Gunner, a German Shepherd from Monterey Park, CA went through the Balanced Canine Training SoCal Two Week Board & Train dog training program. Gunner was trained by dog trainer Haley Giwoff in Costa Mesa, CA.
This is Gunner the 6 month old German Shepard from Monterey Park, CA. He is a sharp and motivated boy but has ended up with a couple bad habits! He likes to chase cars, and while he has some obedience and off leash skills they tend to go out the window with the right distractions or lack of treats. He has managed to break quite a few things in his house with his size and excitability. He is here with us to do a Two Week Board and Train program and I can't wait to show this guys off in two weeks!
Pupdate 05/24/2020
Gunner is getting all settled in! He is not the biggest fan of getting into the kennel but settles down pretty quick once he is in there! He got to check out the backyard today and was quite enamored with all the new smells! Can't wait to do his first lesson tomorrow!
Pupdate 05/25/2020
Gunner did two lessons today, conditioning him to the E-collar. He is a very vocal and mouthy boy but also super smart! He is coming along and starting to get his recall down, although he does like to tell you how unhappy he is about it and how sniffing and playing are more fun as he does it! He Slept through the night in the kennel fantastically and is scarfing all his meals down. All in all he is doing good and adjusting great!
Pupdate 05/26/2020
Gunner made loads of progress today! He is still pretty vocal about doing commands but throws a few less tantrums each time he comes out for a lesson. He made leaps and bounds of progress on his Heel today. He is a sharp pup and is quickly learning to Sit when he wants something and is getting way better about getting into the kennel. Although getting him into the one in the car is still a bit of a hassle.. His video tomorrow is going to seem like a whole different dog!
Pupdate 05/27/2020
Gunner was doing so great on his Heel during his morning lessons today that I decided to up the ante and work right next to the street to work on his car chasing issue. He is definitely wanting to go after them as his ears perk up and he loses a bit of his focus anytime he hears one, but he did absolutely awesome. He also has made tons of progress with the kennel. Today he went in with out any hesitation and has been relaxing in off duty mode while he is in there,. Accept for when there is food about, he protests quite a bit if we eat with out him! Over-all he is progressing wonderfully!
Pupdate 05/28/2020
Gunner worked on his Place command today! He took to it so fast! He is such a sharp kid. He has been fantastic about the kennel and putting his gear on. He get's so excited to work and is super pumped to nap in his kennel when he is done. He is also engaging in a ton more eye contact which is awesome!
Pupdate 05/29/2020
Gunner working on his Place command in the front yard. He is coming along great, he still protests here and there but is getting more attentive with every lesson. We also did some work on his Sit and Door Manners earlier in the day. His Hot Spot seems a lot happier now that it's getting some air. I still did shorter lessons today just to give it some breathing room! Gunner has already come a long way and I am excited to see what the next few days hold!
Pupdate 05/30/2020
Gunner discovered the toy chest today. He then proceeded to one by one take each toy out play with it for a bit and go back for the next. He also learning a new game of retrieving toys from the bottom of the kiddie pool which he was quite proud of! In his lesson we worked on his Come, Heel, Sit, and Down commands in the backyard with the added toys as a reward to "positively charge" his break command. He isn't one for bring any toys back to me but he is ecstatic to get to chase them when I throw them!
Pupdate 05/31/2020
Gunner's doing pretty dang good! He now has the fundamentals of all 7 of his commands down. Now its just keeping them sharp and getting him to do more and more challenging versions of them. His "Break" command which means "be a dog" or "do what you want" (within reason) was super strong and maybe a little too enthusiastic today after his toy work yesterday so we were working on dialing it back a notch. He worked on getting a bit of distance/distraction for his Sit's and Down's all the neighbor dogs on each side of him were barking at him for most of the session making him need to filter them out and listen to me. He struggled for a little bit but soon started to rock it!
Pupdate 06/01/2020
Gunner went to the small shopping center up the street today. He was a bit of a protesting nightmare at first! He was doing everything I asked but man was he complaining... turns out the big boy needed to go potty! He had ample backyard opportunity before we left and didn't go but apparently needed to once we got to the center! I wouldn't be doing great in class if I needed to go either. After his potty break though he did stellar, he even got a few compliments from some passersby. One gentleman in particular stopped walking said "I used to have a GSD that looked just like that guy, not nearly as well behaved though!" We worked on a little bit of everything, Come, Heel, Sit, Down, and Place. Big guy got his paw a little stuck in the gap between seat and back rest of a bench towards the end of the lesson, he isn't favoring it at all or reacting to it being squeezed or moved, but he's going to take it easy the rest of today just in case. My G man is coming along pretty great though!
Pupdate 06/02/2020
Gunner was working hard today! We got A/C installed so he had to be calm and relaxed while the house was being worked on. I didn't hear much of a peep out of him! We then went and worked on a whole bunch of stuff out in front of a high school. One of the moments I was proudest of his self control during was him maintaining his Place command with several little kids riding their bikes in front of him. so that's his video! several times he was showing interest and I could tell he really wanted to pop up and chase them around, but each time I just said Place and he kept his impulses under control!
Pupdate 06/03/2020
This guy worked on a bit of everything around the property today! His biggest challenge/distraction today was the hose! He absolutely started the day thinking it was a toy and was constantly trying to bite at it anytime the water was one, so we used it as a distraction! He was doing Sit's and Down's with it being sprayed all about like a champ in no time. We also worked on some socialization today, Gunner isn't unfriendly by any mean's but is definitely overwhelmingly excited about other dogs which causes them to be overwhelmed stiff and likely to lash out. So today we worked on him doing Sit's and Down's with my dog walking about. This was very difficult for the big boy but he managed! He needed a lot of reminders and whined about it a ton, but ultimately started to default into Sit's/Down's in order to get more interaction which was so fun to see!
Pupdate 06/04/2020
Gunner working on tightening up his off-leash Heel and later practicing place with two other dog's about as distractions! Gunner know's all his commands and does them well! He does throw a tantrum or two here and there but we will be working on that over the next day before his Final video. He is one smart pup!
Pupdate 06/05/2020
Gunner did so well in his first lesson this morning he got some serious play time with fellow trainee Benji! They were instant best-friends. Gunner is still pretty excitable about other dogs, which with the wrong one can be bad news, however Benji is the same way. After doing some Sits, Downs, Heels around to get him used to ignoring another dog to do obedience I let them go full ham! Throughout their play I also routinely called Gunner to me practicing his Come command in a very distracting situation! He did awesome. The first time he struggled a lot particularly as Benji (only being a few days into training) fulled him trying to get him to play the whole walk to me which was incredibly temping. After a few rep's though Gunner was great about disengaging and coming straight to me. Over-all once Gunner is through that initial excitement he is a super appropriate player! He even went into a down to wait for Benji to get a drink!
Pupdate 06/06/2020
Gunner's back leg was having some issues today so we only went out to film his final video real quick in the afternoon but had him on kennel rest most of the day. So I'm giving you a sneak peak from that! He is all packed and ready to go home in the morning and I imagine he is going to be over the moon to show off his skills to Mom and Dad in the morning!