Shaping Roxy on the touch pad: day two
Day one with Roxy: free shaping her touch pad in timelapse. It takes patience, but in the end the behavior is stronger.
King the Rottweiler puppy working on his focused heeling with distractions.
Working on socialization i.e. neutrality with Toshi, the gentle giant. 🚲🚜🧍♀️🧍he’s a rockstar! 😬 #bluedogk9trainingmt #dogtrainer #missoula #boerboelsofinstagram
We were able to successfully rehome this amazing GSD for the Montana Belgian Malinois and Dutch Shepherd Rescue. This is her first day in her new home and we couldn’t be more pleased with her integration.
The old man who was retired from patrol work for not having an out still has it.
This is a video of an eight month old Belgian Malinois puppy named Ahsoka who came to us over the winter for our board and train program. Ahsoka’s owner reached out for some help for some severely undesirable behaviors and likely OCD. And yes, she’s really biting me. Make sure to watch the whole video to see her transformation.
Her owner adopted her from a Humane Society when she was about three months old. Ahsoka came with some special needs. We don’t know what happened, but the whole left side of her face is paralyzed. She can’t control her left ear, the left side of her jowls droop, she can’t blink except for her inner eyelid (nictitating membrane), and we’re quite certain she can’t see out of her left eye or smell out of her left nostril (dogs move their nostrils independently which helps them determine the direction of an odor).
Ahsoka definitely has the drives to be a working Malinois. Unfortunately her disabilities make that impossible. Luckily Ahsoka’s owner is extremely dedicated and refused to give up on her. My hat’s off to him.
There’s a lot packed into this short clip.
It’s so important we understand what causes specific behavioral problems. We often focus too much on the problem itself and not on what caused it. I routinely tell clients we teach our dogs most of their behaviors, whether intentionally or unintentionally. In Ahsoka’s case, she was unintentionally reinforced (rewarded) for jumping on people and biting them. She very much enjoyed the reaction she got from people which caused her to jump and bite even more. Just like people, each individual dog chooses what’s reinforcing to them. Understanding this concept in terms of operant conditioning is imperative.
When Ahsoka first arrived for her three week board and train (wound up being four weeks) I used Negative Punishment to begin extinguishing her behavior of jumping and biting. You’ll see in the video, her “punishment” was nothing more than not reactin
It’s official! Tala has been adopted and will be working as a narcotics detection K9 in the Washington State corrections system.
Tala was witnessed being abandoned and dumped on the side of the road in Oregon. A dog that was essentially thrown away is now being trained to the highest level to help keep us all safe! I’m so glad she made her way to us at Blue Dog K9 Training and the Montana Belgian Malinois and Dutch Shepherd Rescue.
Belgian Malinois are incredible dogs, but they don’t come pre-trained like you see in the movies. If you’re looking for an easy/lay around the house dog, look elsewhere.
Here is good example of Tala’s dedication to the hunt and her environmentals.
Montana Belgian Malinois and Dutch Shepherd Rescue