Talk about progress! After yet another difficult workout for Bailey this morning we finally had a break through. I changed tactics and slowed everything down. Instead if giving her 4 seconds to comply with a given command I gave her 8. She would also get 20-30 seconds of slow, quiet praise for doing well on a command where she had been toiling, like Down from the Front. She won't need drawn out praise like that for the rest of her life but it might be realistic to say she might always need a little extra thinking time. However, we should be careful not to fall into the trap of "waiting for miracles." We shouldn't give her forever to ignore a command. Just a little bit longer than we give Ace. Ace can be expected to comply in 4 seconds or so; Bailey we will give a bit of extra time.
Speaking of Ace. He is doing well on his obedience. He is doing well and other than getting confused a little bit this morning is moving along well with his off leash. He has also had a few smooth bike rides. So long as you talk to him, slow down and get his attention at turns he does well. We don't run him off leash next to the bike because I prefer to guide him with a collar if he drifts too far away or to close to the wheels.
However- he sucks at left. Even on foot he isn't great about turning left. Usually I have to bump him with my knee or tap him with the heeling stick to turn smoothly. On the bike I just have to give him plenty of warning before turning into him or he will just run headlong into the wheel. With a warning though he respects the wheel nicely.
Tomorrow they are getting most of their training in the morning as I am out most of the afternoon with appointments. Right now we are practicing Place while relaxing with a little television. Bailey stole a paperback from the shelf behind her mat but when I told her to "leave it!" she put it down and pouted. The book is unharmed but a little damp.

They did well today. Both had good workouts with minimal corrections, Bailey did better today about not trying to skirt a command. Ace is just getting better and better. Tomorrow we are taking their videos and glamor shots for the website and working on fine tuning any issues.
For dogs that have been primarily outdoors for some time they have been positively charming house guests. They are calm and quiet and even respect the cats! They are pretty good about Place though Ace does try to sneak away sometimes but that is always to follow you so he is easily caught. I think they will transition nicely into their own house. They live with 4 children and so long as the children understand that when the dogs are supposed to be on their mats they should not be teased or invited to play things should be fine. invitations to play would be very difficult for the dogs to resist while the training is still so new.

Ugh, yet more thunderstorms! This has got to be the wettest week we've ever had during a Board and Train. It was pouring rain all morning and into the afternoon. We practiced Place and once it was just lightly raining we went out and did some training. They are making good progress. Ace still toils with the implied stay. He seems convinced that I am off to have a wonderful adventure whenever he is supposed to stay put. He has also gotten very sensitive to the collar and I have been able to turn it down a great deal, which is nice.
Bailey knows everything I ask her to do. However, she is not 100% reliable yet. Especially if she is not in a command and she is doing her own thing, she can be very difficult to renengage and put back into a command. For instance, if she is moseying around the field and I tell her to Heel she will either blatantly ignore me or trot towards the house. I use the collar to turn her around and once she remembers that she can't run away from the work she falls into step and does her obedience very well.
Both of the dogs have developed the habit of automatically laying down instead of sitting. When this happens they get a mild correction and sometimes I have to lift them into a sit. We will work on reversing this habit over the next few days.
I have included a picture of the dogs practicing a double Heel. It is a nice way to walk two dogs together. They are good at it but it takes them a short time to sort out who is going to walk on the inside and who is going to walk on the outside. When walking both at the same time you can see how crisp Ace is and how relaxed Bailey is. He likes to be right at your leg and Bailey tends to float around a bit more within the limits I have given her.

Ace had his first off leash obedience session today! In fact, he had two. He did very well. He had a little bit of a sloppy Recall tonight and kept trying to go to the wrong person but other than that and a few Downs that should have been Sits he did extremely well. He even enjoyed a play session with Kylie. At one point he went into the tall grass and when I paged him to come back to me I saw his happy little Pit Bull head pop up over the grass and then he bounded like a deer back to me. He had a very happy day.
Bailey did some back sliding again today. She has gotten very argumentative about training. My solution to this problem is a morning of rest and an afternoon of light work coupled with play. She likely got a little over worked and so is feeling a bit sour about it. Taking a break in the morning and having some lighthearted play sessions will make her feel better and we can move on with our training.
Weather looks a little hairy over the next few days so we may have spotty internet signals. I will try to post blogs regularly but if internet is slow or non-existent I will post as soon as the signal comes back.

We spent this morning relaxing and listening to the thunder. Both dogs were snoozing on their Placemats and did that for a few hours. Bailey tried to wander off a few times but might have just been getting a little bit warm because she was happy to sleep with her paws on the mat but the rest of her off of her bed.
Ace did very well with his bike ride today. He needs plenty of verbal warning about when the bike will slow or turn but he is responsive and does not rush the bike. We ran him next the the bike with a pinch collar on and he fell into step nicely and was happy about the exercise. Whenever I was getting ready to turn I would slow the bike slightly and get his attention. "Ace, this way!" was usually enough for him to respect the front wheel and turn with me. I may use a heeling stick (similar to a horse riding whip) to help him with left turns when I am turning towards him. A tap on the shoulder to encourage him to respect the front wheel may help fix any hesitation he has about turning on the inside of the bike. If his owners are planning to bike with him regularly I would highly recommend investing in a bike leash. Usually made out of metal it is a stiff leash which keeps the dog a certain distance away from the back wheel and behind the front wheel to make biking safe. Training is still necessary to keep the dog from pulling the bike out from under the rider but these leashes can make it fun and very easy to enjoy a ride with your high caliber dog, like Ace.
Bailey, Bailey, Bailey. She is such a sweet girl but is proving to be a Mastiff through and through. She knows her commands and enjoys the training but she is not as demonstrative as some other dogs are. She is just so relaxed about everything. She does things at her own pace and with her own spin on them. She does not lay down and sharply prepare for her next command. Today she literally laid down and went to sleep in the time it took me to walk across the yard to do a Come command. I had to go back to her and wake her up to finish the workout. Once she opened her eyes she thumped her tail happily and was glad to Heel again. She may not ever be as sharp as the Border Collie down the street or the German Shepherd in the police car but she also won't ever have to deal with the stress of excess energy. She would rather smell the air and watch the world go by (and chase the occasional cat) than actively partake in everything around her.

