Two dogs, two different jobs.
Roxy arrived as a German Shepherd puppy of about six months, sweet and full of energy, whose family most wanted an end to the jumping and real off-leash freedom. Ramsey, an English Cream Golden Retriever, knew his basics but was, in one trainer’s words, “probably one of the more nervous retrievers I’ve ever met.”
At home the family wanted what many two-dog homes want: Roxy loose in the living room with them, chilling instead of going wild.
No more pulling, no more jumping.
Roxy’s work ran on clear leash communication with freedom as the reward. “So no more pulling. Lots of good loose-leash walking here,” her trainer narrated, then sent her back out: “Now I’m going to let her know it’s okay to go out further again.”
When a group stopped to say hello on a walk, she kept all four feet down: “She didn’t jump on any of you guys,” her trainer said. By the first owner lesson her family could see it too: “She’s doing so good without jumping.”
Indifferent, in the best way.
Ramsey’s first sessions were about opening him up. Soon, in a park full of new things, he was “just not caring,” his trainer said, “being indifferent to everything around him,” which he called “a really good mark here.”
Then came true off-leash work in a parking lot, and later he went to his place cot on the word alone: “I didn’t point. I didn’t do anything. I just said the word.”
Calmer in the same room.
The real test was the pair. The trainers worked both dogs at once, used each as the other’s distraction, and worked on each dog answering to its own name. Their behaviour together in the house, the trainer reported, was “much, much calmer.”
At the second owner lesson, asked how they felt about everything they had seen so far, the owners answered, “Yeah, feeling good.”
“Stunningly well.”
At the go-home lesson Kelton gave the family his verdict: “For Roxy, the main stuff was off leash, which I think she’s done stunningly well.” The jumping was “100% better”; that same day she had greeted people at Bass Pro Shops and Michaels without jumping on them.
Ramsey had done “way better” in new places, Kelton said: “I took him to Bass Pro Shops today. He didn’t have any issues.”
Kelton’s plan for home: expect the odd test, nip it in the bud, and keep place and recall part of daily life.
Dinner, recall and confidence.
After the dogs went home, their owners wrote: “Roxy does really well holding a place while we get dinner ready and eat, and her recall is so much better than before.” Their verdict: “We’re very satisfied with the outcome—and confident we can keep reinforcing the training.”
