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Fortunate K9 Dog & Owner Training

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Fortunate K9 Dog & Owner Training

FORTUNATE K9 Helping dogs and their owners find success. Call us when you are "Ready for Results"!
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06/26/2024

Where was Training Tip Tuesday yesterday?
Well, I decided to listen to my fortune cookie.
Stay tuned, there’s a post coming later tonight!

06/23/2024

Boarding school student Bruin getting ready for Julia's Drop-In class with a little "place" warm up.

06/23/2024

Saturday Drop-In! Little Josie with GSD bookends and dog "reactive" Finley decides to place with Bear and Chase. Good times!!!

06/20/2024

UPCOMING CLASS ANNOUNCEMENT: 6 week 101 Group Class beginning Sunday 7/14 @ 2pm. Email [email protected] if interested.

06/18/2024

Hi friends of FK9.
This week’s Training Tip Tuesday might have been better presented as a Safety Suggestion Sunday but I was too busy with the dogs to spend time at the computer until now, so here it is! This week’s installment is brought to you by the weather forecast for southern New England this week. In a word? HOT. In two words? WICKED HOT.

There are plenty of excellent posts out there from various sources promoting hot weather safety strategies, so I’m just adding to the list here by repurposing an old Training Tip Tuesday from July 2019. That was the summer that a young Fox and I attended a training workshop in southwestern Vermont during a weekend when the temperatures were in the high 90s. While some friends expressed surprise that these sorts of things aren’t cancelled for extreme heat, it’s no news to anyone who’s been “in dogs” for a while. Every summer, devoted dogsport folk and their charges compete in conformation shows and working trials, attend workshops and seminars or participate in field events and have to find ways to keep their dogs safe while doing it.

Although it was slightly cooler in Vermont that weekend than in southern NH, it was still a seriously hot couple of days to be vigorously working dogs on an open field. And yet with the dozen-plus canine athletes in attendance, there wasn't a single instance of heat exhaustion, nor would we expect there to be among this crowd of observant handlers. Yes, some of this was due to the fact that the dogs were all in fantastic physical condition, but most of it had to do with the level of care and preparation taken by their owners.

A super hot day can scare any dog owner into putting their house on lockdown until the temperature breaks. And in many cases, this is the best idea, especially when dealing with elderly, overweight or brachycephalic dogs. Concern about hyperthermia is not exaggerated. A dog’s normal body temperature is between 100 and 102.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and he is not equipped to regulate his body temperature the same way we do. Because dogs have only a small number of sweat glands (located on their footpads) they rely on panting to regulate their internal temperature. Once their temperature starts to spike it’s critical that it gets lowered immediately to avoid fatal consequences. We are all familiar with the horror stories of dogs being left in hot cars, but they can also overheat when even moderately exercised in extreme weather if they have not been conditioned for it and if they are not appropriately cooled down afterward.

The best solution is to try to sneak in early morning and evening walks to avoid the heat of day. But sometimes the temperatures are relentless even after the sun sets and your dog may still be susceptible to overheating. It’s worth learning how to manage activity in hot weather and prepare your dog to be safe even during summer’s most challenging days. Following are some of the things Fox and I continue to do at every summer event we attend: easy habits you can practice so that you and your dog can get through heat waves safely.

* Make sure you have actually acclimated your dog to warm weather before asking him to be active in it. Short, quiet walks that increase over time are safest. If it's the first really hot day of the year and it's also the first time you're taking your dog to one of the many summertime pet-friendly events, you are setting him up for possible heat exhaustion: even if he doesn’t break out of a walk he can still be susceptible if he’s out of shape and kept out too long. If you haven’t conditioned him, please leave him home.

*Likewise, if your dog spends most of his time in a very cool, air-conditioned environment you shouldn’t expect him to join you outside and have the same kind of stamina he has when the weather is more civilized. Going from icebox cold to blazing hot is jarring even for our sophisticated human bodies, so try to keep the inside temps more moderate to help your dog acclimate.

