Mia had a fun day. We introduced a ton. She started Heel/Autosit, Implied Stay, Come, and Down. She doesn't really like Down because she doesn't understand it yet. Come is her favorite and she does so-so with Implied Stay and Heel. Mostly I have to stay very gentle with her to make sure she enjoys this while also not being too much of a softie and letting her get away with not doing what she is told. She is a dog who needs discipline but her size and soft nature must be kept in mind at all times as she is easily frightened and a scared dog is not learning.
She is still quite playful with my dogs and she and my 2-year-old (who is very certain she is actually a baby dinosaur for some reason) absolutely love each other. She sat with him and got lots of cuddles while he watched Thomas the Train this afternoon.
I am glad she has so many friends here because it helps balance out training which can be a little bit stressful. Tomorrow we will have another full day and I look forward to seeing her continue to improve.

Apollo finished his last day with me with flying colors. He stayed on his mat for 2 hours with dogs, kids (including a baby who crawled over to visit him) and adults going about their business. I am very pleased with how Apollo has developed. He can be nervous and needs a lot of building up but he is a responsive dog who wants to work and wants your praise. All his handler needs is good timing and high expectations. I will miss this guy. He has been a joy to have around.

Apollo had a fantastic day. We spent much of the day out at the farm and we took his go-home video. He only needed vibration reminders and never an actual correction to keep him on track. He enjoyed a romp to the meadow and zoomed around in the tall grass, coming when called every time I needed him to come back.
Tomorrow we are going to take it a little easy and do some Placemat with regular household distractions and his usual workouts but I don't have anything new to introduce to him. He is in the proofing stage now where we add distractions and start making sure he is fairly reliable in most moderate distraction situations.
Apollo has been a very rewarding dog to train and a polite houseguest. I am proud of how well he has shaped up.

Apollo had so much fun today. We went to the farm and enjoyed a nice long romp before doing some real work. He respected the remote and never tried to bolt or run off. His Heel is still a little sloppy but he was very attentive and tried to get all the answers right.
I am not sure if we will be able to get out there again tomorrow but for sure Thursday we will go out again. Tomorrow he will get his off-leash workouts in but possibly not at the farm. It depends on how my day works out.
I am very pleased with how well he did today and proud of all his progress. He is shaping up nicely.

Apollo had a good weekend and is still making progress. He has had a couple workouts off-leash in the fenced yard and though he toiled at first he made enough progress that we are going to take him to the farm tomorrow.
His major tripping stones are with the Heel. He tends to put the brakes on when he gets nervous or confused and so getting him to stick with me in the Heel has been an adventure. This afternoon he did a fantastic job and so I am confident he will do well tomorrow. His Come command is solid and so even if his Heel is not perfect tomorrow I will still be able to give him a little time to run around and enjoy the freedom his new collar will give him and that is always a happy thing.

Keeping the blog short tonight because my kids are staging an all out mutiny about bed time.
Apollo is doing fine. We did a lot of work with the 20' line today. He needed a bit of help to stay in a heel position. He is a fast walker and he expects to be held back by a leash so in the absence of one he tends to ooze forward. But with little reminders he showed improvement.
Tomorrow will be a bit of a boring day for Apollo. I am in lessons until late in the day so he will get play time and down time but no work outs until later in the day. But sometimes a break helps keep the work fresh.
He is doing fine for the end of his first week. Still on track to take the leash off completely either by Sunday or Monday.

Apollo has had an exciting couple days. I have been transitioning him to his remote full time. He is very sensitive to it which makes things fairly simple, his handler must be careful not to over-correct him but he is quickly learning what the collar corrections mean. He still struggles slightly with the Come command when he is not wearing a leash (we have not yet taken him outside of the fenced area without a leash on). He eventually comes back but only after a couple reminders.
He has really toiled with Down today and yesterday. I am pleased that he is now laying down with much shorter arguments and I am sure he will continue to improve here but he sure did put on his stubborn shoes on for a few workouts.
In the house Apollo has been a polite guest. He is settling in and is enjoying the company of Ace, my youngest dog. Kylie and Ted still intimidate him a little bit.
Tomorrow I am going to start using a 20' leash to mimic being off-leash outside of the fenced area to see how he does. I hope to remove his leash completly by the end of the weekend. He is doing great.

Apollo had an easy day today. We did some light work and covered some more review but I had a full day of lessons so we didn't get to much of the harder stuff. Tomorrow is a day dedicated to Apollo so I anticipate that day will be more interesting for him.
We did, however, introduce him to his new remote collar. He is nice and sensitive to it and I think it will be a great tool for him once he understands it a little better.
For now he is hoovering around the high chair looking for dinner crumbs and poking the cat with his nose.

Apollo is a striking black lab who is here for 2 weeks of advanced obedience training. He is a bright, energetic, healthy dog and that good combo can lead to some not so good behaviors. But most of his behavior is due to simple Labrador enthusiasm.
Today we mostly worked on leash manners and Heel/Auto Sit, Implied Stay and Down. He did well especially after I adjusted his pinch collar up higher on his neck. He wasn't perfect but he worked hard and by the end of the day he had improved impressively.
He is getting along okay with the other dogs here. Apollo is being a little shy but he will gain more confidence over the next few days. I am enjoying this guy. Labs are often satisfying to train and I think this fellow will be no different.

George had a bit of an easy day today. I had a relatively full lesson day so he got more playtime with Ace and Kylie instead of a big workload. But he has done well and has made good strides in his work the past couple days.
I was texting his mom this evening and chuckling because I was describing George like a sarcastic teenager. With the Come command he almost seems to purposely over-act it, running right up and sticking his head between your knees in an effort to say, "there! I did it! I came back. Can I go play now?" But he is at least not blowing his handler off as much anymore.
I always enjoy working with George. His owners are very attentive to his needs and so they are very interested in doing his training right and making sure it works well for him as an individual and so even though he isn't as strictly trained as a working dog he has good focus and while he is a pretty independent dog his work ethic is nicely developed for such a young guy.