Maci is coming right along. Her on-leash obedience has all been introduced and we are working on getting her reliable enough with her come command to take her leash off. Her walks and exercise happen on a 30' leash right now to give her lots of mistake making potential but her obedience work outs still happen on a 6' leash. Her Come command and her Down command are still a little sloppy and in everything she does she can get really squirrelly and overwhelmed if she feels like she is making a mistake. Even if she isn't being strongly corrected if she becomes unsure of herself she forgets what the right answer is and needs some encouragement to find it.
This is important because it tells us that she is a very easy dog to over-correct since her feelings are easily hurt. But with some encouragement and building up of her confidence she is a fast learner and a pretty good worker. I hope to have her off-leash by the weekend even if her advanced obedience isn't great without a leash on I'd like to at leash be able to do off-leash walks and recall work (come command).
For now she is snoozing in her crate while the doodle who is also here sings us the song of her people. I've only heard Maci bark once or twice so far while she's been here but she is getting less and less shy so hopefully we can work on her being overly vocal soon. Overall Maci is doing great.

I adore Great Danes. They are just the sweetest, dopiest, happiest little students I ever get. They aren't exactly creatures of grace or dignity but they enjoy training and always make me laugh. Plus seeing as Great Danes are massive animals training is a must. Maci is a bright young Great Dane girl who is here for two weeks of obedience training. She is impulsive, sweet, and funny but she needs to learn some self restraint seeing as she doesn't realize there's a whole back end she has to control as well.
Today we kept things simple. I introduced her to a pinch collar (Titan, size small) and we worked on Heel with an Autosit, Sit and Down. Her leash manners improved almost instantly but her sit and down are still mild arguments. Mostly she just isn't sure what I'm after. She knows the word "sit" but doesn't quite get why I want her to do it so often an so I got blown off a few times today. All in all though, she did really well. She is buddies with Ace and Sophie but my other boarder, Bella, isn't a huge fan of how Maci plays and so they don't interact much.
Tomorrow we are pushing the basics some more and also working on not being a complete buffalo in the house. She actually did pretty well inside today but she was also on her best behavior because she isn't quite sure how strict I am. She'll come out of her shell a little more in the coming days I'm sure. For now she is snoozing in her kennel and resting up for more training tomorrow.

Dottie is getting better and better with each day. She is matching speed, avoiding walking in front of her handler and instead passes behind (a member of her household has an elevated trip and fall risk so this is important), she quiets down inside nicely and she comes when called. 
Tomorrow we are going to see if we can extend her time on Placemat to over an hour in one sitting. She has been polite in the house but today she made her first really rude mistake and ate a piece of food (bit of peanut butter sandwich my toddler discarded) off the coffee table. So we are going to test her around food distractions a little more just to help break any thieving habits she has. She has so far been good around food but it has mostly been out of her reach. This bit of sandwich was left at nose level and so I think the temptation was suddenly too great. Luckily she has never even tried to take food out of the kids' hands. 
Dottie is almost done and she is showing it. She seems very comfortable with all aspects of her training at this point.

I would consider Dottie to be in the "proofing" stage of her training now. She knows her commands. There isn't anything else that I need to teach her but now we have a week to lay the foundation of this being her way of life. Instead of "practicing" with her she will now be expected to be obedient all day because it is her job. She will need to Heel past distractions when on walks, hold a Down/Stay in the house or in the garden when I need her parked, stay on Placemat during meal times, Sit to wait at doorways and stairwells and wait for direction before going in or out. I will be strict with her so that she understands the rules and then her owners will be able to adjust her training to fit their lifestyle as needed, with my support. She is still want I would consider to be advanced for how long she has been here but she is not yet quite where I would want her to be for going home. She knows the words and she is responsive to commands but I want slightly better staying power and I expect she is going to start bucking the training a little when she has other plans so I will hopefully get some backtalk from her and be able to prepare her owners to handle it when she gets a bit of that cattle dog attitude going. But she is such a happy worker that I don't really expect the backtalk to be a huge issue once she understands the right answers and her owners know how to communicate their direction to her clearly. She is a smarty pants and she knows it.

8 days in and Dottie is making steady progress. She had her first workouts without a leash on at all today on only relying on her remote collar to correct her. She did well! Her Heel got a little sloppy and she kept trying to see if I would let her slink to the right side. But she stopped and sat when I stopped and did not walk in front of me. She also matched my speed nicely even if I walked very slowly. She lays down nicely on command now except for always trying to lay down on my shoes. Her Implied Stay is improving but still not quite where I'd like it to be. She has become a very polite house guest and she is very pleasant to have around.
Tomorrow I am going to really push her walking without a leash on and also going to push her staying power on Placemat and in a Down/Stay. She is a total love sponge and is enjoying the work a lot. She fits right in as a little farm dog so this weekend or early next week I hope to get her into town and walk her in a more urban environment to test her around distractions she is likely to come upon when she goes home.
For now she is chewing on a nylabone in her kennel and I am getting ready to potty her one last time tonight.

Gonna leave just a quick note because the kids are struggling with bed time tonight. Dottie is doing great. She is becoming more and more responsive with each passing day. She is nice and sensitive to her collar and her obedience continues to improve. She still struggles with Implied Stay some times and she still needs reminders for Heel but her leash is loose much of the time. Overall she is making great progress and she is working hard.

What a fun day for little Dottie. We introduced her to her remote trainer and let her spend a lot of time tearing around the farm practicing the Come command over and over. She had a great time finally getting to stretch her legs. She was polite to the chickens, mostly because our rooster terrifies her, and she only woofed at the horses a little bit. She mostly wanted to run with Ace. We had a very positive and fun first day on the remote collar and we mostly focused on it being a very happy and light hearted thing but tomorrow we focus on the real work. Yes it is fun to wear our collar but also it means we have to be responsive and sensitive to commands even when we aren't wearing a leash. We won't be doing her obedience without a leash quite yet but tomorrow we will be starting the process of not needing the leash anymore. She is doing great and is actually a little ahead of where I thought she would be by now so that's a great thing.
For now she is snoozing soundly in her kennel after a long day of play and sprinting around the farm. Tomorrow I expect her to be even more tuckered out after playing hard AND working hard.

Sweet Dottie is doing fine. She did good work today and is Autositting nicely most of the time now. She argues with me about Down still and she tries to pop up out of her Implied Stay quite a bit now. She doesn't want to be left out of any adventures but she is trying hard to stay put. 
Tomorrow is Sunday and so I won't be posting a blog but she will get some light workouts done and probably some house time with my kiddos in the evening. I hope to introduce her to her remote collar soon and get her moving to off leash but she isn't quite there yet. She will be a happy camper once we move her to off-leash and she can romp and play and run around. For now all her exercise is happening on leash and playing with Ace in the house.
She is a bright girl and I am having a lot of fun training her.

Dottie's training started yesterday. She is a sweet little cattle dog mix who needs to learn advanced obedience in order to be a better family dog since she has a TON of energy but also a ton of brain power.
Yesterday we laid the foundation for the basics. We started Heel/Autosit, Implied Stay and Down. She needed some correcting and some guidance but she eventually was doing all the commands pretty well. She is an impulsive girl and so the Implied Stay is hard for her but she is learning.
Today is my busy lesson day so most of her work is going take place in the afternoon/evening but she has settled in well. She has made friends with Ace and they played for over an hour last night! I am excited to get her on a remote so that she can enjoy some real running time and actually tucker out a little. 
This will be a fun couple weeks with this girl. She enjoys work and she enjoys praise so this shouldn't be a difficult teaching project but teaching her to restrain herself and to stay calm when excited is going to be the real trick.