* Always be aware of pavement temperature. Before taking student dogs out in our parking lot on hot days, I tend to put my own palm to the pavement. A little warmish is no problem. But draw-your-hand-back-hot can really hurt your dog's sensitive pads. Avoiding pavement in general during the worst of the heat is the best option whenever possible. If you live in the city and have no choice in the matter, you can apply paw balm to help protect those tootsies before every walk.

* Have a cool, shaded spot picked out for recovery wherever you are: trying to scout one out after your dog is worked up will cost you valuable cooling-off time.

* If you're at an outdoor event and you crate your dog in your vehicle, make sure that you are parked in shade, windows open, preferably with reflective shadecloths and/or windshield screens in place the second you park. Even an open vehicle can turn into a greenhouse as the sun shines through the windows, so blocking them helps quite a bit.

* A decent crate fan may not put out an intense level of air, but it will still circulate it. If you cool your dog out using the suggestions below the crate fan can also help with evaporation.

After you’ve had your dog out, if you suspect that he’s overexerted himself:

* Allow your dog to have intermittent, small drinks of cool water. DO NOT let him "tank up" or drink ice water, moderation is key. I usually let my dogs get five or six good slurps from their bowl, let them wait a few minutes and then give them a few more.

*Carry a dedicated spray bottle to mist your dog’s footpads and undercarriage, make sure you spray some in your hands and go over his ears and head as well (unless he’s like Fox and loves being “misted” straight from the bottle!) I often will spray my dogs -before- taking them out to work them.

* If you have access to a pool, stream/brook (as long as it's not too cold) or sprinkler, allow your dog to immerse himself to bring down his temp. Again, cool water is preferable to very cold water.

* An alternative is a "cooling towel": a simple lightweight towel soaked in cool water and wiped over the dog's underside, “armpits” and pads (where the sweat glands are). You can also invest in a “cooling coat”, made from lightweight material that soaks in a cooler until you’re ready to wring it out and fasten it on your dog.

* It may seem counterintuitive, but if possible, walk your dog out, don't just pop him into the crate after he's exercised. A crate can heat up very quickly from the dog’s body heat. Wet him down using one of the methods above and then walk him slowly in shade for a few minutes before offering him a second drink of water. Wait for his resp rate to normalize. Watch for his tongue to go from fully extended and spatulated to normal before putting him up.

* I always carry a small emergency kit in my van for the dogs. Included in there is a thermometer so that I can check my dogs’ temps and some rubbing alcohol to wipe their footpads with in case I’m worried about them overheating. Use the alcohol with caution as it generally isn’t advised for dogs but in a potential heat exhaustion emergency putting some on their feet to help them lower their temperature is definitely the lesser of two evils.

* If you’re traveling with your dog to an event, always make sure of the location of the nearest emergency veterinary practices -just in case. This is a good idea in general whenever you travel, even more so if you are dealing with extreme weather.

Everyone stay cool this week, and we’ll return next week with an actual Training Tip Tuesday!

06/18/2024

The girls getting ready for the walk and the post walk belly rubs. The big payoff for these two!

06/18/2024

Out for a walk in Derry with the girls. Stevie and Darla handled all the people and other distractions in town perfectly. These girls are not flashy, but very steady.

06/11/2024

Hi friends of FK9, and welcome to another edition of
TRAINING TIP TUESDAY!
This one goes out to all of us with multiple dogs and is more of a Lifestyle Suggestion than a “Training Tip”.
Because today I want to address the phenomenon of The Dog With Two Heads.

I’ve seen this situation more times than I can count. The Dog With Two Heads always begins like most sad stories, with good intentions: a rescue insists that two dogs who were found on the street together must be placed in the same home because they are a “bonded pair”; an unscrupulous breeder makes you an offer you can’t refuse so that you leave with two adorable puppies rather than the one you planned on, or you simply decide that your current dog needs a buddy. And why not? After all, we get told endlessly that dogs require constant socialization with other dogs, that two dogs will “tire each other out”, and that a newer dog added to your household will miraculously learn only good habits from your older dog.

