Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Training Clips

As I mentioned in my last post, we recently worked with an overbearing 8 month old golden lab named Dozer to help him become more responsive and respectful to his owner, and friends. I have included some video clips that we took for the owners to show our progress with him while they were away. This is by no means going to show you all of the techniques we do during a "Behavioral HELP for Dogs" session, but you'll see how quickly we can take a dog from the beggining to the end. These sessions were done for approx 1hour over a
4 day period.

You'll notice that in the first clips where I am wearing a green hoodie, and the one of Michelle (brown jacket) with Dozer, he is quite excitable and not paying attention to much of anything but what he wants to do. However, in the clips where I am wearing a flesh colored jacket, it is the final day of training. In that clip, I don't have to do a dominance ritual with him or give him any extreme corrections. He is calm and obedient for the most part, yet still the happy 8 month old lab he should be.

There are actually several more clips not shown. I selected the ones that best illistrate what we did with this particular dog. These video clips were not originally intended for this blog, so they are not presented on a professional camera or in a professional way. We didn't fuss with our appearance since we didn't realize that this would be posted for the world to see. We were just outside training on a rainy day...and it shows.

~Candiss DelCastillo
Walks & Wags Pet Service
www.WalksandWags.biz











Friday, October 9, 2009

Catching up...

It's been a while since I have been able to post a blog. We have been very busy answering inquiring client's calls and questions, editing the shows that we filmed this summer, preparing for the next show we will be filming next week, and taking over for D'Animal House where we did some private training for a golden lab that was left in our care while they were gone.


Dozer

1). The lab's name is Dozer. He is 8 months old and very rambunctous!! Michelle and I had to get his attention first of all just to get him walking on a structured walk with us. We found a prong collar to be the only way. We did many dominance ritual sessions with him, which helped calm him down tremdously. He responded well to all of the techniques we commonly use. Then we could teach him some obedience commands. He was already familiar with 'come' as well as cooperatively going into his kennel. Michelle gets the accolades for most of the obedience training. She is a dilligent trainer, and had him going into a sit whenever we would bring him to a stop, amongst other things.
Dozer definately gave us a challenge, but we were pleased with the results. As far as I know the owners are too!
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2). Editing is going much faster this year than last, since we know what we are doing now and the bugs of learning the trade of producing a show are all worked out. The cable access coordinator, Barry Waters and the Techical Director, Dallas Eggers, have been outstanding in giving us whatever asssistance we need.


Michelle at the task of editing

The Shelter/Rescue show is almost done now and should be ready to air as early as next week if we can just get the right equipment to finish a scene that needs some sounds adjustments.

We are already into editing the Puppies show which is alot of fun and brings back precious memories. Michelle and I have shared much laughter in the editing room over these programs. I have decided that since the Puppies program isn't due to be aired until next January, I will trade places with Michelle and let her train me in using the equipment so I can edit them myself if need be. This is not my forte', but we had our first go at it today and it actually went quite well!

Next week we are scheduled to film the last show of this season called, "What Makes Your Dog Tick...and other Miscellany". It started out to be so innocently simple, and has grown into our largest production yet, with approximately 5 owners and their dogs involved all at the same time. We will film the majority of the show with them in it next Wednesday. I am hoping for a burst of color from the trees for a lovely Autumn backdrop.

I did find a nice place to film the instructional portion while I was driving home today. I saw some Mums and a lovely bench in a well manicured yard, and I stopped in to ask the owner if we could do some filming there next week. He said he was flattered, and welcomed us to come. That's the way I find alot of our locations. You do what it takes...