Things are moving right along for Sully. His on-leash obedience is pretty good. He still bucks the Down command a little but he's getting better each day. A new dog is arriving tomorrow and so we'll see how quickly he relaxes around this new element or if he goes right back to panic mode. This dog that is arriving for a few days of boarding is a dog I know very well and he is pretty steady and non-combative and so he will be a good "stranger dog" to practice with for Sully.
This next week will mean a lot of pushing Sully's obedience and distraction level and trying to get him around as many strange dogs as my schedule will allow. He's working hard and it's showing. He still gets bossy in play but he is playing with Finn every day and that is a positive thing for sure. Finn is coming right along. He is doing all his obedience with a loose leash and needing little guidance except for occasional corrections and some help with the Down command. I wanted to introduce him to his remote collar but it was delayed and just arrived tonight. So tomorrow is the big day for his remote introduction.
His Implied Stay and self-restraint in general is getting much better. It's far from perfect but you can tell he understands what is expected of him now and that's half the battle. Today was a little boring for Finn. The weather meant he was inside most of the day and didn't get much outside playtime. I'm hoping to be able to let him really enjoy a good run around once he is introduce to his remote but he has to show me his recall won't suffer with the leash being off so it might be Saturday before we let him properly off leash. For now Finn is snoozing on the cold floor in the kitchen but we're about to go do our last chance bathroom break before it's kennel time for the night. I'm really pleased with how he's doing so far! Sully is doing great. His obedience is coming right along even though he is NOT a fan of laying down in the rain. He now has been introduced to all of his commands and we're just working on increasing his distraction level and making things more difficult.
Sully spent all day in the house with three other dogs. No lunging, no snapping, no sour behavior at all. He even has a friend! He played a little bit with Finn though he didn't like it when the other dogs tried to join the game. But he has been peaceful and relaxed all day, even when Dana visited him while he was drinking water. One thing I've noticed- if the other dogs are outside with him he will not go to the bathroom. He can't relax. I'm trying to keep a balance of forcing him to work through this fear of other dogs and allowing him to go to the bathroom a few times a day without being scared. His biological needs need to be met but also it's important he be able to potty around other dogs sometimes without having a fit. Tomorrow hopefully the weather improves and we get to spend more time outside. I'm afraid he was pretty bored today with all the rain! Finn made good progress today! His implied stay is still hard for him but I was able to walk in a circle around him in the sit today. He still toils with staying put during a down but he did much better today than yesterday. His responsiveness to all his commands is at the point that I think he is ready to introduce the remote collar but still use his pinch collar to follow up if he gets confused.
Finn is trying really hard and his joy for praise makes him really fun to work with. But we need to make sure his enthusiasm for being praised doesn’t translate to him being too goofy to hold a command for long. But so far he has been a very polite house guest. Tomorrow we are pushing his obedience harder. I want to start his come command on a long line today to start grooming him for off-leash obedience. I am likely not going to be posting a blog tomorrow as plans I have in the evening may keep me out later than usual but he will for sure have an update on Thursday. He’s doing great! Sully had a long day today. On the outside it didn’t look like much. We continued work on his obedience and he made steady progress. I’m pleased with how little he lunged today though he was still nervous on leash around the other dogs. But the real work happened in the house. He spent a good few hours today in the house with the other dogs. No out bursts other than snapping for personal space a little at Dana who for some reason would not leave him alone. He struggled to settle but he spend the last 45 minutes laying down without pacing or obsessing about the other dogs. I’m hoping we can get him to the point that he can play a little bit we’ll see. So far he has not needed a muzzle and that’s a promising thing. He isn’t an aggressive dog by nature so hopefully his rehab continues to go well.
Tomorrow I likely won’t be able to post a blog (because I’m taking an unprecedented night off) and so look to Thursday for Sully’s next update. So far so good! Finn is a delightful Golden Doodle who looks like a sort of russet Gandalf. But underneath his very dignified beard is a doofy sweetheart who really hopes you'll rub his ears. He is here for two weeks of advanced obedience training with a remote collar to help curb some impolite manners he has picked up and give him a bigger vocabulary between him and his owners.
Finn is a dog who really really wants to get the right answer. He is a love sponge and he wants praise so he is fairly easy to direct. But he has very little in the way of self restraint. He gets praise and immediately thinks he is done. So my big goal for the next couple days is to get him to hold his commands and not just lay down and immediately pop back up again, for example. I plan to do this slowly so that he doesn't lose his enthusiasm for working but so that the staying put is just as fun for him as the action in the command. He isn't a hyper guy and so he isn't difficult to control, he just has the cutest little attention span that gets maxed out really easily. Today we introduced Heel/Autosit, Come and Down and all of those commands still need an Implied Stay so that's our agenda tomorrow. For now he is snoozing in his kennel after what I'm sure was an exhausting day. Sully is a bright and friendly Soft Coated Wheaton Terrier. He is here for 1 week of basic obedience training and to try to address some dog-to-dog aggression. He is very reactive and he will easily get himself into a situation that is too big for him. He likes to throw punches but there isn't any real power behind it so he mostly just acts very frantic. My bigger, even tempered dogs don't really know what to do with him. Ace just ignores him even if he jumps on him and Dana will just body check him (spin her hips into him and send him flying) and walk away. He is still trying to pick fights every now and then but there have been no dust ups so far. Dana REALLY scared him when she ran up to us during his potty break but once he made it clear that he didn't like her gregarious greeting she walked off and found Ace to play with.
Sully's obedience work today was pretty clean! He heeled up just fine and he tolerated walking with the big dogs with quiet aplomb after his initial cussing. He would get corrected every time he lunged or barked and soon he settled in. I am certain he would be more difficult to calm down if the other dog were reacting to him too but this was a good first day. Tomorrow we are working on Implied Stay, Come, and Down with his obedience and he is going to get some off-leash socialization time with my dogs to practice being calm around calm dogs. He will only get attention from me when he is acting calm and under control and he won't get any positive feedback for acting anxious, scared, or for cussing (growing under his breath or growling) or lunging at other dogs. |
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