impressed with how well this training session went! -Carson

1/3 Dog greetings with Jett

Monty had very nice focus and behavior, but was not interested in Jett and only interested in food. –Sorrel

1/5 Leave It – Advanced

Monty did amazing in his session this morning. I had toys and treats on the floor in the middle of the room and he was able to off-leash heel, stay, and recall past it without even glancing at the leave-it objects. What a good boy! – Robin

1/5 Office Dog

Monty practiced his matwork in the office this afternoon while I blogged/did paperwork. This can help out with countersurfing, you can have him on  a mat while you work in the kitchen or eat at the table. He did really well although he did demand bark a little when I started lengthening the amount of time between treats. He quickly stopped demand barking when he realized that he only got treats for being quiet. Good work today, Monty! -Robin

1/6 Heelwork with Cones/Hind end awareness

Monty and I first worked on his loose leash walking skills by doing some work with cones, based on some exercises used in rally obedience. His loose leash walking skills were great and he maintained pretty good focus. Then I tried working with him on some hind end awareness/ pivoting exercise, by having him put his front paws on a rubber disk and then pivot his back end while keeping his paws in place. However he was not too crazy about putting his paws up, So I rewarded him just for one paw. – Whitney

Birdie Blaser 12/30/19 – 1/1/20

12/31 Agility

Today I set up a small course with tire jump, tunnel, bar jumps, pause table and wobble board. Initially Birdie was a little hesitant about the wobble board but eventually progressed to going all the way over it with all four paws! She enjoyed the jumps and table and willingly went through the tunnel too. Great exercise for her! – Whitney

12/31 Scent Work

Birdie was a natural and LOVED this session! She was quick to learn, and obviously enjoyed this! Great job!  Remy

1/1 Distractions!

We worked around stuffed toys, an open jar of PB, an open container of dehydrated hot dogs, a rope toy, and a ball for distractions! She did a great job with this, and showed stellar impulse control!  Remy

1/1 Recall out of Play

Birdie and I did a play session with Rolo and Remy today. Throughout the play session, Birdie and I would work on recalls out of play, and she did fantastic! Birdie also enjoy playing with the agility equipment during this session and even helped Rolo become more confidence with the different obstacles. Well done, Birdie! -Gloria

Maggie Hoffman 12/30/19 – 1/6/20

12/31 Agility

Today I worked on some agility with Maggie and boy does she get excited about this! We did a small course with jumps, tire jump, tunnel, pause table and wobble board. She really is quite good and motivated to do this and would be ready for a beginner level class I think! – Whitney

12/31 Scent Work

Maggie did a great job with this. She was well focused, and progressed nicely with all that we worked on! Such a motivated gal!  Remy

1/1 “Find It”

Maggie loved playing “find it” with treats around the training room and using her nose to find different goodies. Before each search, she would also practice a sit and stay while I placed treats. She is such a sweet and curious pup! -Gloria

1/1 Fun!

We played some agility, and Maggie did a great job with this! She was well focused, and had a ton of fun, too!  Remy

1/3 Agility Fun!

Maggie did a great job with this! She was well focused, and progressed greatly with what we practiced!  Remy

1/3 Agility and Dog Focus w/ Monty

Maggie was very excited to train! I think cheese may be a bit TOO reinforcing for her, as she couldn’t concentrate she was so eager to earn. –Sorrel

1/4 Stay
Maggie and I worked on her stay today, she definitely requires some really clean mechanics. She’s very smart, and therefore if any of the training is not consistent she starts to get confused and offer behaviors (down instead of sit) or to get up and see if there are treats she missed on the floor instead. We worked on not getting up without a release word and on stream reinforcement for letting me walk behind her while she held a stay. –Sorrel

1/4 Agility cone wraps

Maggie practiced doing “wraps” (sending around an object in a tight turn) today, which is usually practice for wrapping around jumps in agility. She kept offering a behavior of standing on the cone or tipping it, which leads me to believe that someone has trained her to find scents or food under cones before. Either way she picked it up quickly, nice work! –Sorrel

1/5 Work For Play

I had intended to do a work for play session with Maggie to get some of her energy out but she wasn’t interested in toys so we worked on her manners and a few tricks (tunnel, jump through hoop). She made a lot of progress with her hoop trick! – Robin

1/5 Life Skills Walk

Maggie practiced all of her manners and got to explore outside teamworks. She really enjoyed getting to sniff everything and the little scent course I had for her to find treats in the grass. – Robin

1/6 Heelwork with Cones/Hind end awareness

Today Maggie and I worked on both her loose leash walking skills as well as hind end awareness and pivoting. She was a little excited for the loose leash walking and kept getting out ahead of me. She did amazing on the pivoting exercise though! She got her paws up and rotated her back end very well, demonstrating very good hind end awareness! – Whitney

