Lexie

MEET LEXIE

Everyone meet sweet Lexie! This beautiful girl is a Bullmastiff x Bouvier. She is also a Calgarian now ;) but is back visiting some family in the Okanagan. Lexie came through training a few years ago, and is back for a little one on one attention with Monique.

Lexie is a sweet, sensitive and well behaved girl that has a few issues that her mommy would like us to help her with. This beauty has some issues with separation anxiety, most likely due to her lack of confidence. She likes to pull on the leash, and needs a wee-bit of fine tuning on her obedience. Lexie's mommy also wanted us to make sure that she was okay around bicycle tires, as she had a little chase one day when out with the dog walker. (Who wouldn't want to chase a bicycle... they are fun and exciting... right?!?!) ;D

We will be really focusing on bringing Lexie's confidence up enough that she is well on her way to being "bomb proof", and teaching her the command "place" where she will learn to be calm and relaxed. 

Session 1 of 3

(Thursday, July.17th 2014)

Today we met up with Lexie's Dad/Grand-dad in town. He had specifically brought her in for training today, to see what kind of fun new behaviours that we could teach her/work on. We noticed right off the bat that Lexie looked a little nervous, but she is such a love... and came right over for attention. It had been a while since we had seen this pretty girl... but she recognized us right away. What a cutie! because there were some specific behaviours that we wanted to work on with Lexie today, we decided that it would just be some one on one time... with no other dogs. 

When it was time to load Lexie into the truck, she jumped in with little to no concern. Which was a great start to our session. We decided to take her to a very mellow part of town where we could work where there was little to no distractions to start. At first we just got her walking nicely on leash, and got to a point where we could drop the leash on the ground and still have her pay close attention to us! This girl is such a smart cookie ;) 

Next we decided we would teach her a "Place" command. This command will teach Lexie to go to her bed/blanket...etc. and either stand, sit or down. (That part is up to her). We expect that she stays in this place and is calm and collected. We made sure that we varied the command to ensure that it does not matter if it's 2 seconds or 2 minutes. Either way.... she should still remain in a calm state. Miss. Lexie picked this up so quickly, but was not "diggin'" the treats... so we started to reward her with a stick... we think she enjoyed that ;) Her ears perked up, and she ran multiple times for the stick when she was released. She was having a good time... which is so important! We even got a ton of distance from this pretty girl, while she stayed calm as a cucumber!

Last but not least we wanted to work on teaching Lexie that bicycle tires should be respected not eaten... as that can be more then dangerous for both rider and dog. She started teaching her to give the bike space while in motion, and then we started to incorporate weaves and circles... and taught her how to get out of the way. She did fantastic... and she even looked like she LOVED running beside the bike. This might be a new hobby for Lexie's mommy to pick up ;)

We can't wait to watch this beautiful girl become a calm comfortable secure pooch ;)

Check out her video progress below ;) 

See you all next week for the adventures of Lexie!

Session 2 of 3

(Tuesday, July. 29th 2014)

Oh Sweet Lexie. We really watched you  come out of your shell today!!!

Today Lexie's dad/grandpa dropped her off at the dog park. She was quite unsure about the situation and it took a few minutes to get her focus instead of looking back to see where he went. She had no idea what she was in for today... but we had some pretty fun plans for her. We had six doggies and their owners at the park to help with her training. ❤️

We noticed that Lexie's Sits/Downs are amazing, but her recall is defiantly on her terms. We want to teach this pretty girl, that recalls are fun and it's important to come back when called.

It took about half of the class, but FINALLY Lexie started to get what we were teaching her. It was almost like a light bulb went on. Her demeanour totally changed, and she started to play with the other dogs, swim and have fun. It was so great to see!! You can defiantly see it in her video below!! 

We can't wait to see this pretty girl on Thursday!! 

A VERY big Thank you to Laurie & Mar with Jasper & Bandit, Laura with Ruger, Sabrina with Matthias, Sarah with Ripley and Kona for their puppy support!

See you all soon, for the adventures of Lexie.

Session 3 of 3

(Thursday, July. 31st 2014)

Oh Miss Lexie! You have sure come out of your shell!!! It's so nice to see this girl finally relax and have fun PLAYING!!!!! and leaping and bounding with excitement. She is SUCH a cutie!!!! We are going to miss this girl dearly!!

Today we had Lexie's dad/grandpa come to the class and teach him all the new stuff that Missy Miss learned during her sessions with us. They BOTH did so great! It was really neat to see this team work together. Lexie was super excited to do her confidence boosting drills, recalls, and swim and play with the other dogs. We think she LOVES her new found niche... and she will do so great when she goes back home to Alberta.

Lexie's mom is going to have to do lots of confidence boosting drills to keep this girl smiling and happy!! Lexie very much needs jobs to do to keep her feeling good about her self. She just LOVES to please!!! Learning how to keep recalls fun will also be an asset!! (So lots of love and yummy treats), and last but not least... lots of play time with other pooches!!!

We will miss this girl so much!!! But we know she is going to excel with her new training!!! 

Keep up the great work pretty girl!!

A VERY big Thank you to Tammy and the girls with Hank and Nelly, and Carmin with Cabella for their puppy support!

Check out how great Lexie and her Dad/Grandpa work together in her final video below!!!