Maverick
German Shorthaired Pointer
San Pedro, Ca | Three Week Board and Train
September 16, 2024
September 17, 2024
Maverick spent the day working on e-collar conditioning. He understands to come back to me but prefers to cheat and walk backward a bit so he can still sniff but is starting to understand what it means! We are working on learning his release word, break. We have learned he prefers eating his food from the ground rather than hand-fed. We will continue to work on that but he ate a bit of his food today and we are reserving his treats for more distractions. We began clicker training for door manners and barriers. He is picking that up quickly but gets impatient to go out and mark things.
September 18, 2024
Maverick had a very successful day today! I am very excited to say he has deemed his food and snacks worthy of being eaten out of my hand! He ate all his food and some, so we’re very happy about that. Today we worked on expanding his locations for E-collar conditioning, he’s getting the hang of it quite well. We incorporated door manners, leave it, and began introducing crate manners, and clicker training for stand, and down.
I also made the acquaintance of his annoyed face; he looks like the expressionless emoji. It’s quite comical. I experienced it when I showed him a biscuit to hold his attention and take his picture. He looked at me and then I proceeded to give him kibble instead. He was not amused with that switch. That’s when I realized my bribery was because he’s not very photogenic. He despises looking at the camera which is something we’ll be working on and when he does look at you, he’s giving you the unamused look! He also huffs and sighs! We could easily cut the unpleasantries if he looked right away instead of having me acting a fool to get his attention! I was at a public park making all kinds of noises and strange dance movements while he kept intentionally turning his head and huffing at me and there wasn’t anything distracting! I was judged by a liver-spotted puppy!
Other than our little photographic beef he’s making good progress and it’s pleasant to watch him be so proud of himself when he understands a concept or gets something right. He looks like an excited baby T Rex when he does his little front foot hop and wiggles his little tail nub.
September 19, 2024
What an interesting day indeed! Today we added formal recall to our E-collar training, and we went to several different parks to work on that. Wonderfully so Maverick’s doing exceptionally well with recall. He picked up coming back right away and enjoyed the praise as he walked over. However, he only wants snacks when he doesn’t want to pee on things, that will be the true challenge! But for the most part with the distraction level we’re working with right now, he’s doing well and once he understands the collar more, we’ll up our distractions.
He is also expanding his door manners to different types of barriers and doors on our walks he lets me know often when he wants to go for a car ride because he will immediately go towards my truck and offer a sit. I know it’s only because he secretly wants to find more things to pee on but I’m going to let him think he’s getting away with something because I was already taking him to more parks to work on things. Sometimes you just have to play the game.
He’s doing great with learning stand. That is a really hard command to teach but it’s excellent for handling skills and vet examinations. We’re expanding our duration on place but we’re not yet doing that out and about yet. We’re just adding different place objects to his belt but at home, we’re building his duration. I will be so excited when we eventually get into watching TV and eating dinner while on place.
We’re still doing clicker training with down he’s iffy with that one. He has good days and bad days, today he was confused but yesterday he was doing better but I know he’ll get it. He thinks it means to bow at the moment in specific contexts and a different room, but once you generalize one room to the other that will go away. However it is rather adorable to see him look very confused with his butt in the air looking at me like why aren’t you clicking and giving me the snack lady I’m doing the thing?!
I’m only using his biscuits for crate training right now and it’s really funny because they’re not as high value as the freeze-dried treats so I save those for when we’re out and about and the kibbles for at home but he gets excited to do crate training because he knows he’s going to get the biscuits and then if I try to even offer him kibble in the crate he huffs at me and gives me his paw like “how dare you! Get this kibble away from me at once peasant!” but as soon as he gets out of the crate, he’s fine eating kibble! I’m creating a pattern bias so that he values crate training more. Just because he’s having so much fun out generalizing and expanding the commands we work on at home and we want him to still enjoy crate time and crate training since that’s more for him to wind down, relax, absorb everything we worked on, and take breaks since we do a lot of walking.
