Puppy Class
Today we went to the first class of a group class that focuses on teaching your dog to pay attention with distractions around. Loker totally surprised the heck out of me! He did so much better than I expected. His threshold was about 20 feet most of the time, so I kept that distance as…
Working with Distractions
We have been working on loose leash walking here in my neighborhood and Loker has been doing great, so I thought we needed to increase distractions. He has been doing almost perfect on the side-walk so I drove to a local park to practice walking on a new sidewalk, around some children at the play…
Loved Now and Forever
I know this isn’t the best quality picture, but I just had to share it. This picture shows just how at peace Loker looks right now. This is a face of pure serenity and happiness. It has been a joy having this dog as my teacher, for without him, change would not have happened.
We had a major break through yesterday on our bike ride. Loker used to get all “puffed up” whenever we approached other people. (Puffed up as in hackles up, ears forward, tail super-straight up.) Before I would correct this behavior, which would always make him escalate even more to barking and growling. The new method I am using is clicking and treating every time we see something that is scary or unusual. This way he has developed a positive association with things that were previously scary. On the bike ride yesterday, we rode by several different types of people. Instead of puffing up, he looked at them and his ears went up, but there were no hackles, growling, or barking! I calmly and happily encouraged him to move forward and continue with focusing on the ride with words like “let’s go” and “good boy” to keep his mind focused on coming with me and not focusing other people too intensely. He did so well! I can feel a change in him and he is not as intimidated by strange people anymore with my encouragement.
Loose Leash Walking
Here are some videos of my walk this morning with Loker. He never had a loose leash like this with any kind of correction collar and it is a joy to see him do something because he actually WANTS to! I am so happy for this challenge in my life – for my sake and…
My Dog, My Story
This is the dog who changed my life and my perception of dog training and dog behavior. I was a big Cesar Millan fan before I adopted this boy. I trained over a hundred dogs using the “Dog Whisperer” methods without any issues. However, once I adopted this dog, everything changed. This guy was the…