Riley For Training

Riley is an almost 2year old German Shepherd. He is Thor (the black German Shepherd's younger brother. . . so to speak). He's hear for the same training as Thor! He is a very sweet, submissive guy. He gets along great with the other dogs. They ran & ran & ran so hard lastnight & he slept even harder. Stayed tuned for more on Riley!

Maddie's New Love

Maddie has a girlfriend..... and she's a pretty lady if I do say so myself. She's my 6 year old Basinji-mix, Cammi. She is a very shy girl herself & she is very selective as to whom she will befriend. Well, well, she & Maddie make quite a cute couple. They play so hard outside, they lay next to each other in the house & they get so excited to see each other. It's pretty cute. On a training note, Maddie is doing pretty good. He has some insecurity issues as a whole that will take a bit more time, but he's doing really great. No problems in the crate at all. He goes in with no problems. He's scheduled to go home Friday & I know his momma is ready to have him back. Cammi will be sad she no longer has her friend, but Maddie will be back to visit again the beginning of November!!

Rainy Days . . . Lazy Days

Today was a productive day in the laundry category but not so much in the dog training category. The rain has put a damper on us working outside, so this morning Maddie & I worked a bit in the house & then it was off to sleep for Maddie. He & the rest of the gang have been quite lazy. Wrigley, a Whippet-mix, was dropped off this morning just to visit with us while her mom & dad take a relaxing vacation this week, so I'm glad to have her here.

Thor finished his training & did fabulous. Thor's brother Riley starts his training on Monday!! I'm so excited. I'm glad to know Thor's owner was impressed enough to sign his other dog up;

very exciting for me!! I hope you guys like the pictures.

Bath Time At My House

It was bath day at my house for my gang. It's their favorite day of the week!! (I say that w/complete sarcasm). Here's a few cute pictures! I hope you guys like! :o)

Cammi

Ruger

Diesel

Lexi

Thor the Stinker

Thor has become quite the clown over the last few weeks. He's very silly & playful. We did have to work on him responding to the commands off the leash if the cat is outside. In the house he hasn't made much of a stink about the cats but Foxie got outside yesterday & she ran up the hill infront of Thor. It triggered his "prey drive" & the tore up the hill after her. It took quite a few nicks on the remote collar to get him to respond. So I set him up again for it & he's smart enough not to mess up twice. We'll see how he does today when I set him up again. Thor's bestest friend is Diesel, my 2 year old German Shepherd. They love to chase eachother around the yard & hide the Kong from eachother. Thor is schedule to go home tommorow (Thursday). He'll be very missed. I know Diesel will miss his new buddy.

Maddie Is Coming Around

Maddie has been doing very well over the past few days. He's starting to get very excited to see me when I come home now, he's coming to me unprovoked for affection, which I'm very happy to see. He was a bit shy in the beginning. Maddie has had no problems in his crate at all. . . . so far. He's not going into on his own but he's not having adverse reactions to being in his crate either. He goes in on command & he wait to come out until I ask him to (that's a huge change from before when the second the door was slightly cracked he's bust through almost knocking me over.) He's also learning not to bolt out doors when they are open. He absolutely loves being outside. (Note to mom: if you have a small area in your yard where you could put a tie out or fence a small area, I know Maddie would absolutely love it). He will go outside & sunbathe for hours. He's such a sweet boy. He's getting much better about his obedience. At first he was very lazy & tried to shut down everytime we'd try to work. But now I think he's starting to understand it can be fun & it means he gets to go for a walk & see & smell new things. He's coming along nicely. He hasn't buddied up with anyone yet but there's still time :o) He will play a little bit for just second & then he runs back to me very pleased with himself and then he's done playing. It's quite cute.

