Holy cow, what a day Wally had! It actually started off boring for the little guy. I had a charity walk that kept me in town until around 4:30 so he was crated for a good chunk of the day. When I got home we had some house time and practiced place mat. Once he is on his mat he is pretty good about staying there but we still need to work on getting onto his mat on command and without any help.
Around 6:00 we went on an evening walk and I decided to try using the Dogtra without a physical leash also attached to him. As one of his issues is bolting I have waited to try this. He did extremely well. We worked formal obedience for the first half of the walk and then I would give him an "Okay!" and let him wander and sniff and potty on his own. When he got around 20 yards ahead of us I would page him using the vibration setting on his collar and have him come back to us. Pretty soon he was staying within that radius and recalling like a champ. His only issue with recall is that he is still celebrating a bit too much and jumps up on my legs before planting his butt on the ground. For now I am not correcting too harshly for this as it is more important that he is coming back to me so well.
Couldn't have asked for a better walk. Soon we are going to be taking a field trip into town to test these new skills out in an urban setting with city distractions (we will have the leash ON for this at first so that we can establish that curbs are to be avoided.)
Wally made me a happy trainer today.

Today was productive. We started with a low key workout/walk in the morning and he did very well on heel/auto sit, down, and recall. His implied stay still needs work when there are big distractions around.
Later this afternoon we worked in the X Pen and for some reason Wally was feeling really argumentative about the Down command. We got into our first real "down battle" and he tried EVERYTHING to keep from laying down. He ran away, he jumped up, he stood up, he looked sad, he ignored me and looked off into space, and only after trying everything under the sun would he grudgingly lower himself. We worked for around 20 minutes on Down-at-the-front and as soon as he did it perfectly right when I asked him to we went back inside.
Between the two workouts we had him in the house for some work inside. I would put him into a stay in one room and call him into another.
Then we relaxed and had some indoor down time which he seemed to enjoy.
Tomorrow we are working on "placemat" some more and we are also going to keep working the obedience.

Tonight as I sat down to write today's blog, I found yesterday's post in drafts. I must have neglected to post it properly. Anyway, Day 2 happened yesterday.  Here's what we did today:
We took the work outside today and had a few really good workouts outside. The leash won't be coming off for another day or so but for now he is doing extremely well on-leash.
His down is 80% reliable at the side and he is I'd say more than half-way there on down from the front. He gets confused sometimes but he is getting it. Recall is still a bit too much fun for him to do properly but he is still coming right to me and celebrating. We will work on cleaning this up tomorrow. His implied stay is going fine. We are battling a considerably small attention span and a large sense of humor so the goofball doesn't always remember he is supposed to stay but he has a great time in the forgetting.
He was introduced to his placemat today and he keeps going back and forth between being afraid to tread on it and not wanting to leave it once he is there. Still needs some practice.
He had a fun play session today with two big dogs and a toy poodle so he was pretty well tuckered by the end of the afternoon.
So far he has been eating well so I am not too concerned that he didn't eat his dinner tonight. Most likely he will be extra hungry tomorrow
Tomorrow I have no lessons in town so all day is dedicated to Wally work.

While yesterday was day 1 for this little guy, today was the first day of real training. Yesterday we had 2 workouts and a little walk to refresh what he already knows. Mostly we spent yesterday getting him settled in and comfortable. He has been very quiet in his kennel and eating well. Being agitated in the kennel and having a lack of appetite are usually the first two signs of kennel stress I see, so I am very glad to see how well he is settling in. One big adventure Wally had yesterday was meeting Hoadie, the donkey. This little guy must be a city slicker because he froze with eyes the size of dinner plates when Hoadie started following us down the fence line. We stopped for a minute or two just to look at Hoadie and fully take him in.
Today we started training in earnest and he did very well. His heel/auto sit is spectacular (thanks to the hard work the owners put in before the B&T) and his recall is alright. He always comes right to me but he only sits properly around 30% of the time. The rest of the time he takes a flying leap into my legs. His Down-at-the-side is another item he is only around 30% accurate on. He has gone down with no help or correction 3 times, but the other times he seems genuinely confused. We are going to start over at the beginning with this tomorrow like we did today and see where we get. I am pretty sure we will still be encouraging him along on the Down for another day or two.
Tomorrow we are going to learn "Place mat" which will soon mean bringing him into the house for some household distractions in the shape of other dogs, people, and food. We are also going to start work on the "motion" commands where I give a Sit or Down (it will be Sit tomorrow) command while I am moving past him instead of stopping next to him.
He is doing very well on the Dogtra IQ and has only needed a very low level stimulation nick for correction when he gets a little too excited. So far he has been a trooper and has become a fast friend to Kylie the Akita who always enjoys playing with the little guys.

