Coming Right Along

Luke & Huggie Bear are coming right along & progressing wonderfully. A little hiccups along the way but nothing out of the ordinary. They are both at the beginning stages of the off leash & we're working on minimal distractions at the moment. We spend about an hour either at the park or at Petsmart/Petco meeting people & working in public. Huggie Bear is still INCREDIBLY vocal & we're still working on teaching him how to re-lax & slow down. Luke is meeting people nicely; every once in a while he meets someone that he seems reluctant to visit with but nothing that a little encouragement & direction doesn't fix. My camera needs a new battery so I don't have pictures for this last week. I should have a new battery by this weekend. They both play with the other dogs so great & are making lots of friends. They both seem to have taken to Maggie, my Great Pyrenees pup (10mo). Huggie Bear loves playing chase with her & Luke loves taking turns wrestling & letting her pin him & then they switch. It's quite cute. Luke also plays great with Oliver, my Malti-poo (1yr). He lays on the floor & lets Olli jump all over him. They both are eating great! Luke has definitely come out of his shell & I'm very pleased with his level of socialness (my own word) with people, at this point. We'll keep working & he should have continued daily socialization upon his return home. So A+ for both boy & that's all for now! :o)

Diesel In Action

Diesel is finishing up his service dog training. He's gotten a bit stubborn about retrieving things so I'm working him through that. Next week we'll have lessons with his new family and pretty soon he's be ready to join his new family perminetly. Here's Diesel in action!

Diesel on place, waiting to work. Diesel is preparing to brace me as I stand up
Heeling nicely next to the wheel chair

Pictures!

Shhhh.... Kobi is sleeeeping

Boo (5mo) saying hello to Duke

Princess Molly

Huggie Bear cooling off after playtime Typical Dane

Milo & Olli

Bella & Duke

Boarders Scarlet, Gracie, & Mo

Amy & Mugs

Meet Luke!!

This is Luke! Luke is Ava's litter mate (for those of you who follow the blogs). He is about 9months old German Shepherd that has joined us all the way from Memphis, TN to the Advanced Obedience & some serious intervention towards his barking & "herding" of kids. His first week has been very successful. It took him about a day to warm up to me & Tom and I was happy to see he took to the other dogs immediately. They brought him out of his shell, for sure! He has learned to heel w/auto sit, sit(stays), down(stays) & tons of saying hello to people at PetSmart, the park (if we do see them) & going with me to a few lessons to act as distraction. Luke is a typical Shepherd & definitely needs rules & boundaries. He is very sensitive & definitely looking for direction because of his insecurities (hence the barking & acting out). I hope to have nothing but more positive things to report over the next few days about Luke's progress as I add more distraction to the mix & we continue testing his manners when saying hello to people!

Luke's down (stay)

...... long down(stay). He took a short nap :o)

Hello happy boy in a sit(stay)

Luke saying hello to Faith (kitty)

New Trainee - Huggy Bear

This is Huggy Bear. He is about a year old, Shepherd Mix and definitely acts ALL shepherd. He is with the for the next 3 weeks for the Advanced Obedience. Huggy Bear has some issues with excessive barking, pacing, nervous/excited anxiety & he needs a little people socialization because he's a bit of a nervous Nelly with new people. He is a very sweet boy but has something to say about EVERYTHING & he's quite the drama queen. This past week we've covered the basics on a leash (heel w/auto sit, sit(stays), down(stays), come & started the place command. Mid-day has been rough, with the heat, so our trips to the park have been short & there hasn't been a lot of people there to act as distraction & socialize him..... Hopefully it will cool off a bit. I'm definitely going to have to work on his nervousness & the typical Shepherd whining & yelping thing he does. The neighbors must think he's being tortured when he's just plain excited :o) He love, love, loves playing with the other dogs! It definitely helped him to not be so shy & helps wear him out for bedtime!! More to come on Huggy Bear's progress!!

Homecomings & New Trainess

Helloooo..... long time no blog; Sorry. There's been so much going on & I have to say I just can't get motivated to post on the happenings of my day. So I guess I'll post on the happenings of the last 5 days!

