He just had a BLAST having off leash play time with Lexi the Goldendoodle and Kylie the Akita. He will meet Cowboy the Cattledog tomorrow.
Tomorrow our goal is to start Implied Stay and Down.
Today was the first day of training for young Linus. He is a Yellow Lab that I had in my Puppy Preschool group a few months ago. He is all big now and definitely ready for some obedience. His leash manners are non existent and he is manipulative (like most retrievers). He learned Heel/Autosit today only after throwing one whopper of a tantrum. He wanted to rocket around me and play in the puddles. He went through a few different stages of bad temper before he exhausted himself to the point of seeing things my way. First he put the breaks on and thought if he just planted his feet I would let him play. Then he bit the leash and whined. Then he pretended to be physically unable to walk. Then he just barked at me and jumped up and down as we walked. It wasn't until we were on our way back to the house that he was tired enough to simply walk next to me. He at first was walking all sullenly, like I had canceled Christmas. But as soon as he started getting the positive feed back he perked right up and trotted along happily. He was Autositting nicely by the time we got back into the house. Then he hopped right into his kennel and slept for 2 hours.
He just had a BLAST having off leash play time with Lexi the Goldendoodle and Kylie the Akita. He will meet Cowboy the Cattledog tomorrow. Tomorrow our goal is to start Implied Stay and Down.
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Cowboy did very well today. His Heel/Auto sit is much much better. He still lags a little bit sometimes but he is consistently on the left now and is making good eye contact when he "checks in" with me. I would say his obedience is now in the upkeep stage. He has been introduced to everything he will be taught and the majority of it is proofed. This weekend is very busy for me and so it will likely be Monday before he gets to go into town unless I can find the time Saturday.
He is now consistently and willingly staying on his place mat or in a Down/Stay for over an hour without getting up (he watched a movie with me last night and today he helped me with some office work). Today during our exercise walk we were out in the big pasture and a rabbit shot out of some low trees. I let him chase after it for a few seconds until he was REALLY committed to getting the bunny. I called him back and paged him and he ignored me and so I gave him a correction with the collar and he quickly left the chase and came running back to me and sat down. When there isn't a bunny around his recall is near perfect, I haven't had him fail to come back at all and only rarely does he forget to sit. When a distraction like a bunny is around it is not surprising that obedience left his mind. The success is that I was able to get him back even when he was in a predatory state. With practice it will be possible to get him back with just a page from the collar or a verbal command. Tomorrow I have lessons all morning so Cowboy gets a break to sleep in and then it is back to work in the afternoon. 2012 was the most pivotal year for Free State K-9 since I started it in 2010. One year ago I was working full time at the Lawrence Humane Society (LHS) as their Animal Assessment Specialist and doing Free State K-9 part time after work and on weekends. Like many small business owners I was reluctant to leave the security of my job at the Lawrence Humane Society and strike out on my own. My plan was to stay at LHS for another few years and then transition to doing FSK9 full time as soon as conditions were perfect (which they never are).
There were a few different elements which lead to my leaving LHS years earlier than I had planned to. The long and short of it is that I no longer felt I could make a difference at the shelter and so I decided to aim all my efforts into the young business. Before I would feel secure in leaving, however, there was one thing I had to have. I needed to be able to offer a big ticket item, like Board and Trains, and to do that I needed a premises. It just so happened that the perfect premises to suit my immediate needs was attainable. My parents own 25 acres south of town and when I asked them if I could re-purpose their garage (which was mainly used for storage) as a training room they generously accepted. With blessings from my family and the unwavering support of my husband, Claven, I resigned as the Animal Assessment Specialist and dove into the complicated world of full time small business ownership. The first step was creating the training space. The garage was cleared out, scrubbed, and painted. The floor is still bare concrete but finishing the floor is in the works. Before I started advertising Board and Trains to the public, I trained some family and friends' dogs to make sure I had a system down and had everything I would need. By summertime I was advertising and scheduling Board and Trains to the public. Since then I have never been without steady work. I have been surrounded by a family who loves me and supports what I do (it takes a special family to say "yes, please bring untrained dogs into our house every month"). I would be a very poor example of a dog trainer if I did not credit my demo dog, Kylie. Much of my success I owe to her. We went to school at the National School for Dog Trainers together and it was there that I learned that even with the most well educated and experienced dog trainer can lose business without the use of a Demo Dog (for example, would Cesar Milan be where he is without Daddy?). It was also at school that I learned how fortunate I was to have such an exceptional dog to work with. Kylie challenges me every day but she also is responsive and willing to work. There is also something to be said for her striking appearance- she makes obedience look good. She turned 4 or 5 this year and 10 years old looks a lot closer now that she is getting stiff at night and her joints have started popping. At this point she looks far from retirement, thank goodness. In 2013 I hope things will continue to grow and prosper for Free State K-9. I hope to have more Puppy Preschool sessions and to expand the specialty training offered here. When it comes to upgrades I hope to be able to finish the floor in the training room this spring. We are also going to further our advertising by reaching out to businesses in Lawrence with flyers, brochures, and business cards advertising our services. In the works already is a take-home folder for Board and Train clients to refer to after they take their newly trained dog home. I look forward to 2013 with excitement and determination that this young business will only become stronger in the coming months. FSK9 turns 3 years old in August. Perhaps I will do a promotional or something fun to celebrate. Happy New Year! Cowboy is halfway through his training. I could not be happier with where he is. I now have him at around 85% on Heeling on the left only. All other obedience is going fine. His Place command is very nice.
