Sweet Henry had another good day today. We are prepping him to go home this weekend and so we are pushing distractions and trying to get him stamina up (his attention span is still a little small).
He tries really hard, bless him, but he is still a puppy and very much the class clown. We had a good off-leash workout in town today with no leash and no fence. But we had to get him into working mode first. He really really really wanted to collect sticks instead of do his commands so we ran through them first on a leash then he was ready for a good 10 minutes of hard practice. On our walks he is pleasant and rarely pulls. In a Heel he does well. In a leisure walk he gets distracted with puppy business but he is easy to get back.
Tomorrow we are doing some farm work before he goes home on Saturday and we are going to make sure to get some play time in for good measure. He is a spunky guy and has been a lot of fun these past two weeks.

Well my friend Toby goes home tomorrow. He has done such a good job this week. He really tries hard to get the answer right. His owner will have the job of encouraging him and giving fair corrections when he makes mistakes. But Toby isn't a defiant dog and he enjoys praise so he is an easy dog to work with. Obedience needs to be his way of life though to keep him from back sliding to old habits. He needs to be asked to do things throughout the day not just during "practice time."
I am going to miss Toby. He fits in well here and he has been a very calm and polite house guest. Such a good boy!

Henry had such a fun day. We went out to the farm and he got a nice long romp off-leash in the meadow with Ace. He really enjoyed stretching his legs and chasing bunnies. We then had an off-leash workout and it was decent. He was a little sloppy, being unaccustomed to not wearing a tether he needed some reminders of where he needed to be. But he did well with all of his commands. I am very pleased with how he did on his first big off-leash day. He needs practice and encouragement but he is showing that his foundation is pretty solid.
Tonight we had a goal of 1.5 hours on his Placemat and once he was parked he did okay. He wanted to play at first but as soon as he settled in he did fine. Giving him a toy definitely makes Placemat time go by faster.

Toby had a weird day. He did so well on almost everything during his off-leash workouts but for some reason he was very squirrelly about Implied Stay. He wanted to stay right on my feet the entire time. He hasn't struggled with Implied Stay since the beginning of his training so I wonder if this is because of the abrupt weather change we had or if something else is making him a little anxious. Either way we will be working on this some more tomorrow. Hopefully it is just a weird day but worst case scenario we will take a workout and reteach Implied Stay.
Toby has been on his Placemat for about an hour (no issue with his Implied Stay here once he is parked) and other than trying to catch a fly that is buzzing around he has been quite relaxed tonight.

Henry is doing great. We had our first off-leash workouts today and he was a little hot and cold about it at first but figured out the rules quickly. He tried a few times to bounce away to play instead of work and he would sometimes go to the door instead of to me when given a Come command.
He is very silly and playful and so our biggest hurtle is to simply keep him in working mode. It is very easy to distract him since he has such a hunting dog nose. I imagine keeping him on task will be something his owners also have to work on when he returns home.
Soon tonight it will be his turn to practice Placemat. This is a big exercise in self restraint for him since his dog friends are out and around while he is on Placemat. He gets a little bored but that's not necessarily a bad thing. For an impulsive guy it's good for him to learn that a little boredom isn't the end of the world. Patience is a virtue and we will see how patient we can help him get.

Toby is still a star student. He has had a few off-leash work outs and the only mistake he consistently makes is laying down when he is supposed to be sitting. But he corrects easily. Today he tried to Heel on the right instead of the left and it took a little extra guidance to get him to stick to the left.
Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be a little glum so we may replace one of his outside workouts with an indoor one.
Right now he is relaxing on Placemat while I get some office work done and he is being a very quiet and polite house dog.
He is moving right along and we are working to increase his distractions and making things a little tougher for him. He is doing a great job.

Henry is sooo close to being ready for off-leash. He is still a little bit impulsive but we had good loose-leash workouts today. Tomorrow we will put him on a long line and give him 20 feet of mistake making potential. Once he is doing well on the long line we will give him a go off-leash. He tries really hard but he is still such a puppy and so he wants to play with literally everything.
His obedience is going really well. He takes a stronger correction than some dogs because he is such a buffalo but he loves praise and he enjoys doing his commands. He struggles with Implied Stay a little bit. He wants to stay right in the middle of the action.
I still think he will be ready for off-leash by Monday and tomorrow we will continue to work (and play) towards that goal.

Toby had a fun day. He went to the farm for most of the day and we had a fun off-leash. We focused on recall and let him explore his new freedom. We took his friend Ace with us to encourage him to play. I am happy to report that Toby did wonderfully. We didn't do a lot of formal obedience instead we mostly let him romp and get some exercise while we practiced the Come command and we did a little bit of Sit and Down. He really enjoyed the farm and I am looking forward to pushing him a little harder and doing his formal obedience without a leash on. This was a very happy day for Toby and it was the first step to his off-leash obedience skills.

My internet has blinked out a few times tonight while I've been trying to get blogs posted so I am going to keep things short tonight. Henry is doing fine. He was my helper dog today and came to some lessons to be a distraction for my weekly dogs. He did great though did need reminders if the other dog was also playful. He also got some off-leash play time (no training yet) at the farm and hat a great time pestering Angela the Cat and pretending to swim in the water bowl. Such a funny, smart boy.

Our internet is being spotty and this is my third attempt at posting the blog tonight so I am going to keep it short. Toby is doing great. We are starting him on his long line tomorrow and possibly giving him his first off-leash work out. He is a star student.