Dog’s Name: Gunner
Gender: Male
Age: 2 years old
Breed: Great Pyrenees and Australian Shepherd mix
Owner: Donna Kelly
Location: Nashville, TN
Trainer: Kaitlyn Hohimer
Package Provided: House Call 5 Pack
Donna’s daughter, Chase, moved back to Tennessee to attend college. When she moved back she had to leave her dog, Gunner, with her mom while she lived on college campus. Gunner is a very dominating dog and does not get along with the other dogs in the house. When we were called to meet with Donna, Gunner had gone after and bit one of her older dogs, Jack, twice. Gunner was also going after the other 2 dogs in the house, Sadie and Rio. This became too much for Donna to handle on her own. She lives on a large farm and shows horses and works full time. Her mother recently passed away and she is having to deal with taking in all her mother’s livestock and belongings. She is not able to pay for everything with her mother dying and her family fighting for the estate. She wasn’t able to afford any of our training options after only doing 2 single sessions so she is super grateful to be able to work with SK9 Gives Back.
Summary of 1st Lesson: For the first lesson we focused on the sit command. We were hoping to get through this quickly, but Gunner has no respect for Donna and wasn’t willing to listen for most of the lesson. Gunner was being stubborn and had some pent up frustration that we had to really work him through. Soon after some hard work, Gunner began to listen and we were able to get over 10 sits in a row before ending the session. Donna ended on a great note too with him and he was exhausted after. We gave Donna homework to practice with Gunner to build up a sense of control and respect between them, and also to practice with one of the other pups in the house.
Summary of 2nd Lesson: During this lesson we worked on sit stays. First Donna had to show me three perfect sits before moving on. Donna did her homework and Gunnar was listening to her so much better, with much more respect. The stay process went quickly, we had no issues helping Gunnar understand the expectation. Donna said her daughter, Chase, will be coming Friday and Saturdays to work with Gunnar. Her husband also is willing to participate in the training so it’s not solely up to her. We were able to advance the stays with distractions. I was super pleased with the session. Next week we will be working on the e-collar since it’s so important to Donna for him to listen on e-collar.
Summary of 3rd Lesson: This lesson we began working on the e-collar. We got him accustomed to it and he did really well respecting the correction. Donna and Gunnar have a much stronger, respectful relationship so that was so good to see. I told her to work on any distractions she can think of while using and practicing with the e-collar. Since Gunnar did so well with the e-collar we moved to downs. He caught on quickly and was doing great!
Summary of 4th Lesson: Donna has continued with her homework with Gunnar and he is doing super with all commands! Chase comes at least once a week to spend time with him and train with him and that has been going well! This session we worked on down stays, it was very easy for him to learn so we were able to advance quickly. We advanced by bringing other dogs out and walking around him in the stay. After, that got too easy we moved on to starting the four wheeler without him getting up. He has a tendency to chase her on the four wheeler and nip at the wheels. It took him a few tries but he got it. We will work more on it next week and hopefully be able to drive the four wheeler past! Great work Gunnar!