His progress report reads: Heel/Autosit- Learned and Proofed (Proofed means I've tested it around considerable distractions) Sit at the left side- Learned and Proofed Sit from the front- Learned and Proofed Down at the left side- Learned and Proofed Down from the front- Learned and Proofed Recall- Learned and Proofed Stay- Learned and will be tested Place- Learned and will be tested I am going to schedule at least one field trip, hopefully two into town to Proof his obedience in town. Preferably around kids. There is a relatively active park and playground near my apartment. Perhaps we will go there. We will start with a physical leash on as a back up but hopefully we will be able to work with just the Dogtra soon. Eventually his final test will be a walk on Mass. Street. He will have to wear a physical leash on Mass. as per the leash law. Cowboy had a lot of fun with a horse toy today. A large red ball with a handle on it called a Jolly Ball. We kicked it around and he carried it in his mouth and moved it with his nose without barking at it. I am going to start making a list of possible constructive outlets for his herding instinct. We can train him until the cows come home but when they do he will still want to herd the cows. There are, however, many ways to use this instinct appropriately. So far the easiest one to do with limited space (like a back yard) that does not require purchasing livestock is to teach him to "herd" an exercise ball into a target. Another possibility is moving tennis balls with his nose into a laundry hamper or something. The big thing here is that, while he is allowed to bark and the balls during the game, when the ball is put away he must not bark at it. Also, he is allowed to nip the balls to move them but not hard enough to burst them. Luckily, the sound of an exercise ball exploding is usually reprimand enough to teach a dog to only nip with enough force to move the ball. What having a game like this would provide is an outlet for his instincts without encouraging him to bite at people. He has been extremely easy to redirect from hyper-focusing on things like cats, people, even his Jolly Ball with a page (and one time he needed a nick) from the collar. We did a hugging exercise today. My mother had the remote to his collar (as she would most likely be the one to get nipped as he has bonded nicely to me). We hugged a few times with varying degrees of excitement. The only time he misbehaved was when my mother walked swiftly across the room to hug me in a big bear hug. Cowboy muzzle punched her in the back of the leg and received a correction immediately. He then laid down and looked put out as we waltzed around the room. We will be repeating this exercise with different people every day until he goes home. At the very least it is a lot of fun. Now he is enjoying some Placemat time while we watch a movie. Today was a slightly argumentative day for Cowboy. During our first workout we had a Down battle and during a later workout we had trouble with Place. He certainly outlined some things to push tomorrow.
I still need to liven up things for him to try to get him really keyed up. So far he has not been interested in the cats (even the ones that hiss and run!) or the horses. We even had a rabbit shoot out and run right in front of us and he did better than Kylie! He is deffinitely collarwise which means he knows when he has his shock collar on. Not necessarily a bad thing but certainly something to be aware of. In a dog this intelligent it is inevitable. Tomorrow we will keep on doing what we've been doing. On Friday we are going to throw a "dance party" to see if we can get him rialed up. Where's a peewee soccer team when you need one? Today I finally got Cowboy to show his nipping and herding habits. Turns out he loves to herd those large exercise balls. We had a fun time kicking it around to him (purposely trying to get him to nip it) and when he would muzzle punch or nip at it he would get a 5 second time out. This means he would have to lay down for 5 seconds and not get any play time. The reason this is effective is because during the excitement of an active game being made to lay down for 5 seconds and not get to join in the fun is very frustrating. Dogs learn extremely well through frustration. Most people make the mistake of having time outs be similar to those given to children. They actually crate the dog and make the dog sit there for 5-15 minutes to "think about what he did" or to "calm down."
I can promise you that the dog is not thinking about what he did or how to apologize. He is wondering why he is in his crate, likely barking his head off or falling asleep. BUT! End a game for 5 seconds of excruciating patience and self restraint will soon have a dog thinking twice about nipping or jumping up or what have you. Such was the case with Cowboy. After 5 minutes of playing with the big ball (but being put in time out if he nipped it) he was having a fine time bouncing around the ball and moving it with his muzzle but not nipping it. Unfortunately he would still bark at the ball but we will correct that later. His obedience is doing just fine. If I could ONLY get him to stay on my left I would be a very happy trainer. His herding instincts tell him to circle me or stay behind. On leash his Heel/Autosit is almost 100%. Off leash he will do well for a while and then he will end up behind me or try to circle to my right. With encouragement he gets back to my left only to ooze over to the right again later. Tomorrow we are playing with the ball again to work on that barking and nipping some more. We will also do more work on obedience. I am determined to get him to stay on the left nicely. Some beautiful pictures were taken of this striking boy working in the snow today. Also took some glamor shots of him. Will post them soon. Cowboy enjoys the snow during the morning romp. Yesterday was a bit boring for Mr. Cowboy, I'm afraid. He got a nice long walk in the morning and some play time downstairs but much of the afternoon was spent in his crate as an appointment kept me in town for a few hours. His obedience work was excellent yesterday. Other than one "Down Battle" (I wanted him to lay down, Cowboy didn't see the logic in it. I won.) in the morning he did very well. Including some hectic house time during New Years dinner and a movie when he tried his best to hold a Down/Stay. He made some mistakes but was easily corrected with just a "No." The only time he really would not lay down was during the movie. I couldn't pinpoint why he had gotten so fidgety until I realized that there was a thunderstorm happening in the movie and he could hear the surround sound. His mom told me that he did not like thunderstorms when she dropped him off. I made him lay down for the rest of the thundering scene and then I took him downstairs and he gratefully hopped into his crate. I have had a hard time getting Cowboy to misbehave in the ways his owners complained about. I am having my little sister and her boyfriend come out and I am hoping the energy they bring to wherever they happen to be will bring some of his herding instincts. So far he as been a quiet gentleman, I haven't even heard him bark yet. I am certain that as he makes himself at home I we |
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