Goodness you guys, Riggs is HILARIOUS. I swear he spends most of his day cracking me up finding new ways to embellish his commands with little twists. He is nervous about his remote so he is only off-leash for play time. I want him to be a little more confident about his answers before we go full off-leash for his commands. But he hasn’t needed his prong collar for a day and a half.
Tomorrow I am going to take Riggs on a longer walk and have him do about 15 minutes of heel work in the middle of it. Sometimes short workouts are great for nervous dogs and sometimes a longer one is what helps smooth out those last little hiccups. He wants to get the answer right and that is the most important thing. He is right where I want him for the end of his first week!

Sweet Sansa goes home tomorrow. I am gonna miss her snuggles! She is one of the sweetest dispositions I’ve had in a long time. What comes with that territory is she is a big giant wimp about training. She knows her commands and when she feels confident she can do them really well! If she is nervous though her default is to lay down. Her owner’s big homework assignment will be to boost her confidence by warmly praising obedience ESPECIALLY when she is stressed while also insisting she do what was asked of her regardless of whatever thing Sansa has assigned a stressor to. She thrives on a calm handler who doesn’t get frustrated but who also doesn’t praise her anxiety. She also learned who she can manipulate into feeing sorry for her and she will lay those big brown hound eyes on THICK if she thinks it will be an advantage.
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Sansa and watching her enjoy her training.

Riggs is SO close to off-leash. He has been using a long line and a remote collar for about a day and a half. I think tomorrow he will get his first leash free work out. He has been working so hard and I am proud of him. He sometimes hits his limit and quits on me but he is easy to restart and then he will finish his work.
Tomorrow is probably going to be a low key day. Lots of play and lots if the come command just to get it through that that’s the best thing- to come back when called. The first off leash day is always a fun one! I’m sure it will be for this guy too.

Sansa is coming along nicely. She is a very nervous girl and that comes out in her training a little. Sometimes instead of just doing what was asked she has to wiggle and stress out and thus she slows everything down. With patience however she gets there and loves her praise in the end.
We are still really working on Implied Stay. She struggles a lot with being still and not wiggling back to my feet. But she just needs practice.
And Practice is the plan for tomorrow. She is a good little worker.
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If I had to describe Riggs’s personality I’d say he is a lot like his left ear. Floppy, soft, not much backbone. Riggs is a big ol goofball who is here for 2 weeks of remote collar training. He is a smart guy and a fun dog to work with. He has the classic Shepherd work ethic and so tapping into his willingness to please is no chore at all. But getting him to STAY focused (especially when the cat is around) is a bit more difficult.
Today we started him on a prong collar with Heel/Autosit, Come, Down and Implied Stay. The next few days will be dedicated to setting a foundation before we introduce his remote collar. So far he has been bright, funny and sweet. This will be a fun couple weeks.

Sansa is a sweet and young Coonhound mix who is here for a week of basic obedience. She is a soft natured girl and it is easy to over-correct her. She is, however, willing to please and she loves praise so her training should be fun.
Today we introduced her to a prong collar and we did Heel/Autosit, Implied Stay and Come. She sometimes wants to lie down instead of sit but otherwise she caught on quickly. Her prong collar was a big attitude changed for her. You could tell she really had no idea the person on the other end of the leash was trying to talk to her before the collar. She became much more manageable once we were able to tap in to her brain and get her to slow down enough to listen. She was happy to once we got her attention!
Tomorrow we will introduce her to the rest of her commands and if the weather permits we will go for a run. This will be a fun week with this softie.

Ernie is almost done! His off-leash obedience is getting pretty sharp. You have to stay on top of him around distractions but hey, he’s been doing this without a rope for 4 days so a little bit of goofiness comes with the territory. He toils a little with placemat if he can’t see his person anymore but he will get letter with practice. That’s sort of the ticket with Ernie. Anything you have him repeat he will remember and get better and better with. High expectations and good follow through is all he really needs to shine.
we will practice a bit more tomorrow and take his go-home video and then he will be sent home on Saturday to keep up the good work!

We are now in the clean up stage with Sailor. She is doing well off leash. She makes mistakes with her heelwork now and then but she is easy to correct back to your side. Her other obedience off leash is good and energetic as everything else she does. She is truly a happy camper so long as she is with a person.
Tomorrow we are just going to brush up her new skills, have lots of play time and placemat time and get her video taken for her go-home lesson on Saturday.

Sailor had SO much fun today. She got her first real taste of being off the leash here. I did a small amount of obedience, mostly heel, but my big focus was to teach her that coming back when called and even just checking in with her handler was the most fun thing ever. Lots of happy praise when she came when called (she came everywhere time!) and lots of celebrating when she just came back on her own to say hi.
She is still a wiggly fool but she has been trying very hard to not be too much around the kids and her self restraint is already growing with the help of the e-collar gently reminding her to think before she jumps. Tomorrow is more challenging obedience now that she knows how to be off-leash. She is doing very well!

Ernie had a blast today. He got to be off the leash all day and do some real running and bounding. We did a little bit of off-leash obedience but mostly we focused on the come command and just getting used to the collar. His obedience was pretty good. His heel work got pretty sloppy without a tether so we will work more on that tomorrow. He also did well at not jumping on the kids when they came outside to play during a work out. I’m very pleased with how he did today.