Maddie's Great Day

Well Mr. Maddie has done fabulously! He made it through the night without a peep in his crate. He went right in layed down & slept all through the night. He spend the morning with me running errands & then he stayed home while I gave my riding lessons for 2 or 3 hours. He did great! No whining, no panicing; he was just fine! I know it's still early in the game though. We still need to see how he does when he starts feeling comfortable.
We also worked on his obedience today. He learned how to heel nicely at my left side & to sit & wait whenever I stop. He learned his sit (stay) as well. He's such a sensative guy & a bit lazy but he did great! He's had a long day & he's sound asleep next to Tanner & Ruger. He's made great friends. He's not much into playing with them as of yet but he likes to follow them around the yard & sun bathe. We'll see what tomorrow brings :o)

Update on Thor

Well it's been a week since I've posted an update on Thor. Thor has been introduced to the remote collar & we're working on phasing out the leash so he's responsive to all his commands without the leash. So far, so good. We're still working on him responding to the commands around the distraction of the other dogs & with distance between us. He still likes to push the limits a bit when I call him to me & he's across the yard & he is in the middle of playing. Stayed tuned for a new video of Thor's progress over the past week!

Maddie Sweet Face

This is Maddie, a 1 1/2 year old Labrador Retriever. He is an absolute doll but he has very bad separation anxiety. For the next two weeks Maddie will be learning the basic obedience along with learning how to feel comfortable when being left alone. He really enjoyed spending the afternoon running errands with me, Ty, Ruger & Chaser! He met my momma this afternoon & took quite a liking to her. He even whimpered when she went outside to get the mail. He is sound sleep under my feet at the moment. I think he's pooped. We'll see how the next couple of days go as he learns to feel comfortable being alone & learning crate training. More to come later on. . . . .

Thor's Great Day

Thor did fab-u-lous today. He might be one of my favorite shepherds I've trained. He's so much fun to work with. We're finishing up refreshing him on his basic commands, sit, down, sit & down stays, come w/auto sit, & heel w/auto sit. He's played great with the gang & hasn't noticed the cats much. Since it was still muddy this morning. We worked in the house on his on leash commands. I hope you guys enjoy the video of Thor's progress.

STELLA THE MAGNIFICENT!!

Stella had quite a day of hard working & it definitely paid off. This morning it was still drizzling & our house is a new development so the backyard is almost all dirt, so we had to let thing dry out a bit before we could play outside. We worked on her off leash commands in the house with the other dogs & cats around to distract as well as ringing the door bell and such. Later on in the afternoon we did get to play outside. I worked on letting Stella out & letting her get engaged in playing, then I would call her back & put her on place. She did excellent. I hope you guys enjoy her videos of working today. Great day Stella monkey!!

Stella is curled up in Boomer's crate & chewing on his bones. She is perfectly content in that teeny-tiny crate. Silly girl :o)

Stella practicing her off leash in the house

Stella playing & then being called in

Rainy Days Call for Lazy Dogs

Stella would rather not be on her place right now. Trooper would rather be playing ball

Tonka says "no pictures please"

Do you think there's tounge left in his head


The rain hasn't let up at all today. So it's been a lazy day inside. I think Stella would stay out in the rain if I would let her though. She loves being outside. Here's a bunch of rainy day pictures of the group :o) Hope ya'll enjoy!

Ruger figures since Stella wasn't using her crate, he would.
And Foxie figured since Boomer wasn't using his crate, she would.

Thor

Ty & Chaser

Erin's Homecoming Day

Yesterday was Erin's last day. I was extremely sad for her to go. She did excellent at her go home lesson. Her mom & dad have to practice a bit but she did very well. She's going to be a great great dog. I hope to see her soon for the advanced obedience!

Thor's First Day

Thor has done so well. He's made friends with the gang & he's responding to his commands very nicely. He's still a bit distracted around things but he's doing very well. We'll spend the rest of this week refreshing his on leash obdience & then introduce him to the remote collar!!

Stella's Doesn't Have Her Groove Back

Lol, cute title if I say so myself. My Internet has been down so I haven't been able to post. But anywho, Stella has been quite puzzled the last few days about this whole remote collar thing. She's still on the leash with it right now. She's not quite ready to start the distance portion. She has this look of concern & absolute confusion on her face when I have her in the house & she tries to go for a cat or she tries to play when it's time to chill out. Or if I have her on her place & I hide around the corner & she thinks she's super sneaky so she just runs off really quick. HAHA.... no more!!! It's been pretty great. Pictures to come (mr. camera didn't have batteries).