Today was what one might call Baxter's final exam. We took a little field trip to Massachusetts street for a walk. We walke from South Park over to 7th street and back. He got lots of compliments and admiration while doing a jaunty heel/autosit. I think he really enjoyed showin off a little. He also got barked at by a dog in a car and had strangers reach for him. The only time he needed to be redirected with some corrections was when he really wanted to investigate a young man's toes.
After down town we went to Pet World and walked through the entire store. He stayed with me the entire time even while we passes parrots and rabbits. There were even some guinea pigs having their cage cleaned and so they were caged right at his eye-level. He sulked and looked but he didn't step out of a heel. I had him hold a down while I pretended to shop up and down an isle and other than sitting up twice he did not move. I eventually got him to hold that down nicely enough to meander up and down the isle. We were about to leave when BAM two German Shepherds were face to face with us. Baxter wiggled and pulled once but never barked and after the correction say next to me and let them pass.
An employee at the store complimented Baxter on his behavior and after the car ride home Baxter slept for 3 hours.
Now we are going outside to try to clean up his off leash a little more before he goes home tomorrow.

What a day this little guy had! At 10:00am we had a completely off leash lesson outside and he did very well. Other than needing to be restarted a couple of times he did everything perfectly. Needing to be restarted simply means we would be in a heel and he would just stop walking. Either he would hear something or he would anticipate me asking him to do something and he would stop. A little pat on the leg got him going again. We didn't have any bolting or back talking. Very smooth lesson.
Later we went indoors for some "bed" practice and he did fine with that.
During a little thunderstorm we went outside for another workout. You'd be surprised how many dogs forget everything when the weather is bad. We did a tether lesson where I had the leash on my ankle so we would work outside of a fence without risking a bolting catastrophe but I would not be using the leash unless a correction was needed. This was his best lesson of the day. Usually during a tether lesson he will scoot behind me or try to go to the right. This time he stuck to my left side and did wonderfully.
Tomorrow we are heading into town for some practice with walking with urban distractions.

Today Baxter was being extremely pokey. It was a challenge to keep him walking with me instead of lagging behind. We kept the afternoon lesson a little short. Not sure if it was the weather or just a pinky mood but we will let him rest up today and kind of take it easy. Most likely, later on tonight he will be ready for our play session and then his "bed" exercise.
Last night he spent over an hour on his bed with other dogs milling around, the TV on, and 5 people eating dinner around him on the couches. Tonight I plan to eat dinner on the floor next to him while he is on his "bed" command but last night we had no begging, thievery, or whining. We did however, have some pouting.
He knows what he needs to know now. We are proofing the off leash with the long line and are going to take him into town to put everything to the test. Overall, he is doing very well.

We said good bye to our buddy Dane today. He was thrilled to see his mom but did a very good job during his first lesson.
Will miss the little guy but am looking forward to continuing to work with his mom and him on his scent detection ambitions!
Good job, Dane!

Yesterday (day 5) became pretty busy in the afternoon and so I was unable to make a blog entry but training went so well I have to talk about it. We had an indoor off leash lesson and it went extremely well. He did scoot off once but after some redirecting he was back at my side and heeling like a champ. He worked around treats strewn about, toys, other dogs (one being a strange dog he didn't know) and he was able to focus and keep up with me. Recall was a little difficult for him because he had to ignore the treats on the floor but other than a quick sneaky sniff he came all the way across the room while ignoring them.
Today we are working outside on a long-line again and we will work at least once indoors off-leash.
Baxter is going to have the training room to himself after today as Dane is picked up this afternoon. But don't worry, he won't be lonely. Some of his training is going to move into the house-proper as we work on the "bed" command and being polite while people are eating near him.

Well we are nearing the end of our time with Dane and so our goal is to REALLY start pushing the distractions. Treats and toys and his friends Ted and Kylie on place mats on the floor of the training room and outside we are going to have strange dogs working at the same time as him and maybe we will even have a visit from one of the barn cats!
It is yucky outside today so we kept the outdoor workout short today. Maybe we will head out again later if it dries up soon. But if it doesn't we will work hard on his "Place" command which is really what is giving him some trouble right now. He isn't being defiant as much as he is struggling with his doggie ADD. While working on it yesterday he got down-trodden and pouty after only 15 minutes of working on "Place" because he kept getting into trouble. We are hoping for a little bit longer today.
We got a good jog next to the bicycle yesterday and he very quickly got the hang of not ever passing in front of the bike and always staying a safe distance while not being at the end of the leash. I may even risk saying that he was a little tuckered out afterwords.
As we wrap things up with Dane I look forward to handing the leash over to his mother but I know I will miss the excitement and sass he brings to the tra