welp, today is the 1st day of the rest of miss hotlips' life.
i dropped her off at a great pro training org, and i have great faith they will straighten her out.
it’s what they do. it’s a 4 wk program. 2 of my dogs have gone through their 2 wk bootcamp, and they came back almost perfect.
she had an eval a wk ago, and they kindly squeezed her in right away. she’ll absolutely love it. i’ll probably always have to manage her, but i’ll have great tools. an ecollar is included in the package, and is the key to my kingdom when she gets home.
i get a weekly hour in person, and daily vids. i rly like the trainer she’s working w. we clicked.
i now have 4 wks to work w the other dogs. her target needs some work on ignoring other dogs, esp at the window and the fence. but he’s already trained to an ecollar, so i can correct him from anywhere in the house. hell, anywhere on the block.
i know there r ecollar haters here, but imho they’re the best thing training tools since milkbones and clickers.
they’re a great tool for the transition to off leash. they can be misused like any powerful tool, but they’re like a remote control for dogs. i dont use it as a ‘punishment machine’. mine has 3 buttons- a tone, a vibration, and a boost. i think of them as yes, no, and oh hell no. THERE IS NO SHOCK INVOLVED.
u set the level for your dog. it has 100 levels. u set it to about the level of a pop on the leash. the boost is a preset higher vibration, something u also adjust. i almost never use it.
for anyone who thinks they’re yuck but wants to know more, ama.
i also get my life back today, at least for a while. this has been so incredibly stressful. and frankly heartbreaking. for a while i thought my only hope wd b to rehome her target, something i have only done twice. and the 2nd time i didnt have a choice.
for 3 mos, i couldnt move about my house w/o a plan. w/o stashing 1 dog somewhere while i moved the other. and in this old house, i’ve had a couple incidences where i thought a door was latched, but it wasnt. the last week has been super bad, as i had shoulder surgery and i am weight limited. breaking up a dog fight is def outside that limit. park of the reason they squeezed her in.
i stopped at the garden store on my way home, and bought a bunch of seeds. rly looking forward to getting my hands dirty.
i have great faith in both the program and the dog. been telling the boys it’s all gonna work out for weeks now. not sure how long it will take them to notice her absence.
but pheewwwww.
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