Success story

Okay, this might not sound like much to those of you with shy little compliant dogs....but for those who have witnessed the past year of mayhem and despair with Nala, small triumphs are everything.

First, some background. The trainer I have been working with has really emphasized using "body blocks" to control the dogs. Since most of the time in your home a dog is off-leash, it's important to be able to train and work with them without a leash on! I always have felt this way and was always very frustrated with our puppy class trainer who insisted I snap a leash on Nala every time I wanted to work with her. I'm too lazy for that!

So anyway, my new trainer agrees that while a leash is a good tool, it's valuable to be able to communicate your desires without one. She also advocates doing this without actually touching the dog - having to push the rear end down to sit or grabbing a muzzle, etc. "Body blocks" take advantage of a dog's inclination to speak with their body language. When one dog wants another dog to move in a certain direction, they use their bodies to "push" the other dog out of their space, etc.

So on to the small victory. This morning, I was trying to get the dogs to go outside, but Nala was busy jumping all over Bonnie and Bonnie was trying to hide. So I made my "Ehhhh!!" noise that means "wrong!" and got in between them. Whenever Nala tried to jump Bonnie, I would move to intercept her. I also leaned toward her and put on my "stern face" - you know, the face you make when you find your 2-year-old using ice cream to paint the kitchen floor. I calmly told her, in a low voice, to sit. She was so hyped up, she actually barked back at me - she only talks back when she's really wired. I told her to sit again, still giving her the menacing look....she thought about it.....and then she did it! Wahooo!!

As she sat, I gave her the stay command and signal. She looked at me and looked at Bonnie and barked and barked....but she sat! She did break the stay when I turned to attend Bonnie, but I am still considering it a victory, knowing how absolutely wired she was.

Yay!! I am also beginning to work on stays with Nala with me leaving the room (when I remember to work on anything at all), and I can now (sometimes) back up 2-3 feet from Bonnie and she will hold her stay (twitching the entire time, of course).

 

(insert sounds of angel's harps here) Yipee! That is a victory! Take them where you can get them because you never know when that ice cream will be painted on the floor! Sarge will hold his stay in front of his newly filled food dish and will not move to eat till I release him. Then he will jump up on the couch and then, kind of, get panicky and jump off before I can say anything. Like he jumped out of instinct then remembered he's not supposed to and then get down. Of course, acts like a fool lost other times but, hey, he's a puppy. I got him the Gentle Leader this weekend and that has help so much with the walking/pulling issue. Thanks for everyone's advice and tips. (Especially for the small manual from Jamiya that I actually printed out and took home!!!)

 

No, no Jamiya, not , it's :bow_now:

 

:-k

way to go Nala, think baby steps!

honeybear

 

Glad you are making progress!