Thursday Recap:
Thursday was Jack's go home lesson. He did awesome & he's coming back tomorrow to board while his family is on a get-away! We also had a new trainee join the gang for Advanced Obedience, but we'll get back to him in a bit! Murphy had his go home lesson as well & he did very well. He was VERY excited to be home & his family is going to have their work cut out for them staying one step ahead of happy-go-lucky Murph! We had a little bit of park time & wrapped up the trainees for Friday's go home lessons :o)

Friday Recap:
Friday was a BIG day! Kobi had his go home lesson as well. He did pretty well. He was definitely happy to be home & definitely is going to keep his family on their toes :o) His next follow up is Thursday so I hope to have good news to report on his first week back home. Rookie, the 4month old puppy that was left at our barn went to his forever home on Friday!! YAY!!! They loved him.... of course.

The weekend was very uneventful. Saturday the trainees had a bit of work & mostly play & then Sunday was a lazy day for everyone. It's nice to just relax with the pups & "work on " not doing anything at all!!

We had a handful of weekend boarders that scooted out by Monday & it is always great to see my old trainees & see how everyone is doing!

Playing Blogger Catch-up :-)

This past week has been busy, busy, busy. I definitely have a full plate! Amy, the white Golden Retriever had her go home lesson on Monday. She was beside herself to see her Daddy. She did very well & he's going to keep up with & reinforce her training wonderfully. I'll have a follow up lesson in a few weeks to check up on their progress together!

CHARLIE & HANNAH:
Charlie hit his stubborn streak over the weekend but moved past that very quickly. He's doing excellent with the other dogs & not trying to always exert his dominance by humping faces or whatever part he can get a hold of ;o) Hannah is doing MUCH better. I have been doing little sessions of placing fun things (shoes, socks, kid toys, food wrappers, etc) around the house that temp her to take & chew on & so far she hasn't fallen for it. This might be a task better performed when she gets home but we'll see.Her potty training has been very good but I'm a bit a stickler when it comes to taking them out very regular & doing a strict feeding schedule. Hannah & Charlie are set to go home this weekend, so more to come later on!

KOBI:
Big-man-Kobi is doing awesome. He definitely has a stubborn streak so his momma & dad will need to that much more persistent than he is but he's going to be a great dog in the long run. He is very smart & very much a thinker. He too has been set up with the objects around the house and he has fallen for it, hahaha, so I've been able to address that. He is very responsive to "NO" so that will come in handy later on with his family. Digging was a bit of an issue for his momma but he has not exhibited that behavior here, so we'll address that once he's home. We had a BIG scare last night with Kobi & Jack playing. Kobi evidently lost a puppy tooth while he was playing with Jack & he came up to me & blood was all over his mouth & on his chin & feet! I freaked for a split second while I was checking the source of the blood. Once I realized it was just a tooth all was right in the world. We got him cleaned up & he was back in the game. He & Jack are the best of buds & it's been great using the other as a source of distraction while working :o) Kobi is set to go home Friday so more to come on Kobi!!

JACK:
Jack is doing awesome, now. He gave me quite a time with his new game of coming to me about 8 feet away & then looking in the other direction & taking off. We've corrected that issue & he's set to go home Thursday! He is also going to be a great dog in the long run. He is by far the calmest Lab I've ever seen. He's very laid back & takes everything in stride. Now that he's minding his manners, not back talking, coming when called & staying put when told, he's awesome!! Jack updates later on!

MURPHY:
Last but certainly not least.... Murphy is awesome. I think he's made the biggest change of all the trainees this go around. He is very well mannered & greets people calmly & without putting his mouth on them. He can go anywhere, around any distractions off leash & now his owners can feel confident he's going to mind all this commands. He is still has that goofy, wild-child side but it's controlled & he now knows there's a time for it and that time is outside with the other dogs. That definitely doesn't mean his momma doesn't have work to come with Mr. Murphy.... he's definitely one that would regress if he doesn't have that consistent reinforcement, on a daily basis of what's expected of him. Murphy goes home tomorrow as well so I'll have updates on Murphy's homecoming later on!