Henry is in the full proofing stage. He has had a successful walk downtown, he does well off-leash, he knows his words and is responsive. what he needs now is for these things to become his way of life and that requires his folks to have high expectations of his behavior and obedience and help him to reach those expectations.
In the house he has become a polite and easy to live with fellow. Occaisional reminders not to rough-house or get too nosy in the kitchen. But mostly he has settled well into the daily life of the house here. He has been able to stay on Place for 1.5 hours without incident in a relatively calm environment. He struggles to stay on Place of the house is lively but that will get better with time.
I am pleased with how far Henry has come. He is still Henry and his sense of humor and energy are not gone at all. But he is easier to instruct now and we can harness that energy into constructive solutions for his behavior.

Keeping things short today because my Internet is being spotty.
Henry did great today. Has a fun walk off-leash at the farm and he tried hard to hold a Down/Stay while I watered the garden. He needed one or two reminders of what he was supposed to be doing but overall did fine.
His obedience is getting better each day. And tonight we are going to try to get up to an hour and a half on Place in a low distraction setting. Mostly he struggles with Placemat when people are moving around because he is desperate to not get left out of any adventure.
Tomorrow is another work day. I think it is our best bet to get him walked downtown so I am going to try that in the evening when it is cooler.

Henry had a fine day today. Both his outdoor and indoor workouts went without any real issues. He got distracted by a smell on our walk and needed a correction and he also had to stop and stare at my neighbor who was taking his garbage out. But he only needed a vibration tap to get him back on task.
He still has slightly "bad brakes" when in the Heel. He walks fine but when I stop it takes him a couple more steps to realize that I have stopped and then he sits down once he has caught on. I think this is mostly due to him being in Henryland and less to him being defiant because he requires no correction. I plan to start tapping him as soon as he takes one step too many to see if I can sure him up a little.

Inside he is doing pretty well. He is learning to hold a Down and to not be into everyone's business throughout the day. Our daughter loves him so she tempts him with affection and whatever snack she is carrying around. Our son is indifferent so Henry has sort of lost interest in him. But holding a Down and not springing to action when someone walks across the kitchen has been a tough skill for Henry to grasp so I am proud that he is making progress here.

Tomorrow we are at the farm again doing Placemat while I do some office work and then we are taking time for some off-leash hopefully before it gets blisteringly hot out.

One week into Henry's training and we are making terrific progress. He is off-leash at the farm completely and we are close to not needing one in town. Though for high distraction settings I would not expect perfection from him in a week he is doing well with giving me his focus back after he gets distracted.
He is excited about his freedom and that leads him to sometimes charge ahead though he is easily turned back. Mostly he just needs practice and experience. This coming week is all about proofing and getting him as much experience as I can. He enjoys the work even though he gets pouty and whiny if he isn't getting his way.
I hope that this week will include walking on Mass., walking around strange dogs, walking next to a stroller without being a fool, and performing his obedience in town without a leash on or a fence. That will depend on reigning in his distraction level but if next week goes as well as this week I think we can certainly get him there. Then all his folks have to do is make it his way of life. This should be a fun week I just hope the heat isn't too terrible.

Keeping the blog short tonight because the kids are being pistols. Another decent day for Henry. I am conditioning him towards removing his leash by using a 20' long line. His Heelwork is getting better though he still likes to be about a shoulders width too far ahead.
As soon as his recall is reliable enough we will be removing his leash and really enjoying some freedom.
Tomorrow we will be doing more line work out at the farm.

Big day for my pal Henry. We started conditioning him to his remote collar today. He wore his collar all day and we started using it to communicate with him. We are not ready to take the leash off but we started using the remote to replace leash pops and cues. He took to the collar pretty easily and did not seem overly confused (some confusion is to be expected on the first day. But the leash was used to guide him to reassure him of the right answer etc).
He showed no signs of backsliding on his obedience because we switched to his remote. So I am confident that he will transition smoothly. I think we will start long line work tomorrow or Saturday and hopefully get him off the leash by early next week. Long line work is simply using a light weight cord about 20' long instead of a leash to give him maximum mistake potential without endangering him by removing the leash to early.
All in all, a great day for Henry.

Short blog tonight as the kids took longer than usual to get to bed. Henry is doing well. He continues to make progress on all of his obedience and he is becoming more responsive every day. We are going to introduce him to his remote collar tomorrow and I am looking forward to really ramping up his training once he is conditioned to the collar. I think the remote will get him to really turn many of the little behaviors that he exhibits that are difficult to fix with leash corrections. He is an excellent candidate for remote collar work so this should be fun. And luckily the heat should relax tomorrow so we can get more work done during the day instead of late at night.
All in all I am very pleased with his progress so far. Nothing but good things to say.

Man oh man today was a scorcher. Henry had a workout in the morning and then we had to keep it to very short trips outside until after 10pm. We had a nice long walk and workout after dark when I felt it was humane to work him again. During the day we spent a lot of time in the house practicing Down Stay, Come and general house manners. All of his obedience is going well. He is a fast walker so getting him to Heel without me either slightly holding him back or trotting to keep up with him was the big order for today. We played a lot with our speed and giving him lots of leash to make mistakes with so he could learn it was his job to stay near me. He is getting better and made a lot of progress in just one day!
Another hot one tomorrow so likely working in the morning and late at night again but Thursday and Friday should be cooler so I hope to get him out to the farm then.

Henry is a big, healthy boy who is here for 2 weeks of advanced obedience training. He has a ton of lab/shepherd energy and so we want to harness that energy and give him a job to do. So far at home it has been sort of the Henry Show and he greets every possible distraction with enthusiasm. His sweet nature will make him fun to train and once we tap into his work ethic he will really start enjoying his new jobs.
Today we jumped right in and started the basics. Heel/Autosit, Implied Stay, Down and Come were all introduced. He knew Heel and Implied Stay a little bit already. He got Come half right since he ran to me but then neglected to stop. We will work on his brakes this week for sure. Down he seems to sort of know but he is not confident that he knows exactly what to do. So he needs just some affirmation there that laying down is the right hog to do.
His remote collar is in the mail and I hope to introduce it by late this week. I am a little worried that the heat advisory will eat into our work time so we may end up doing the bulk of his work quite early or rather late in the day.
He has settled in nicely and is getting along with everyone except for our old grouch, Ted, who doesn't like wrestling. Henry and Ace had a great time in the yard today. For now Henry is relaxing in the kitchen (cold floor) enjoying a pilfered toy from Ace's many stashes.
I am looking forward to this time with Henry. He seems like he will be a satisfying dog to work with.