Chevy

Isn't Chevy a doll? Not only is he adorable but he is my latest case study!!

You just never know when a wonderful opportunity will pop up. My meeting Chevy was unique. You see I was walking our Frenchie, Pierre when a neighbor stopped me and asked if I would be willing to work with his friend that could use some help with his Frenchie. Well I never want to pass up helping a dog with a need so here we are.

In speaking with his person, Jeff, I find out that Chevy is 8 years old, full of energy and a strong dislike for the UPS man and dogs :-)

When I first arrived I was greeted by this adorable little kangaroo! I don't know I've ever seen a Frenchie that can bounce so high. Fortunately I must not resemble the UPS man because he didn't bark at me, he only bounced.

My thoughts for Chevy are to teach him some self control and how to calm down. Then we want a strong foundation on some tools to put in our tool box that we can use when he reacts to other dogs. My tools of choice are the "Look at me" and "Touch" commands.

Chevy does not appreciate the sound of a clicker, nor the lighter for the BBQ for that matter. No problem, we will use "Yep" as our marker word and accomplish the same thing.

We introduced Chevy to the Thundershirt to help calm him and did some Lying Leopard touches and ear & mouth work. Moving between touches, ignoring inappropriate behavior and praising the good and our pseudo clicker training it wasn't long before Chevy and I were having a fun game of Touch!

I'm constantly amazed at how dogs do what works. If they can get attention, good or bad, by bouncing and acting up then so be it. But when that no longer works and they are shown another way to get good things then that is what they do.

Chevy figured out very quickly that jumping on me was met with crossed arms and my looking away from him and that four on the floor resulted in calm and loving touches and treats!






Now it was Jeff's turn to play touch!




















What team they are! We are well on our way to having valuable tools to rely on when the need arises.
















As things were winding down we had an opportunity to put "Touch" to the test. Chevy became concerned about something on the other side of the fence and started to react somewhat. Rather than tell him no or try to correct him I asked him to touch in a fun and playful way. Chevy immediately left the fence and ran full steam ahead to touch my hand.

I see great things happening with Chevy already.

Jeff has his list of homework to do before we get together again. He will keep working on the Tellington TTouches he learned today and concentrate on teaching the "Look at me" and "Touch" commands in lots of different places. Keep it fun!