Four Legged Scholars – Atwater – Dog Training

Karen came to us with a dog that extremely hard to walk on-leash. Cooper, her German Shepherd, wanted to bark at many dogs on-leash walks.

As a result, Karen did not walk him. Her German Shepherd also jumped on people often on leash walks and in new environments.

In his home environment, Cooper was amazingly well-behaved. As a result, we did the bulk of the sessions outside.

Karen lives in Atwater. Dog training was agreed upon through seven private sessions with us. Karen wanted to be able to walk her dog and not stress so much.

We met at the Garrettsville Village Park and at Havre’s Woods in Ravenna.

We started with getting Cooper to be responsive to numerous commands outside with distractions such as smells, treats on the ground, and his ball.

We wanted to get him to learn to listen to many commands when he was distracted but not as distracted as he would be when he saw a dog. At home, Karen lived on a farm in Atwater. Dog training homework could be practiced around sheep, cows and barking dogs noises.

We focused on getting Cooper to look at a distraction, be quiet and immediately look back his owner. This is called Look at that!

We also wanted to be able to get Cooper to move away from dogs on command to avoid reactions so we trained him to change directions on command and to move away from another dog with a command called “target.”

Sit stay was also a focus of ours. Lastly, getting him to walk loosely on the leash when he was distracted was our goal too.

At the Garrettsville park Cooper was able to see quite a few dogs and chose to look at them, not bark and look at his owner.

He also learned to walk loosely on the leash and perform all of the above commands when he was highly distracted by smells.

We also focused on getting Cooper to jump less as people approached him. He learned this fast within a few weeks with me.

Karen is in the process of training Cooper to go to his bed which we helped her understand.

Karen also did much homework at Wingfoot Lake State Park which is closer to Atwater. Dog training was helpful here because Karen got to be around numerous dogs with Cooper.

The park was open and wide. This allowed her to be at a distance from the dogs and practice commands that Cooper began to listen well too.

Karen will need to practice many more weeks or months at this park in order to get to the point where Cooper will be able to walk past another dog on a narrow trail.

However, Karen knows the steps to train Cooper. We walked her through all of the steps and she completely understands the training process.

Our last session was held at Havre’s Woods in Ravenna. Originally at this park Cooper would barely listen to any commands.

On our last session Cooper was listening very well and was responding to numerous commands.

I am excited to check back with Karen in 6 months to a year. At this time, we are hoping that Karen can take a group class with Cooper and have him be quiet around the other dogs.  This is our next goal.

Great job Karen and Cooper! We loved working with you.

Here is what Karen has to say about working with us:

“He had major issues with jumping on people and constantly barking at other dogs. I was impressed with her persistence and patience when training.” – Karen Alestock – Atwater – Dog Training

Click here to read more about what Karen has to say about Four Legged Scholars LLC.

Contact us and tell us about your dog