His on-leash obedience is coming along fine and he is right on track with where we want him to be. Down is less of an argument now and though he is still impulsive (this will not be trained out of him in a week) he is getting more and more responsive and easy to redirect the more I work with him. He is doing great.
Today was an interesting and fun day for Bear. His owners are interested in taking him to advanced off-leash reliability eventually, using a remote collar. So today I introduced him to a remote to see how he responds. He did quite well. His recall in the yard improved quite a bit and he was responsive to it in the house for general behavior modification. We had guests over tonight and the remote helped him stay calm while they entered the house and greeted him. We did not do any more advanced obedience with it yet since we were just getting him introduced but he responded well and I think he is a fantastic candidate for further training with this collar.
His on-leash obedience is coming along fine and he is right on track with where we want him to be. Down is less of an argument now and though he is still impulsive (this will not be trained out of him in a week) he is getting more and more responsive and easy to redirect the more I work with him. He is doing great.
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Bear had a good day today. We took a long walk in the chilly weather, which suited him just fine. He is still quite impulsive on leash but his Heel has improved. He started sitting automatically when I stopped and his Implied Stay was a little better today. His on-leash Come command is great. The same cannot yet be said for off-leash. He is one independent fellow, which, of course, Akitas are famous for.
We started Down today and it started as a huge argument but once he understood what I wanted he was happy to do it with just a little coaxing. All in all, a good training day. Tomorrow we will push him farther and see where we get. He is a sweet guy and he does like getting the answer right. But he also has his own ideas about what we should be doing sometimes. It is not difficult for an Akita to win my heart and that is just want Bear did this morning. He is a young, happy, vibrant dog who is with me for a week of obedience training.
Today we mostly got to know each other as we did some very basic Heel work. He is very used to pulling hard on his leash and so adapting to his prong collar was an experience but after maybe a quarter of the way down the first block he was shaping up. He even did an automatic sit for me near the end of our last workout of the day. Implied Stay was also started today that was a challenge for him because he wanted to go do his own thing. Bear's biggest hurdles will be his impulsiveness (because he is a puppy) and his independence which can read like defiance (because he is an Akita) but this is my breed and I am already having a blast with him. My sweet little friend, Mia, goes home tomorrow. I will miss this little sprite's energy and sweet nature. She has made quite a bit of progress though she is not 100% yet. Her Heel is great, as is her on-leash Come command. Her Autosit is fairly reliable but she tries to get away with not doing it if she thinks she can. Implied Stay is pretty good and Placemat is even better. However she still toils with Down a little. She knows it but will wait for a small correction much of the time. If I thought she was confused about Down I would keep her longer but since she is just being a tiny bit defiant I am comfortable sending her home to allow her owner to establish the rules.
Mia is a perfect little girl. She has that great chihuahua attitude that makes her so lovable. I know Noah will miss his buddy but he understands that she needs to go back to "her best friend" (her owner) so that she can be happy. Their little friendship was a lot of fun to watch this week. For now Mia is enjoying a greenie in her condo before bedtime. I am happy to report that Mia has done a terrific job with her house training while she was here. She only had one accident on her first day and she spent a ton of time out of her kennel. We kept her on a pretty strict schedule but I made sure to see that the schedule was realistic and one that could be adopted at home if need be. She has gotten quite good at keeping the house clean! Mia had a tough but rewarding day today. She got a little stubborn during workouts this morning but by this afternoon she had actually made a good deal of progress! Mia's stubbornness isn't played out in defiance but in feigning deafness. She will simply avoid eye contact and ignore what you said. But she likes praise so it isn't terribly difficult to get her back on task.
By the end of the day she was auto sitting almost every time we stopped. She is still toiling with Down a little but she is getting there. She enjoys the Come command on-leash. Off-leash she is still pretty distractable. Mia did great on Place today. She definitely prefers it to Down. She especially likes Place if she gets to enjoy the big nylabone she stole from the Pitbull. She is a sweet little scamp, for sure. Mia had a decent day. We took a long walk and worked on Heel. She walks pretty well on a leash but she did need a reminder not to trot ahead or go sniffing here and there. Her Sit is not automatic yet but she is looking to me when we stop to she is at least asking me what to do next.
Her Down is coming along. She still needs help but not as much. Everything seems to be improving by degree with her. She takes little steps forward every day. Turns out she quite likes Placemat. She stayed on it for 15 minutes tonight before she forgot what she was supposed to be doing. Tomorrow we will try for 45-60 minutes with normal household activity going on. She and Noah are still good buddies and I caught them in the living room chair this afternoon having a cuddle. |
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