Don’t get me wrong: multiple dogs can be an absolute joy to live with if you do it right. Most professional trainers have more than one dog in their homes and are able to enjoy the companionship of a small pack. The secret is creating an independent relationship with each dog in the family and conditioning the dogs to live as individuals so that they don’t become neurotically codependent on each other. While that description may sound awfully anthropomorphic, it’s the best way to describe some of the dogs I’ve worked with over the years. What humans think of as "bonded" usually isn't any kind of healthy relationship and can actually be detrimental to the dogs.

Several years ago the shelter where I trained received a pair of young adult male Dobermans who were described as “bonded”: large, pushy Hunter and small, worried Beau. Luckily the management listened to my suggestion that we separate the two, if only because the stressful shelter environment might produce behavior in them that could lead to fighting in the close quarters of a shared kennel run. At first we kept them in the same ward so that they could see each other but the smaller dog remained so fixated on his ex-housemate that he developed a GI issue. After he was moved to a new ward with friendly neighbors next to him, the issues resolved. At one point we decided to put the two out in the yard together and the case for separation made itself: the experiment resulted in Hunter mostly pushing Beau around and bullying him while Beau was passive and depressed in the presence of his alleged buddy. Eventually Hunter was adopted which left Beau some time to reveal his own personality without being in the shadow of his much more assertive housemate. At first, Beau wouldn’t make eye contact with any of his caregivers and seemed completely unimpressed with human attention. He was polite and reserved but not at all what one expects from a young male Doberman. He had never been without the constant companionship of another dog and it had hurt his development as a companion for people. The good news is that over time, he started to relax with us and the training we did gave him some context for relating to humans. He was later adopted by a family who treasured him as a co-star of their home and not just a sidekick. In this case, separating the dogs allowed each of them to thrive.

But what about the dogs I see at FK9 who currently live together and whose multiple issues can often be traced back to their relationship with each other? Can they have the same success while staying in the same home? Yes, but it takes work.

Letting two dogs spend time together constantly without any separation can create many problems down the road. When I ask a new student how often their dogs spend time together the answer is almost always “almost always”. The problem is that the dogs can often develop the sort of relationship between them that can make things worse for everyone. It may be cute that your two dogs are "inseparable" but it stops being cute when Life decides on a separation for them: moving, rehoming, divorce, or the passing of one dog before the other can result in the sort of behavioral deterioration that no owner is prepared to handle. As recently as in the last couple of weeks I have seen housemate dogs who literally cannot be walked away from each other in the same room without a screaming, scrabbling tantrum emerging. Imagine what that will be like if unaddressed and one of the dogs has to depart for a long period of time? Unhealthily bonded dogs will sometimes refuse to eat and will often develop anxiety-based habits like self-mutilation or chronic barking in the absence of their friend. Retro-fitting the bond between owner and dog at that point becomes a real challenge.

But even if your magic crystal ball guarantees that your dogs will never permanently part each other's company until that final goodbye, you still are doing them no favor by letting them spend time with each other constantly, and you're doing even less of a favor to yourself: two or more dogs who live as a single unit will usually stick together and leave their humans out of it. They will always care a little bit more about the other than they do about their owners. This is why it's so common to have owners of multiple dogs complain that they "don't listen" when they are together. And why should they? They have each other for fulfillment and reinforcement, you're just the dummy with the food dish!

So how do we successfully own two or more dogs without creating the "Dog With Two Heads"?
* Avoid acquiring littermates or very-close-in age youngsters. There are reasons, some of them listed above, that responsible breeders and rescues will almost never allow two littermates to go home together: they know that it will be behaviorally detrimental to the pups. Instead, start with one pup or adult dog, give him a good year or so to adapt to you, bond with you and recognize you as a trustworthy "senior partner", and then consider adding a friend if a suitable one can be found.

* Create separate times for each dog to spend with you so that you can forge a meaningful relationship with each as an individual dog. Not only you will appreciate your dogs more as individuals, you will also have more influence over them when they are together if each has a separate and unique bond with you.

* Don't expect one dog to teach the other good habits. While this can happen sometimes, it rarely happens in a vacuum if the "teacher" dog's good habits are more a product of luck than training. It's more likely that the new pup or rowdy young dog will remind your #1 how much fun it is to get into trouble! Teaching good habits is your job, human.