Thor Martin for Training

This is Thor. He is a 2yr old Black German Shepherd. He is here for a refresher on his obedience & he is finishing up with the remote collar training. He has been very excited to meet the gang. . . especially the cats. After I picked Thor up we took a trip to PetSmart to get his food. He did excellent. Just a quick refresher on his commands & he heeled next to me like a champ the whole time. He ignored all the other dogs & sat nicely while we checked out. Thor is going to do great, I'm sure. Stay tuned for updates on Thor!

She's Baaaack

Stella Stella has returned! She's back to finish up with the Advanced Obedience. Her momma & daddy will be so pleased to have that added control of her off the leash! I'm very excited about working with her some more. She's going to have a ball playing with everyone & I'm hoping she's going to have a ball learning the off leash work. More to come on Stella..... :o)

Bye Bye Roxie 1

Roxie 1 went home today :o( I'm am sooo sad to see her go but I know her momma & daddy missed her so. She's going to just fine. They're pretty set on making sure she's the best she can be. . . . And hopefully I'll see her back for the Advanced Training!! We'll miss you Roxie!

Bye Bye Roxie 2

Roxie 2 went home today. She did pretty good. I had no idea how defiant she likes to be around her daddy. We're going to have to work on that in follow up lessons. She was so much fun to work with. I'm sure she'll be great after she gets into the swing of things at home. We'll miss having her here!

Erin Update

Erin has finally gone back to being the wonderfully sweet, calm, observant, willing to please young lady I fell in love with. She is coming right along with her training. I can take her in the front yard with me & she's content to just follow me around & stay close. She's doing great on her place command. She's been staying on her place through dinner, while I'm cleaning the house up, & she's even been going to her place just to hang out or fall asleep (her favorite activity). She was going through a "back talking" spell where she would bark at me when I'd give her a command. We worked through that one.... sometimes they just have to go through their bag of tricks. I'm going to be very, very sad when she leaves. She takes Tom want a Great Dane.... who am I to argue :o) She hasn't had any accidents in the house & she's even sleeping late in the mornings! I'm not a morning person so that works great for me! She absolutely loves Ty, the doberman. They explore the backyard together, run together, sleep together, drink together. I think she's in love ;o)

GIRLS GONE WILD . . . . well not really. GIRLS GONE CUTE!!

Roxie 2 Update

Miss Roxie 2 is doing FABULOUS! I can't say enough good things about her. She's very smart & has picked up on everything very quickly. She is very willing to please as long as she knows that you're the one in control. She has been ignoring people food & has actually calmed down tremendously. Part of her exciteded craziness was insecurity & nervousness so I'm glad to see she's calmer. Roxie has loved staying outside since this cool weather has rolled in. She'd stay outside all day if I'd let her! :o) She loves playing with little Roxie & Boomer. They're quite the cute trio. She is staying on her place through dinner & while I return e-mails in the mornings. I think her mom is going to be very happy with her progress!




Here's Miss Roxie holding her sit & her down. She's quite content to just relax & hang out!
Roxie 1 & 2 holding a "down" together!

Roxie 1 - Update

Roxie is doing so well. She has finally started responding to me when the leash comes off. She is a bit of a stubborn girl so you have to be firm with her. She always likes to test you to see if you're really serious..... it can be very frustrating at times. She is consistently pottying outside with no accidents in the house. She is making great friends with the other dogs & she's much calmer around the cats. She likes going outside to play with the gang & she's even started exploring the back yard! It's great for her to be okay with being independent.

Roxie holding her "sit" command!

Fun Pictures!

Roxie & Ty-ty....twins

Roxie on her place!

Erin just hanging out

Playtime w/the Roxies

Dinner Time