Her obedience is pretty darn good. I know she will enjoy showing off for her family. She is still young but the key for Truly is that we must have high expectations of her. She will be the dog you expect her to be so if you don't expect her to be stellar then she won't be. She will happily be the poorly behaved dog if you don't expect better of her. But she has shown me this week that she can rise to whatever heights you set for her and match them easily. As I said, very bright dog. I will miss her friendly greetings and sweet nature but she is ready to be home and to not need to share the attention with 3 other dogs! Good girl, Truly! Keep up the good work.
Tomorrow marks the last day here for sweet Truly. I must say that I continue to be impressed with how quickly she picks up new rules and commands. She is a very bright girl who also, in her good nature and sense of humor, will likely always be a little spirited. She learns extremely quickly but she doesn't always want to listen. But with patience and firm handling (she will walk all over you if she thinks she can "cute" her way out of trouble) she is an absolute delight.
Her obedience is pretty darn good. I know she will enjoy showing off for her family. She is still young but the key for Truly is that we must have high expectations of her. She will be the dog you expect her to be so if you don't expect her to be stellar then she won't be. She will happily be the poorly behaved dog if you don't expect better of her. But she has shown me this week that she can rise to whatever heights you set for her and match them easily. As I said, very bright dog. I will miss her friendly greetings and sweet nature but she is ready to be home and to not need to share the attention with 3 other dogs! Good girl, Truly! Keep up the good work.
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Well my friend Peet goes home tomorrow. I am very proud of his progress these past two weeks. His reactivity on walks is way down and can easily be avoided entirely with well times reminders from the collar. His obedience is very nice. His Down is a little slow and pathetic looking (ever the drama dog) but he does it fine. The way to his heart is still that good ol' tennis ball.
Peet will be very happy to be home. He has only grudgingly stayed in his kennel. He will sleep very well I am sure once he is back inside where he belongs. I will miss him though. He has become quite the good buddy. Peet is a special boy and his owners are committed to him which is helpful in continuing to overcome his bad habits. I look forward to our follow-ups and seeing how much farther he can go. He has been a joy to work with. You're a good one, Peet! Keeping the blog short tonight as Noah is working on a pretty good head cold. Truly had a really great day today. Most of it was spending time out at the farm working completely off leash. She got to run and play but she came back immediately when called and paged. She also did very well with our formal workouts. Just once she needed a buzz for breaking the Heel command. She has a funny habit of sometimes trying to lay down on your shoes instead of sitting automatically when I stop but she hops back up with encouragement. I think she just wants to make sure we still know she is the cutest. Soon it will be time to take her go-home video and glamour picture for the website! Good girl, Truly!
Just a short post tonight. Noah has a cold and so is a little needy tonight.
Peet is doing great. We are fast approaching time to start thinking about taking his go-home video and I confident that he will do awesomely. We still have to fine-tune Placemat but over all he is a super star. Go Peet! Truly truly enjoyed the little break we took over the weekend (pardon the pun. We old english scholars find them hard to resist). She played fiercely with Ace and Peet and we went on some low key walks in the neighborhood.
Today, however, we dove right back into work and she really impressed me. She can work without a leash in moderate distraction. She isn't perfect. Being so young her attention span is still pretty nonexistent but she tries hard and was able to walk up and down the street with me, even past some chickens, without breaking her Heel. She does still sometimes have a lazy side poke through where she avoids work and feigns deafness but these little tantrums are becoming fewer and farther between. She is a very good puppy who is impulsive by nature. I am pleased that she is showing some good self restraint. Upon returning home her people will want to continue working towards her gaining more control by putting her into difficult situations (like eating with her near by and dropping some food or pretending to turn your back on some tasty morsel while cooking) and holding her accountable for her behavior. If she tries to steal or sneak away with something we must page her as a warning or correct her with the collar. Soon she will learn to wait until a treat is given to her. Insisting on good door manners is also a wonderful exercise in patience. Instead of letting her crash through a door or gate have her sit and wait until it is decided she should go through is a great lesson in self restraint. I am proud of this pup and am excited to continue her progress this week. After a fun weekend of relaxation and very little actual work, Peet seemed to be looking forward to some practice today. We went out to the farm today and worked entirely off-leash. He did pretty well even though he needed some reminders at first. He also showed some excellent responsiveness to the pager warning when he bolted at the mares. I did not need to use a shock at all to turn him around even though he was in full over-reaction mode. The vibration was enough to get his focus back.
We also used helpers to really practice his reactions to strangers. He does still growl but well timed reprimands from the collar keeps him from escalating past the grumbly stage. His obedience is looking fine. His Down command is comically slow but he is doing it. He is also a little pouty about Placemat. He would really rather be on the couch. But we have this week to fine tune things. He is really doing great. Today marks the halfway point for Truly and we are in a very good spot. Today she did the Down command without needed help, she is using the long line like a champ, and she is getting better about restraining herself.
The long line is a 20 foot leash that simulates being off-leash without the potential dangers of taking the leash off a dog who may not be quite ready. She is very close but not quite reliable enough for me to want to take the leash off entirely so the long line allows us to practice her obedience while she has 20 feet of mistake making potential. She is Heeling like a champ. She still has "bad breaks" when I stop and she walks a couple feet farther than me before she stops herself and sits. This isn't so much because of defiance as it is just some puppy absent-mindedness. This weekend she gets to take a break and relax a little but on Monday we are going to go to the farm and see how she does without any leash at all. Good job Truly! Peet is right where we want him for halfway through his training. He is having off-leash workouts in a fenced area and long-line workouts in the neighborhood. He still toils with Down a little but he is improving all the time.
He is doing very well with his reactivity to strangers as well. Today we passed children playing basketball in a driveway, a man working on his car, and a young man even came out of his house unexpectedly and Peet only needed a warning tap from the collar to keep him in line. He never barked once. We won't stop challenging him but he is showing us that he has the ability to restrain himself from escalating with support from his handler. This weekend he will get to relax a little and have some play time but Monday it is right back to work. We will be spending more time at the farm next week really working on removing the leash completely. I am very pleased with his progress so far. |
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