Well today's the day! The pups are going to get one or two more workouts with me today before they get to be reunited with their people. After some hugs, kisses and some butt wiggles we are going to jump right into the first follow-up lesson. Maddie will likely need to stay on the hot collar when off leash outdoors because of her severe bolting problem. This is not something that can be fixed in a few days but she has already made progress. With a hot collar on she no longer tries to bolt at all but we want to keep the hot collar on her for a little while longer to make sure the habit is broken and then we will need to ween her off of the collar in case she has become "collar wise."
The follow up lessons will be on leash at first then we will transition to off leash when the owners feel confident in their ability to give commands, praise, and corrections well and consistently.
The dogs seem to know this is a special day. They have been anxious and talkative all morning. Might video the reunion. 10 days is a long time to be away from family and I don't know who will be happier and more wiggly, the people or the dogs!
Good job, Maddie and Gordie!
They now both know the following commands:
Heel/autosit
Implied
Down at the side
Down from the front
Sit at the side
Sit from the front
Recall
Stay
Place mat
They know these things on leash and off leash (Maddie needs a hot collar when off leash outdoors for now).

We are on the home stretch! Workouts have moved outdoors (when it is cool enough) and leashes are slowly coming off. It was decided that the smoothest transition to off leash for Maddie would include using an electronic collar and she is doing fantastically with it. She has a very bad bolting problem and so the Dogtra 280 NCP is the perfect tool to curb this long established habit.
Gordie is struggling a bit with off leash but because of how sensitive he is we are going to keep him on his chain collar instead of using an electronic collar. He does not have as pronounced a bolting problem as Maddie does so hopefully with lots of encouragement and well timed correction he will get there soon.
We are sending off a DNA test for Gordie soon to see what kind of mix he is. These tests are so much fun! I always recommend them to my mixed breed dog-parents.

Gordie and Maddie are having a great time! They have settled into their routine very nicely and are enjoying all the work I have for them.
Maddie is starting the baby steps for off leash and Gordie will be ready to start that tomorrow.
Gordie now knows:
Heel/autosit
Implied stay
Down at the side
Down from the front
Come
Sit in motion

Maddie now knows:
Heel/autosit
Implied stay
Down at the side
Down from the front
Come
Sit in motion
Down in motion
and she has started her off leash exercises!

The dogs are learning to politely meet and greet other dogs

Gordie- Young adult Border Collie mix. MN
Maddie- Adult rottweile
The dog's spent the night in the their crates in the training room last night and were quiet all night. We have had 4 workouts today and our exercise walks. Not surprised they are napping right now!
Here is what Gordie did today!
Heel and Autosit intro (he is around 85% reliable on this already!)
Down at the side intro (he is finds this extremely confusing)
Implied stay intro (he is around 45% reliable on this already! Will pivot on his rump in order to gaze at me some more.)
Recall intro (he is around 65% reliable on this already!)
Gordie also enjoyed a 30 minute exercise walk.

Here is what Maddie did today!
Heel and Autosit intro (she is around 90% reliable on this but gets wiggly if overpraised.)
Down at the side intro (she is around 75% reliable to lay down, she is a wigglebutt and so does not always end up where she is supposed to but there is plenty of time to clean this up).
Implied stay intro (she is only 40% reliable so far but hey, it is hard to sit still when we are so happy!)
Recall intro (she is around 45% reliable and has a bad habit of running into the legs of her handler.)
Maddie enjoyed a 20 minute exercise walk today. We would have walked longer but her foot started hurting her (old injury) and so we turned back early.

Tomorrow the goal is to clean up these items and to hopefully introduce down from the front, sit from a down, and maybe even some motion commands!
They are doing so-so with their anxiety with other dogs. So far, no temper tantrums towards Kylie who watches everything from her placemat and who comes on the walks with us.
Gordie has a tendency to become melancholy during training so tomorrow we are going to do whatever we can to keep him upbeat, even if it means funny voices and little parties.

They are finally here! Free State K-9 is proud to offer Board and Train services. This new training option is for obedience training only. Behavior modification will still have to happen in-home. You can select on-leash or off-leash packages and your dog will be trained in approximately 5-10 days! It is less work for you and Free State K-9 guarantees the training!
Pricing and details to be posted next week. We are already booked for the rest of July but we are taking August appointments.