Gino is doing great. We have been working hard at bettering his confidence and calming him when his anxiety flares. He has done very well out here and enjoys the company of the dogs and cat. I think with his foundation firmed up a bit this week he should be able to look to his owners to know the right thing to do when he gets worried.
I plan to work on some harder obedience tomorrow just to work his brain a little before he goes home and practice Placemat with someone walking into the house. He isn’t protective of my property though so it might not work. Either way we will address his door charging and get him greeting people a little more calmly. He is working so hard.

Well tomorrow is my friend Charlie’s last day here. He has come a long way with his commands. He is such a happy guy I can’t wait to get him back for his remote collar training.
He now walks on leash like a champ, comes when called (though he was always pretty good about that), lays down on command and stays put as best he can. He tries so hard to stay but if he thinks there’s fun to be had he still makes mistakes. Same with Placemat. He knows the rules, tries to follow, but still gets it wrong sometimes and wants to join the room. But he is still so young he just needs practice and high expectations and he will grow into his brakes just fine.
I am going to miss his big sweet smile. He is such a good boy!

Gino the Corso is back! He is here for a refresher and some confidence building. I am excited to see him again. So far I have been very impressed with how well he has retained his commands. He is skittish of other dogs but he has become fast friends with both Dana and my other boarder, Charlie. It is heartening to see he can make dog friends. He usually tries to avoid them at all costs.
Tomorrow I hope to challenge him a little more with his obedience. Have him work around other dogs and animals. This will hopefully be a straight forward week for Gino but come back for more updates. He is a sweet natured guy and fun to work with.

Charlie is just about the most charming puppy ever. A very young and bouncy Bernese Mountain Dog, he is here for one week of obedience training. He will return at a later date for off-leash “finishing school” but for now we plan to give him the basics this week.
So far Charlie has mastered Heel/Autosit, Implied Stay (he likes staying) and Come with a Sit. He and I are having a slight disagreement on Down. He loves laying down so long as I hadn’t just told him to do so. But he is getting better!
Charlie has also mastered his kennel latch! He has the distinction of being the second dog to figure out how to unlatch his door. He is a little put out that I have put an extra snap on so he can’t do it anymore. I am certain the first time he did it was an accident and he was very happy to continue his trick. He didn’t get into any trouble other than eating the kitty food so he gets an extra good boy for that.

I can tell this is going to be a fun week with Charlie. Stay tuned!

Charlie is just about the most charming puppy I've ever met. A very young Bernese Mountain Dog he is here for one week of obedience training. We plan to bring him back when he is a little more mature for his off-leash finishing school.
Charlie has already gotten very good at Heel/Autosit, Come, Implied Stay (he loves not moving), and we are working very hard on Down. He likes to lay down only when not told to. When I ask him to he becomes very opinionated and playful about the whole idea.
Charlie has also distinguished himself as the second dog to find out how to open his kennel door. I think he discovered this by accident but now he definitely does it on purpose. I had to pull out my extra snaps to keep his latch shut tight. He is a smart cookie in a very fluffy, silly package. He definitely has us laughing all day. Welcome Charlie!

Blu is exactly where I want a dog at the beginning of their second week. Possibly even a little ahead. His informal off-leash is stellar. His formal off-leash obedience is strong but needs cleaning up. His responsiveness has improved and his self restraint is tons better.
The cat joined us on our walk to the high pasture and he lived in polite indifference to her the entire time. I had to vibrate his collar once when she was doing that thing that cats do where they lay down for no reason and he trotted towards her with a little too much interest and then he remembered he doesn’t do that anymore and went on to pester Dana instead.
This week I want to refine his formal obedience a little more and just get him as good as I can before he goes back to his people.

I think it is safe to say that the foundation is pretty well set for Blue. I am ready to start putting him on a long line and asking more of his obedience. He is a little slow sometimes, to do a command but he almost always gets it done. I insist that they at least get on their way to complying within 4 seconds of hearing or seeing a command. His Come command is nice and solid. He doesn't like Down but he'll do it if you insist. I had a little too much success with diverting him from the cat and now he refuses to be in the same room as her so I need to work on rolling that back a little. Blue definitely is an all or nothing kind of bloke but that actually lends itself to this kind of intensive training so we'll use it to our advantage.
I plan to give him a bit of an easy morning with a leisure walk and some play time before working him a bit harder in the afternoon on the long line. Giving them 30' of mistake making potential is always an interesting day. We'll see if he even blinks!

Tide (or Tide Pod as Teresa has taken to calling him) has come such a long way. When you first look at him he is still this spring loaded, goofy guy and that's true! But he also really enjoys training and praise and working hard. He puts his own spin on all of the commands. When you ask him to Heel he sort of prances and plays with your hand. When he Sits he sits and then celebrates the sit for as long as you let him. When you ask him to lay down he spins to the ground and then pounces on the grass and gives you this look begging you to play. His parking brake has never been stellar but this is probably where the most marked improvement has been this week. He stayed on his mat today for a full hour with only one mistake that only required my verbal correction and he put himself back. 
It's practice, practice, practice, for the next two days and then he gets to go home and show his people how he can be obedient and still be full throttle Tide. 

Blue is here! Riggs’ litter mate is a different dog up and down. He is here for two weeks of off-leash obedience and also some attitude adjustment for an inflated ego. So far Blue has been a fun guy to have around. His confidence is not a bad thing but my goal is to adjust him from just brazenly making decisions to asking for direction from his handler first then confidently performing what was asked of him.
So far he has already gotten to enjoy some off-leash play time but his commands aren’t fully introduced yet. We will be getting all of his commands formally introduced tomorrow then the real work begins. This is a sharp fellow and I feel like his time here will be a lot of fun.

Tide has come leaps and bounds in his training over the weekend. He has transitioned to his remote collar and is getting better and better with his obedience. He is still a smart alec and no amount of training could ever diminish his sense of humor but who would ever want to do that.
His main job this week is to simply continue improving and gaining experience. He has been tons of fun so far.