September 20, 2024
Maverick had an interesting day. We did things a little differently. Instead of working on a specific agenda, I let Maverick dictate what we did. On our walks he got permission to mark things as a reward instead of treats, he was pleasantly surprised!
He worked on sitting at curbs and asking permission to go mark. At home, he worked on place, down, the go away game, eye contact, leave it, and weirdly bow and paw!
He was confused by the lack of direction but it challenged him to think about how to engage with me. He offered behaviors he thought would elicit a response and he was correct! He was so proud of himself when he realized he was in control of the games! He then tired himself out without realizing it by offering several behaviors over and over in rapid succession to get snacks. Quickly learning to enjoy the duration work instead of making himself work harder not smarter, he caught on and brought his antler onto the place cot himself and enjoyed regular treats for staying put all on his own!
September 21, 2024
Maverick spent his day being a good distraction dog at work. He was curious about the other dogs but he was easily redirected! We got to work on polite greetings with many people who stopped us to praise Maverick for his handsomeness and how good he was acting! He reveled in the attention.
We worked on him relaxing while people were eating, hanging out on place, or in a down. He’s feeling more confident in down and will place longer.
At one point in the festivities, he thought he could join us on the couch right behind me or at my feet and stand up blocking the TV for everyone with his blanky in tow. He stole the show but was then escorted back to place where he began to throw his blanket around to try to trade us for snacks. He enjoyed practicing giving the sad puppy eyes when no one would stop and give him charcuterie too. However, he did eat all his food despite all the distracting food around him!
By the end of the night he decided to put himself to sleep in the crate even though we took the crate door off. Occasionally sighing that we were still here keeping him up after a long day of work! His angry huffs were very adorable as they would come after we would laugh to loud. Now that he’s a hard working boy he thinks he can tell us when to go to sleep!
September 22, 2024
Maverick spent the day working on his place command and improving his boundaries like loading into the car and new types of “doors”.
He is working on transferring the e-collar to place and leave it. He understands place with hand signals and treats but we are beginning to lessen the lure and feed after he has done the command. This leaves him quite offended but with pets and treats during his duration and after he seems less judgmental.
He is picking up leave it quite well, even able to leave thrown treats! We are also implementing leave it to nonedible items that he is distracted by. Marking is a crucial one as that is his favorite distraction and what easily breaks him from commands. He is also learning to understand the collar to other people.
September 23, 2024
Maverick spent the day working on door manners and loose leash walking. He’s starting to understand that if I pause long enough near any barrier he needs to sit, and we will be working on speeding up that process. He no longer tries to push past barriers or jump on me because he’s frustrated. He’s also doing much better about not getting up from the sit once the barrier is opened.
He has decided he wants to be a picky eater and every training session he wants different snacks because the ones he had previously are not good enough until he forgets he’s had those before, it takes a few hours for treats to be worthy again.
We are also working on improving his loose-leash walking skills and eye contact. We have begun decreasing how far away he can be on the walks so that he must stay closer and closer until we will eventually start heeling. We’re simultaneously working on his eye contact so that eventually he chooses to be closer so he can check in often on his own. We are working on having him learn the difference between when he can pee and smell whatever he wants on a free walk versus eventually working on focused heel walks where he’s in a heel, leaving everything alone and focused on moving forward or making regular check-ins.
After a tiring long day, Maverick got to unwind with his bone and blinky while we worked in our den. He enjoys and requires regular pets to keep his batteries operating at full power. When he doesn’t get the attention he desires, he gets mopey and whiny or he’ll just straight up put himself on you either his head, butt, side, or stand on you. He’s quite theatrical and if you ignore his dramatic attempts to solicit, he will then huff and puff and walk to the next person and see if they will pay the puppy fee. He’s also gotten into the routine of putting himself to bed, if we are staying up too late. It’s very cute, at a certain time at night he will put his blankie away and remove himself from wherever he was or whoever he was soliciting from and walk into his crate and plop down to sleep. If you try to coax him back out with treats, he huffs. He might look to investigate what snack you are using but if it is not up to par you get extra huffs and a salty head turn. He requires his beauty sleep, he’s a working boy paying rent, how dare we interrupt his rest! He snores occasionally but he uses his blankie as a very cute pillow, it makes up for all the attitude.
