Gigi Day 11-Lessons 29-30

Morning:
1. Length of lesson was one hour plus.
2. Objective, to get Gigi used to working in crowded city like areas, where it's very possible that a dog could travel closely by and be well socialized but not trained.
3. Techniques used were heeling with auto sit and sit on the dog.
4. Tools used were leather 6' lead, muzzle, e-collar, metal training collar, and bench (for sit on the dog).
5. Owner not involved yet, so no homework given.
6. Gigi was less inclined to look around corners or behind her, and followed me nicely. There were some dogs around, but all owners clearly had destinations that they were going to, so no one was just letting their dog walk aimlessly, which helped Gigi feel more at ease. No attempts to bite or balk at the commands given. When doing sit on the dog, it took seven minutes for Gigi to down, and then she downed in the open pretty comfortably (as opposed to before when she tried hiding under the bench).

Evening (Owner Visit)
1. Length of the lesson was one hour plus.
2. Objective, to get owner more comfortable and ready to work with Gigi, and other dogs.
3. Techniques used were socialization protocol that I use with dogs like this (crate to sit on the dog to working around, but usually not done in a few hours and normally done in days). Heeling with auto sit around dog and owner's friend by owner.
4. Equipment used was 6' leather lead, muzzle at end, chain collar, and electronic collar.
5. No homework for owner as Gigi is continuing on with us here.
6. Few things didn't go so well. Collar started to loose power at the end. I must have forgotten to charge it. In general though, owner didn't seem very excited to work with Gigi. Took many repeats to get the owner to let go of the leash with his left hand and keep fully in the right. Not sure that I am getting across the need for Gigi to follow him, and that he will need to be the leader. Or whether this just hasn't been heard at this point. Did not bring home the point was the lesson should not have been about ordering Gigi to be Baxter's friend on demand, but that instead the owner should be able to read and control Gigi. The two lunges forward on Gigi's part were excellent lessons for her, that she is to remain in control and not go after an object. She is given the freedom (well sort of she is on equipment) to do so, but she is learning that there are consequences for these actions. She is also learning that there is no reason to do these actions in the first place.