Birdie  - Training Photos, Videos and Updates

Pawsitive Notes - Tracking Birdie's Milestones

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  • ​3/1 - Birdie has adjusted well to the new environment and is out with the full pack! She's doing great with her socialization and now the real work begins!
  • 3/4 - Birdie is doing well. She's settled in and is having a blast playing with the pack. She has shown resource guarding around her food, growling at the dogs in the crate next to her around feeding time. She got a correction this morning doing that. Later today, she had no problem sharing the water bowl later. She is doing a lot of jumping and biting, but I worked a lot with her on Friday and this morning on learning "Off" and "Gentle". She is showing signs today that she is starting to understand those concepts. When playing with a Whippet pup this morning she was way too rough and got a correction for not being gentle. About half an hour later, during play again, she would make eye contact every time I said gentle and mouth at the pup instead. Smart girl! With "Off" she has sat or backed up a few times now with a stern verbal command. We will continue to work those and establish the hierarchy as we move into working recall as well this week.
  • 3/6 - Birdie is still working to understand the new concepts. She is doing a great job being gentler in her play with the other pups! She has still gotten excited and mouthed at trainer hands a few times, but less every day. Jumping is still in the works, but an "off/uh-uh" and wag of the finger and you can tell that she knows she's not supposed to. Some of it is just stubborn pup attitude! She hasn't shown any resource guarding since the first couple of days.
  • 3/8 - We continue to work Birdie with her jumping and mouthiness. Tough concept but she definitely shows signs of understanding.
  • 3/11 - Worked basic obedience with Birdie today. One on one. She does incredibly well without distraction and with treat motivation! She rocked Sit/Stay/Down and Come! Roll was a bit of work but she got the hang of it very fast. She was a little mouthy with that one, but settled into it well.
  • 3/12 - Mark has started working with Birdie on her resource guarding. She displayed a bit of it with us and fellow pups around her food dish, so Mark started working her with that. She was unsure and a bit on edge with the food when Mark was working her with it. She wasn't overly aggressive, but definitely showed her discomfort with him touching her food. After a while, he was able to get her to relax and calmly take it from his hands. Now, with that baseline established, he will be moving into working with a bone. She's definitely a sassy pup, but a sweet love as well! She's still doing some jumping and mouthing, which we continue to work with her. Patience, repetition and diligence is key in that arena! She and I are working on having to sit and be calm if she wants attention from me. No jumping and mouthing to ask for pets. Tough concept, but she shows signs of starting to understand. Today, after being told "off" from jumping up, she dropped down and chose to walk against my legs and lean in instead. A much better response and method of asking for attention! Had a pack walk today and walked Birdie on her harness. She pulled like crazy! She seems to have better walks while on prong. Worked on a bit of recall in during group play today as well as the pack sit. Overall a great job! 
  • 3/13 - We have worked Birdie with resource guarding around her food in the days leading up to today. When she first arrived, she was growling at the other dogs in crates next to hers around her food. She got a stern correction from Jen over that and sat back in her crate quietly. Ever since then, she hasn't made a peep at the other dogs around feeding time and sits calmly at the back of her crate when Jen feeds. She's put her hand in the dish and tried to coax her over and Birdie won't come until Jen leaves and closes the crate door. She had a couple moments as previously mentioned with Mark, but nothing overly aggressive. Today, Mark worked with the bone. He put it in her crate to let her chew on it and get attached. As soon as he opened the door, however, she dropped it and ran to him. He kept trying to give it back to her outside the crate and she would take it and drop it without issue.
  • 3/15 - Birdie got out with Drogo and a bone in the run. She did not growl at him when he came near. She postured once and a quick "Shh, Leave-It" from Mark got her to completely disengage and refocus on Mark. Mark, his wife (Lia) and myself all worked on taking the bone away from Birdie and she gave it up every time without complaint.
  • 3/19 - Birdie did incredibly well today with her walk, obedience refreshers and working "Drop It" and "Leave It" with a couple of sticks we found in the park! She practiced her skills so hard that she was wiped out on our walk back and she trailed behind happily and curled up for a nap once back in the office! 
  • 3/23 - Birdie worked with her owner Liz in an appointment today and did very well! She also worked more with Rodeo and Drogo over high value resources. At one point, Mark has holding the bone with Birdie and Drogo on either end of it, without any issues! Way to go!
  • 3/26 - Birdie hasn't had any issues sharing water in the larger pack that we have with us over Spring Break. She's been having a blast playing and socializing with them as well. She hasn't had any issues with anyone walking by her food while she's eating and allows the trainers to stick their hands in her food without concern. Excellent work Bird-dog!