These two were not ever quite on the same page today. During the morning workout Bailey was doing really well and listening nicely and not needing much correction. Ace, on the other hand, decided he forgot everything he ever learned and would not even sit without a fight. Finally we got to the point (after 20 minutes hard effort) that he would grudgingly do what he was asked to do and so I let them take the rest of the morning off.
This afternoon Ace was a total prince. He did everything he was asked to and did not complain or pout but acted happy to be working in the nice weather. Bailey did not want to work this afternoon. For whatever reason she was feeling a bit lazy and "dropped anchor" about 6 times. Normally when a dog does this it is a simple matter of making them get back up and keep going. When the dog weighs 135 pounds it is a different story. Bailey would dramatically flop herself onto the ground and become immovable. It took all of my body weight to get her onto her feet again and working. Luckily I was able to make her get up every time she did this. It would be very unfortunate if she were to win that battle.
Overall they are both doing okay for this stage of their board and train. They are adapting to the hot collars and will be off leash completely soon. Bailey has been very slow about Recall but has not been bolting away at all. She just really drags her feet when she would rather be doing something else. Ace is a bit faster when it comes to responding to commands but has a slightly higher tendency to try to get us to chase him around the yard instead of coming back. They will be on long lines tomorrow and probably off leash on Tuesday. 

We introduced the electronic collars today. Both dogs have a basic understanding of all the commands and so we can safely start using the Dogtra collars to give corrections without scaring or stressing the dogs out. These are two very different dogs and so it makes sense that they take very different corrections. Bailey the Mastiff responds best to a sharp nick at a higher level. This correction is short, sweet, and to the point. 
Ace the Pittie, however, does best with a low level stimulation using the "constant" setting. This gives a few seconds of low level electric stimulation to help him understand when he is not making a good decision. For instance, when we are working on the Heel command and Ace starts walking too far ahead of me, I give him a low level stimulation until he backs up. Usually it is under 2 seconds of correction and the lower level helps keep him from being overly stressed by the correction. 
It is likely that the dogs' corrections will change as they move on with their training. For now they are still on leash but we are moving up to a long line tomorrow. This will give them 20' of mistake making freedom and will help them understand that these new skills and rules are to be followed even when there is not a leash on.
My husband has enjoyed running with them every day. Bailey has kept up pretty well but definitely is ready for a nap on the cool training room floor when they get back. Now that Ace has Heel pretty well down pat (at least with a leash on) we are going to reteach him how to run next to a bike while respecting the wheels and understanding cues for turning.
They have been polite in the house although it seems a lot of our knickknacks have been placed at tail-level for Miss Bailey and she clears the coffee table a couple of times a day. But we have had no problems with house manners.

Little Christa went home today. We will miss her sweet little personality. She has a solid foundation for a life of obedience and of charming her owners. I look forward to seeing her during her followup lessons and watching her grow in her new skills.

Bailey and Ace both had really good days today. I moved both of them up to prong collars to minimize the number of corrections they need in order to understand something.
Ace is now Auto-sitting and is learning Down and Come very quickly. Bailey is doing well with everything and now is just having her obedience polished before we introduce off-leash and the electronic collar. Her biggest sticky spot is Down. She knows it but is not interested in doing it most of the time. She usually waits for a correction. I am going to up the praise a bit to give her more incentive.
Right now they are milling around the living room. Ace wants to play but Bailey is snubbing him because she is more interested in smells. They have been very polite in the house and even gave the cat some personal space when she insisted on it. She doesn't run from dogs, though, so she isn't very inticeing to chase.
I am confident that as soon as they relax here we will see some naughty behavior in the house. Right now everything is so new they don't know what lines to cross or the consequences of crossing them. The only inappropriate thing they've done so far is try to get on the couch.
On an interesting note- Bailey refused to go down our stairs and had to be taken in the back door. Not sure what scared her but if it continues we may spend a workout emphasizing that stairs are fun!
Now for the real test! We are going to eat dinner while expecting them to be polite and not in our faces or drooling in our laps.
Tomorrow we may introduce the hot collars but we may wait depending on the dogs progress in the morning. Bailey is ready for Place but Ace is not so we will wait to teach them together. That will make it easier to practice at the same time.

Today we really pushed her Recall. We went over all of her other skills too but mostly we focused on the "come!" command. While she has done it well when on a 5' leash when she is in the house she has shown a tendency to sometimes run away from me or Claven when called. Because Recall is such an important command we don't want any grey area where "come!" is concerned.
We used a 20' leash to give her the opportunity to make a mistake with Recall. On a 5 footer she doesn't really hav much of anywhere to go but to come forward when called. The 20 footer gives her a chance to run away or bounce around. And that is just what she did at first. But with the long line she is doing well at learning that she needs to listen even when other opportunities present themselves.
Tomorrow we are polishing her new moves and taking her video and glamour shots. On Saturday she is heading on home!