Raina works on a simple impulse control exercise by leaving the treat, looking at me and making eye contact, I then mark and reward from the treat bag. Never give or allow them to eat the treat they were being trained to ignore!
Tag Archives: german shepherd
Wordless Wednesday
“Sometimes i take comfort in the pictures and i close my ears off to the words that hurt me”
Our first negative trail
Eme has had a good week, a lot of really challenging good trails set up thanks to the hard work of my teammates! Today we attempted our first ever negative trail area. Essentially the scent article was collected from my subject and presented in an area he had NEVER been in. Instead a 30 minute hot track had been laid by another subject whom she had not been given a scent article for. This was a completely new concept to Miss Emeline as she has ALWAYS had her trail somewhere in the vicinity of where i have casted her.
Well she really did wow me today. I scented her on the tshirt and she gave me negatives in two directions saving the direction down toward the water where she did have the distraction trail as last. I sent her down there to check it out and she showed some interest in it, i told her no and casted her a bit further out same reaction but she steered herself back up to the scent article. She stopped and i re scented her again and she just sat down “um duh mom it’s not HERE!” You’ll see that around 1:20 of the video.
So proud of her!!
Flashback Friday
This weeks flashback friday post is pictures of the canine copilot dogs out and about for Elite Instinct Canine training sessions.
Raina and I at Home Depot
Franky in the car waiting for the lesson to begin
Abby in a sit stay
Wordless Wednesday
Pictures of my dogs with the students at The Family Foundation School
Raina and Fugly with Adam one of the Dog Corps. Interns
Raina waiting for her toy to be thrown
Fugly and Kevin cuddling after a morning hike
Video clips from today’s escapades
Raina and Emeline fetching their toys
Whats in a birthday
A motorcycle ride, the sun, a day playing in the water with the dogs, and a dinner cooked just for me ❤
Max the handsome Malinois
Franky, trying to run and swallow water at the same time!
Abby running with her toy
Why dogs are as slick as butter
Canine manipulation at its best. “You will throw the toy, you will throw the toy………..”
Many people would like at that statement and go WHAT???!!!!!!!?????
But lets think about it rationally.
-They like to eat butter off the table
-They like to lick butter off your hands
-They like to squish their way into your heart and melt it…….. Ok so its a bit of a stretch but eh the title sounded good!
Today Raina woke up and stared at me for 45 minutes until it was breakfast time. Then after we got home from running our errands she stared at me again for another 2 hours till we went out and did obedience training. Yea shes real slick………….stare at mom enough and through osmosis she will provide for you exactly what you wish. In fact as i sit on the couch and write this she lays 4 feet away chewing on a bone, periodically staring at me in case she misses the flinch of body language that would mean we were doing something fun.
Slicker than your average
An obedient adventure
Raina in a platz
I’m a dog trainer, but i’ve never been a dog trainer who really LOVED teaching obedience. I usually took on the behavioral cases the more challenging canines because i liked the adventure it took me on and i loved watching the dog transform. Now, my dogs have obedience training and all the dogs i teach must have a good foundation of obedience but i never thought i would really enjoy teaching strict competition level obedience.
WELL THAT CHANGED!!!!!!!!
A. It’s necessary fact of life, my dogs already have great obedience why not prove it a bit?
B. It’s wonderful to teach more then just fun tricks and real life skills, obedience routines are an amazing area to perfect a relationship.
C. I like to stay busy?????? ( Please excuse the question marks, sometimes i think i’m nuts)
D. It is FUN!!!!!
I never had anything against competition obedience, i just seemed to focus my training in other venues. This summer however my goal is to get both Abby and Raina obedience titled. This means major focus on their heal, finish, and drop out of motion obedience commands. The commands are less used in everyday life (hence the reason i never really focused on them) but do complete the obedience routine nicely. Both will compete for their BH (Begleithund) which is the precursor for all Schutzhund work. Neither will compete in schutzhund, as they are both SAR certified already and i personally do not wish to mix the two but i figure why not expand my training in knowledge into yet another area?? That is what good dog trainers DO!!!!!!
Keep an eye out for more posts on their training and success during this adventure.
A GSD and her Malinois
If you watch close you can see them playing “house”
Elite Instinct K9 Training 