I love owning multiple dogs, and have learned so much from silently observing their intricate body language and their subtle social structure, and it gives me great joy to see them relate to each other on their own level when they play. But each of my four has a distinct relationship with me and the ability to exist confidently without the presence of their packmates.

If you have multiple dogs currently, take a look at how they regard you in comparison to how they regard each other. Can you leave the house (or even the room) with one of them without the other losing his mind? If they're all out chasing a squirrel together, can you call them back successfully? Are you able to ask one to stay in a stationary position while you allow the other one to move around? These are all things that can be improved with a little time and effort and, of course, training. The payoff is a much richer and healthier relationship for all of you.

That’s it for this week, let us know if there are topics you’d like to see covered in the coming weeks.

And Happy Training!

06/09/2024

Here is FK9 Boarding School student Darla after her first week Taking part in Julia's Sunday Drop-In class. Darla usually has a LOT to say when around dogs. Here she is working on her attention sit completely tuning out the other dogs. What a girl.

06/09/2024

FK9 Boarding School student Rira dropped in on Julia's private "down" lesson to show everyone how it is done.

06/07/2024

Mr. Ruffles is back! Here he is on a field trip to Tractor Supply. Superstar!

06/06/2024

Summertime means nice late night working walks. Rick’s Boarding Student Rira and Julia’s Doberman Candy stopped for a photo op by a neighbor’s garden.

06/04/2024

Hi Friends of FK9! Julia here.
I was recently going through an old laptop and looking at past articles and bits of correspondence and decided to share some of them here with our followers, since so many of my students and colleagues have been asking when I planned to start writing more “dog stuff”. Many of the more recent ones are from my time as Training Director for Doberman Rescue Unlimited here in southern NH. I served in that capacity from 1998-2005 and again from 2018-2021. That latter period is when I started publishing a weekly post called “Training Tip Tuesday” on the DRU page. Although I’ll be adding content I’ve written that dates from pre-Facebook (and even pre-Internet) times, many of the pieces I’ll share here are from the original Training Tip Tuesday so that’s what we’ll be calling these installments. Of course, if I miss a Tuesday you might get a Wisdom Wednesday, a Thoughtful Thursday or perhaps even a Fraud Alert Friday to help you keep track of trends in dog training that are not going to help you do anything except spend money. I’ll also update some of the content and be adding brand new stuff, too!

Our inaugural Training Tip Tuesday is about a concept I call “practicing wrong”. It originally appeared in July 2019, when demo dog Pizza had recently joined my pack. One sad note is that I took a pretty bad bite to my hand in 2021 while pulling a biting dog off of another employee. The subsequent nerve damage to my hand has made playing my instrument very difficult. The good news is that I have been starting to pick it back up again but my days of touring the world playing rock and roll are most likely over. That’s ok, I’m happy being here with my dogs.

Anyway, hope you enjoy “Practicing Wrong”. Let me know in the comments!

