Tomorrow we are going to spend a lot of time on house manners, door manners, place mat, and long line training. Should be a busy day for both of us!
What a busy weekend it has been out here on the farm. Today Felix did well. We worked on all of his obedience but did not introduce anything new. We did do an entire workout on a slackline, which is a 6 foot line kept intentionally loose. This gives him ample opportunity to make a mistake while still preserving my ability to correct him if I need to. He did well other than getting distracted by something he wanted to dig for in the ground and he lunged at the cat. But he kept well with me and did not make too many mistakes. Tomorrow we are going to make the line 10-20 feet long and see how he does. Monday is always a good work day for me and the boarders because it is technically a "week end" day for me and so I have no lessons competing for my time.
Tomorrow we are going to spend a lot of time on house manners, door manners, place mat, and long line training. Should be a busy day for both of us!
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Saturdays are a busy day for me. They are the most popular day for Evaluations and Demonstrations, Puppy Preschool, and lessons. Sometimes a perfect storm takes place and everything that -can- happen on a Saturday does! That was today. From early in the morning until around 4:30 I was in consults, lessons, followups, or puppy preschool. In the time I had left over I gobbled some lunch and worked the boarders as much as I could.
Felix did well with his obedience today. We introduced Sit from a Down and will introduce Placemat tonight (YAY!). We had no back talking and no pouting or whining. My husband, Claven, took him on a nice long walk today for exercise and he has done great with most strangers he has met so far. One of the reasons he is here is that he is highly reactive to strangers and other animals. He has been able to walk with other leashed dogs and work around the kitty without acting overly agitated. I have been correcting him for inappropriate behaviors such as staring, lunging, barking (or chirping, yodeling, screaming), and because I have not allowed him to escalate to an overly agitated state he has been controllable around other animals. When it comes to strange people he is sometimes defensive at first. He was not fussed about my mom but he is suspicious of my dad. An interesting thing happened with my sister when she came over. She arrived early to the house and so Felix was still out in the house with me when she came to the door. She entered through the front door and greeted Felix with a "Hello! Who are you?" and Felix stared at her then barked very loudly and would not stop barking until I clapped my hands and said "NO!" loudly. Once I told him "No" he stopped barking and moved away. While his reaction to my sister was not appropriate it was not what is popularly called "red zone aggressive." He did not bite, he did not try to bite (and he easily could have) but instead barked and gave her a very clear warning that he was uncomfortable with her. I was able to step in and correct him for his barking and my sister was able to enter the house unmolested. This tells me that he isn't really out for blood. He acts scary and that is what he wants. He has learned that by barking and growling the people who make him nervous go away (my sister certainly wasn't going to call his bluff). It isn't appropriate but it can be fixed if his owners are firm and confident in their leadership for him. If he has confidence in his owners to protect him and the house he will not feel that it is -his- job to protect the house and the pack. He is not a dog that wants to dominate people. That much has become clear while training him. He just needs his handler to be clear and decisive with him in order to keep him under control and appropriate. Bubba Lee is so funny! Watching him play with our Am. Staff., Ace, is a stitch. He is a pretty submissive guy! He respects Kylie's personal space and doesn't try to pick any arguments with her. His obedience is going great. We did Down from the front and at the handler's (me!) left side today. He seemed to understand after he stopped trying to shake hands. Bubba did back talk a little bit over Heel today so we didn't get to Placemat today but it is okay! It is only day 2! Back talking means he was pawing me, or nibbling the leash when I made him go in a direction he didn't want to go in. It was easy to correct and he stopped pretty quickly. He wanted to go investigate the kitties and so objected to my insisting we go the other way. However because of his happy-go-lucky nature he was happy to go with me after just a couple corrections. Tomorrow we are just going to keep working on the basics and fixing up his big dog manners. Felix did well today. We introduced Down and the Impied Stay with the Down. He did pretty well but kept trying to pop up when I was directly behind him. He just wanted to keep looking at me but we corrected him anyway to encourage his understanding that no matter where his handler goes he needs to stay put. He was more polite with the Come command and his Heel is pretty effortless. Autosit is still only so so but he is getting there. Not bad for day 2! Both boarders are not going to have a very exciting evening I will be celebrating my mom's birthday with my family. But they have peanut butter Kong toys to play with if they get bored. Tomorrow we are pushing his obedience even more and introducing Place Mat if his Autositting improves. Bubba Lee is such a dapper fellow. He is a large Bully Breed dog who likely has some American Bulldog in him. He has almost a perfect tuxedo coat and is a very striking boy. Bubba is here for 7 days of obedience training. He was adopted from Prairie Paws Animal Shelter in Ottawa, KS after being in the shelter system for months. His new family is very dedicated to him and have not only given him a good home but have allowed him to flourish into a beautiful specimen that any fan of bully breeds would admire.