Rogue Alvey – December Dayschool 2019

12/30 Polite Greetings

Rogue was initially very excited and wanted to jump up on everyone! He is such a friendly boy. But then I was able to get him focused and we worked on another trainer, Jenny, coming up and saying hello and then petting him. He was so focused, and we just love his cute ears! what a good boy – Whitney

12/30 Cot Boundaries

Rogue and I started on some boundary training using a cot from a place cue.  We are using a training protocol that is outlined very nicely by a group called “Absolute Dogs” in their “Boundary Games” training DVD. Rogue got to the point where he was getting onto the cot with all four feet and releasing nicely.  We’ll keep practicing! –Jenny

Jett Johnson 12/29/19 – 1/5/20

12/30 Polite Greetings

Jett did amazing today! He was very excited to see Jenny, one of the other trainers, as he obviously remembered her. But even though he was excited, he did not jump up on her during our polite greeting session. She even used a more excited voice and he was able to control himself and not jump! He wagged his tail but stayed sitting. Great work Jett! – Whitney

12/30 No Jump and Touch

So good to see Jett again! He did very well with no jumping this session so we added on working on getting a cleaner nose touch to my hand without any paws.  I think using two fingers as the nose touch behavior and the palm as a paws touch/shake behavior may help keep the two more separate.  –Jenny

12/31 Agility

Today I worked with Jett on some agility obstacles: jumps, wobble board, tunnel and pause table. This was great confidence building and fun for him too! We worked on getting him through the tunnel with a target, in this case I used a dog bowl turned over, but typically I use plastic tupperware lids for this also. I put a small piece of food on it and he had to go through the tunnel to get it. He didn’t put all four paws on the wobble board but I was able to get him to step on with one or two paws. Good work Jett! – Whitney

12/31 Distraction Work

WOWZA, Jett! This guy rocked our session today, and it is apparent that you have kept up the hard work! I was pleased with all his responses, as well as his focus!  Remy

1/1 Extra Challenging Distraction Work

We worked around stuffed toys, an open jar of PB, an open container of dehydrated hot dogs, a rope toy, and a ball for distractions! Jett did a great job with this! He was well focused, and progressed with his responses!  Remy

1/1 Polite Greetings/No Jumping

Today Jett and I practiced polite greetings with one of our assistants, Carson. Jeff did an exceptional job of keeping “four on the floor” whenever Carson approached him and always turning back his eyes to check in with me when she would touch or pet him. “Touch” was definitely a great tool for helping meet someone and he seemed to enjoy it very much. Good job, Jett! -Gloria

1/2 Rally

Jett and I had fun playing Rally today, Rally is a game that can be competed in but in this session we used the game to practice, sit, down, stay, loose leash walking and focus.  Jett was awesome, his focus is very good and he seemed to really enjoy the game.  Mandy

1/3 Dog focus and manners with Luna Leiva

Jett did an absolutely fabulous job with focusing on me especially, after the treat change from hot dogs to Milk Bones. Milk bones take longer to chew which gave Jett something else to focus on and decompress in the process. I am very proud of Jett’s progress. Carson

1/3 Work For Play

Jett did a great job with this! He was well focused, and progressed nicely with all that we practice! Good job, smart guy!  Remy

1/5 Work for Play – Tug toys

Jett worked on maintaining his manners while playing.  He did really well! He was a little jumpy at first but settled down quickly. – Robin

1/5 Tricks

Jett started learning a few tricks in this session. We spent the most time on crawl and play-bow (“bravo”), but also worked on hand targeting and “tell me a secret” for a little bit. It was a fun session! – Robin

Ziggy Watkins 12/30/19 – 1/1/20

12/30 Putting on his Harness/Basics

Ziggy was immediately nervous about putting on his harness when I went into his room, so we worked for a few minutes on desensitizing him to putting it over his head. I had him take treats while putting his nose into the opening of the harness, then eventually over his head, then was able to take it one step at a time until I got it all the way on. Once we got in the classroom, I worked on a few basics to see what he knows. He is doing well with sit and responding to his name. His recall is ok (inside at least) but he could use some work on down and stay. A good start! – Whitney

12/30 Stay

Ziggy and I worked on his stay this session, working backwards from a release cue.  He did nicely with this and we were able to start working on duration and building some short distance.  –Jenny

12/31 New Harness

Today I tried a new harness on Ziggy ,the 3 in 1 harness which buckles around the neck so it doesn’t have to go over his head. I show in the video how I put this on him and feed him so that he can get desensitized to the sensation of it. He seems to flinch a little at the sound of the buckle and gets nervous if I move too fast. He also did a few low agility jumps that were set up in the room and explored a little to gain confidence. – Whitney