September 24, 2024
September 25, 2024
Maverick had a busy day today! We began working on the heel command and heeling. We went on different walks to work on it with various distractions. He’s easily distracted but he’s also easily redirected with the E collar. You can start to see that his impulse control is getting better as he is beginning to let you know when he wants to interact with the distractions, but he also knows when he shouldn’t interact but it’s still a work in progress with all distractions, marking and birds are his biggest distraction. We also began working on pivot which will help with his heeling and maneuvering his very long body. He thought it was very strange but he enjoyed the snacks.
He’s getting better at doing puppy push-ups which is when you do a combination of sit down and stand like at the gym you change the order you do them and how many times you do them like reps and sets. He’s starting to speed up those commands and it’s nice to see. We’ve had to move on to better snacks specifically cheese and Turkey but it’s because he ran out of his treats. He very much appreciates the upgrade as I can tell from the giant pupils when he sees what I’m holding.
We also began working on his off-leash recall by dropping the leash when walking. We are starting in low distraction environments, like in our neighborhood, on our regular walks, but it took a bit to trust him to drag the leash with his bouncy personality. He wants to go investigate other people, things, animals, and mark. I started to notice he was trustworthy when on long leashes to potty he would race to the door or my car after going potty instead of wandering off on his own. As well as being able to recall him right away in all the different distracting locations we’ve been to. So he’s making progress, and now we want to transition that progress to when he has more freedom, but slowly to ensure his success.
I want to make a note and apologize for the voice quality in this video! I did not realize my mic was not on.
September 26, 2024
September 27, 2024
Maverick went to the park today and worked on his heeling. We passed many dogs, and Maverick showed everyone his skills by working on his auto sits at curbs and passing dogs on the street. Owners passed by in awe while their dogs pulled or whined. We worked on oval walking to get a better understanding of finish. We worked on making sharp turns both left and right as well as following up on pivot.
He is getting better at doing his commands in different directions from me but we need to work on how far away he sits when doing so now. He takes a step or two back when he sits not in front of you and it’s silly but he will understand it with time. At the moment it might seem like a different command to him.
He is enjoying having more freedom and going outside in the front yard off-leash. He gets so excited and runs around the yard then sprints back to the door when he’s ready to be an indoor do again. Or he tries to walk to the car to say he wants car rides! He’s silly.
September 28, 2024
Maverick had an exciting day working on adding duration to his down and placing for the length of a movie! We dozed off watching the movie and when we woke up, he was still on place being an excellent boy also snoozing! He’s adding distance and duration to his sit! It comes in handy when I forget something in the other room and have to run and get it but don’t necessarily want him to follow me everywhere, all the time. Which he indeed enjoys.
We went out to a crowded area with narrow walkways, and he got to work on heeling through crowds and he did fantastic! Lots of people were impressed and made comments. He got to say hi to lots of children that he ogled over. We worked on auto-sitting at curbs and getting him to be closer. Sitting patiently while waiting for stop lights to change. We passed by a lot of dogs and a lot of them were feet away from us. He always remained the gentleman, not reacting when dogs would bark or pull towards him. He was interested in a few but for the most part, he was good at just looking not necessarily trying to pull to go say hi. He might stray behind as we walked past to air sniff, but he’s easily redirected.
Later in the evening he met my cat and was very curious! A little concerned, lots of pointing, but my cat is unfazed by dogs. So, Maverick got to sniff him and be very interested but we kept the interaction short so it would stay positive and my cat wouldn’t get annoyed.
