Ripley! Down!

In an effort to make Ripley's learning curve shorter, we have been implementing the "Down" command prior to releasing him to eat. He does not want to do it. This suggestion was given to me be Tom's dad. I was reading that since this is such a submissive position, that a dog will be very relucant to do this in front of another dog. So, we may start feeding them separately again. We had just moved to having both Skye and Ripley sit, then feed them at opposite sides of the back door. Ripley and Skye are currently at El Hardie boot camp while we go on vacation for a week. Hopefully, Ripley will improve, but Iris, Tom's dad's dog, will also be in the mix adding another interesting dynamic.

Basic Training

Both Skye and Ripley work on the basics every day:

• Sit before going inside or outside and wait for "Kennel" or "Go On" command prior to leaving sitting position
• Sit before eating and wait for command prior to leaving sitting position
• "NO!" means no.

Currently, we are working with Ripley on a variety of basic fundamentals:

• "Here" command
• Long sits
• "Down" command
• "Fetch" command

Ripley seems naturally inclined to fetch objects and hold them in his mouth. We won't need to do a forced fetch on him. We need to be careful about not taking things away from him too soon. He displays the typical prize keeping behavior most pups develop and we don't want him playing keep away with us.

He also seems pretty good on a leash. He pulls much more when Skye is off leash and ahead or when he hears a dog behind a fence. We have been combatting this with frequent use of "here" and reward with treats.

His next training steps will include "heel", "high five", and more retrieving basics.

We have established dominance with Ripley by getting him accustom to being flipped on his back and held until released as well as taking a bath. We didn't do this with Skye as a pup and it is really detrimental to getting her to comply with uncomfortable things like bathes, nail clipping, and putting drops in her eyes or ears.

Skye has a lot of advanced training under her belt. She has been hunting solidly for 3 seasons. Her current training is hunting focused. Her goals are:

• Being steady in a duck blind
• Fundamental retrieving
• Blind retrieving
• Faster response to commands

Tom is using an e-collar and traing manual to help achieve these goals. The nice thing about this training program is that physical correction is not always necessary since there is a tone warning on the collar. More on this later...

Welcome

The Dog Log Blog decribes the development of our two beloved community members, Skyebomb and Ripplestinks.

Skye is our 4 year old female black labrador retriever and Ripley is our 6 month old male yellow lab/Austrailan Shepard mutt with bobbed tail. They are quite the handful, but loving and smart.

It has been Tom and Kristin's continual joy to train the dogs to do many things.

When you read through this blog, you will find our training program, our observations, our successes, and our failures. Hopefully, we can build this history and leverage our learnings in the future.