Tako and his sister Maki are here for boarding. In classic Maki fashion she was too busy doing her own thing to participate in the video. Tako was so happy with the beautiful weather we didn’t mind her not being there. We hope you are enjoying this lovely day.
I cant believe we forgot to welcome Norman back for the week. He’s had the best time running around the farm while his family was off playing in the snow. Lincoln is is heaven with his current best friend forever.
It’s important for dogs to learn how to just relax. Pickle has had a busy day so far learning and exploring. He accompanied me to my horses farrier appointment. He’s listening intently to horses squealing, metal banging and cats frolicking. Not every social outing has to be about interactions. Sometimes you need to sit back and just take in your surroundings from a nice quiet head space.
Lulu is back for her obedience portion of her puppy prep school. So far she’s not thrilled with the hard work and much prefers running in huge circles with her friends.
Happy Monday everyone. Enjoy Lulu making herself totally at home at the Honda dealership while we wait for my car maintenance. A confident social dog can go anywhere and fit right in. Lulu goes on at LEAST 2 outings a week to distinctly new puppy safe places every week. In the last 7 days Lulu has been 5 new places. The very first new place she went during her training stay she was shy and uncomfortable for the first 10 minutes. When nothing bad happened she came out of her shell. Each time we go somewhere she settles faster and faster realizing that new isn’t bad, it’s just different. She’s not a naturally super confident dog, but diversity of experience is teaching her to be bold and outgoing.
It’s so hot. Lucky for me all of the boarding dogs love the water. Two chocolate labs, a Portuguese Water Dog and a mini labradoodle who clearly got the chocolate lab throw back gene. It’s been hard to convince them to come and dry off every day.
The disadvantage of being a trainers dog is never getting to be first up for training. Last night at 9:30 when Lincoln came up to me begging for a training session we worked on forward momentum pulls. This is his second session working on pulling me up out of a chair. He’s not taking my full weight at all but rather getting confident with the mechanics and working through the slight resistance I’m offering. Even though this is only his second session with this exact behavior, he’s had loads of foundation work. The list of things that went into making this session go so smoothly;
Marker conditioning both clicker and Treat and Train
Heel/return to side
Stand with built in stay command
Sending out to a marker
Bracing into his harness while standing still
Moving forward from one marker to second marker farther away
