Gigi Day 13-Lesson 31-32

Early Morning:
1. Lesson was for one half hour.
2. Objective, get Gigi walking up close to dogs AND with them walking towards us close up. Also, using the people I know who will sit their dog help me train Gigi to be close up to another dog without reacting.
3. Techniques used are Koehler influenced heeling and auto sit (but not training program).
4. Equipment used muzzle, leather 6' leash, and electronic collar.
5. Owners not involved yet, so no homework given.
6. Gigi was watchful, but following the commands well. A couple of times she tried to turn her head to watch behind her so much that she almost went out of a heel, but was quickly corrected back. After that, she walked forward without wanting to look back more comfortably. A friend of mine knew I wanted to work with her and her dog Daisy, and when she called her dog to her.... Her dog went to HER, but every other dog on the beach came running full tilt to me and Gigi LOL. So I did a quick about turn, and got Gigi into a sit. The huge German Shepherd puppy put his nose right against her nose, and Gigi seemed relaxed enough about it. The lab went to the back, which she didn't mind and then came hesitantly to the front. After a couple of those, Gigi did try to lunge once, and gave herself a pretty good collar correction. Then my friend and I did our conversation with our dogs across from each other. I thought this interaction went extremely well for Gigi 1) it was only one attempt and not a tantrum and 2) Gigi's attitude really seemed to change once she realized these dogs were not going to hurt her.

***Will be doing a lot more of this tomorrow.

Mid afternoon around 2 pm in Porsmouth:
1. Length of lesson 1 and a half hours.
2. Objective, to start passing close by dogs who are on the street, and also barking dogs on flexis, so that Gigi becomes more familiar with being in control in these situations.
3. Techniques used Bedrock's sit on the dog (but not training program) and Koehler influenced heeling (but not training program).
4. Tools used metal chairs or benches, muzzle, 6' leather lead, metal training collar, electronic collar, one trained dog (Leon) and husband with camera.
5. Owners not involved yet, no homework given.
6. Walked past a Springer on the street. I did not hold the leash entirely loose, but there was slack. Gigi was interested, but didn't try anything. We did sit on the dog where there were four other dogs around with Leon at a place where everyone was sitting and drinking coffee. She stayed down most of the time, and was much much calmer than she had been before. Made some passes by a Bernese Mountain dog that was left outside the coffee shop tethered to a tree on his flexi (wicked nice dog and obviously well trained to stay off the street). Gigi tried to go for him once, got a good correction and then we made several more passes by him. Walked past a couple with two big hound type dogs on flexis, one was very reactive and pulling her toward Gigi. I have to watch the tape, I think Gigi may have tried to reacte once, and then we walked by a few times with out incident (on Gigi's part anyway).