Today Herbie is working on his heeling again - this time adding in an auto-sit when we stop.
Herbie is likely (at least some percentage - peep those double hind dew claws 🙈) a Pyrenees mix and would generously be described by his family as “uncooperative”, so I wanted to point out a little moment in this clip that I thought was interesting. There’s a point in the beginning of this clip where I come to a stop and need to help Herbie sit with more leash pressure because his mind is off paying attention to something else. He was expecting to be rewarded for having sat eventually, but I increased my criteria for rewarding him in that moment. Now that he knew what I was expecting him to do through lots of repetition, I’d only reward him when he did his auto-sit without any help from me. So instead of rewarding, I told him to heel again. He was pretty surprised that he didn’t receive a reward for sitting that time, so he then paid attention and tried really hard to ace his next auto-sit, and the rest thereafter, so that he earned that reward. Sometimes [enter a million caveats here], withholding a reward can actually be motivational to your dog and encourage them to try harder the next time you ask them to do something instead of it only being a punishment.
Great job, Herbie! 👍
A little bit of a ‘before & after’ video for Fraser, although we’re still working hard together for a few more days! When Fraser arrived, he was very worried about walking on the road and any cars that might drive by. He basically saw the leash as a torture device being used to keep him from bolting back towards the house when he was afraid or decided he was done. Now, he’s learned that being close to me is actually the safest option and will follow me around on the road without any leash pressure at all. Fraser’s self-confidence continues to grow each day and will allow him to live a less stressful and more fulfilled life! 😀
6 month old Miles’ first Ecollar lesson! These are the beginning steps of building up off-leash recall reliability for this brave and adventurous pup! 😃
Sasha had her Go Home session yesterday and practiced everything she’s learned with her owners. She worked very hard over the past month with me and still has lots of work to continue at home, but I’m super proud of this dog and how far she’s come in a short period of time! She has amazing owners that are so dedicated to her happiness and well-being, so I know they will continue to put in the hard work to help her grow into the best dog she can be. 💜
Here are two short clips from our training sessions showing what Sasha and I have been up to the past few days! This is the stage of the board and train that really becomes a ton of fun for both Sasha and me. I’ve given her a fairly solid obedience foundation during the last two weeks, so now we get to “test” it (called “proofing”) with various distractions and environments. Sasha has high ball drive and food drive (side note: she comes from some cool IGP lines!) so before we venture out and work around things that make her nervous and stressed, we practice in a higher state of drive at home to exercise the part of her brain that can still think clearly even when she really realllllllly wants to do something else. The exercises shown here are 1) I throw the ball while she is in a sit-stay, walk in the opposite direction, and call her to me before releasing her to get the ball; 2) I have her drop her ball and heel around it with me before releasing her to retrieve it. It all feels like play time to her, but it’s so much more than that! Super proud of how far this girl has come already and I can’t wait to see the progress she makes over the next couple of weeks. ☺️
Sasha is continuing to work on keeping her focus on me with increased distractions and for longer durations. Here I’m using low level Ecollar stim and spatial pressure (using my body to move into her through a turn) to bring her back into the heel position when her mind starts to wander. She still really struggles with reacting to new people/dogs/environmental triggers, but I’m seeing some really good things starting to click in her brain over the last couple of days that we’ll continue to build upon. 💪
Sit-stays and down-stays are a great way to practice impulse control in young, energetic dogs like Sasha. There was no Ecollar use in this session - only leash pressure and spatial pressure (using my body) when she makes a mistake. Near the end I start to throw food around her as an added distraction. Slowly I’ll continue building distractions and duration during this kind of work with her until she’s calmly watching dump trucks drive by 😊
This is a short clip from my afternoon session with Sasha yesterday. Because she’s had an initial Ecollar lesson with me previously, I decided to jump into the conditioning process with her after a really nice engagement building session in the morning. My goals for Day 1 with Sasha were 1) building a relationship with her and getting her to see value in working with me 2) building/evaluating her food drive by working for her meals 3) making sure she knows her reward marker and terminal marker 4) teaching her that when she feels low level Ecollar stim she should move towards me and give me her attention and 5) using reward placement by my left leg to encourage her to stay by my left side, where I’ll soon ask her for the heeling position. I used a sound box for this video (the buzzing noise) so you can hear when and how often I use low level Ecollar stim while she’s learning what it means. I’m not using any commands with her yet - this is all just shaping and negative/positive reinforcement to help slow her brain down and start to think instead of acting on impulse. Sasha is very intelligent and willing to please, so she picks up on things very quickly. I think we’ll see some major improvements over the next few weeks. 🙂
Out for a leisurely stroll with PJ! No more pulling on the leash for this little dude! 👍
After a first day of working on engagement, building food drive, and settling in, PJ started the morning on Day 2 learning all about the Ecollar. The goal of this session is to get him used to feeling the Ecollar stimulation and learn that looking at me and moving towards me turns it off. He stayed happy and bubbly throughout the session, which is exactly what I want to see. Ecollar training should be FUN for your dog! Very proud of the progress this sweet boy has made already!
This is what it’s all about!
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