Rusty | German Shorthair Pointer | Santa Monica, CA | In-Training
- Scott Hansen
- Feb 16
- 17 min read
Updated: Mar 1
Meet Rusty! Rusty is a two-and-a-half-year-old German Shorthair Pointer from Santa Monica, CA who is here for our Two-Week Board and Train Program. Rusty exhibits many playful German Shorthair Pointer traits such as jumping on people to greet them and barking to express himself. Rusty pulls hard on the leash, and gets excited at dogs walking by, kids playing, and sports balls at the park. Rusty has had some training and can perform a command or two, however, he lacks structure and will perform the tasks inconsistently. Over the next fourteen days, Rusty will learn to be a confident, obedient pup through clear communication, consistent, and balanced training in areas such as at home, in the car, and in discovering new people and places. Rusty will learn to perform all these things off-leash through a positive and balanced training environment. Through structure and consistency, Rusty will demonstrate how great a pup he can be! Stay tuned for Rusty’s two-week transformation!
Pupdate 2/16/25
Today Mr. Rusty joined me and my pack for his two-week board and train program! It was a pleasure to meet you and I am looking forward to training with Mr. Rusty. On our way back home, I stopped at my local park to see what obedience commands Mr. Rusty knew. He showed me that he is definitely a GSP with his years of breeding to track birds and anything that moves. It is in their DNA. He would focus on anything that moved instead of me. We had a quick photoshoot for his BLOG profile picture. Have you ever tried to take a picture of a GSP? Fun times.
When we got to his new temporary residence, I let him meet Ms. Toji and Ms. Olive, my other board and train, through the fence. They all said hi and I saw good tail wagging. I then brought Mr. Rusty into my house and let him smell everything. Once again, I let him smell Ms. Toji and Ms. Olive through the screen door and it was nothing but wagging tails. We headed outside where I let them all meet each other. They all seemed to be happy pups and enjoying themselves. Mr. Rusty found a tennis ball. I think we found our key to success with Mr. Rusty as he was guarding that tennis ball with his whole body!
Lastly, we went on one of the fastest walks I have ever taken around my whole neighborhood, with Mr. Rusty pulling me along. The purpose of this walk was for him to get used to the sights, sounds, and scents of the new neighborhood. During the walk, I gauged his engagement, leash responsiveness, responsiveness to me, and stamina. Today was his one "free" day to get used to the sights, sounds, and smells. Tomorrow we will introduce the e-collar and his commands and be off to the races!
I like that Mr. Rusty is into the tennis ball and treats. This should make for a good recipe for training. In balanced training, there are consequences for wanted behavior and unwanted behavior. The more wanted behavior we get, the more positive consequences there will be, and the more unwanted behavior, the more negative consequences there will be. Negative doesn't mean punishment and positive doesn't mean party. It just means that we will encourage one behavior and mitigate the other.
Attached is the e-collar video, the picture of the unit that I gave you today with the training leash, and the e-collar receiver with the 5/8" titanium hypoallergenic contact points that I will be using on my system for Mr. Rusty.
Pupdate 2/17/25
Well, Mr. Rusty has made quite the entrance over here. Unfortunately, whether it's due to the issues he was having before he got here as you mentioned, or the stress of coming to a new place, his diarrhea showed up. I had let him out around 8 pm after dinner before bringing him for the night. He was in my office with me for the night by 830 PM. He did pee and poop in my office around 1 AM. I put him in his crate for the evening as it was a couple of solid and maybe a few spots of diarrhea so I figured he was done. I was wrong. He let out the rest all over his crate this morning. I fed him outside and he's been outside most of the day. I cooked up some rice and picked up some chicken for him that I'll be mixing with his food for the next few days. I'll also give him a few extra breaks before bedtime.
