Hey everyone, we have 1-2 board & trains open for April as well as a few private training slots.
Anything from puppy raising to basic obedience, behavioral rehabilitation to sport dog foundation.
If you need help, please don’t hesitate to send me a message.
https://www.therushpack.com/dogtraining-services-pricing
*I do not own the rights to the music*
Ridge, showing off some of what she’s been learning.
We’re working on sending to a platform - the click comes when all 4 feet make contact and we’ve started adding duration.
Also working on our around - started with a 5 gallon bucket inside. This is her second session with the trash can. This is also the first time I’ve added in a toy reward vs food reward. Her brain only slightly exploded 😂.
Finally we’ve started adding words to our obedience (sit, down, stand, spin & turn). She is picking up on them sooo fast!!
-I do not own the right to the music
It’s moments like this that we’re reminded Dixie is only 6 months old 😂. All I care about is she stays in her bed, which did even though the bone, did NOT. ❤️
Dixie is gearing up to go home this week, we’re doing quite a bit of duration place work (especially with this glorious weather).
She’s doing fabulous!
Also, on a fun note, we got a weight on her today. At roughly 6.5 months old, Miss Dixie is weighing in at just over 100lbs!!! 🤯 Get a Boerboel they said, it’ll be fun they said 😉.
Dixie had her first outdoor place session.
We spent 5-10 mins on recall/remote collar training before doing some place work - which is why she had her ecollar on but it is NOT used for this particular session.
She did awesome! The goal is down, down is how we get food/released. We’ve been doing place during meal prep (after morning/evening training sessions she places while I put the remaining food in some puzzle toys for her to beat around her kennel).
Notes:
“Place” - just means put your feet on the bed & keep them there. I personally don’t get if they sit/down/stand, I just want them to stay on the bed. Down is ideal & preferred but sitting isn’t “wrong”.
“Good” - marks anything she does that I like; gets on the bed, sits/downs, stays
“Break” - get off the bed/come to me for reward - that I’ll eventually phase out.
Also enjoy the “so proud of you” lovings that follows each session. 🥰
Y’all know much I love being in videos 😂.
But I decided to suck it up, so if you make it through the whole thing I appreciate you.
Today I reintroduced Dixie to the remote collar. Her humans have used it a couple times previously, but I wanted to start over from scratch and do things how I prefer to do them.
The biggest way the ecollar gets “abused” is when people just put it on their dog and start correcting wrong or unwanted behaviors. This tends to lead to dogs that are shut down, sad or afraid to try new things. But, did you know, remote collar training should take weeks if not months before they ever actually become a “no” and if done correctly the do not in fact create just down dogs but build dogs up.
Just like any training tool they require a foundation. Your dog first needs to thoroughly understand their commands, they then need to thoroughly understand how to turn ecollar stimulation off (be it tone, vibrate or stim). Then your ecollar might be able to become a no.
Other things to keep in mind; don’t take off and put on right before and right after training - this will help avoid collar smart. I usually put them on, let them go potty/run around and then go train. Once we’re done I’ll rotate the collar and then let them keep wearing it during the day/while I’m home.
The goal with this training session was to start teaching Dixie how to turn the stimulation off. First step, finding her working level - which is currently a 10. Next step is using her knowledge of recall (“here”) to help teach what the stim means.
I’ll press the stim button, follow that with her recall command (help with the leash/body language as needed), as soon as she turns I’ll release the stim and mark with a “yes”. We will rinse & repeat this process over the next 2-3 days - or as long as it takes for her to feel the stim and start recalling before I ever actually say “here”. 😃
Dixie has been so much fun to work with!
We’ve spent the last several days getting into a nice routine. Her humans have done a fabulous job with her foundational obedience. We’ve been working on her sits, downs & place for half of each meal.
This week the weather is going to be super nice so we’ll spend lots of sessions outside. I think we’ll start introducing the ecollar tomorrow - she is wearing it in this video, but just to get used to it being on.
Some key points:
She is working for her meals 😉
“Good”/“Good girl” = good job, keeping doing what you’re doing (ie: sit/down). It also means the reward is coming to you in your position.
“Yes” = job completed, you can move, come get your reward.
“Break” = her release word that lets her know she is can move from position - eventually it’ll be a reward in itself, but right now I’m still rewarding her. She is free to “do what she wants”.
“Eh Eh” = wrong, try again or go back to position
Emina had her first adventurous weekend!
She went swimming and is a natural.
She rode in the side by side and smashed it!
Made lots of friends, humans & dogs alike.
She also adjusted to staying somewhere new like a complete pro.
Emina is looking for a home to call her own. Contact Věčné štěstí German Shepherd Dogs if you have any questions.
Mina says it’s storming? And? 🥰 I often hear clients say “My dog doesn’t like the rain.”, “My dog won’t potty when it’s raining.”
And when I ask, “Have YOU gone out into the rain with them?” They typically respond with a form “of course not”. If you don’t exposure your puppy to rain, to storms, to loud noises why would they be used to them?
I had just gotten back from a client session, which means I woke Emina up, which she had to go potty. So, we stand outside, in the rain, together until she goes.
This trip was going to be a quick potty break (so I didn’t grab food or a toy) as she has experienced rain before. But I decided after she peed that we were going to do a little playing in the rain after all cuz how could I pass up an opportunity for the exposure. This also meant I was the reward.
Emina decided to take my nice “exposure/engagement” video and go a little “feral” instead, after all, fast and quick movements engages prey drive 😉 and she’s a bitey puppy, which means she’s going to bite.
Now typically I would’ve grabbed food or a toy and quickly redirected her onto something else. But alas I didn’t have that, so, we winged it 😂.
