Hilliary & Ziggy

Hillary  & Ziggy came to me from a vet referral. They had been through several training classes and Ziggy did well in class (controlled environment) and was good at home. However, when taken out, such as to a park, he was at the end of his leash pulling constantly, and had no recall at all, even on leash.

We started with retraining the "Come" command, to help him solidify exactly where come is...to the front of the handler, rewarding each time. Then we taught him to make the decision to turn and come in. We are still working on a 6 foot leash and he is making progress.

Next we started working on getting him to walk on a leash without pulling... a huge undertaking. Since Ziggy is so excited he is not interested in treats to focus, we have been using come and turn-away, and change of direction to get him back. Since he has been doing this behavior for quite awhile, it will take some time to get him where we want. However, the owners are working with great dedication and following the criterian we set up, so I feel we will be successful!

 



Meet Barbara and Maggie

Maggie is a 4 year old German Shepherd, raised from a puppy by Barbara and her husband. Unfortunately, Barbara lost her husband several years ago. She and Maggie recently moved from the country to the city, which caused behavior problems for Maggie.

When we started working together several months ago, Barbara and Maggie were already known in their neighborhood...and not in a good way...

Barbara did not know how to be the leader...and was leaving a lot of decisions to Maggie...and she was making bad decisions...like extreme pulling and barking at dogs, cats and squirrels to name a few...

Last weekend we went hiking in Howarth Park where we had dogs walking towards us, dogs in front of us and dogs behind us...and she never reacted! She walked with Barbara with quiet confidence, making the walk pleasurable for both.

We are now working on solidifying this behavior and establishing a reliable recall. The best part for Barbara is the positive comments she is receiving from her neighbors!

Using "Tricks" To Focus Your Dog

Between privates and classes, I work with a variety of dogs with varied temperaments. Two of the most common problems I see are dogs that are impulsive and constantly pull on their leashes, and dogs that have "issues" with other dogs. There are two things these dogs have in common with each other: 1) Lack of impulse control and 2) Inability to focus on their handler. These two attributes also cause a problem with agility dogs, who are not locked in on their handler, and therefore take and run either the course of their choice or just take off and run.

So last week we started working on some tricks as a way to connect these dogs to their handlers. The tricks we started with were:

1) Touch - where the handler has a treat folded in to his hand, then offers that "fist" to the dog and says "touch". When the dogs bumps the hand with his nose, the hand opens and the dog gets the treat. Switch hands each time.

2) Spin left and right - Hold a treat in the right hand, with the dog in front of you. Use the treat to lure the dog around in a circle to the right. Switch to the treat in the left hand and use it to lure the dog in a circle to the left and feed. Repeat 2 times, alternately going left and right.

3) Sit-Down-Sit - Ask your dog to sit (dog sitting on left) with treat in your right hand. Bring treat hand down towards the ground, directly in front of dog, saying down. Use the same treat in hand, luring your dog back up into a sit the reward with treat. If the down is hard, reward in the down and also for coming back up into the sit. Repeat several times.

For very excitable dogs, teach  this in a very quiet place.