The Dog Blog

This post is a little delayed but I had so much fun at this lesson I just had to get it in here.

Last week I was working with a fantastic client who has a six month old Great Dane named Lola. Lola is a wonderful 106 pound puppy that is very well trained and walks around Town Lake with her owner off leash.

The thing is, the owner wanted Lola to tell her when she wanted to go out. So, off we went to dog training work. Lola had a small bell like the kind you see in movies on the hotel counter. The kind you slam down and the little bellhop jumps up from behind the desk. We though we would do the same thing with Lola and her owner.

Initially, I started teaching Lola to touch the little ringer with the tip of her nose, and while she was doing very well at that she had other more efficient ideas. Very soon (within about 15 minutes of working) Lola figured out that she could hit that bell A LOT harder using her foot, and once she really put together that ringing the bell with her foot got more treats and tons more excited laughter out of myself and her owner she started doing it repeatedly. Over and over and over and over again. Montana, the owner and I were just laying on the floor rolling in laughter and Lola’s new found skill and understanding of what we were asking us to do. At one point neither of us could talk we were laughing so hard while the bell went DING, DING, DING.

Loads of fun and a new skill for Lola the very large puppy.

Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works

I’ve been spending a LOT of time down at Town Lake the last few days. Several of my clients have made it to the point in their training where we have to start practicing with LOTS of distractions and craziness going on and there’s no place better than under the Mo-Pac bridge at town lake.

Last night I had a rare and wonderful pleasure. A client that I had worked with several months ago wanted to meet me down there to work with her six month old Golden named Friday. The last time I saw Friday he was tiny pup of 10 weeks that was doing well with his training but he was still a pup. Well, last night, Friday heeled with his owner right up to me and sat down like a perfectly behaved dog and waited for me to pat him. Even being a trainer is still amazes me when one of my client’s dogs shows such skill and good manners! I was thrilled.

Friday heeled around the lake with us, fetched some sticks in the water and generally was a fantastic dog. The only thing the owner was concerned about was his biting the leash after he got out of the water and was bouncing around in an excited state. We worked on that for a bit and then Friday heeled back to the cars like the perfect gentleman.

So, I’ll miss working with Friday but I’m sure I’ll see him down at the lake with his owner while I’m working with other clients trying to get them to his level.

So, if you see me down at Town Lake working with clients come on over and say “Hello”. We’ll use you as a distraction for the pup we’re working with!

Steve Haynes
Austin Dog Trainer
Fidelio Dog Works