“Better manners.”
Dutchess shares a busy home with several other dogs, and her family’s goal was simple: “we just need her to have better manners.” Her trainer summed up the brief as “the hyperactivity and the jumping,” plus the rough play she started with her housemates.
The feel before the word.
On her first day, place was taught before it even had a name: guide her on, all four paws, “okay,” release, until she was stepping up by herself. Down started from zero, with her trainer guiding her into the position before a word ever pointed at it.
Then the lessons moved outdoors, into busier places on purpose.
“She’s correcting herself.”
At a crowded park her trainer could say it plainly: “She’s killing it.” She knew her commands, so the work became polish, and as the session went on she began catching herself before he had to: “The biggest thing is that she’s correcting herself.”
On another outing a stranger walked past with a small dog. Dutchess watched, and stayed put without pulling.
“I’m amazed.”
At the second owner lesson, in the family’s own house with the other dogs let out, the old habits barely showed. She stayed off the couch, and her owner could hardly believe it: “I’m amazed… she’s not doing it at all.”
Her trainer had come expecting to correct jumping: “she’s kind of surprised me a little bit here too.” He later called it “one of the smoothest second sessions I’ve ever had.”
She backed off.
Then two of the other dogs started a squabble, live. Dutchess came over to see what was going on, her trainer answered on the spot with a “nope” and then the collar, fast, and she backed off.
Her owner knew exactly how different that was: “Before I would have to grab her collar and like pull her away, and they would still be going at it, and then everybody’s upset.” Her trainer’s read: “I’m a little more confident in her, like knowing that she will back off.”
The plan for home: keep the remote on you for her first couple of days back, and keep the house rules the same every day.
Off leash, and checking in.
On go-home day her trainer took the leash off for a final test at the park. She came, sat, lay down and heeled with no leash at all, and checked in without being called: “She’s checking in with me, even off-leash.” His verdict: “She did really, really good.”
Afterwards, telling another family about her, he said she “hasn’t had any problems since she’s gone home.”
