Bowser's Dog Services

After our session in the pet store Lizzy was in a great state-of-mind but still had a lot of energy. So we stopped into one more store before heading home! We heard Lowe’s had put up a new Halloween display so of course we stopped in to check it out! As expected, she killed it.

Challenge complete✅

Today I am going to bring Lizzy into Petland! I know the over-excited puppies are going to be a challenge for her to ignore so I make sure to spend a lot of time working her outside of the store first. This will get her into a calm and submissive state-of-mind, setting us up for success inside the store!

Remember, the treadmill is a supplement for walks, NOT a replacement!!!

Just three good girls doing their thing😍

So we know she can ignore another little dog…time to test her out with a big boy!

Lizzy has been doing great at staying focused on the pack leader during her walks. Because reactivity towards dogs was one of her bigger issues prior to bootcamp we want to get A LOT of repetitions in with activities like this before she goes home. And yes, my Bubby crocheted both of their outfits.

Watch part 1 first, where we get Lizzy comfortable with the new and busy environment! Once she is working calmly and confidently, we step the challenge up!

Lowes is filled with all sorts of triggers so for Lizzy’s first trip to a store like this we practice all the commands she knows, mostly on-leash. Part 2 coming soon!

Such a confident girly🥰

At this point it was very clear that Lizzy’s refusal to “sit” on surfaces other than carpeting had nothing to do with discomfort and everything to do with dominance. She’s a smart little cookie. She realized that her owners would not follow through with making her complete the command on supposedly uncomfortable surfaces, so she developed a habit of ignoring the command/not holding the command. This is the problem with humanizing our dogs. Lizzy is perfectly comfortable sitting anywhere a dog would normally sit, despite the fact that she is a very small dog. A dog is a dog, regardless of size, breed, age, etc. To accomplish her owners’ training goals (curbing reactivity on walks and creating a calm and relaxed state of mind so as not to disturb their newborn baby) we must go back to the basics. Lizzy is reactive on walks because she doesn’t know what she is/isn’t supposed to do. To make it clear that she is supposed to walk next to me and stay focused on me, I mark those behaviors with treats/praise. To make it clear she is NOT supposed to react I mark those behaviors with leash corrections. This is balanced training. This is treating a dog like a dog. This is fulfilling Lizzy’s instinct to follow her leader. This will help Lizzy stay calm, confident, happy and relaxed. In this session I challenge Lizzy to “sit” on the asphalt, and hold that “sit” until she is told otherwise, MANY times. Not only does this break her bad habit of ignoring the command, it also helps her to stay focused on me, which prevents her from reacting towards the pickle-ballers and even the over excited dog lunging towards her.

Stay tuned to see how she does at the park!!! #hairlessdog #dogsunscreen #dogmomlife #dogsofpittsburgh #dogsofpgh #dogsofpa #pittsburghdogtrainer #pittsburghdogtraining #pittsburghdogsitters #pittsburghdogscene #chinesecrested #dogsindresses #skincareproducts

Day 2 we introduced the concepts of “heel” and “come.” If you watched the first video of this series you know every day starts with a pack walk, which teaches our bootcampers social skills and leash manners. In the beginning of this video we take her new and improved leash manners and put them to the test by walking through the grass. Grass holds scent much longer than asphalt, which makes it a more distracting and challenging environment for our scent-oriented friends to stay focused in. After a few repetitions Lizzy realizes I am asking her to do the same thing here in the grass as I have been asking her to do on our walks: stay focused on me. Once she gets it, we move on to recall training AKA “come” and “sit.” Prior to bootcamp Lizzy’s owners were not able to get her to “sit” on any surface other than carpeting/the couch. After accomplishing sitting on asphalt during our walks, this made sitting in the grass a piece of cake. To create value in listening to the “sit” command I give Lizzy a treat every time she completes it the first time I ask. If I have to repeat myself and use leash pressure to get her to complete the command she only gets physical praise. Even though she learned to hold still on “place” yesterday, holding still in the grass was a bigger challenge and took multiple attempts to accomplish. This is why she gets a BIG reward (“free”) when she does accomplish it.

If you didn’t watch the video before this one, where we set up the activity, definitely go check that out first! This was our last repetition of our first obedience training session. Once she understood the command “place” I challenged her to stay on it while I walked away. Creating distance like this will not only help prevent separation anxiety, but will also help Lizzy build a stronger sense of self-confidence and independence. When I approached her to reward her, she stood up, breaking the command. I waited a few seconds to give her an opportunity to sit on her own and when it was clear that she was not going to, I reminded her. Then I took a few steps away before I “freed” her. This is important. I did NOT want to reward her for standing up and sitting down, I wanted to reward her for sitting still. This is why I added in that last challenge before releasing her from the command via “free.” And because she did such a great job she got LOTS of praise!

Time to start obedience training! We began with the “place” command. I started by using the little dog bed in the background because she is familiar with it and I knew she would hop right on. I did a few quick repetitions, marking the action with the verbal cue, and using LOTS of positive reinforcement. Next I moved onto something more challenging. The red place object is new to Lizzy but she’s a smart dog and understood I was asking her to do the same thing we did with the dog bed. The challenge is asking her to sit still and relax on this unfamiliar object. Once she accomplished that, she got a big reward! In the next video you will see how we ended our first obedience session.

If you’ve been following us you already know the first step! Pack walks!!! One of Lizzy’s training goals was reactivity while on walks. I introduced her to Booky during Basic Training so for day 1 of bootcamp I brought along the familiar face. After bonding with her I determined that her prior reactivity had nothing to do with aggression so for the rest of her stay she walked in a pack of three or more, and met MANY different dogs. We often use our pack of mature and trained dogs to help us train our bootcampers. Dogs are a pack-oriented species and the pack accepted Lizzy immediately which helped her feel safe, calm, and taught her some better manners!

Young Milo learning from some of our best role models, Nymeria, Lucy, Elliot, Daphne, and OG Milo!