Wasatch Canine Camp Newsletter

Today I had Beau, a 1-year-old Cocker Spaniel, in for day training.  He’s here to work on leash manners without a halti on.  The video below is of him on the treadmill for the second time.  I taught him the treadmill today to help boost his confidence a little bit, because I’ve notice he’s a little shy and nervous.  He still has a lot to learn about the treadmill, but he will definitely get better.  He is doing awesome with his leash work as well!

This video below is of Lucy, a German Shepherd I had here for day training.  I was teaching her how to walk nicely on a loose leash.  She did an awesome job, and was really fun to work with!  Don’t you think she could be Sasha’s twin, though?

Today I had Doc, the 5-year-old Standard Poodle, for day training again.  This was his third day working with me and my dogs.  He is a unsocial, nervous dog when he is around other dogs, so we are trying to teach him how to trust and communicate with other dogs, and we’re helping to boost his self esteem.  The first video below is of his first meeting with my dogs today.  I put him on the treadmill to keep him moving, so that he wouldn’t sit in a corner and shut down.  This first interaction with my dogs was definitely hard for him.  He kept his tail low the majority of the time, and even snapped at Sasha for sniffing his face.  He does get a little better at the end of the clip.

This second video is of Doc and Crush socializing with my dogs.  Doc does a lot better in this video.  He has his tail up most of the time, is willing to let other dogs sniff him, and even sniffs other dogs himself.  I really liked seeing this progress with him, considering how nervous he was in the first video.  Crush does really well with him in this video, too.  When I first introduced them there was a lot of growling and barking, mostly because they were meeting through kennels.  There was lots of barrier frustration between them.  Once they were able to be out and off leash with each other they did a lot better.

This third video is of Crush working on the electric dog training collar today.  She is doing a lot better, and is even able to work off leash more frequently.  The last time I had her off leash was the first day I had her here.  Every day since then she has been testing her limits a lot more, so I had to stick her back on a long line.  Today I could tell she was starting to understand where she needed to be, and what she needed to do when she felt stimulation on the collar.  I’m really pleased with her progress so far.  The main things she is struggling with right now is the “down” command, barrier frustration, and eating comfortably around my dogs.  She has no trust towards other dogs, and so she isn’t comfortable eating when they’re around, but she will get better.

Today I have Bently, a one year old Pit Bull, in for day training.  Bently is a pretty difficult boy.  I have been working with him and his owners on dog behavior training for the last few months.  These are the areas he’s struggling on:  jumping over the fence at his house to get out, breaking out of just about any kennel, and he is a little dog reactive.  Over all in the house, he’s a really good boy, and pretty obedient.  He really struggles with separation anxiety and keeping his energy level down when he sees other dogs.  Today I am working on his obedience when there are other dogs as a distraction, teaching him to ignore cats (if possible in one day), working on his separation anxiety, teaching him the “drop” command, and testing to see how he responds on the electric dog training collar.

Surprisingly enough, he hasn’t been showing any major signs of separation anxiety.  When I first put him in his crate so he could relax for a bit, he started whining and pawing at the door.  I decided to put an electric dog training collar on him and correct him on a low level until he stopped.  It only took him about 4 or 5 corrections before he gave up and relaxed, which is what I like to see.  It shows that he can respond on low levels before listening.

I’ve attached a few videos and pictures below of me working with Bently during the day.  The first two are of me working with him on dog obedience training with other dogs as a distraction.  The third video is of me working him on the electric dog training collar for the first time.  I think he did fairly well in all three videos.  The pictures are of him when I was working with him around my cat, Vito.  He did really well at first, while I was taking the pictures, and then Vito became more stressed about a new dog being in the room.  Bently could definitely feel that stressed energy from Vito and it made Bently become very reactive to him, which is what I wanted to see.  His owners don’t have a cat, but Bently does chase cats in the neighborhood.  The cats in his neighborhood are most likely in a very stressed and fearful state of mind, and Bently needs to learn to ignore that.  He did okay while I was teaching him to ignore the cat, it is definitely something that is a work in progress.  Most dogs that are reactive to cats take a few days to a few months before they learn to truly ignore the cat.

open source video, video platform, open source video editor

Below is a video from today’s little bit of socialization I did at home.  Cinnamon is a 4-month-old Cokcer Spaniel that was here for day drop off training, Pooka is a mix of some sort that was here for boarding, Della is a Pit Bull that is here for Board and Train, and Missy is a dog I am trying to find a home for.  Enjoy the video!

