Chevy Graduates!

When I think of the progress Chevy and Jeff have made in just three sessions all I can think to say is "WOW"! What a learning process this has been for me.

Chevy has been an ideal student and has done everything we have asked of him.

I emailed Jeff to let him know I was on my way since we are working on door manners. He commented that Chevy must have known I was on my way because he was very excited. Today he stayed while Jeff opened the door for me but in his excitement ran down the stairs to greet me. I turned away while he situated himself back at the top of the stairs and waited for me to greet him. He shook with excitement but he waited.







Because Chevy was so excited today I put him in a Thundershirt right away and did lots of Zig-Zag and Lying Leopard touches on him to help him settle a bit.









Tonight was lots of fun because we alternated working in the house reviewing commands and learning Leave It and going for walks and even some ground work!

In teaching Chevy "Leave It" I would hold a treat in my hand, not saying anything, and when he backed away I'd give him a different treat with the other hand. It wasn't very long at all that I couldn't even get him to LOOK at the treat he was not supposed to have. We would raise the bar and put the treat on the floor and tell him to leave it. "No Problem" said Chevy, "I know you're gonna give me another one!" Yes, he is a quick learner.



Outside we worked on his dog reactivity by teaching him "Find it". With "Find it" we would walk, get his attention and toss several treats on the ground around him and tell him to "Find it"! He loved this game.

Throughout the course of our session we encountered 3 or 4 dogs. They were at a distance but he saw them and did not react. We did not let that distance get too close so we could focus on setting him up for success.

At one point we redirected him and the other dog was close enough behind us that Jeff and I could hear the dog tags. You KNOW if we heard dog tags so did Chevy! What a very good boy.




Tonight I introduced Chevy to ground work. We set up a mini Confidence Course in the front yard and again he did fantastic. I noticed something really interesting about Chevy. When he was really excited and we wanted to reign him in he was an ace in the course. He would sit or lay down when asked and move along when asked. What was interesting is once we had his focus and he was calmed he wasn't interested in doing it any more and it was clear he wanted to walk on.


Jeff now has the tools he needs to help Chevy calm down, have nice manners at the door and walk down the street far less reactive than before. With Jeff's dedication and Chevy's smarts and eagerness to please they are going to do fantastic.