Bottom and Snow

Just some cute pictures of the two of them together.

Snow Training

Here are several pictures of Snow. He can heel off-leash, sit, down, come, and stay. We have also been working on touching him around his neck and rear. He has been very sensitive in these areas and touching him here has caused him to react aggressively. He is doing much better with that now, although this will need to be reinforced when he returns home. The last picture is of him learning to allow me to put him in a grooming position and touch his head and rear.

Bottom Training

Here are several pictures of Bottom during his training session. He walks on and off-leash, will sit, down, stay and come. He is doing well with most of his commands. Consistency will

be the most important thing when he comes home to you.

Christmas Decorating

Bottom and Snow helped me decorate for Christmas over the weekend. Well, not really, but wouldn't that be a great surprise! Haha! Well, they did behave well and stayed on their place while I was putting ornaments on the tree. Here are some pics of them and also of our terrier Dona and Abigail, one of our past trainees in for boarding.

Bottom and Snow

Bottom and Snow are two very cute little dogs with two very different personalities. They are doing pretty well learning their new commands, although we have had a few obstacles to face. Both dogs are learning to walk on the leash, sit, down, and place. While both have had aggressive issues in your homes, so far, only Snow has presented them to me. The most difficult command for Snow is the "down". The Down command is the most submissive command you can put a dog in. If they are going to challenge you, it is usually in this command. However, I can say that today he is doing much better with that command. He will most likely test you with this command, but we will show you how to reinforce this behavior in your Going Home Lesson.

Bottom has had some mild issues understaning the collar. I think you had mentioned that he had been on a bark collar in the past. This may be playing a little bit of a role in that confusion. We are now incorporating treats to help with his confusion and it really seems to help. Treats, of course, will be weaned out prior to him coming home. He is very willing to work for us and is learning his commands very quickly.

Above are pictures of Bottom and Snow in sit and down commands and one is a picture of Bottom waiting at the door with our terrier Dona.

Rocky and Max Downtown

I took Rocky and Max to downtown Lincolnton earlier in the week. They both did great among the walkers on the rail trail and the cars driving by. Both heeled nicely on a loose leash and would sit and stay under distractions. They have both been excellent students and I hope they will continue to grow in their new knowledge as you now take the reins of "Pack Leader".

Training "Place" and Long Down

Here are some pictures of us working on "place" and "down-stay" or "sit-stay". When we train now, one dog usually will stay on "place" or in a long down while the other dog is practicing "heel", "come", and "sit". This helps add to the distractions and giving us more control under different circumstances.

Max Trains Off-leash, Too

Max is doing great with his training. He is also working completely off-leash. Although we will do more work with them in leash training, both he and Rocky are controllable simply using the e-collar. He will sit, down, heel, go to place, and come.

Here are some pictures of Max performing come, heel and place among distractions. Rocky is in a sit watching Max's training session. You can just barely see Rocky in the last picture sitting next to the brick wall.

You can click on each picture to view them better.

Rocky Training Off-leash Under Distractions

Rocky is doing great in his training. We can now work with him with NO leash attached. He will heel, sit, down, come and go to place under distractions. He is really understanding his role here. He does still have a lot of fun playing with Mara, our German Shepherd, but when the get a little too rambunctious, we get them back under our control with a slight tap with the collar.

Here are some pictures of Rocky performing heel, down-stay, come, and return to heel while Max remained in a down-stay looking on.

Hangin' Out in the House

I first want to apologize for the lack of entries in the blog. We have had such TERRIBLE internet access since our move it was virtually impossible to upload any pictures to the blog. Even after buying a wireless internet card from Cingular, our internet access was subpar. Well now I am very pleased to announce that our internet issues have been solved. We purchased an internet card from Verizon and it is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! WAAYYY faster than the Cingular card and even faster than our old cable broadband through Charter!!! Can you believe that???!!! Sorry, but I am so excited about having great internet access I can barely contain myself. Verizon, YOU ROCK!!! Ok, now on to the blog...

Here we are all hangin' out in the house. The boys are doing great with their "place" command. They stay on their beds even when I have to leave the room for a few minutes. This command is going to help you control their behavior inside the house.

Max cracks me up with the way he sits up! Such a character! Rocky is usually the first one to fall asleep on his "place". He just totally relaxes here.

Rocky and Max begin training

Rocky and Max are both doing well with their training. They are each learing the collar quickly. Both are walking politely at our side and are learning sit and down using the e-collar, along with stay and place. Here are some pictures of them training together today.

Sasha and Bailey train together

I trained with Bailey and Sasha together yesterday. One would relax on the Place while the other would be training with me. They did great using each other as distractions. Both are doing excellent with "stay" and "place".

Bailey and Sasha Play Together

Bailey and Sasha have enjoyed playing with each other and the other dogs. This has been very good for Bailey because she was very intimidated by other dogs when she first arrived. Now she enjoys her time running around the yard and playing with everyone.