Today I had Rachel, the Pit Bull, here for day drop off training, and Sookie, an American Bulldog, for day training as well.  Rachel was here for more socialization and obedience.  Sookie was here for socialization, obedience, and work with distractions.  Rachel did pretty good today.  She was being a little shy around the dogs during socialization, but did awesome during her obedience work.  Today I taught her a new command, the place command.  She did pretty good, and learned it quicker than I had expected.  The place command works really well for situations like when they’re begging around the dinner table, you can just send them to their place and they have to stay there until you release them.

Sookie was extremely nervous when she first got here.  She stayed in the corner a lot of the time, and snapped at the dogs quite a bit.  After about twenty minutes she settled in and actually started playing with the other dogs, which was good to see!  She did very well with her obedience.  I had three dogs out with us while I was working with her, and she did great!  She kept her focus on me pretty well, and did everything almost instantly (shown in the video below).  She definitely still needs a lot more consisent work at home in order to be perfect around distractions.

Below is a video of Rachel’s second day here for day drop of training and Daisy’s first day of day drop off training.  Both dogs were here for dog obedience training.  The video is of just the socialization part of the training.

Today I had Rachel, a three-year-old Pit Bull, in for day drop off training.  She is a very sweet and submissive girl, but does have a few things she needs worked on.  She is a little unsocial around other dogs, and when they start to rough house she feels like she has to be the “fun police” and break them up.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t know how to be the fun police, and it usually ends up in a little scuffle.

She did awesome today and learned a lot.  I did a lot of socialization with her to help her feel more relaxed around the dogs.  I also worked on a lot of her obedience to build up her patience.  The first video below is of her first meeting with my dogs, and the second video is of me working on some obedience with her.

Yesterday I had Henry, a Boxer mix, and Bugsy, a German Shepherd puppy, in for day drop off training. Bugsy was here for socialization and to work more on his obedience. I have been working with him and his owner for a few weeks now, but Bugsy is really struggling on stay around distractions. He did pretty well. His focus level is definitely at puppy level, so it takes him about 5-10 minutes before his focus is even there so he can listen to you. Once you get his focus he is very happy to listen and learn. I worked with him about 2-3 times yesterday on leash work and his obedience. This should help out his owner quite a bit at home.

Henry was here, because lately he has been extremely protective over balls, food, toys, etc. His behavior is not just towards dogs, but any animal. He once bit a horses face because he was going for a carrot that was on the ground. He is never like this with humans, though, only other animals. I first worked on his possession aggression with Jake, and he could have cared less about the ball. Jake has a very confident personality, so I know that was why Henry didn’t want to mess around with him. I then decided to work with Rosco, my submissive Lab. Henry, of course, knew he could take advantage of Rosco and jumped on him the second Rosco got the ball. The nice thing about Henry is he is extremely sensitive, so it didn’t take much for me to snap him out of it, and calm him down. He only snapped at Rosco one other time before he realized he had to share. After that he was great the rest of the day, I was even able to get him to be out while all six other dogs (Jake, Sasha, Bugsy, Daddy, Rosco, and Harley) were playing fetch without any problems whatsoever.

Here is just a little video of all seven dogs socializing yesterday.

Today has been a rough day for Dana. I have been working with her extra hard on dog behavior training and aggressive dog training using the electric dog training collar. She did pretty well this morning. She walked fine on the treadmill, ate just fine with my dogs around, and did everything I asked her to. This afternoon when I let her out to work with her around my dogs, she was struggling quite a bit. She started off well, and even drank out of the water dish with Jake and Rosco. Right after that, though, it was almost like something snapped and she started attacking whichever dog came near her. I stayed calm and patient, and tried to calm her down, but in her blind rage she accidentally bit my arm. There was no blood, just a bruise, not a big deal. It was still a very odd outburst from her. After she calmed down I tired again. It’s very important to end on a good note, otherwise if you end on a bad note, that’s where you will start the next time you try it. She did better the second time. Basically, all I wanted her to do was follow me while my dogs walked around the yard, and stay when I asked her to, even though my dogs were a major distraction. This was the first day I’ve tried working with her around all four of my dogs, so that may be part of the reason why she had the outburst. I may have just worked her a bit too hard. After I got her settled down, and she did about 10 minutes of focus work, I walked her on the treadmill again. I don’t usually walk her on it in the afternoon, but she was just so worked up from the fight, that I wanted her to burn off a little extra steam. I will try this again tomorrow, and hopefully she will do better.