I DON’T punish, scold or correct biting. She has NO idea that’s wrong, she has NO idea there are other options; it’s my job to teach her. So, I show them what to do instead; bite a toy, sit/engage for nicely for food. Or I got to pick them up/run away in hopes they stop ahahaha.
Little Miss Emina had her first intro to two ball - go get one, bring it back and the 2nd you comes to life, in theory they drop the 1st to play with the 2nd; or if you wanna be extra like Emina, you hold the 1st one and still chase the 2nd 🤣.
What you see here is our entire little outing (with the exception of 2 throws before I started videoing). Keep things short, fun and safe for puppy joints. I will only do this once a day or once every other day.
Emina has been working for each of her meals. The first 2 we’re just hand feeding, teaching her to target my hand and then to follow my hand. Then we worked a little on name recognition and waiting for the food to come to her vs her jumping (as she starts this video 😂).
Last night and today we started adding in position changes. Nonverbal, just rewarding the different positions - sit, down, stand, spin left & spin right.
She’s doing awesome! So enjoy a five and a half minute video of her cuteness!
Merlin is having a fun and busy weekend.
He saw the pool for the first time, which is so good for his puppy joints, he’s not sold on it - but he did amazing!
He also had his first official ride in a side by side, again not sold on it, but willingly climbed in it stationary later! 🥰
Merlin had a busy day today!
Since we’re still working on potty training he tagged along for today errands.
First stop was very boing as he just hung out in a kennel. That being said during his potty break he did get to make several new friends, one being a 4 year old. Merlin was on his best behavior and loooved all the attention he got.
Next stop, Home Depot and to say I am pleasant pleased with how well he did would be an understatement. This was his first store adventure, but you seriously couldn’t tell with how well he did.
He walked like a professional, ignored all the people and his auto sit was about 80% ❤️.
We worked on walking normal, slow, super slow and a faster pace - he smashed it. Total time in store was maybe 10 mins. This boy is a serious rockstar!
Merlin is doing fantastic.
He had his first weekend travel event - we stayed with a friend for 3 days last weekend. He adjusted to that lifestyle beautifully. Stole the hearts of all the humans he met, made several new doggy friends and went on many small adventures. He can’t wait to go back next week!
When I get asked what it looks like when I raise a puppy, it’s hard to truly show you. Are we working on some obedience things, of course. We’ve worked on recall, leash skills, impulse control and a little bit of sit.
But the vast majority of puppy training (aside from potty/kennel training) is all about confidence building, engagement and environmental socialization. Going outside and hanging when there are loud noises or dogs barking. Meeting new people, meeting new social/balanced dogs. Teaching him that paying attention to me is rewarding & fun.
Then as they get older we take all of that and apply it to all the things we want to teach/show - we use the engagement we built to teach him how to ignore people & dogs. That engagement will also make easier to teach him sit/down/leash skills.
Right now I interrupt/redirect any bad behaviors, usually with a leash/body language and food 😉 and show him what I want him to do instead. As he gets older we’ll hold him accountable for all the things we’ve shown him.
We’ve also been battling tummy issues this week, hopefully🤞🏻we’re putting that behind us so we can get back to working on engagement and recall and I can get more videos for you guys.
Today is the first day we’ve worked on anything aside from potty training, kennel training and pack socializing. I like to give them time to adjust and decompress.
This was a trip to the mailbox and back, just working on staying semi engaged and walking with me, usually he darts from side to side, cuts me off or tries to go behind me. So I’m very happy with how quickly he figured out which side is the rewarding side! ❤️
Lucifer had his first public outing today (with me) and you guys, 🥹 he absolutely smashed it!!
He did sooooo much better than expected.
Lucifer came to me with pretty impeccable obedience already, his biggest issue in public is his leaking (whining) when he gets bored, impatient or frustrated (and his dog reactivity, we will be working around dogs this next week). So, I expected a much more vocal dog today. He let a couple whines that were immediately interrupted and that was it.
Enjoy 10 mins of him walking around Orschlen’s and then Feldman’s. We spent roughly 45 mins at Orschlen’s (15 walking, 15 sitting (which is where I expected the most whining) & 15 walking). Then 25 mins at Feldman’s walking around.
I always start outside before going in, if he wasn’t able to focus on me outside in the parking lot he probably wasn’t going to be able to focus on me inside. I absolutely rewarded every moment he gave me focus, couple times with just a good boy/head scratch. The more we work the less I’ll reward him with food but right now, I need that reward.
He needed one solid leash correction when we first got inside Orschlen’s to remind him to pay attention. It is Lucifer’s “job” to pay attention, so when I walk he walks, if I slow down he slows down, if I speed up so does he, if I stop he stops. I want all of this without verbal guidance from me, he’s gotta use that brain, eyes & ears to “keep up”. As I said, he absolutely smashed it. 🥰
I forgot my tripod, so I almost didn’t record this. But Lucifer was doing soooo good I had to get some video.
We started ecollar conditioning this afternoon, that session was less then stellar with an extremely distracted Lucifer. So when we started this afternoons sessions, I expected an equally distracted Lucifer. However, he surpassed all expectations. This is the most engaged he has been with me, offering engagement without me saying anything to him. ❤️
Naturally my favorite part is out of camera view.
We had an impromptu training moment, Amazon delivery. I ended giving them more space, while also giving Lucifer more space as I expected him to be extremely distracted and forget I existed. He didn’t though and kept checking in - essentially every time I said yes or clicked he gave me eye contact 🥰.
Of course we try and end every session with some loves. ❤️
This evenings training session did not go as planned.
Instead, Lucifer finally decided playing with the ball sounded like fun, so we did that instead! 🥰
