It Starts...

Treasure here. I am here to tell you that since Ellie's new job started, we have been left home alone more often. She is able to take us to work with her, but she says she wants to get used to the routine before she has to worry about us being there. Hmmmph. At least the boys and I have each other for company. Before Ellie got married, if she had to leave me home, I was all alone with only my kong and some treats for company. We do get some yummy kongs stuffed with really tasty treats, so it's not so bad I guess. Anyway... I am rambling. I wanted to show you some photos of something else Ellie does while at work.

Yes, she is a dog trainer, but she is also a groomer as well! She showed me some pictures of some of the first dogs to be groomed at this new building. I thought the before and after of these two were pretty dramatic. What do you think?

Oh, and Ellie has a foster dog at the new building! Ellie's boss and a rescue group Ellie knows teamed up to see if we could foster 1 dog at a time while we try to find it a home! Ellie is going to work on training them while they are at the kennel, to help them through any behavior problems they may have. The first one is Sissy:

Sissy was owned by an 8-year-old girl who loves her to death! Everything was fine until Sissy's herding instinct kicked in, and started chasing the cats and horses. Her girl was terrified that Sissy would get seriously hurt or even killed if she kept chasing the horses, so she gave Sissy up to the rescue. How difficult that must have been for her! She even hugged Ellie, and started crying on her shoulder on the day she gave her up.

Sissy is a really sweet, and VERY smart dog who loves to be around people. Ellie is trying to find her a home without other small furry critters (or horses) around. An active home that will engage her brilliant mind would be preferred. She would do great at agility, canine freestyle, and trick training. Ellie has started to work with her on her leave-it, and stay training... to teach her some impulse control.

Ellie and Sissy had the opportunity of a lifetime last Tuesday. They were invited to be part of a new dog training instructional workshop dvd about a dog sport called Bikejoring. The instructor is Sue Sternberg a well-known dog trainer from New York with over 30 years of experience! The workshop was filmed by Tawzer Dog LLC., an awesome company that sells a bunch of dog training seminar dvds and books!

This is Ellie and Sissy with Sue Sternberg after filming was over:

I am kind of jealous that I didn't get to go, but Ellie said I wasn't big enough to pull the bike. Oh well!

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!