Facing Fears

Facing Fears It’s a subject that I don’t think gets enough credit in dog training discussions. Nowadays, “Fear Free” is a trendy description that gets thrown around by trainers who choose to lean on emotional language to market their services rather than documented results. But it makes sense why – Who would want to openly

Week 1 Wrapup I’ve been pretty swamped with work lately and haven’t had the chance to update the blog on where Monkey’s at. Between the two of us, Hannah and I have two bitches in heat right now so Monkey’s been a little out of sorts. Add that to the fact that we’re also both

W1D6 – Loose Leash Walking Monkey’s been dealing with a little gastrointestinal distress (we had some weird algae come through the irrigation) so we took yesterday and today off, but I was able to squeeze in a session with him on Wednesday. We worked the same Yin-Yang Pattern from W1D5, but without the warmup on

W1D5, Introducing “Heel” and “Sit” with the Wonder Lead Monkey nailed the D4 Square Longe so today I’m moving him on to a semicircular, Yin-Yang pattern. After applying a fresh coat of barrier scent to the garden hose which marks the boundary of my ring, the distinction between inside and outside the working area should

Week 1 Day 4 – Distance, Duration, and Distraction Monkey was doing well at staying with me yesterday, so today I’m increasing my expectations. Instead of the triangle pattern, today I’ve got him working squares against my longeing ring. The square pattern keeps him closer to edge of the ring flirting with Prey and Defense

Week 1 Day 3 – Introducing Checks and Corrections Improving on my D2 longeing ring, I’ve set up 6 new points of interest along the outside of my working area. At 12:00, 4:00, and 8:00, I’ve placed orange cones to help me delineate my pattern of movement. Halfway between these points there are competing motivators

More structure to our longeing session today. A normal garden hose plus an abnormal scent define the perimeter of our working area, and I’ve placed my Ellie dog at the center of the setup to emphasize that Monkey’s friends are always inside the ring. I’m still orienting Monkey to the freedom permitted by my longe

“Monkey” is a 3 year old intact Border Collie I’ve had for almost a year. He’s a really nice little dog, about 20″ at the withers and no more than 40 lbs from cow dog working lines. I picked him up as a foster, but I found myself partial toward him, especially after I saw