Today was day 1 for Piper. A young female Australian Shepherd. She has some basics down already. She knows what the word "sit" means and sometimes will lay down on command but she has no reliability. Her leash manners are more or less terrible. She jumps up on doors, and up on people, and has some basic puppy manners that need work but she is also very focused on people and loves affection. She will not be difficult to train.
On our first workout we did not use the electronic collar. I wanted to make sure she understood what the word "No" meant before using the Dogtra in order to minimize confusion. I used a slip chain to go over Heel/Autosit with her and also ran through some other commands to see how responsive she was. At first she threw what I might start officially calling the Aussie Hissy Fit. She had a bit of a tantrum and really fought the leash but after we made halfway down the driveway she started understanding that all I wanted was for her to walk next to me and she started to calm down. By the time we made it back up to the house she was Heel/Autositting nicely, she would lay down if there was not a big distraction around (like Angela the kitty) and her Implied Stay was okay.
Training for this girl will go fairly quickly. That is the joy of working with herding dogs. They have been bred to work closely with people and so it is her natural default to look to me for direction. If her owners can give her good direction she will be a fantastic home companion.
She made a good pal today in Bear. Bear is a mixed breed dog who also started today. They had a fantastic and very energetic play session today. She also met Ted (AKA Mr. Grumbles) who did not want to play. She tried to insist that he play by biting his leg and he told her off with his "big boy voice." He made himself very tall and gave a low growl and she melted into the floor and slunk away to play with Bear and Kylie some more. I think Ted will be good for her to learn that not all dogs want to play with her.
This evening we had some cuddle time in the house and she was a hit with the family. They were more than willing to help her work on not jumping up when greeted. By the second person she was getting much better. She definitely had some inner turmoil going on and had a fit of the wiggle bottoms but she was choosing to
Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a boring day for the boarders, I'm afraid. Or at least the first half will be. Saturday is my busiest day for lessons and so I will get up at the usual time to feed and walk them and then I am booked until around 3. The afternoon will be dedicated to working with them and getting their energy out.
On our first workout we did not use the electronic collar. I wanted to make sure she understood what the word "No" meant before using the Dogtra in order to minimize confusion. I used a slip chain to go over Heel/Autosit with her and also ran through some other commands to see how responsive she was. At first she threw what I might start officially calling the Aussie Hissy Fit. She had a bit of a tantrum and really fought the leash but after we made halfway down the driveway she started understanding that all I wanted was for her to walk next to me and she started to calm down. By the time we made it back up to the house she was Heel/Autositting nicely, she would lay down if there was not a big distraction around (like Angela the kitty) and her Implied Stay was okay.
Training for this girl will go fairly quickly. That is the joy of working with herding dogs. They have been bred to work closely with people and so it is her natural default to look to me for direction. If her owners can give her good direction she will be a fantastic home companion.
She made a good pal today in Bear. Bear is a mixed breed dog who also started today. They had a fantastic and very energetic play session today. She also met Ted (AKA Mr. Grumbles) who did not want to play. She tried to insist that he play by biting his leg and he told her off with his "big boy voice." He made himself very tall and gave a low growl and she melted into the floor and slunk away to play with Bear and Kylie some more. I think Ted will be good for her to learn that not all dogs want to play with her.
This evening we had some cuddle time in the house and she was a hit with the family. They were more than willing to help her work on not jumping up when greeted. By the second person she was getting much better. She definitely had some inner turmoil going on and had a fit of the wiggle bottoms but she was choosing to
Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a boring day for the boarders, I'm afraid. Or at least the first half will be. Saturday is my busiest day for lessons and so I will get up at the usual time to feed and walk them and then I am booked until around 3. The afternoon will be dedicated to working with them and getting their energy out.
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