As far as today's training went, today was the introduction to the e-collar system. As I mentioned yesterday, I start at 0 and work my way up to see where Mr. Rusty is showing me his tolerance. I noticed his first change around 10 and around 20 is where he laid down on his own. I think 10 will be a good level to work for him. I introduced the "sit", "down", "place", "heel", and "come-to-sit". I also introduced the "break" command. All of these are a work in progress and we will slowly but surely get there. You can see me put him in the "sit" several times because all he wanted to do was lie down. I wasn't asking him to do this. The fun thing with GSPs is that he wouldn't perform the "sit" for me while working on the e-collar, nor would he go chase the ball when I gave him the "break" command but after the video was over, I spent about 10 minutes playing fetch with him and he was all about that tennis ball! He would "sit" without an issue for the ball with only his collar on. The GSP life is a complicated one. Hopefully, we can capitalize on the ball play as a reward for doing all his tasks well. It didn't seem like a good reinforcer during the obedience session. He seemed fine with just physical and verbal praise such as tummy rubs and telling him he's a good boy. He's a licker which is a little uncommon with GSPs but I'll take it.
We'll continue to push forward with the training and work on his "heel", recall and overall impulse control for Mr. Rusty.
Pupdate 2/18/25
Today Mr. Rusty and I headed over to Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA to continue to reinforce all his new commands. Well at least some of them are new to him. He is such an interesting character. He has been resistant to the "sit" with the e-collar on. It is a GSP conundrum. I think we made some progress today but we will see. I kind of go back and forth with getting him to understand the task, he finally performs the "sit" and then jumps right back up! C'mon! So working on his impulse control is going to be an issue. I will say that due to his ongoing stomach and diarrhea issues, this could cause a sensitive booty area which could also lead to him not wanting to sit for too long. He did have a little bit of diarrhea in the crate this morning and thanks to my brilliant idea of buying a white crate, it was like a Rorschach painting. I'll keep giving the chicken and rice special combo until it subsides.
We did work on his door manners when we were trying to leave. That took about five minutes to get out the door before he understood to just sit there until I opened the door and took one step out so that he could go through the door. A lot of impulse control to work on for Mr. Rusty. We'll get there, each day building it up.
He did have a much better temperament and attitude while wearing the e-collar today so I was happy about that. We will continue to make it a positive association and not a punishment or negative association. It is simply a communication device so that Mr. Rusty understands what we are asking of him.
Pupdate 2/19/25
Today we had a small backyard session. After yesterday's extended session at the park with the e-collar on, I saw Mr. Rusty return to his normal GSP self. The pros are that he is willing to be a GSP and hunt, play, and be energetic. The cons are that he's willing to hunt, play, and be stubborn. I brought out a tennis ball with me. I don't think Mr. Rusty needs many treats and with the stomach issues he was having, I think it's safer to avoid using them for now. The tennis ball worked wonders! It was great in helping to shape the come-to-sit. We aren't looking for perfection at this point in the game. We are simply getting him used to the commands. We are shaping and prompting the behavior. Slowly but surely I will fade my prompts such as the hand movements or my feet placement and Mr. Rusty will need to perform the task without my body cues. I am really happy with how today went. I was going to just play catch with him at the end of the training to show you that he still has his playful energy and he's just learning some structure. He's learning when to be a good boy and when he can be a crazy bird dog but he was doing so well throughout that I started using the tennis ball as a reward for his good behavior. If you can pick up on it, I stopped using the e-collar for a large portion of the video and just let the tennis ball shape the behavior.
This morning, Mr. Rusty left me a great surprise! He didn't have any extra poop or diarrhea in his crate! I'll keep him on my .5/.5/.5/.5 special mix until I run out of rice and chicken which is enough for about two more days.
Pupdate 2/20/25
Today Mr. Rusty and I headed to one of my favorite local parks, Liberty Park in Cerritos, CA. There is a small playground with children playing, pickleball matches, people walking their pups, people exercising, a frisbee golf course nearby, and the riverbed trail where scooters, bicycles, runners, and mini-bikes cruise by. It is a great place to work on obedience, with all the distractions around for Mr. Rusty. I brought the tennis ball I had used for him at first but he was sometimes into it and then other times not. I think a wubba, a ball with a rope, or a squeaky ball might be more up his alley. I'll see if I have one of those around. Mr. Rusty has the potential to perform all these tasks, its a matter of being consistent with him and holding him accountable. I showed the camera that for most of the training I was simply using the vibrate feature for Mr. Rusty. GSPs are sensitive creatures. It's not to say that he can't tolerate the 5-10 range, but it feels like I can get more out of him with just the vibrate feature. I will use the stimulation feature when he ignores the vibration or is overly distracted.
