My dogs are so funny! I’ve been training them with the clicker method. Yesterday Bree thought I was taking way too long getting out to train. He sat by the door and kept scratching till I, laughing, had to give in. They think it’s the best game in the world. Even Echo has finally thawed. I had trained her using traditional methods for almost two years before I started investigating clicker training. They were learning well, almost to off leash work, but they were never excited about training. The first time I did a clicker lesson with Echo she just sat frozen. She was afraid to try anything and wouldn’t move till I let her know what to do. I had to do a mix of tradition and clicker to help her relax and gain confidence. It has definitely worked. Yesterday everyone was going ballistic! They were throwing behaviors at me left and right. We put our directional training on hold for the day. Airedales do not do well with lots of repetition. It is best to mix things up. I could tell the day before that they were starting to get bored so we worked on generalizing the sit cue, generalizing and speeding up the down cue and touching on the concept of “leave it”. They all did very well!!

I still can’t tell if Echo is bred. She has been licking herself a lot which is a good sign.