Feb 8 Training Day

Rachel of Maverick Way Dog Training (www.maverickwaydogtraining.com) came to the ranch today to help with Flash's training. I have been working with Flash especially on the Stay command this week. I demonstrated to Rachel our progress and she had some suggestions to make the Stay "stick." We attached a clothesline leash to his collar and tugged on it a little when he was in the Stay position to see if he would stay. He was great. He stayed until I (or Rachel) returned to him and rewarded him with a cookie and pats.

Dennis has been working on the "Here" command when Flash is off leash wandering around the ranch, and Flash comes bounding to him and slides in for a sit in from of him. Really cool.

Rachel also showed us (me and Flash) how to go from Down to Settle. The Settle command kind of puts the dog in a laying down on his side position. I tried it after Rachel left ... we have work to do.

The rest of our lesson was working on the preliminary steps to the Heel command. The first step is "Get." In the Get command, I stand facing Flash at a sit (him not me) with my cookie-holding hands at my sides. I then raise one or the other hand and say "Get!" Flash then jumps up and gets the cookie. Later on, we'll turn this into a swirl bringing Flash to my side and ready to heel.  Again, we have work to do.

We brought Flash out to Rachel's car and she let out her border collie. I was surprised to see Flash lunging and growling at her dog just like he does with the horses. It's important to take hold of both sides of his neck and sternly say "Knock it off!" or some other phrase that let's him know it's not okay to threaten other dogs. Rachel said we could bring him out to her ranch to socialize him with other dogs. We may do that at some point.

So, we have our work cut out for us next week. When Dennis got home, I showed him what we did in our lesson so he can keep up with Flash's training, too.

I told Rachel that when I walk from room to room in the house, Flash is there. It seems like we have many Flashes because he is so quick it seems like he was already in the room. Weird. She said that indicated that Flash was bonding to me.

I am enjoying working with Flash and I know Dennis likes to take him on bike runs. I think Flash knows he is at home now. The only thing is he "loves the one he's with." When Vivian was leaving after spending some time cleaning the pantry, I helped carry some of her things to the car. She opened the door and Flash jumped in!

One thing I forgot to tell Rachel is that Flash is chasing cars when they come in to the ranch. We'll have to see if this continues.