So, I just got Susan Garrets DVD 2x2 weaves, and I am ready to get started! She says that you can  teach a dog to weave 12 poles in 12 days, so I am ready to put it to the test! I actually am not surprised by this, if you and your dog are shaping savvy. So I am very excited to get started and see how it goes.

Kenzie did great at our group class last week. I was thrilled that by the end of class, she was actually calm enough to be able to demonstrate how to be shaped for new behaviors.

Her tee...
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Update on Kenzie's reactivity training post-vacation...she is fine! A little more reactive to the sound of dogs barking than she was before, but that I can handle =)  We are still able to go to the dog park and be social...HUGE. I have a new dog training class starting tomorrow that I intend to use Kenzie in as a demo dog, we will see how it goes! I have never been able to use her in any of my classes before because she was way too reactive and required 100% of my attention any time there wer...
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So, after the last post, we had about one week before going on our 2 week vacation in Hawaii...a vacation that we were not able to take the dogs on. During that last week of training we were able to take Kenzie into the dog park to run around with other dogs one other time, and that went wonderfully! There were five dogs in the park when we first went in (after the initial warm-up/meet and greet through the dog park fence of course), but two dogs were in the process of leaving, so that left u...
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So, yesterday after the huge affair in the middle of the night when we had to turn the musical back on, etc, Kenzie only barked one time all day, and that was at 9am. It was not a full throttle bark, instead of the usual "oh my gosh! I just geard something that is going to eat me, I just know it!!!!!!" bark, it was more of a "I think I just heard something, but I'm not sure, so I'm just going to bark to be on the safe side". From when I got up at 6am, she was on a new program...since we had n...
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So, I took Kenzie out for a walk in a neighborhood in the nearest town last week. I was planning on walking her there since there was very very little chance of a dog being free to come into the road (since it is a subdivision they all have fenced in yards, as opposed to the country roads around us, where dogs run free). Unfortunately I underestimated how big a deal it was that in the past 3 months (since I started working 80hrs a week), the only Reactivity training I had done was to do an oc...
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Warning, this is long, so if you want to just read the first and last paragraph you can =) 

 

So, Kenzie has been way too reactive for me to take to any of my regular dog training classes (I am a trainer), so instead, I have been taking her a private lesson I do with a friend, which we do next to a very big field. I work with her way out in the field as the client is getting set up and warming up her dog. Each week for 3 weeks now I have been working my way closer and closer, but Kenzie ha...

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After day 6 I got the flu, but fortunately my wonderful husband stepped up to the plate and took her to the dog park to throw the ball for her once a day for the remaining 4 days. On day 11 I took her to the pet store to see if there was a change in her behavior... and there was! Whereas before this challenge, when we saw a dog, she always barked or growled at it, but then was able to be redirected, this time she did not react verbally at all! She was very interested in the other dogs, but sh...

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I have found that our new dog Kenzie is quite dog reactive. This means that she has a strong reaction when she sees other dogs, and in my opinion, it is not a favorable one. She usually gets very stiff, her tail goes straight up, and she barks ferociously. Without any of my secret weapons, she ignores me completely, and I have to pretty much drag her away from the dog to get her to calm down. Now, what about these secret weapons, you may be asking: well, if we are far enough from the dog, and...
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