Well, Molly goes home tomorrow. I am very pleased with her progress. She is still a huge wigglebutt but her attention span is a bit better and her focus is sharper. She isn't a robot dog and she never will be. She knows her commands and does try very hard to make good decisions. Sometimes she makes mistakes but she is easily corrected and corrections do not confuse or hurt her. 
We took a walk downtown tonight and she did really well. She started out completely overwhelmed and not knowing what to do but after a couple corrections she understood that the rules hadn't changed and she heeled nicely. It was difficult for her not to reach for strangers when they passed but she did okay with little reminders here and there. She even made friends with a nice college student who missed her dog. Molly showed off by not jumping but sitting politely (bottom wiggling, of course) while getting petted. On our way back to the car we passed a group of about 10 people with 4 or 5 dogs with them and Molly looked but did not break her Heel. I was very impressed considering a spaniel passed well within sniffing distance and it was wearing a jingle bell sweater. 
I really looked to this little field trip as a final test. She can walk downtown on a busy Thursday night and not make a fool of herself and I did not have to hold her back from pulling the entire time. She also has stayed on her Placemat for over 2 hours without a mistake. If I gave grades Molly would definitely get an A. I will miss her but she will be beyond thrilled to be with her family again. She has had fun this week but she is a house dog through and through and won't miss her kennel one bit.

Little miss Sophie goes home tomorrow. She has made a ton of progress and had proven what a little smartypants she really is. I will be interested to see how she does once she is back with her brother. They tend to be partners in crime, though Sophie is usually the instigator, I think. The goal now, for her owner and I, is to transition Sophie smoothly back home without creating an environment for back sliding.
The big thing for Sophie is going to be being very strict about her barking. She has been pretty quiet the past few days, even down town. I will encourage her owner to stay on top of this and use her collar to correct Sophie from barking inappropriately. 
I am very pleased with Sophie's obedience. She is a little superstar. Her owner has high expectations of her which is exactly what Sophie needs. She will take advantage of someone who either doesn't know or won't enforce the rules. But with a firm but affectionate handler who is quick to praise and strict with the rules she is very responsive. She is not defiant by nature, more she is a little absent minded and also stubborn. But she is also a little goofball and such a lovebug that she is easy to praise and she is happy to work if it means we will celebrate with her. 
I will miss this little pug. So will Ace. He has become a bit attached to his little pug friend. But I know that little Sophie is sick of her kennel and she will be more than happy to get home to her mom and brother. Good job, Sophie!

Sophie is almost ready to go home. She has come a long way this week. She has made some good buddies and has become quite social. She even went on a walk today with a husky, a malamute, and a terrier that she has never met before and only barked once when she first saw them. After that we walked up and down Mass. Street without any barking at all. In fact, she was heeling, auto-sitting, and even went down without a problem. She has been toiling with Down because it has been so cold and yucky out but inside she does well. She has so far been able to stay on Placemat for an hour without making a mistake. 
We have been experimenting with a remote trainer for Sophie. She has done well the few times we have used one and will be ready to make that transition whenever or if ever her owner decides to do that. The biggest difference is seen with the Come command. She has gotten better about recall overall while she has been here but she is a bit sharper and a bit quicker when she feels the pager vibration when she is called. She is less likely to drag her feet. 
Tomorrow we are going to work on off-leash recall some more trying to get it as sharp as we can before she goes home. So far the hardest part is when another dog is out so that it what we are going to focus on. We are going to make sure to get plenty of practice without the remote trainer on so that her owner can practice at home without a remote if she wants to. 
We are also going to take Sophie's go-home video and photo for the yearbook page tomorrow. I think her mom will be pleased with the progress Sophie has made this week when she goes home on Friday. I am certainly proud of her.

Molly had her best day yet today. She had a few flawless workouts and a lot of fun bouncing around the garden. I had hoped to take her for a hike in the woods but the weather kept the trails much too soggy for any good hiking. We played in the garden instead and enjoyed a big game of hike and seek in the grape vines. 
As I mentioned, her obedience was stellar today. The only times she got in trouble was when she was celebrating too much after getting a right answer and she would wiggle too much. She likes to celebrate when she gets the answer right and she requires a little bit of patience sometimes when she is just so very happy. I hope to get her into town tomorrow in order to practice walking in crowded areas. 
Tomorrow is day 7 for little Molly which means that it is time to take her go-home video and her glamour shot for the yearbook page on the website. It is hard to believe it has already been a week but she goes home on Friday to show her family how smart she is. 