One of the reasons he was in the shelter system for so long is that he is huge and he is strong and he has no idea that he can pull someone over or knock them down. He is an energetic, young dog who has very little self restraint. After today it is clear to me that this goofball with a heart of gold is craving some discipline. We put him on a prong collar because he is so big he just doesn't notice a correction on a slip chain. As soon as the collar was appropriately fitted he immediately started focusing on and listening to me. We made some very good progress today, especially for day 1. We started out with Heel/Autosit and he seemed to get it right away. My guess is that someone somewhere taught him leash manners. He walked nicely next to me with the leash loose and did not pull or lung forward. He even started Autositting after a few minutes. We also introduced the Implied Stay. Implied Stay means that when we tell him to sit or lay down he will remain seated or down until he is told to do something else. After a few corrections he got it and I was able to walk all the way around him. I am very impressed with how quickly he is catching on. He seems to really enjoy the work and the praise he gets when he does a good job. Tomorrow we will introduce Down, and Recall (the Come command) and we will push the skills he learned today a bit harder. He is being a very good boy! Felix is such a special guy. He is an adult bully breed dog and his owners are dedicated to helping him overcome his reactivity to strangers and other dogs. He is here for 10 days of obedience training and some redirecting when he reacts inappropriately to someone.
When it comes to his obedience he had a very normal first day. We introduced Heel/Autosit, Implied Stay, and Come. He gets Heel and he walks very nicely on a leash. When another dog is around he will lunge but he is very easy to correct back into a Heel if he is wearing an appropriately fitted prong collar. He doesn't get Autosit yet. He will sit when told to but it is not automatic. He kind of gets Implied Stay but really would rather bounce after you. Recall (Come) is a bit of a mess. He definitely goes in the right direction but he typically takes a flying leap into your chest. We are working on fixing this with praise and discipline to make it worth it to him to sit nicely when he gets to me. Right now he is rewarding himself with the fun of body-slamming his trainer. However, we must remember that it IS only day 1. Behaviorwise he is doing better than expected. When his people left he was very defensive. We (my husband who helps me walk and exercise the dogs, and I) decided that instead of making him feel cornered in his kennel and trying to leash him while he felt loomed over we would let him into the large training room and allow him to come to us. It was a risk because he could have gone into attack mode so we waited for him to calm down before we let him out. When we let him out he explored the training room but would bark at us with defensive body language if we approached him or talked to him. My husband and I sat down quietly and waited for him to approach us. After about 7 minutes of barking, sniffing, and exploring Felix seemed to decide my husband was an okay guy and went over to say hello. He let me leash him and we took a walk, after that my husband and I were in the "Felix Club" and he has been very friendly ever since. Dogs are another story. We have been able to walk him with Bubba Lee the other dog here for training but Felix will go from walking nicely to lunging at Bubba with very little warning. Felix might not get to the point that he can be trusted with off leash play time but he is already improving on leash walks. Tomorrow we are working on everything we learned today and we are introducing Down and possibly Place Mat. Overall he is right where I like them for day 2 or even 3! |
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