He’s such a good boy he gets tired waiting for me to go to bed. Thus, he comes up to me and places his head on my laptop with his adorable sleepy eyes and lets me massage his face but then he starts to fall asleep. As I write this he’s currently softly snoring on the carpet, so tired from his very long day. Dreaming of chasing lizards! He’s a very good baby.
September 28, 2024
Maverick had a fun day working off-leash at the park! Passersby admired him. He walked past other dogs and people. He was not tempted by all the children playing and has improved greatly with his auto-sit. He got to have some fun afterward by enjoying the large field and chasing birds while working on his recall.
September 30, 2024
Maverick had an exciting day out and about! He worked on his place skills. Increasing his distance around distractions! He has gotten more confidant working around distractions. We are seeing him understand more under the hard choices like people and birds. Marking is still its own category but he is marking less often and waiting for the release word to go.
He is improving greatly waiting for him food! We are adding more distance and distractions before releasing him. He still gets little impatience and does his little trex stance but is less likely to punch you or just straight up steal food now. He still has a way to go in his impatiences but is doing much better.
He spent the rest of the day adding distance and distraction to his down. He is getting faster at dropping from his different positions as we have started adding distance and more puppy push ups. Stand is the only exception since that is a much harder command to teach do to its inconsistency. However he still does it very well but our duration, distance and distraction is more focused on the grooming and veterinary skills. He is doing better at holding his stand and allowing me to check his body and go around him. We are working on making it easier to groom him. He is not a big fan of his feet being touched but will give you his paw for treats and if your are taking to long to treat.
October 1, 2024
Maverick had a good day working on holding his sit and stand for polite pettings, vet checks, and grooming! He works really hard to resist getting up but when he does he corrects himself. He does enjoy pets and is getting more comfortable with being examined.
He’s improving his commands at distances. He still wants to come closer to perform the commands but we are getting more consistent results. He still has some more work to do with the harder commands.
He is very interested in my cat, I can tell when he sees him, he starts shaking and pointing very still, when he’s normally not one to be still, even in a command. He has matured a lot and is making headway, but his instincts are still strong. I have to explain to people who see him so excited that he is in fact not cold nor scared. He’s just doing the GSP shake similar to the mal chatter!
He’s improving his street crossing skills as we are applying the auto sit to them and either rewarding crossing as fast as you can and waiting on the other side in a free walk, versus staying in a heel on a structured walk. As we are merging and interchanging the two. He is working on his impulse control and returning to the correct side.
It’s nice to see him blow off steam and run around with the zoomies whenever he gets the chance to be in a large grass area. The way his little wiggly body throttles at full speed and his ears, tiny wings, hitting his eyes. Mouth wide open, ready for bugs to land on his tongue, flapping in the wind. Long legs in all directions, and the inevitable graceful landing coming back where he almost always trips on himself. Priceless. He should be very proud of the freedom he has earned.
October 2, 2024
Maverick got to work on his off-leash heeling today! We went out and about with my dog as a distraction. We decided to do some evening work as it comes with its own different distractions and generalizing. He was quite captivated by the roaches scurrying the sidewalk. Aside from that, he was pretty well-focused and staying in heel. He is still learning who to heel to when with others. He tried to heel to whoever he was closer to him when the command was spoken.
He is improving at holding boundaries like crossing the curb, car doors, and other barriers. We have been improving his default action when he approaches a barrier without a specific command to pass through. He is still working on that however when he gets to a barrier, somewhere he hasn’t been explicitly generalized to, he will think hard do I s.i.t. or just hang back here? That’s when if you just walk out of a door or cross the street without saying or touching anything he just stands and makes the most questionable face. Trying to decipher if he is free or should he offer something. If you remind him to sit, he will and then you can see the clarity hit him but if you don’t say anything he will just stand there being nosey trying to see what everyone is doing without crossing the barrier but poking his head out as far as he can.