He is still working on his impulse control as we leave the house each day as he wants to break his "sit" at the door manners. This is likely going to be something you will have to be keenly aware of and ensure you are consistent with this task. I will be demonstrating the types of door manners for you. The door manners are important especially when you bring Mr. Rusty home to show him that the new foundation and rules apply when he is with you and at your home. He will think that the old rules are back in place and you have to let him know that it's not going to be like that anymore.
Another day with no signs of diarrhea in the crate overnight and that the magic mixture is working. This is good too in that I enjoy a pup that is well-fed, hydrated, mentally and physically healthy. This makes for a good student and learning environment.
Pupdate 2/22/25
Today Mr. Rusty and I worked on his door manners. Mr. Rusty has a lot of impulse control issues. Most of our training is going to revolve around him controlling himself. The great thing about GSPs is that they love to do the task and then immediately not do the task. We ask them to "sit", they "sit', then they get up. We ask them to "down", then they get right back up. We say go chase the ball, they go chase the ball and then keep running with the ball or don't give it back. Great times! For most of Mr. Rusty's training, I will be using the vibrate feature of his e-collar. The higher levels don't seem too necessary unless he is performing real nuisance behavior like being destructive or performing demanding barking. Remember, we want to use the lowest level attention-getter possible to disrupt the behavior. For Mr. Rusty, the vibration seems to be adequate at this point. He may build up a tolerance for this level and eventually, we might have to move to the stimulations in the 7-10 range. He will let us know by how much he follows our directions if we need to raise the levels.
As you can see in today's video, there are two types of what we call "door manners". One type, the most common type, is that he sits at the door while we open it and then he is allowed to proceed through with us or after us but never before us. He is also not allowed to fly through the door and pull us after going out the door. We have been practicing this one a lot. The next one is where he performs a "place" and "down" or simply a "down" by the door and waits for us to go out and come back or for us to let people in and out of the house. He broke this command several times; however, as we went along it helped with practing his "place" and "down" as I didn't have to go back inside to reset him, a simple vibrate plus a verbal "Rusty! Place, down" and he was back to where he was supposed to be. I jogged back and forth, jumping jacks, jumped, varied my distance to him and so on to force him to decide to stay there. When dogs make mistakes, learning can occur. He gets up, I put him back and he goes, well I guess I wasn't supposed to do that. And then I reset what I was doing and now he is thinking, well the last the human was doing all those weird things he told me to stay here so I guess I'll just stay here. And then I come in and say "Break!" and give Mr. Rusty lots of attention and he goes this is AWESOME!
Food Note - He hasn't had any more issues so I am going to switch back over to his regular 1 Cup Dry, .5 Topper, .5 Rice. Once I'm out of rice, I'll fill back in the 1.5 cups of kibble + .5 topper.
Good job today Mr. Rusty!
Pupdate 2/22/25
Today Mr. Rusty and I made another trip over to my favorite dog training park, Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA. It just has everything you could ask for, it's dog friendly, there are plenty of other pups, pup parents walking their pups, distractions like a Little League baseball game, a toddler soccer practice, birthday parties, squirrels, kids on power wheels, scooters, and bikes, and then the river bed runs adjacent so there are even more bike riders, runners, scooters, and mini-bikes. There are even horses there occasionally going along their trail path. It just has so many great things that I love when building and working on a pup's obedience. It is also almost entirely fenced in so in the worst-case scenario, Mr. Rusty isn't going too far. Overall, today went pretty smoothly. I think my primary focus for the next few days is going to be his car manners, right now he doesn't jump in the car, his door manners, and his come-to-sit. So we might see a few more videos of his training around the house. We also need to introduce the leash dragging and off-leash work this week. I like to introduce the off-leash work in my backyard where it is contained and there are little to no distractions so that we can ensure he fully understands that he can't just run off.
