Stella, a service dog in training, is learning an important task— pick up the leash when it is dropped! We need to work on more of a calm hand-off, but for early stages, her throwing the leash is perfectly fine!
Everyone remember little puppy, Stella?
Look at her being a rockstar! She’s working on being comfortable going over, around, and through different obstacles. What a happy girl!
Lucy is a service dog in training! One of her tasks is to respond to finger picking with a nose push/bump. In service dog training, tasks take more priority than obedience. Even though she is in a down-stay, her task is more important and nullifies the stay! She still has a few months of training left before she’s ready to go home, but she’s learning quickly! This video was taken in a Walmart while grocery shopping.
We had an AWESOME turn out for group obedience today! 13 dogs total—- in order as they appear in the video:
Luna, Sprinkles, Reno, Asher, Stella, Nala, Minnie, Dart, Lillie, Lucy, Whiskey, Emma, and Bass (the dog at my side).
Jolene had a midway lesson today! This is a time where the family gets to come out, see their dog, and begin the human-learning! By the time a board and train dog goes home, the dog knows everything it needs to know. Midway lessons help the families learn what they need to know to help promote success with their dog. Especially in homes with kids, we love having midway lessons to ensure that the dog can listen to any adults or kids in the household!
Video credit to Jolene’s mom! Thanks for getting some footage of our lesson!
Zeus has switched to our service dog board and train program! One of the tasks he needs to learn is turning on/off the lights. The first step in teaching that task is to teach him how to reliably touch a target point! Once we build that behavior reliably, we can add in a light switch, add in height, and generalize the behavior to be for any light switch, any time! Touch is also a great first step to behavior interruption tasks (picking at hands, anxious trembling, fidgeting) or as an alert to heart rate or assisting in panic attacks. We can’t wait to do more awesome things with this handsome boy!
We had a blast today at Canton Trade days! We had a great turn out! We got to work with Midge, Minnie, Esme, Francis, Lucy, Dart, and Chess! Canton is a great place for proofing obedience and practicing around tons of people and tons of other dogs. Everyone did great and we are so thankful for everyone that showed up!
One of Sam’s biggest issues when she came to us was bolting out the door and not coming when called. Now, Sam LOVES recalls! She comes in so fast she skids into me half the time! ❤️🐕
Dart did awesome today! He is a service dog in training and this was his first time in a Target! We utilized several toys, distractions, and sound making items to ensure he is reliable and focused on his handler. Some of that involves me (the trainer) acting like a kid and bouncing a ball pretty close to them before ‘accidentally’ letting it roll towards them.
Service dogs should be absolutely bulletproof for their handlers. If they can’t handle distractions like this, there’s no way we can trust them to work in all environments! It’s important to take the time to expose them to everything possible during the training phase to set them up for success.
Dart and his family are doing a phenomenal job through their private lessons and we are very proud of them! We still have a ways to go, but Dart makes this stuff look easy! ❤️🐕
Our passion is to help lives change through the loyalty of a dog!
Asher graduated our advanced board and train program last August! We get to see her periodically for boarding when her family is out of town, and we LOVE having previous clients back with us! Her obedience is still nice and sharp even though it’s been 9 months since she graduated. Her family has done a phenomenal job keeping up training for the long term!
Snow and Hazel graduated today! It’s always important to make sure their family feels comfortable handling them before they go home!
We had a blast on Saturday at Canton Trade Days! Sheriff, Reno, Callie, and Esme got some amazing exposure to new people, new dogs, and a ton of useful experience in large crowds! Esme, the German shepherd, originally came to us struggling with human reactivity, and she was an angel! We love helping dogs and their handlers build confidence in their training. If you’re a current client and you’d like to join our next Canton trip with your dog, reach out and we’ll schedule a day!
We had a blast during Group Obedience this morning! We got to see Lillie, Esme, Asher, Dart, and Dusty today! We also had Reno and Crypto out with us to socialize to seeing new dogs and people!
Did you know Group Obedience is included in all of our programs for free? Our goal is to set you and your dog up for success, so that means we need lots of practice around new situations, people, and dogs.
The plastic bag was not a paid actor, though it should have been! Dexter has a lot of prey drive and loves to chase things that move! Before his 4 week board and train, Dexter would have loved to hop up and run after the bag until he caught it. This is Dexter two days before the end of his training— he did make a mistake by standing up, but after a verbal correction, he settled right back down! Our goal is to train for real life scenarios for our clients. This is a great example of what that looks like. Did we specifically train with a plastic bag? Nope! But was Dexter able to handle something new when it happened? Yep!
Contact us today! We have one board and train slot left for the month!
Even though it’s Thanksgiving, our board and train dogs still get work! They are part of our family even during the holidays. Willie, Padfoot, Lucy, and Libby had a great walk this morning!
We love going on field trips and adding crazy distractions. Our goal is for your dog to leave a board and train completely ready to face the world. We often make weird noises, jump and run around, and act like a crazy person to ensure your dog can handle high energy weird behavior. Padfoot and Willie go home in just a few days and they’re handling the distractions really well!
If you see me in Lowes acting like a lunatic with a dog, now you know why!
Another video from Group Obedience since the business facebook won’t allow pictures and videos to be posted at the same time— this was an exercise to mimic real life situations. It’s inevitable that other people and dogs may walk up to yours, and it’s something that needs to practiced! During this exercise we had one dog at a time walk up to each place cot and begin a conversation with the owner of the dog on place and compliment and baby talk the dog on place. The more we practice real life, the easier life becomes! This builds tolerance in manageable chunks!
It’s important for puppies to be able to focus around other puppies! Here we have Halpert, Daisy, and Gus practicing their skills and patience for treats around the other puppies.
Resc the doberman is working on not being too excited with distractions! We used our dog O’reilly (a mini aussie) to help him learn. The best part of private lessons is the client learning proper timing, communication, and boundaries to set with their dog. Here we can see that Resc isn’t quite sure if he wants to stay sitting while O’reilly walks past. We use some leash pressure while calmly saying “no” to correct him back to a sit. Notice that it’s not a harsh correction, and it’s not about force or strength. It’s a little prompt to remind Resc that we do need him to stay sitting. Resc’s family is learning timing and proper communication as well, so it’s perfectly normal to make mistakes, but that’s what learning is all about! Resc is only on lesson 3/6 so far, so his training will get even better! ❤️🐕