***********************************************************************
From July 2019:

Some of you know that in addition to being a longtime dog trainer (going on four decades...whoa!) I'm also a rock and roll musician. That's my new DRU adoptee Bailey who is now known as "Pizza" to her close friends, posing in front of one of my basses.
Music and dogs have always been the twin pillars of my life and while directly integrating them can be difficult (not sure my Dobers would enjoy touring that much), I still can extrapolate things I've learned from one discipline to the other pretty handily. One of the most relevant examples is the concept of "practicing wrong".
I'll give you an example. I'm in the midst of recording tracks for a new album for a band I play in. We only meet every two weeks for rehearsal and our leader tends to send us audio files of material we should know at each get together. I've got a pretty good ear, but decades of standing close to amps and drums and kennels full of dogs have taken their toll, so I may not be as sharp as I was. A few rehearsals ago, I showed up feeling pretty great about my interpretation of a bass line for one of the new songs. As the band kicked in and played, I noticed our leader's expression change to a type of perplexed concentration: kind of like the face you make if you think you smell something bad but you aren't exactly sure. "Hold up", he signaled the band. He looked at me quizzically and said, "JV, what are you playing there?"
Uh oh.
I tentatively played the run I was doing, not so sure anymore that I had it right.
"Ah, " he said, "Yeah, that's supposed to be an open E and you're playing an F."
OK, that's easy enough to fix.
But it wasn't. Two weeks of practicing wrong meant that although one part of my brain now knew the right thing from being told, the other part that connected to my fretting hand kept going back to the familiar. It was only one note! But my muscle memory insisted that I play the wrong one.
Luckily my bandmates are a patient bunch, and I asked if we could just revisit the song next time. During the intervening two week break, I didn't even -listen- to the track in question for the first half. Then I very conscientiously listened and played along until a new muscle memory was there and I had it down correctly.
So how does this relate to dogs?
I have many students whose dogs bedevil them with what they refer to as "bad habits": getting into the trash, jumping on visitors, going nuts at the window every time the mailman walks by. They tell me how they catch the dog in the act and try to redirect his behavior and even that the dog "knows he's wrong" but somehow his misbehavior persists.
Why is that?
Because he is getting to -practice wrong-.
Just like me learning the passage wrong in that song, their dog has learned how to do the wrong action again and again, because he practiced it so much he got good at it. And it won't get easily fixed just by "mentioning" it to the dog via a correction, especially if the behavior rewards the dog on some level.
My advice is always to first temporarily take the "song" away from the dog entirely. Don't even let him listen to it. Trash in the kitchen? No dog in the kitchen. Jumping up on visitors? Dog is crated before they even arrive whenever possible. Barking at mailman? Mail comes at the same time every day, make sure dog has no access to windows at that time. Take all of it away, not just the "sour note" the dog is playing. Take away the anticipation of rushing the windows and barking, the excitement of guests' arrival, the delectable feast of the kitchen garbage. After a week or so of that, depending on the individual dog, he can start to "listen to the song" again. But this time he will be in a position to learn the right thing.
This may mean that he is brought out to meet the visitors on leash after they've already entered the house, and directed into a polite "sit" when interacting with them. It may mean that you practice a "place" command with him each day, closer and closer to the postman's arrival until you're able to send him to his place as soon as he starts indicating that he knows the mail is imminent. It may be as simple as moving the garbage to a less accessible area, or if you're ambitious, using it as a powerful distraction that you practice down/stays next to. In every case, it is letting the dog hear the same song, but teaching him to play the right notes through repetition, fair correction and meaningful reward.
Can you think of some habits your dog has learned to practice wrong? And some strategies to get him playing in tune with your expectations?
I think we all can do that!
And now, I bid you good evening, happy training, and rock on from Pizza and me!

05/31/2024

This good looking guy is Rira. He is a boarding school student. Working with Vincent on a little self control. This guy is flashy and is a great student.

05/31/2024

New private lesson student Tuckerman had a great night working through some challenging distractions. One of the major triggers for Tuckerman's reactivity has been automotive headlights, so we scheduled a lesson for dusk. Our first two lessons prior to this were spent building the right kind of attention on his owners and learning how to trust their decisions on walks. After fine tuning some handling techniques we ventured into downtown Derry where we successfully encountered plenty of passing traffic, both on foot and four wheels. But it was our return to the FK9 parking lot that brought us face to face with the Final Boss of Vehicular Distraction: the delivery truck for our neighbors at Sanel Auto Parts!

Not only did Tuckerman tolerate this monster truck (with its idling diesel-whine and its driver noisily throwing stuff around in the trailer) he performed a very nice sit/stay right in front of it and showed not just compliance, but a level of confidence that made his owners Dave and Susan beam even brighter than the headlights.

Training isn't just about avoiding triggers, nor is it about forcing opinions. It's bringing your dog to a place of trust and understanding that changes how he sees the world.

I'm so proud of Tuck and his people!

05/30/2024

Sixth and final session of our Wednesday night Obedience 101 class, taking it to the streets! (And the bike path.)
Bringing the work we do out into the real world is so important. Congrats to our 101 students for making so many positive changes with their dogs!

