Mia is settling in well and though she still doesn't like playing with the big dogs she has taken to following Kylie around the yard to see what she is up to. I think she finds the wrestling and chasing of the big guys to be a little intimidating.
Today Mia had her very first off-leash workout. She was still inside the fence but she did well. There was only one time when she ignored me and went to the door instead of coming when called. Everything else she did well with little reminders here and there. Tomorrow I am going to take her to the farm for more work but it is still a little premature to take the leash off without a fence, I think.
All in all, a very good second day.

Mia is a mini Australian shepherd who is here for a week of training. She started with weekly lessons to get her on-leash started and now she is here so that I can finish her up on a remote collar. She is a bright and spirited little girl who learns quickly and enjoys working with people
Today we mostly did a review of her on-leash obedience. The big difference is that we introduced her to her remote and so instead of getting leash pops she would get a stim from her remote. She is sensitive enough that most of the time all she needed was a vibration warning to correct a mistake. She is it 100% sure of me yet, she has a little bit of stranger danger, so she is only off-leash in the yard so far. But she is doing quite well and I am pleased with how well she has retained her on-leash obedience.
My two-year-old is in love with her and giggles about the "baby dog" who follows him around.

As Max winds down his stay here with us he is giving us less and less to work on. He still makes mistakes, usually having to do with impulse control but he is getting more mindful every day. He still toils with a little bit of anxiety off the leash and so we are working to overcome that. This manifests itself in a tendency to try to hide when he makes a mistake. We are working on his understanding that he simply needs to try again instead of slinking off. He only did this once today and so I am sure that as this becomes his lifestyle his confidence will skyrocket.
Tomorrow we are taking his go-home video so that his owners can see what we want his training to look like. I do this because dogs, naturally, get a bit excited to see their people after two weeks and so I want to be able to show them what the training looks like when their dog is not beside themselves with joy.
Max is a fun dog and I think that as we build up his confidence more and more that he will settle into an impressive adult dog.

Today was a bit of a roller coaster for Max. It ultimately ended on a great note but we had to work through a stressor for him first. We went to the farm and he enjoyed some free time without a leash on. We did some baby obedience, kept it very easy as it was his first time off-leash. He was pretty sharp on everything except for a few times when we went from a full stop to a Heel command he would try to bolt to the front door instead of walking next to me. He would regret this decision as soon as he got corrected but instead of coming back he would try to lay down by the door. This is a very common thing for a dog to do and it is not defiance. Rather this is a pretty clear indication of some confusion coupled with stress. The stress and confusion was simply caused by being in a new place without the structure and familiarity of a leash guiding him.
However, after working him through this issue a couple times we ended on a nice, high note and he was much more happy and confident after I showed him (again) what he was supposed to do. I am taking him out again tomorrow to keep building his confidence. He knows his commands. Now I just need to make sure he doesn't forget them when distracted or stressed. This is the job that his owners will pick up from me when he goes home. Luckily, nothing makes Max happier than getting the answer right and so working through stressful things with him is not as complicated as it could be.

Max is one step closer to going full off-leash. He did all of his workouts on a 20' leash today. He had 20' of mistake making potential and other than a few little "hey, what's that smell?!" moments he did just great. He is still a little silly about his Automatic Sit. He sits every time but he wiggles around and ends up in front of me (thus in my way). I am working to clean this up but we still celebrate that his sitting is automatic.
He stayed on his Placemar for about an hour tonight. He enjoyed a visit to his mat by my 8 month old baby who crawled over to say hi. He has been very soft with her all week, which is a little surprising considering he is such a buffalo.
Tomorrow I am taking Max to the farm to give him his first states of off-leash, no fence freedom and see how he does with it. I am looking forward to letting him stretch his legs. I am sure it will be a blast.

Max is doing great. Friday we properly introduced his remote collar and started making steps to going off-leash. He responds well to it and the vibration is something he is sensitive to so hopefully we can get him to a nice low-level of correction and then perhaps only have to use it rarely. My one concern so far has been a tendency to try to hide from corrections when the leash is off. I need to build his confidence up in his ability to get the right answer even if he needed a correction and that he doesn't need to run from a correction. For obvious reasons an off-leash dog who runs from corrections is not ideal. But he is very responsive to praise so just a bit more practice and I am sure we will be seeing more confidence.
Today he got pretty well a day off. Saturdays are my biggest day of the week for my weekly lesson clients and so he spent a little extra time relaxing. But tomorrow I am going to work with him on a 20' line and his remote to give him as much mistake making potential before actually removing his leash on Monday or Tuesday. I think he enjoyed his break and will be ready to get back to it on Sunday.

Max and I took a nice long walk today and he did a fantastic job of staying in his Heel when we were working and of respecting the leash and not pulling when in a free walk. He is really starting to blossom as a working dog and is enjoying the work. He is a high caliber dog and so he will need to continue working after he gets home in order to remain level and not overly frustrated.
We worked on his Down/Stay and Implied Stay in the Down today and he toiled with it a little bit. If he thinks he is about to be left out of some adventure he really struggles with parking himself. But he was doing better by the end of the day. We will pick it up again tomorrow and I am confident he will settle and become more reliable in this exercise.
For now he is relaxing in his kennel next to his weekend roommate, George, a dog I trained a number of months ago who is here while his parents are out of town. I think Max enjoys having a buddy in there for company over night. Especially a good buddy like George.

Max had an awesome day. His walks went great. His workouts showed marked improvement from yesterday. He is growing more focused and hard working by the hour it seems. He is still a bit of a buffalo in the house and when he is romping around but we introduced him to his remote today in the house and it really helped him to know what he could explore and what was off limits. He is quite sensitive to the vibration and so he did not need much actual correcting.
This guy is a blast to work with for sure.
Tomorrow we will be doing more work in the house and we will start asking for extended stays in the sit and down.

Max is such a neat dog. I mean, all shepherds are neat but he is definitely a dog who wants to work. Without direction he is a bit of a buffalo but I have been very impressed with his ability to focus over the last few days. If you watch him (especially if you just let him go in the house, oy) he seems inattentive, even chaotic. But once I put a pinch collar on him and started asking work from him he was very focused on me. A pinch collar works well with dogs like Max because on just his flat collar his leash handler is an after-thought. He is too strong and too busy to realize you're back there trying to talk to him. But with a pinch collar on he can better feel your cues and the correction is familiar enough to make sense to him.
We have introduced Heel and he pretty well gets that already. He is not sitting automatically yet but he is getting closer to sitting whenever we stop. We introduced Down and it still needs work. Come he actually has pretty well with a leash on. We will see how well it translates to when he is off leash with just his remote on.
​I am looking forward to the next few weeks. He is going to be fun, I can tell.

My sweet friend, Raven, goes home tomorrow. Her on-leash obedience is pretty solid. She shows some reluctance on Down (esp when it's cold!) and the Come command if she thinks she's in trouble but she shows marked improvement every day. It will be imperative that she be expected to do these commands every day. It is also imperative that her leaders not allow her to skirt away or hide from work. If she thinks it will work she will continue to try it. But if obedience becomes her way of life then she begins to follow direction very willingly, which is what she has shown me this week.
Raven is a puppy who isn't used to having much asked of her but she is an absolute love sponge and so she is very happy to work if she will get affection for it. But her sensitivities must be remembered. She isn't a dog with whom we can be heavy handed and not have it affect her (not permenamtly but it will hurt her feelings). She needs fair and clear correction and affirmation when she gets the right answer, which is often because she picks things up quite quickly.
Raven has been a fun student and a very sweet house guest. I will miss her wiggly butt but I know she will be thrilled to be back with her people.