Sarge is practicing a few things here: Coming to "Place" from a distance, staying on "Place," Recall, Sit, Down, and Stay. We're so proud of him.
Sarge was originally sent to us because he was essentially an 8 week old puppy in an adult dog's body. He's super strong, had little impulse control or respect of personal space or boundaries, zero focus, and had learned to use his brute strength to get what he wanted. We're extremely proud of how far he's come, and expect great things in his future. 🐶❤️
Sarge practicing his Sit/stay out in public (don't worry, he's tethered to a pole in case he gets up), followed by a little exploring and play.
Sarge has a lot of puppy in him, meaning that impulse control takes a lot out of him. He's great, but he gets easily over stimulated after long training sessions (in this video, we were out practicing different things for an hour or more). So we make sure we give him a productive outlet for all that energy: Sniffing and playing around. Using exploration and play as rewards after training ensures that he's fulfilled both physically and mentally, which will help curb a lot of nuisance puppy behaviors. 🐶❤️
In this video, Sarge is working on his Existence Socialization, as well as practicing his loose leash walking, his Sit/stay, and his focus around heavy distractions.
I love using gas stations to practice Existence Socialization because it has so many distractions all in one place: People, cars, dogs, at one point you can even see a gentleman with a walker stop and talk to us for a bit. This is great exposure for Sarge. He's still a little unsure around new things, but his impulse control is growing everyday, meaning that we can expose him to more and more new stuff. And he's doing so great!
**To learn more about Existence Socialization, and the steps to building it, check out our YouTube channel!
Sarge has been over coming new obstacles each day, and while we know it may not always seem like we are making progress our training goes deeper than obedience: we work on the behavior side, the frame of mind and emotional state as more so the training is deeper than following cues.
Here Sarge showed just how far he has come by us enjoying a nice long walk with a loose leash and minimal corrections. So proud of this boy! He'll only be with us another week as we work through some of his deeper anxieties but we are so proud of his progress and know this week he'll make the most of his stay with us!
Stay tuned for all Sarge's adventures!
Sarge practicing his "Stay" while we're out of sight.
A big problem many people encounter with teaching a dog to stay is that the dog will jump up as soon as the person is out of sight. This also happens a lot when the person practices backing away from the dog while facing them; then, if they ever turn around, the dog pops up.
To combat those issues, we practice being able to leave his eyesight while he stays there. Also, you can't tell from the video, but we are walking away with our back towards him. This all helps to solidify the idea that expectations remain the same whether we're watching or not. 🐶❤️
Recently, I injured my back, so I've been on bed-rest for a bit. But that doesn't mean we're not still training, we're just doing slower tasks with me, while he does the active tasks with Shalene.
Here, Sarge is practicing his "Place" cue while I rest with a heating pad and Shalene prepares dinner. One of the things we've been working on with him is being okay with sitting in one spot while things are going on. He's doing well with staying on "Place," but it doesn't take long before he starts getting whiny and restless if things are going on. Exercises like this teach him how to relax. But calmness takes time and practice to build. We're very proud of how well he did. He's coming along so well. 🐶❤️
Rollo is such a great dog. Here we are practicing his Sit/Stay using a toy. Rollo isn't super motivated by this toy, but rather in the engagement. He'll chase the toy, but when he gets to it he's not really interested in it anymore. He likes actually playing and chasing more than catching.
Here Sarge is practicing his Sit, Stay, and Recall, as well as building his impulse control. Sarge is a jumper, so exercises like the teach him how to appropriately react when he's excitedly running towards someone. He's doing so well. We're very proud of his progress, and he's won a special place in my heart because he's just a big puppy. Yes, he can be rambunctious, and obnoxious, and can have terrible manners sometimes, but that's all puppy stuff. His issue is just that he's a puppy in a giant body, so he needs to learn to harness that. And he's doing amazing. 🐶❤️
Sarge is a working dog, meaning that he will always do better if he has a job to do. Even if that job is something as simple as "stay there." The problem that many people come across with working breeds, however, is that they're so smart, so they develop habits so quickly. Meaning that, if we don't teach them how to appropriately respond to certain things, they WILL find their own way (because they're always doing SOMETHING, whether you tell them to or not). So it's important that we exercise that brain by teaching him all the little things and showing him how we want him to use them. Micromanagement.
Murphy is going home tomorrow, and we couldn't be more proud of this guy. He has built his confidence, his impulse control, his basic obedience, and his ability to maintain that around distractions. Though we're sad to see him go, we know that his parents will do a great job maintaining the foundation he has worked so hard to build. We're very proud of him. 🐶❤️
As Sarge and I were watching the sunset, practicing our "Place" cue and Existence Socialization, we caught a great moment ("great" is a relative term, haha).
He tried to get off, I stopped him with a verbal correction, and then I had him lie down. Not a big deal. Except, if you recall from previous posts, we discussed how Sarge had an issue with mouthing any hand that was below eye level with him (not biting, but rather putting your entire hand in his mouth, every single time). So, when I went to lure him down, he tried to mouth my hand, I offered a verbal correction and removed my hand, and then tried again. This time he resisted the urge. You can see that he REALLY wanted to, but he held himself back. So I jackpotted him, and made a huge deal out of it.
Truthfully, he's been doing a lot better with the mouthing, but because it's a problem area, we're still celebrating his impulse control as if it's the first time. We're so proud of him. 🐶❤️
When fine tuning some of Rollo's training, I am beginning to see how in time he is and how much work has been kept in the home. He's doing great, and it's fun to think back to the jumping puppy we knew last year with zero impulse control; now he's a perfect gentleman. ❤️
Rollo got some playtime with Tucker today. They've never actually met, so this was their first time. You can see the very respectful body language, pausing to check in with each other, and then the beginning of a great play session. These two have become quick friends, and will help each other grow in their training. AND THEY'RE SO CUTE TOGETHER! 🐶❤️
