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Buddy has been released into Tao Service Dogs care for placement. Buddy is now available for either pet dog or service dog placement. If you are interested in Buddy, please contact me to apply.
Buddy needs work on Level 1 Zen, Level 1 Come, Level 2 Lazy Leash, Level 2 Sit and Level 2 Down. Buddy also has Separation Anxiety (SA) and is under going training to assist him with it.
Buddy has spent the week learning I can walk away from him while he's in a crate or x-pen and return without his needing to bark or panic. He is eating daily in his x-pen and works daily on short, split second separations to help him understand that people leaving is not a bad thing.
He is in need of crate training and we've begun it, but this means he doesn't crate well. For more information on Buddy, please contact us and we'll discuss him.
Buddy will continue crate and SA training to help him be the best companion he can be.
Nice job team! Murphy is now retrieving pens, keys and remotes (if they have a shoe lace attached). What a fantastic advancement.
During our lesson Murphy picked up his first piece of paper and did well with it. He is starting to work on metal as an object he can take in his mouth and pick up.
He is still barrel rolling the pen in his mouth, so we are working on a still mouth with a Carry Hold.
Homework:
Hold the pen before Murphy and have him take it and then move your hand to the left or right side of his head and say Yes when he turns his head. If he drops the pen it's okay, we are working on making his mouth still right now. If he chews, rolls or crunches the pen do not reward - instead, pick it up and offer it again before him and move your hand to the left or right and say Yes when he turns his head. If he doesn't chew on it, give him a reward.
When he's good at this, hold the pen out so he has to take a few steps to take it. When he turns toward you say Yes and give him a treat only if he doesn't crunch, chew or roll the pen. The next time have him take a step toward you and slowly increase steps to you until he is walking back to bring you the pen.
Have him before you and give him the pen then back up a few steps to encourage him to carry the pen toward you. Only reward if he doesn't chew, roll or crunch the pen.
Spirit started Prozac last week. She is much calmer in her reactions to sounds or sights outside of her home. She didn't once go off on a bark fest when she heard something outside of the home, nor did she go into Fool Around when working with me.
I took her outside to work on her walks. She did some nice sniffing in the yard and then we worked into the street and she was able to work on actual Loose Leash Walking and take treats. The difference in her ability to focus and train is clear and I am loving it.
She is still Spirit. She still has her bouncy, loving nature, she's just calmer and able to handle stress better. I am so glad she's on her way to being a happier dog overall.
I brought her back into the home when things got a bit too busy outside. A neighbor dog had been barking in the distance and Spirit at first listened, but gave a snort and turned to me for treats. A neighbor was using a vacuum in her open garage and Spirit watched for a few seconds and gave a snort and went to sniffing the ground. We worked with those two distractions for about 15 minutes with 30 seconds on and 2 minutes off on LLW work and lots of sniff and explore time. She did fine until a second neighbor dog, one she could see, came out and barked at her. She went very still and stood staring and couldn't hear me anymore. I took her inside at that point.
Later we went out and worked with her owner on how to do the LLW training and talked about doing 5 to 10 minutes on during walks and giving breaks of about the same length. Doing this during her daily walks should make her more likely to walk nice on the lead and make her walks easier in general.
Homework:
Deliver a treat to Spirit's mouth while she's walking directly beside you and at your seam of your pants. Do this once per second to start and slowly start extending the number of seconds between treats. If at any time she moves forward out of position while actually working on LLW training, stop, lure her back into position and start again and increase the number of treats for a short time and then start extending time between them. The easiest way of doing this is by counting steps - one step/treat and then 2 steps/treat and so forth.
Do this for 5 to 10 minutes while on your walks at least twice during the walk.
Continue crate training with adding duration while you are no in sight of Spirit.
Oh how I love Ms. Minnie. She's been working on her Sit as a cue and learned it nicely. Her owners mentioned she'll sit if she sees the treats, so I showed them how to use a clicker and how to take the treats off of them.
I worked with Minnie for a short time and clicked then treated each time she sat. I then started to add the verbal cue. Once I had a good verbal cue and lots of offered sits I started walking her through the house into different rooms, while facing different directions and cued a sit and click/treated each one.
I then had her owners do the same, but I clicked and they treated. I had them leave the treats nearby and go to them each time she did her sit.
I then worked on luring Minnie into a down. I have 3/4ths of a down, which for Minnie is a major accomplishment.
Homework:
Practice with her by cuing her to sit and clicking and then treating when she does. Once she's very good at Sit, start to ask for two or three sits and then treat and begin asking for sits for things she wants, such as sniffing, getting her leash on or going out the door for her walk.
Continue to work on luring Minnie into a down.
Continue to shape Minnie to ring a bell.
Update coming soon.
Update coming soon.
