All of the dogs are from a local county shelter. There are six in all. Three of the dogs are surrenders, meaning they've been turned in by their owners for some reason. I know that two of them were turned in because their owners could no longer afford to take care of them, the other I'm not sure why he was turned in although his behavior problems could definitely be why. The other three dogs were all found as strays in the city.
Cass - 100% Pit Bull, Male, 1 1/2 year old. Cass is extremely strong! It is next to impossible to walk this dog on a leash. This is his trainer's #1 concern right now. She is working hard to get him to calm down on a leash. He is responding well to treats and so far knows, sit, down, and paw. He is getting better on the leash but still needs a lot of work! Cass is one of the surrenders due to the economy.
Awestin - Awestin is a Yellow Lab. Probably about one year old, male. Yellow Labs are know for being difficult to train and getting into a lot of mischief, which I assume is why he was turned into the shelter. His trainer is doing an excellent job with him so far. One of the employees at the facility is adopting Awestin when he graduates from the program.
Happy - Happy is a Brittney Spaniel. He is about 2-3 years old. Happy was a stray. He is very high strung. Happy may have been let loose by his owner. Sometimes with hunting breeds, when they are done with them, they are either let loose or turned in. Sad how some people use these dogs to get THEIR job done and just throw them away when the job is finished.
Lilly - Lilly is a Pit/Australian Shep. mix. I think she's about 2 years old. She was a stray. Lilly is very smart and has become very protective of her trainer. We started off just figuring out what she knows already but quickly realized that she needs to work on socialization. For now that is all her trainer will work on. Without socialization this dog would never end up in a "forever" home. Because of her trainer and this program she will have a good chance of finding that home! Lilly's trainer will literally be saving Lilly's life. What an accomplishment.
Midnight - Midnight is a female about 1 1/2 years old. She is a Rottweiler mix and an extremely sweet dog! She can be pretty goofy too! She is learning at a very fast pace but gets distracted easily. She was a stray and we can see that in her personality. She is always on guard and aware of her surroundings. She loves to play with the other dogs and the kids. Midnight will make a great pet for a family with children and it would be nice if they have another dog too.
Tucker (aka Tuck Tuck) - Tucker is a male beagle, about 1 1/2 years old. He is a surrender. We get a lot of beagles in the program. We always have at least one beagle and one pit bull in our class. Both breeds really need some good training to be a good family dog (yes, pit bulls make good family pets!). Beagles can be very difficult to train. They are very distracted by all the different scents around them so it can be difficult to keep their attention during training. Tuck Tuck has two trainers, a boy and a girl. At first he really took to the girl and wouldn't listen at all to the boy. He is working very good with both trainers now.
Here are our dogs.....(and I am using the dogs real names).....
Cass - 100% Pit Bull, Male, 1 1/2 year old. Cass is extremely strong! It is next to impossible to walk this dog on a leash. This is his trainer's #1 concern right now. She is working hard to get him to calm down on a leash. He is responding well to treats and so far knows, sit, down, and paw. He is getting better on the leash but still needs a lot of work! Cass is one of the surrenders due to the economy.
Awestin - Awestin is a Yellow Lab. Probably about one year old, male. Yellow Labs are know for being difficult to train and getting into a lot of mischief, which I assume is why he was turned into the shelter. His trainer is doing an excellent job with him so far. One of the employees at the facility is adopting Awestin when he graduates from the program.
Happy - Happy is a Brittney Spaniel. He is about 2-3 years old. Happy was a stray. He is very high strung. Happy may have been let loose by his owner. Sometimes with hunting breeds, when they are done with them, they are either let loose or turned in. Sad how some people use these dogs to get THEIR job done and just throw them away when the job is finished.
Lilly - Lilly is a Pit/Australian Shep. mix. I think she's about 2 years old. She was a stray. Lilly is very smart and has become very protective of her trainer. We started off just figuring out what she knows already but quickly realized that she needs to work on socialization. For now that is all her trainer will work on. Without socialization this dog would never end up in a "forever" home. Because of her trainer and this program she will have a good chance of finding that home! Lilly's trainer will literally be saving Lilly's life. What an accomplishment.
Midnight - Midnight is a female about 1 1/2 years old. She is a Rottweiler mix and an extremely sweet dog! She can be pretty goofy too! She is learning at a very fast pace but gets distracted easily. She was a stray and we can see that in her personality. She is always on guard and aware of her surroundings. She loves to play with the other dogs and the kids. Midnight will make a great pet for a family with children and it would be nice if they have another dog too.
Tucker (aka Tuck Tuck) - Tucker is a male beagle, about 1 1/2 years old. He is a surrender. We get a lot of beagles in the program. We always have at least one beagle and one pit bull in our class. Both breeds really need some good training to be a good family dog (yes, pit bulls make good family pets!). Beagles can be very difficult to train. They are very distracted by all the different scents around them so it can be difficult to keep their attention during training. Tuck Tuck has two trainers, a boy and a girl. At first he really took to the girl and wouldn't listen at all to the boy. He is working very good with both trainers now.So those are the dogs we are working with right now. Around the first week of July these dogs will be adopted out, provided they are ready for their "forever" homes and we will bring in another six dogs to work with.
The kids in this program will work with dogs for appoximately 14-15 weeks. We usually do an eight to 10 week program else where but in this facility the kids are there at least six months so we are able to keep them in the program longer. Once they graduate from the program, provided they are still in the facility, the kids will be able to come to the next session to mentor the new kids. It's wonderful to watch them demonstrate what they've learned to the new kids.
This is all I will post for today! Tomorrow I'll work on telling you what I can about the kids!
I am always amazed at how attentive you are to a dog's behavior and its implications without going overboard at anthropomorphism (ascribing human characteristics to nonhumans). Great job, Lisa - I really think the Teacher's Pet program is a great one and look forward to reading more!
ReplyDeleteQuestion: What happens to dogs who date-wise have reached the end of the training but behavior-wise have not achieved their goals? For example, what happens if at the end of the time Cass still can't walk on a leash? Perhaps this is something you could discuss at a later post.
Great blog Lisa!! I'm so glad you started one.
ReplyDeleteJoanna! I'm so glad you read it! I was thinking I needed to find your email later and email the link to you. Your mom beat me to it! Thank you for reading! Do you have one? Probably don't have time with five kids!
ReplyDeleteI share two blogs with friends. My personal one I share with my friend Johanna and we talk about homeschooling and just daily life, basically. My posts will have my name underneath. That's located here: http://thejosknow.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteMy other one is for crafty stuff that 6 friends and I do. Knitting, sewing, baking, cooking...anything. http://mothers-of-invention.blogspot.com/
Mom got the blog idea from ME!! Ha ha.