12/31 Harness Grabs and Loose Leash Walking

Ziggy did a great job with this! He was well focused, and progressed with the skills that we practiced. He was a bit apprehensive about collar/harness grabs, so we worked on collar/harness-gives. Well done, smart, focused guy!  Remy

Oliver Kennedy 12/27 – 1/4

12/28 Dog Focus with Dakotah

Oliver was a super star in this session working with another pup on some leash skills and focus! He was such a good worker! –Jenny

12/29 No Jump

Oliver jumped a lot in the beginning of the session but made a lot of progress throughout the session. By the end he was able to resist jumping on me even when I acted really exciting or like I was encouraging him. Good work! – Robin

12/30 Lobby Focus and Office Dog

Oliver was a great little worker as we worked around people, dogs, and other distractions in the front lobby.  He hung out in the office after as I worked on blogs. –Jenny

12/31 Loose Leash Walking

Oliver is one motivated fella! He was a joy to work with and did great with all that we worked on! Good boy!  Remy

1/1 Dog Focus and Agility

Ollie did a great job with this! He was well focused and responsive! He is such a fun guy to work with!  Remy

1/3 Work 4 Play and Stay

Oliver did a great job with this! He was well focused, but not too crazy interested in the toys we used, so we switched to practicing stays! Ollie did a great job with this and is such a smart, motivated fella!  Remy

Luna Leiva – 12/27/19 – 1/5/19

12/27 Lobby Manners and Polite Greetings

Very nice greetings and nice focus except when distracted by noises.

12/28 Longline walk outside and Platform

We started with a walk outside on a longline for Luna to explore the new place a bit and then as some noises started to bother her, we finished our session inside working with some behaviors using a platform.  Great to see this girly again! –Jenny

12/29 Life Skills Walk

I took Luna on a walk this afternoon so that she could practice her manners with advanced distractions. Initially she was very into following her nose but she did focus in on me after a bit. – Robin

12/30 Loose leash walking outside

Luna was initially pretty nervous with me but we went out to the side of the building to practice her loose leash walking. She was doing ok until a garbage truck arrived to pick up the dumpster and that was just too much noise for her. I brought her inside to try and get her focused again but she had enough and was not interested in working anymore. We will have to try and work on desensitizing her to some of the truck noises outside! – Whitney

12/31 Polite Greetings

Luna and I worked with the assistant, Carson, today on polite greeting a stranger. She did very well sitting and giving attention and allowing herself to be petted. She started wanting to offer her paw almost like a “shake” so we incorporated that some as well. She seemed to start relaxing and enjoyed the attention! – Whitney

 

1/1 Touch and Counter surfing

Luna practiced “touch” today where she would tap her nose to my palm. We used “touch” to practice our loose leash walking and help provide a way to pull Luna off a counter if she does try to surf. She was extremely focused and did excellent! -Gloria

1/3 Dog focus w/ Jett

Luna was very excited to meet Jett! We were originally planning on doing recall out of play, but because both dogs were so overexcited and frustration barking we decided it would be better to practice dog focus first and get them to calm down before allowing a face-to-face introduction. Luna eventually got her focus and was able to give me a nice loose leash while walking next to Jett. –Sorrel

1/5 Office Dog

Luna got to work on her mat skills in the office this morning. In fact, she is laying on the mat right now. She is pretty good about not popping up from the mat as long as I give her a treat every now and then. You can try having her on a mat while you work in the kitchen or eat dinner at the table to prevent countersurfing. Just put her in a down on the mat and reward her for staying on it, starting out with short periods of time between treats and slowly lengthening the amount of time between treats. – Robin

Marley Crowell – 12/28 – 12/30

12/28 Recalls Outside

Marley and I worked on recalls outside.  He did so good once we settled more into his new surroundings. –Jenny

12/28 Dog Focus

Marley was initially very excited to see the other dog. It took a few minutes for him to focus on me instead of the other dog. I found that constantly moving or asking him for tricks helped him focus on me. Good work! – Robin

12/29 Leash Walking and Tunnel Intro

Our first session today was a session on leash walking and then we changed over to a new task of introducing Marley to the agility tunnel.  He was very interested in learning how to use the tunnel. he did a very nice job and almost went through after I showed him how….You can tell his wheels were turning and he did get a little braver toward the end of the session and almost went all the way.  We will keep working on this. Well done. Liz

12/29 Life Skills Walk

I took Marley on a walk this afternoon to give him a chance to practice his manners with advanced distractions. He did really well! We worked on weaning him off treats and the only time he pulled was when he saw another person. What a good boy! – Robin