05/25/2024

Memorial Day photos of the Saturday Drop-In class at the memorial benches for PFC Ackerman & PFC McGuire. A lot of work to get to this stage with most of the dogs in these photos. Great class with many distractions today.

05/24/2024

Candy is just giving you a nose poke to remind you that YES we WILL have our normal drop-in classes this Memorial Day weekend!

Saturday at 11AM with Rick
Sunday at 4PM with Julia

See you then!

05/21/2024

Buddy the Siberian Husky did great at his very first Drop-In class yesterday!

05/17/2024

Winnie the Lab from Connecticut is back for a little B&T refresher while her owners are on vacation. She has not missed a beat. This girl loves to make new friends. Does not matter dog or human. Everything in life is a distraction for her. Here she is working in a lesson with Julia and 2 dogs and also a walk in Derry with Maverick. They never forget the commands!

05/16/2024

Week Four of our Wednesday Obedience 101 class is a real Down-er!
Not really, you can actually see a couple of these guys wagging their tails in the pictures. :)
When we talk about "position vs. performance" we're talking about the concept of "motion vs. meaning" and the "down" command is a great example. Many dogs get the idea of a down -position-: they hit the deck usually with the help of a food lure and a sweeping hand signal. They go through the motion. But they often pop right back up again because they're restless, seeking another treat, frustrated, bored. They haven't learned the -meaning-..
For your companion dog, the meaning of down should be that his mind is quiet and he's relaxed. If "sit" is a stop sign, "down" is a parking space: we'll probably be here for a little bit. Down is not just a useful real-world command for keeping your dog out of trouble when visitors are over or when you bring him someplace interesting, it's also a way to help him regulate his emotions. As you can see from the pictures, these very busy adolescent dogs (all under one year old) are learning how to relax in close proximity to each other even as their handlers are seated next to them and not looking like they're "doing obedience".
Nice work, Bruno, Buddy, Leia, Echo and Koda (and your handlers, too: Rebecca, Trish, Emily, Michelle and Jim)!

05/06/2024

Fortunate K9 is very proud to congratulate Ashly Snell and Doberman Rari on achieving their USDAA Agility Championship at the USDAA New England Regionals last weekend!

The ADCH title requires 5 master’s level qualifying scores in each of the core classes (standard, jumpers, snooker, gamblers and pairs) as well as 5 tournament Q’s, including one Steeplechase, Grand Prix and Team.

And they didn’t stop there! Team Rari also got a gold medal in strategic games, a bronze in the Steeplechase Regional, and a Silver in 2-Dog Team.

Ashly and Rari were coached to perfection in this sport by our friends at Riverside Canine in Nashua NH. We are not Agility trainers here at FK9.

But we -are- the trainers who many owners seek out for solving behavior issues including reactivity, which is how Ashly and Rari found us about three years ago. Although she was showing great promise as a potential Agility athlete, Rari had serious trouble holding it together around the other dogs who are inevitably present at practice and eventually at the trials Ashly hoped to attend. The techniques they had been using to manage this issue were simply not effective and Ashly was at a point where she was discouraged and frustrated by the limitations Rari’s behavior put on her potential.

We developed a training program that emphasized better obedience, a re-calibrating of the relationships with the humans and dogs in the household and a gradual introduction to other dogs in a controlled way. Today Rari “runs naked” in the Agility ring at trials (meaning she has no training collars or leashes on in the most exciting and distracting environment) and in her off-time, enjoys healthy relationships with a lot of appropriate dog friends who are introduced properly.

Three years ago, a championship in this challenging sport was unimaginable for a dog who had such strong and potentially hazardous opinions about others. But thanks to Ashly’s trust in the work and consistency in living in it, Rari is truly a champion in every way.

If you feel frustrated with your dog’s reactive behavior and its impact on the goals you have, whether it’s titling in a sport or just walking in your neighborhood, reach out. We can help!

Address

29 South Avenue
Derry, NH
03038

Opening Hours

Monday	11am - 9pm
Tuesday	11am - 9pm
Wednesday	11am - 9pm
Thursday	11am - 9pm
Friday	11am - 9pm
Saturday	11am - 9pm
Sunday	11am - 9pm

Telephone

+16034325959

Website

http://www.FortunateK9.com/

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Videos

Out for a walk in Derry with the girls. Stevie and Darla handled all the people and other distractions in town perfectly. These girls are not flashy, but very steady.