His down duration and distraction are doing much better. He is plopping down faster and understands going down from a stand as well as going back up into a sit. He likes to incorporate his theatrical paws in down on occasion. If he is offering a down all on his own for attention he will go into the down as grand and slow as possible to make sure you notice him being very good. If he is annoyed by being told to do a different command when he wants to offer something else he will do his big stretch but that doesn’t get him anything so then he gathers your focus back on him via paw and then says hey look I can lay down doesn’t this get me something?! I believe he is at the stage of training where he thinks he has cracked the code and is training me and he is in control of the snacks. I shall allow it!
October 3, 2024
Maverick had a big day today working at the park. He had to deal with his arch rivals, squirrels, and flocks of birds. He was quite concerned about why on earth these squirrels would be following us! Not only did he need to leave the squirrels alone but he had to keep heeling while they were following and talking to us! We seemed to peaked their interest. They probably were not saying nice things!
We also encountered a coyote who was trying to keep a whole parking lot to themself! We saw it from a distance and decided to let them keep the lot if they wanted. We would find another walking path!
We worked on deciphering between pivot, come, and finish. He is doing much better at recognizing them and adding distance but we are still working on the hand signals. He occasionally gets confused by my hand transitioning, thinking I am asking for a silent sit. He’s coming along to it and should be able to decipher in no time!
We found this magical inclusive park that was beaming with distractions. Maverick struggled to resist the many children who were frolicking around but he was a champ. He did super except at the very end when he could not restrain himself any longer and had to say hi to a child! He was so excited but did well holding his sit.
We impressed the crowds with our off-leash skills. Everyone looked on in awe or spoke amongst themselves. Commenting on how cool he looked! He was gorgeous. He held his down in a distracting spot but was unphased! He got a Dutch bros puppachino for all his hard work!
October 4, 2024
October 5, 2024
Maverick had an exciting day today. He got to work with my nephew who he was ecstatic to meet! We went to a park, worked on all of our commands, and taught my nephew so that he could practice with him. This way Maverick could work on transferring what he’s learned to others! He spent some time on the long leash working on everything. Then we moved to a short leash and once my nephew felt confident, we got him to do things off leash. Not necessarily heeling but just commands and running around in the field. Maverick was a little concerned as to why he couldn’t do the commands for me, and some stranger was telling him what to do rather than petting him?! It took him a little bit, but he got comfortable with the idea and was able to do things for my nephew. However, he did have a little sassiness about himself. My nephew had to be stubborn and persistent in getting him to do the commands as he thought it was playtime. Transferring commands to new people takes time but the key is persistence and consistency.
Maverick did fabulous with the vet check and grooming ability. He lets someone else check him with ease and he wasn’t at all wiggly or uncooperative. His standing command has developed nicely and it’s great for working on any type of grooming or handling skill.
He’s spent his day being a very excellent distraction dog especially when he was distracted by a squirrel that was teasing him and he began stalking it. That made the other dogs very distracted which was great for training. I had my nephew help be my assistant by walking Maverick for me while I taught. He was very confused as to why I wasn’t walking him myself while teaching and kept giving me longing faces, but he enjoyed the pets, ham, and all the running around my nephew does.
Maverick did surprisingly well at the park today around all the geese. He seemed to have no interest in them or the ducks. Apparently, they’re not the same as birds or squirrels. However, I cannot say the same for geese poop. We spent a good amount of time just working on leave it with the geese poop because it seemed to be a yummy candy for him. He was interested and when we would try to go in the opposite direction or avoid it he would heel with his head looking back or when he was in a down he would crawl towards it “secretly” or “covertly” do a rollover. He was part ninja, it was quite adorable if you looked past the gross breath?!
I am laughing so hard I am crying right now! This is awesome and extremely comical all at the same time! Thank you!
Thank you so much. I have been reading every day and it seems that he is maturing every day.
He looks good. Proud of him. Thank u.
These are amazing! Honestly he is a different dog!