Sophie is such a good little girl. When she is on she is on and she gets all of her commands. But when her focus is lost it can be very difficult to get it back. We worked on Come today in the fenced Garden and she got it right about half the time. One quarter of the time she got it mostly right (she would come to me but instead of sitting she would hop around or jump up) and the other quarter of the time she would just flat out ignore me. When she would ignore me I would walk to her, put her leash back on, and correct her back to where she was supposed to come to me in the first place. 
She is at the point now where, if a shock collar were going to be introduced, it would be the perfect time to do so. Sometimes the an electronic collar, like the Dogtra IQ can help fix a dog that is slow to come when called. 
Her other commands are going well. She toils a little with Place but in the short time she has been here it has begun improving. Tomorrow my morning is booked solid so Sophie will get to lounge around until the afternoon when one of two things will happen. I will either take her into town to work on her barking at strangers or I will bring her into the house to work on Place until she can hold it there for an hour. We will see how the day plays out. For now Sophie is paling around with her buddy, Molly, and pulling all of Ace's toys into the living room. 

Little Miss Molly is moving right along. She has now been introduced to all of her commands except for Placemat (heel, sit, down, stay, come). She is doing well but she is SO wiggly and happy. She is definitely all puppy. We worked on Stay today and she was able to hold a Down/Stay for almost 4 minutes. After 4 minutes she started oozing across the ground and she ended up on my shoes with a rapidly wagging tail. We will continue building her self-restraint but more than anything a little bit of growing up will remedy this. 
Molly is pretty shy of other dogs but she has made a couple buddies while staying here. She adores Ace and she pals around with Sophie the pug. Kylie, the Akita, is still too intimidating to play with and Ted, the mix, has no time for puppies. Sometimes if the pack's play gets too rowdy she comes over and sits by me until it calms down. Right now she is play-bowing at the Pug and trying to tease a sleepy Ace out of his bed for some bouncing.
Tomorrow my morning is booked solid so after their morning walk the boarders will get a bit of a break. After my appointments are done it is right back to work for Molly and in the evening we plan to start Placemat. Go, Molly, Go!

Sophie is doing great. She is such a sweet little girl. Today we mostly reviewed the obedience we have already worked on. She still toils with Down sometimes and doesn't want to stay down. Her Come command is really quite good and her Heel is okay though she sometimes hops to the right side which is against the rules. Her Implied Stay with the sit is pretty solid though it is sometimes hard for her to stay put. 
Tomorrow we are going to work around more distractions and start pushing her a little harder. Much to my surprise, Sophie hasn't barked once since she arrived here. Not even at the other dogs! I am working in some time this week to take her into town to walk on Massachusetts street to see if we can work on her barking at strangers. 
There won't be a blog tomorrow so check in on Monday for the next update on Sophie. 

Wiggle wiggle wiggle! Molly is such a happy girl! She was struggling with Heel but finally got it late today. She isn't perfect (it is, after all, only day two) but she is starting to finally understand what it is I am asking her to do. She is sitting automatically now, though she usually wiggles so much that she ends up facing me with a big doodle grin on her face as if to say "look! I got the answer right! Time for pets?" 
We also introduced Down and Stay today. Down is so-so. She seems to have an idea already of what it means but she has no concept of Implied Stay. Once she goes down she pops back up and is ready to play today. We spent 30 minutes today working on staying down once down. Her attention span is basically nonexistent so part of my job this week will be helping her learn how to focus.
Tomorrow we are going to push her new commands a little further and hopefully it will be dry enough for a hike in the woods. If not we will exercise on the road but that isn't as fun. She is doing great right now and we are really enjoying her. 
There won't be a blog tomorrow so look to Monday for Molly's next update.

Sophie is a little Pug princess who I have had the pleasure of training in weekly lessons already. She already knows most of her commands and is here for some fine tuning and some behavior modification. She is a big mouth who likes to bark at other dogs and people, especially when joined by her brother. 
She is here for seven days and it is my goal to spend much of that time exposing her to other dogs and to busy in-town scenarios. She is very attached to her brother and so I hope to get her to gain some independence from him this week since they are not going to be staying together.
Tomorrow we are going to do a quick refresher of all of her obedience she knows so far and we are going to take a little hike in the woods for some sniffing and unwinding. 
I am looking forward to spending the week with this little girl. I always enjoy working with Pugs and she and I already have a bit of a rapport going. Welcome Sophie!

Today we welcomed Molly, a sweet natured Labradoodle mix to the farm. She is a little on the timid side but mostly she is a classic bouncy puppy. Today we did not do much but introduce her to a slip chain collar and practiced walking on a leash without pulling. She already knows Sit and she loves showing that off. 
Molly has settled in nicely and I am looking forward to working with her more on her on-leash obedience over the next 7 days. Tomorrow we are going to introduce some more commands, most likely Sit, Implied Stay and Come. We will also take a little hike in the woods to get some sniffing done if it isn't too muddy. 
The big obstacle for this girl is going to be her short attention span. I can also tell she is going to be the kind of goofball to try to tease me into playing instead of getting some work done. It is important that we don't get too heavy handed with her. We don't want to frighten her or over correct to the point that she doesn't enjoy the training anymore, but we do also need to make sure that she is complying with commands and isn't getting away with shenanigans just because she is a little darling wigglebutt. Good luck, Molly!