Olivia had her first off-leash workout today with no fence. She was a little excited and chaotic st first but soon she remembered her job. She was a little sloppy but I know she will clean up with practice.
She also enjoyed some off-leash, no fence, play time today as well at the Farm and she was very cute hopping around. She came when she was called each time and only needed a reprimand once for not coming all the way back when called (she got distracted and needed a vibration reminder of what she was supposed to be doing).
I’m happy with how today went. We are going to work off-leash again tomorrow and continue to increase distractions for her.
She is doing well with her house breaking and hasn’t had an accident since her second day here. She is kenneling well and sleeps all night without whining or needing to go out.

We have had a difficult time keeping our internet connected this weekend so I am keeping the blog short tonight.
Olivia has had a few really good workouts on her remote collar. She is adapting well to it and I think we will be able to take her leash off tomorrow when we work at the farm.
This weekend we have really pushed the Stay command. She held a Down Stay while I was in the yard talking to a neighbor and she held Placemat for about an hour in the house. She is doing well and I am looking forward to seeing how she does at the farm with some real freedom. She had a fun weekend.

Olivia had an interesting day. She started out with a very good morning workout and then she seems to have stubbed her toe while playing in the yard (she and Ace ran into a pile of sticks while running with one of Ace’s toys together) and she was a little sore on her paw. So we let her take much of the day off to make sure she wasn’t sore while we worked. This evening we had her first workout on her remote collar. She is sensitive to it and is not frightened by it but she was a little more easily startled by things like passing cars etc so I do think the collar made her nervous at first.
She responded well to the low level corrections and she solicited praise when she got the answer right (which was more often than not). The big thing she is still toiling with and what I feel her people will want to really drive home when she returns to them is her Implied Stay. She really wants to pop right back up when she is distracted. We will work on this next week and see how well we can improve this. Part of it is because she is quite young still and so she is impulsive. But we can teach her better patience and get her on the track to being able to hold a down for a couple hours at least.
Tomorrow we work more with her remote and get ready to take the leash off early next week.

Olivia is making great progress. We have worked hard the last 4 days on her on-leash obedience and while she is not perfect she has made enough progress to introduce her remote collar tomorrow. This will change her correction and eventually give her more freedom. It will also give us a very simple and clear way to correct her for some behaviors that need cleaning up, like jumping up, and counter surfing.
We wont be removing her leash yet. But I hope to have her ready for that by early next week or even Sunday. She is moving along very smoothly and she is right on target for where we want her right now.
Right now she is chewing on a bone she found and sharing a bed with Ace in the living room. She is trying very hard to ignore the baby who is toddling around with a cookie. She has struggled with not taking food from her or snagging it when the kids put it down. But she has mostly been restraining herself. She is trying very hard and she wants to do the right thing. She is a very sweet girl.

Olivia did well today. We introduced Down at the handler’s side and Down while facing the handler. She picked up the idea quickly but really struggled with the Implied Stay in the Down. She wants to pop right back up as soon as she lays down. We will continue to work on this tomorrow and ask her to remain down for longer periods of time.
Her Heel, Autosit and Come are all coming along nicely and her Implied Stay in the sit is showing marked improvement. We are enjoying her company in the house and are working hard on teaching her not to steal food or jump up anymore. She is learning fast!

Olivia is a darling, petite, 6 month old lab mix with a great attitude who is here for 2 weeks of advanced training. She is friendly, out-going, and enthusiastic about praise and so I feel she will be a fast learner. She is also affectionate and sensitive and she can easily be affected by her handler’s mood.
Today we started her on the basics. Leash manners with Heel and Autosit which she picked up almost immediately, implied stay which was a little harder but she still caught on nice and fast, and Come which she really enjoyed but is not particularly graceful about yet.
​She is a funny girl and she enjoyed her training today. Tomorrow we start Down and Placemat as well as have our first longer walk in the neighborhood. I am looking forward to working with her over the next two weeks.

Piper has had a good couple days. Her obedience is pretty good though she is still a little enthusiastic about it and so sometimes makes mistakes. She struggles with sitting still and staying parked on her mat.
She is getting pretty good at going through doorways without putting the brakes on. She sometimes still needs a quick buzz from her collar (just a vibration) to light a fire under her pants if she is being stubborn but most of the time she goes through without any issue at all.
She still wears her muzzle around the kids but she is tolerating them better every day. She no longer needs a leash to be around them and she was okay with my one year old daughter gleefully running around with a spatula. She has not barked or growled at them since the first day but she would rather they not pet her (she moves away from them). I think she would probably still snap at them if they pushed her but she tolerates them being around her without too much anxiety.
Tomorrow we are taking her go-home video and continuing work on her obedience. She is making good progress.

Piper had a good day. We worked on her obedience. Down is getting better and her Implied Stay is pretty spot on. She is nervous walking in the neighborhood but her Heel was pretty good to begin with. Tomorrow we are going out to the farm to work on Come and and Placemat.
Today was also a big day for Piper because we introduced her to her basket muzzle. She spent a few hours out in the house with the kiddos and she didn't bark or growl at them at all. She was nervous about them and avoided them for the most part but she eventually fell asleep right next to Noah's (my three year old) chair and didn't mind him sitting next to her. We did not try to have the kids pat her today because she didn't want to do that yet but she was able to calmly be in the room with them without over reacting or being in appropriate.
This will be a daily exercise for Piper. She needs to get used to her muzzle and in doing so she will bet to spend time with the children in a way that is safe for everyone and not stressful. We are working on giving her correct answers. She doesn't know what to do right now around children and we are teaching her what to do. She might not ever love children. If we can teach her to be safe for them. She did well today for sure.

Piper is a special dog. She is here for one week of training. We will refresh her basics that she already has but we will also work on some nipping issues she has and some obsessive behaviors (she doesn't like wheels).
Today we introduced her to her remote collar and started some very basic work. She made friends with the dogs here and we worked on not barking at the children (and she definitely barked) through a gate. She won't be able to be in the same room with them without a leash on for a while because the children are very young and so we need to make sure things are as safe as possible. But we also need to make sure Piper knows what to do so we aren't just correcting her and pushing her into a more anxious state.
Tomorrow we are going to push her obedience even more and work on indoor manners so that we can give her some direction when things upset her. So far she has been a polite guest and a quick study. She also enjoyed herding the chickens gently from the garden to the yard. She had some method of organizing them that I never quite figured out but she seemed to have fun.