Pupdate 2/23/25
Today Mr. Rusty and I worked on his car manners. We focused on getting him comfortable with the ramp on the ground, then going up on the ramp on my porch. All the while I am saying "load up" and pressing the stimulation button. Then I have him go up without me. Then I had him "load up" into the car. He was nervous but he was brave and made it over. There was no crate in the back of my car so he was able to go back in there and turn around without any issues. We practiced this quite a few times. Same thing, I was pressing the "s" button and saying load up. Then the final stage was to have him jump in and do it on his own. Guess what, he did it! Great job today Mr. Rusty!
This week will be a lot of "come-to-sit", leash dragging to eventual off-leash work, and working around more and more distractions. We're right on track and I'm happy with his progress.
Pupdate 2/24/25
Today Mr. Rusty focused on a few things that we needed to check off the list of "Can Rusty do these things?". The first item, "Can Rusty perform a place and down while the humans ate their meal?" He definitely can! I had lunch with the other Mike today and Mr. Rusty fell right asleep and paid us no mind. I checked that off the list!
The next few items we needed to check off the list were if Mr. Rusty was ready for the leash-dragging commands. Turns out he's doing perfectly fine with these commands! We performed all of his commands with the leash dragging in the front of my house. He even had one perfect "come-to-sit"! The rest were not that good but we will have to give those special attention every day for the next few days. That is one of those commands where one day it just clicks. We stay consistent in asking it of him and he will keep performing it. I'm very pleased with where Mr. Rusty is on his journey and I think you will be very happy with where he winds up.
Pupdate 2/25/25
Today Mr. Rusty and I headed over to Liberty Park in Cerritos, CA to practice his commands with my lightest and shortest leash to simulate being off-leash. This is the final stage before letting him be off-leash. He is right where he is supposed to be. Liberty Park had people walking their dogs, kids playing on the playground, frisbee golf, beach volleyball practice, and pickleball. Mr. Rusty did fantastically with all these distractions. He wasn't trying to run off and chase them and didn't let them deter him from being a good pup!
Overall we have been making good progress with Mr. Rusty! Over the next few days, we will introduce the off-leash work and try to go to a more public place that allows for off-leash work to see how well Mr. Rusty does while he is around the distractions while being off-leash.
Pupdate 2/26/25
Today Mr. Rusty had our first excursion into the off-leash realm. It was an adventurous one but we survived and made it out unscathed! At first, he went to the dog bed and avoided doing any tasks at all. He went to a safe place and thought that if he laid down, I wouldn't bother him. Here's the deal: he might also try to do that with you. Please don't buy that from him when we are running the show. If we want him to "place" and "down", it will be because we asked him to not because he is avoiding us. Which is why I kept saying "Rusty, come". I slowly kept increasing the stimulation levels until he broke from what he was doing and came to me. We were performing the "heel" and he decided on his own to go over there. That's not how it works Mr. Rusty. We have to be consistent and fair especially when it comes to off-leash because if he thinks he can do what he wants, that's when the pup will break off and not come back. He's done it once, twice, or even three times before so why not a fourth, fifth, or sixth time? We have to be consistent every time.
As you can see in the video, Mr. Rusty then headed straight to the other side of my house where the dog run is located another time. He was like "Nope, I'm out of here kind sir". And I was like "Nah, man, your parents paid for you to learn how to do this stuff". I let the e-collar motivate him to come back to me. I started saying "Rusty, come!" while pressing the black "S" button. I worked up to only level 25 on the e-collar and he came back. When we went back to the "heel" I was extra nice and let him know, I was the happy fun person that he wanted to be around. I am a better, positive consequence than breaking off and not listening. We ended with a play session with the tennis ball! Overall, I am happy with his temperament and where he is.
