Marise is coming along great. More than anything her confidence level is what holds her back. She is nervous about getting the answer right and then stresses when she gets it wrong but her confidence is slowly improving. She knows her commands. She just isn’t convinced she does. With practice and patience and kindness she will get better and better. When she is on point and not being a chicken her obedience looks great.
Our goal is to just keep building her self esteem over the next few days with lots of structure and encouragement. She is a smart cookie!

Keelah is doing great. She is so cute doing her obedience. She tries very hard. She sometimes needs a bit of a correction when she is distracted by other animals but her self restraint is getting better everyday. She does well on Placemat with a bone and so long as the ground isn’t too wet or cold she does great with Down.
She will need her pinch collar for a while after she goes home but we should be able to graduate her from it eventually as this becomes her way of life. Keelah is right where I want her for day 5.

Keelah is coming right along! As the snow melts she has been much happier to get work done outside and she has gotten good at Heel and she auto sits most of the time. Down is fine with just a little coaxing and her Implied Stay is better than I expect at this stage. Her Come command is comical in an explosive and playful way but at least she is exploding in the right direction. We’ll work on the dignity part later.
As we continue to develope her obedience skills we are also trying to work on her self restraint. I’m enjoying exposing her to new distractions daily. Tomorrow I hope the chickens come out more so we can work around them.
So far Keelah has been a satisfying student and an enthusiasic but hilarious house guest. She is such a fun girl.

Marise is doing great. We are almost done with her formal training and then we get to spend a few days proofing things and making sure she is solid around distractions. She is still needing practice but verbal corrections are something she is very sensitive to and so she is easy to correct. Her bigger problem is self punishment. When she gets an answer wrong she tends to crumple herself and act in trouble so it takes some building up to get her moving again. I typically ignore her when she gets like this and encourage her to get back up and get an answer right and then I can praise her and she feels better.
​She is right where I want her to be right now if not a little ahead!

Sweet and spunky Keelah is here for a week of basic obedience and some socialization training. She is a classic pit which means she has zero impulse control and if something excites her she lets that excitement explode. But she is also a sweetie and she likes making friends. When she first got here she did a lot of "shit talk" with Marise, her kennel neighbor (this is when they bark aggressively through their kennel wall and it looks quite ferocious but it's almost always just a ton of bluff) but once I opened the kennel door to let her out with my two she immediately changed her tune. She got along well and was even a polite playmate with my guys. When she met Marise she also did well even though Marise was playing a little rougher than the other two. She makes dog friends easily but I also have a feeling she wouldn't shy away from a fight if another dog started it.
Today we mostly worked on loose leash walking. I tried to start Heel/Autosit but the snow made her so miserable I took pity on her and stopped after she sat the first couple times. She is definitely not an outdoor girl in the winter time. We will work inside as much as we can but some things we do has to happen outside. Sorry, Keelah! I have a feeling she will enjoy the fireplace hearth more than the snow drifts this week.

Well very little work got done on Sunday. I will work in almost all weather but I won't put dogs through a blizzard warning for the sake of obedience. So we spent our day cozy inside while the world outside turned white. 
Today Marise had a TON of fun in the snow and we also had our first remote collar work outs. She transitioned pretty well but she also didn't make many mistakes and so we didn't get a ton of practice with the corrections. While it's fantastic she didn't make many mistakes it's important that we get a good feeling for what sort of remote corrections work for her so I hope we get some more time to troubleshoot tomorrow.
One mistake she did make was that instead of sitting when we stopping in the Heel she would flop to the ground and stick her face, gleefully, in the snow. It was so cute how delighted she was by it that I didn't want to correct her for being so happy. But I did encourage her back up to a sit after her little snow celebrations and that worked well. She sure did make me laugh today.

Marise is coming right along and tomorrow we are going to introduce her to her remote collar. She is ready for off leash practice even though she is still very unsure of the Down command. She will do it but is often scared she isn't getting the answer right and freezes.
She has been doing better with going to the bathroom while wearing a tether but she still really doesn't like it. I'm sure her remote collar will help her be more comfortable with her potty breaks.
She is really coming out of her shell today and yesterday. She is playing and bouncing more and soliciting attention but new people are still difficult for her at first. But she made a new friend in my mom tonight and she warmed up quickly. 
Overall her obedience is going great (just trying to clean up that Down command and give her more confidence in general) and she is enjoying the work. Perfect shepherd!

Marise is coming right along. She is a little fearful of me and so we are taking it a little slow but we've introduced Heel/Autosit, Implied Stay, Come and Down. Down she toils with without help but once she is down her Implied Stay is pretty good. I think we will be able to introduce her to her new collar soon but not before the weekend.
One interesting thing is that she has absolutely refused to go to the bathroom while wearing a leash. She had a few accidents in her kennel, which we really try to avoid and so now we let her use the pen in the side yard for now. It's a curious thing and it's happened before that a dog refused to go to the bathroom while on a tether. I hope once she relaxes she has an easier time going potty on a leash but if not she will be on her remote soon enough.
She is a smart and VERY sensitive girl so she is learning fast. Tomorrow we're gonna do a little bit of work in the morning before I go into town for the afternoon and then she will get some house time in the afternoon but for the bulk of the day she will get a bit of a break to relax and work on her bone. She's such a good girl.

Marise is a shy but beautiful German Shepherd female who is here for 2 weeks of advanced obedience training. Her owner knows she will be a powerful dog and a smart one too so we are being preemptive instead of waiting for bad behaviors to develop. Shepherds are always satisfying to work with and so I am looking forward to getting to know this girl better.
Today we took it easy and worked on loose leash walking and settling our nerves a little. She met the other resident dogs here and all was peaceful even though we did some showboating at first.
She has been very wary of the kids so we are taking that slowly for now but she hasn’t been unfriendly.
Tomorrow we are going to introduce her first obedience commands and get the ball rolling. It should be a fun couple weeks! Welcome Marise!

Sweet little Ashley goes home tomorrow. She has made a lot of progress in her walking but she is still a very scared and nervous little girl. She needs to build on good experiences while walking and not be allowed to just skitter wherever she goes. She knows commands and has a vocabulary but getting her to stop and think instead of panic is the real trick. Honestly I wish I had more time with her but since I am going out of town it’s the plan to continue working with Ashley during weekly lessons at home. I know she can make more progress. She is just a pooch that takes a little more time and consideration because of how shy she is.