SCHEDULED SESSIONS
8/1/2022 - 3:30pm - Private Session #1 of Kindred Canine Package
6/26/2022 - Unofficial meet & greet
PACKAGE RECOMMENDATION
6/28/2022: My package recommendation for both Walter & Frankie is the Kindred Canine package which is four 45-minute sessions at $395. However you’re welcome to schedule single sessions as we go as well.
TRAINING FOR FRANKIE
08/01/2022
LOOSE LEASH WALKING - You can continue to build the same loose leash walking skills with Frankie as we were doing with Walter, except on the left side instead. It is still my recommendation to walk Walter + Frankie separately (can be shorter walks) while they’re learning the skills and to walk on their respective sides.
STRANGER DANGER - Frankie’s stranger danger was to the point where I could not work on the loose leash walking with him today. My recommendation is to not have people approach Frankie and even if Frankie approaches people, to not have people pet him, but to just let Frankie smell them and check them out on his own and have the choice to leave the interaction on his own as well.
A great way to have people interact with Frankie is the treat + retreat game by Suzanne Clothier which is just tossing treats on the ground behind Frankie and away from themselves. It can be overwhelming to take treats right from a stranger’s hand so just tossing them on the ground and in the opposite direction encourages Frankie to disengage from the trigger (the stranger) plus works on counterconditioning to the trigger as well by pairing tasty treats while the trigger is present.
Another way to work on desensitization and counterconditioning with Frankie in the presence of the trigger (stranger) is by having one of you, Roy or Jenna, play the engage disengage game. This also encourages disengaging from the trigger while also pairing tasty treats in the presence of the trigger.
NEXT SESSION - I’m not sure if Frankie will ever be comfortable enough with me to the point where I can handle him for training. For next week I can help coach you while loose leash walking Frankie yourself, someone he is comfortable with, so that you can be sure you're doing the proper techniques and we can troubleshoot any issues. We can also start to work on the engage disengage game and maybe some treat retreat on a long line as well.
6/26/2022
LOOSE LEASH WALKING
In order to have Walter and Frankie walking together successfully, I would first need to build their loose leash walking skills separately so they both start with a solid foundation.
STRANGER DANGER
To begin helping build Frankie’s confidence with people, I recommend starting with a simple default sit. First we can build this skill in a calm environment and then take baby steps into more stimulating situations such as opening the door, having people entering, etc., providing Frankie a structured behavior to revert to when he may be feeling overwhelmed.
TRAINING FOR Walter
08/01/2022
LOOSE LEASH WALKING - We worked on loose leash walking on the right side with Walter. It is still my recommendation to walk Walter + Frankie separately (can be shorter walks for now) while they’re each learning to walk on their respective sides.
NEXT SESSION - Next time, we will continue working on the loose leash walking to check in on Walter’s progress and continue to build the skill.
06/26/2022
LOOSE LEASH WALKING
As mentioned above, in order to have both Walter and Frankie walking well together, I would build their loose leash walking skills separately first to set a foundation for each of them. Once they are showing steady progress, we can begin introducing dual loose leash walking outings to see how they do together.