This is your reminder to follow all leash laws, regulations, and ordinances. Also, just because I can go off-leash with your pup, doesn't mean that you and Mr. Rusty will be ready to run off and be off-leash. You will need to practice with the e-collar system, be familiar with it, be good with the timing, and be comfortable with that system as well as the long lead before attempting off-leash activities. You will need to practice in an enclosed place such as a backyard with all your commands off-leash before trying the off-leash activities.
Mr. Rusty might be a candidate for the Good Canine Citizen exam in a few more weeks. I'll go over the exam criteria during his turnover so you can focus on the things you will need to reinforce with him. When you are ready, you can reach out to the Off Leash Office and schedule an assessment.
Pupdate 2/27/25
Today Mr. Rusty and I headed to Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, CA to work on his commands around distractions. Although we didn't perform off-leash since the mall doesn't always let us, we kept a very loose leash and let him think he was free and he kept acting like he was free. We practiced all his commands. His biggest struggle has been his ability to hold his "sit" for two minutes or longer. We're almost there. Other than that, he did well! We'll keep working on cleaning everything up before he goes home in three more days!!
Pupdate 2/28/25
Today Mr. Rusty and I headed to Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA to test his off-leash skills. Mr. Rusty has the off-leash skills to pay the bills! How fun is Mr. Rusty to work with!! I'm having a blast working with Mr. Rusty! He has been on fire the past few days. He is excited to work. He is happy to spend time with me and I am happy to spend time with him. He is sometimes a little bit too excited and will break the sit or the place if I move too fast. This is fine as I am pushing to make Mr. Rusty bulletproof with his obedience but these are counter-conditioning things you can work on with him. Overall, he is ready to go. Tomorrow we will perform a comprehensive review of all of his commands and he will be ready to head back to you guys!
At the end of the video, I even let him play with his tennis ball off-leash to test if he would come back with a high-value item. Yup, I was able to get him to come back. I think you won't have any problems with Mr. Rusty. We haven't had any barking or issues with that. That can be solved with a timely, low-stimulation + verbal "off".
Pupdate 3/1/25
Today Mr. Rusty and I headed to the Citadel Outlets in Commerce, CA. We were able to practice all his commands around a lot of distractions. Mr. Rusty did well. We were there for over an hour and he did start to get a little overwhelmed. So he does have a limit as to what he can handle off-leash. I would be mindful as to how much stimulus he can handle. It's not that he was disobeying or trying to leave my side but he was breaking his commands faster and things were not as sharp. As I have mentioned before, I have simply put a foundation into Mr. Rusty. You will have to keep building upon that foundation. Also, GSPs have scatterbrains. They know the commands but then something shiny comes along and then they go, "Oh shiny" and then they go "Oh wait I was supposed to sit", they go "Oh butterflies". They are just happy-go-lucky pups. We try to channel that energy. I am happy with the progress we have made.
As a reminder, here are the obedience commands that he has learned while with me:
Sit/Extended Sit: Press the black "S" button + say "Sit".
Down/Extended Down: Press the black "S" button + say "Down".
Place/Extended Place: Press the black "S" button + say "Place".
Come-To-Sit: Press the black "S" button + say "Come" + use your hands to guide into place.
Heel: Press the black "S" button + say "Heel".
Food Manners/Refusal: The pup must patiently wait in either a "sit" or "down" while you prepare the food and then say "break" allowing the pup to access the food.
Car Manners: Press the black "S" button + say "Load up!"
Greeting Manners: Have pup "sit" then allow for new person to say hi
Door Manners: Place the pup in a "sit" open the door and then allow the pup to go through with you or say "ok" and let the pup inside
"Off" + black button "S" to stop the pup from performing unwanted behavior. Always press the black "S" when using this command.
"Break!" - no stimulation and the pup can freely sniff or go potty.
We will be reviewing how to perform all these tomorrow during the turnover! We can't wait to show you how much he has learned and how great of a pup she will be in the future!
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