Congratulations to Life Skills 101 Class!! Today we worked on a hodgepodge of skills they’ve learned over the last five weeks. They worked on sit/down stays with and without recall, middle, disengagement, and loose leash walking skills. This was a great group of dogs and handlers! Congratulations to the winners from the “win” jar! Luna and her people won a tug toy, and Cooper and his people won a free one-hour consultation with me. Thanks to Stephanie from Woodbine Woof Pack for pulling our winners’ names, as well as all of your help in setting up for class!
Puppies learned to put together the Middle cue and Paws Up cue. Great job, Dobby and Navajo!!
These guys did awesome practicing Drop the Leash and Run game. A game that builds value in proximity to you even without holding a leash. Great job, pups and peeps!!
Enrichment is an important part of our day. Sadie loves interactive ways to eat some of her daily allowance of food. Not only is this good for brain stimulation, but it’s also building confidence and optimism. She’s figured out how to make the food come out and does it repeatedly ~ great confidence boost, and she’s interacting with something new ~ great optimism boost.
To add to the previous post, we’re now doing some DMT. Changing how she feels about the kids through some positive pairing. Instead of kids mean bark, we’re slowly changing it to kids mean look at mom and get a wonderful treat.
This exercise is great for teaching a dog to keep focus on you in the face of distractions, and ~ BONUS~ it helps with loose leash walking skills as well. Win, win! This duo has been working so hard together to build confidence and optimism. Cody struggles with worrying about the world around him, and being outside is one huge distraction for him. They are doing a phenomenal job!
Hazel is learning the game of Middle. Why is Middle a great game?
✔️ Builds confidence
✔️Gives the dog a safe place
✔️Great for focus
✔️Great for recall
We don’t know a lot about Hazel’s life prior to being adopted. What we do know is she has learned not to trust luring with hands, so we started slowly and worked at getting her comfortable by dropping treats on the floor to get her in Middle. She’s doing a great job. We’re building trust by letting Hazel be in control and not forcing her to do something she doesn’t want to do.
Finn struggles with things that are new or different and sees them as something he needs to worry about. Today we are building both his confidence and his optimism by pairing new things with food. He’s doing a great job! Starting small is key. Setting him up for success with lots of little wins will help him get to the bigger win of feeling confident and optimistic in the face of new things/environments/people/sounds/smells. Way to go, Finn!
Look at this adorable puppy!! Isn’t he just the cutest?! His people are working hard with him, and he’s loving every minute of it. Great focus. Great listening skills. Fabulous job, Sunny! 🐾🐾💙
Winnie is learning through games that engaging with her person is far more rewarding than pulling at the end of her leash. Great job, Winnie!!