Mr. Ruffles is back! Here he is on a field trip to Tractor Supply. Superstar!

Candi and Doberman-X Clifford at Lesson 3, learning the concept of sit/stay under distraction (for Clifford, that’s a tennis ball!). What started out as a major temptation for ball-crazy Clifford became a reward that significantly increased his willingness to hold it together and engage with his handler. We’ll work on his returning the ball to his handler and not me next time. 😉

Boarding school student Mr. Ruffles does "place" with style!

Luna pulling off the "place" on a moving cart. This girl is full of surprises. First try success.

Fortunate K9 Boarding School student Austin

Austin the Cavapoo working in Lowes. Sometimes a simple martingale collar and a good attitude will do the trick. In this case no hands on the leash.

FK9 Boarding School student Luna working through an out of sight sit/stay. It is a process of mistakes then success. For a nervous highly suspicious GSD, this a complete 180 from her first day.

Working FK9 Boarding School student Luna at Lowes. Big deal for her and she had a great time and was a superstar. This is her working through the out of sight sit/stay. This is the learning process. Mistake, mistake and then success. Slow and steady.

Last week’s Sunday drop in class! Learning how to stay cool with lots of canine cross-traffic. Great job, everyone!

Boarding school student Groot at Tractor Supply. This guy is a youngster at just 7 months. His puppy brain is still working on impulse control. Here he is earning a solid B+ for the long out of sight down/stay.

We had a big turnout for Sunday drop in today! Sixteen dogs and fifteen handlers, ranging from first-timers to veteran FK9 alumni, worried dogs to reactive dogs to super social dogs were in the mix. All of them learning how to defer to their handlers even in very challenging circumstances. I’m so proud of our students for being so invested in their dogs’ success, so supportive of each other and for representing good, true-to-life training in the real world. (Music is “Follow Your Heart” by The Paladins)

April and her Shiba Inu, Charlotte reviewing their heel work at their third private lesson. What a great new team!

Time for the Tractor Supply sit/stay. This weeks contestant is FK9 Boarding School student Bailey. The youngster passing with ease. Star student!

Saturday Drop-In class and the "Scramble Heel" plus some sit/stay and down thrown in for good measure. All levels in class today. Good times!!!

Here is FK9 Boarding School student Sephie at Tractor Supply. Good time to test the sit/stay. Perfect!

Another week down for Mia. Learning to heel with distractions. This girl is learning not to panic when another dog or cat is near. Every week a little better than the last. Of course Vincent demonstrates what low stress looks like! The epitome of a "Cool Cat".

A little video from a lesson with Draco "The Reactive GSD" like many. He can get a little overexcited around other dogs. Tends to redirect the energy towards his owner.

Multiple dogs can mean multiple problems if you aren't careful about developing an individual relationship with each of them. We often hear from a new student that when their two (or more) dogs are around together it's as if the humans don't exist. Or that the dogs seem to egg each other on or even redirect on each other when they're overstimulated. While spending time one-on-one with each dog is definitely important, it's also important to teach them how to act around each other when they are together. If your dogs equate each others' presence only with play, you will have a much harder time convincing them to listen to you when they're with each other. Training them to hold it together around each other using combinations of known obedience is one of the best ways to ensure that you can influence them in less structured moments at home. Here we see three of my four dogs working together in the training room: Fox and I practice a Figure 8 around Pizza and Candy. At 9 months, Candy is still learning how to "govern herself" so I chose to give her an easier task: she didn't have to perform a stationary position, she just had to remain on place (she cheated a little bit but fixed herself). Pizza is a veteran of watching me handle other dogs, and was quite happy to remain in her down position. Drills like this transfer to the home and beyond by showing the dogs that they -can- actually listen to their human and accept waiting their turn for attention. (Music is "Untamed Melody" by The Paladins) (And you can see by the technical quality of the video why I don't post more videos! 😬)