It's been a long time!

Hello everybody! It has been a really long time since I have posted anything! Ellie and I have been really busy dog training, grooming, and just generally having a good old time! There is one other thing that has been keeping us really busy. I have a new family! That's right... Ellie met a wonderful man human and got married!

Doesn't she look so happy? My new human's name is Devin, and he is a dog lover. In fact, I have two new dog brothers... Rocky and Amp! I struggled a little bit at first, but Ellie introduced us to each other slowly, and on neutral territory to make it easier for us. Now I love to play with both of them!

    

                                                                                                     

This is Amp. He is mostly long-haired dachshund, but he has a teeny tiny bit of chihuahua in him. He is about a year old, and he's full of energy! He reminds me of me when I was that age. Ellie says that he might make a good canine freestyle partner, because he has good focus on her, and tries to stay by her left leg while training... even though she has not taught him how to heel yet. He didn't really know much of anything before he met Ellie, but now he knows sit, down, stay, wait, recall, leave it, twirl (counter-clockwise circle), spin (clockwise circle), hand targeting, over (jump over legs), through (go under legs), and is working on loose leash walking. He is also learning how to chew on appropriate items, rather than pens, cardboard, plastic, and shoes. He is really good at getting me to play with him. Before I moved here, I had a hard time being in the mood to play... but Amp is an expert at inviting me to have a good romp. Ellie says I have started to act like a puppy again!

This is Rocky. He is a beagle mix of some sort. If any of you have any good guesses as to what else he might be, we would love to see them! He is about four years old, and has tons and tons of energy! Two long walks a day doesn't even come close to tiring this guy out! His excess energy comes out in anxiety, which causes Ellie some trouble getting him to focus while training. She has been trying to work on confidence building exercises with him with clicker training, and seems to have made a little bit of progress. Ellie wants to turn him into a frisbee dog, because he catches things really well! Although, he seemed to be a little bit afraid of the frisbee when she introduced it to him a couple of days ago. She'll work on it though, and get him to really like catching it! Before he met Ellie, he knew how to sit and lay down, but that's about it. Now he knows leave it, recall with very low distractions, stay, twirl, hand-targeting, watch me, shake, high five, roll over, over, and wait. Now he is working on loose-leash walking. He used to pull really really bad. So bad that Devin would have to wrap the leash around his hand several times to even keep a grip on it. Now he only pulls occasionally, and he will stop as soon as he realizes that he is doing it. Major improvement! He has a really hard time focusing, and will sometimes just wander away right in the middle of a training session... even with high-value treats, and his favorite toys as rewards. He is getting better, though.

Edit: Here are some more pictures for your viewing pleasure:

I will try to post updates on all of our progress with training! I would love to hear from you all!