Everyone give a warm welcome to Lindsey & Tanya and their pups, Hank the Boxer & Goby the Yorkie! They’re our newest candidates for our Suburban K9 Gives Back Program. Lindsey & Tanya are in the Law Enforcement field in Indiana and have been wanting to get training for their dogs. Hank and Goby are big lovers but require some calming down when people come over and pass by the front of their house.
Goby is more seasoned and feels like it’s her job to be in charge of the household by barking when people pass by or stopover. Goby is also not fond of listening to her parents. Hank is still a big puppy and gets so excited for people, pulls excitedly on a leash, steals things off the counters, and needs some calming down so he can better listen to obedience!
Follow along on their specific hashtag to keep up to date on how they are progressing through their training!
#CaptainGoby&LieutenantHank
Lesson #1
During Hank and Goby’s first lesson, they both started to learn how to walk calmly through their very active neighborhood! All Hank wanted to do was sniff and walk at the beat of his own drum! But, after pushing through it, he started walking like a natural pro! Goby followed Hank with being a bit stubborn, but soon enough, even their daughter Eleanor could walk her! We, of course, offered Eleanor a summer job!!
Lesson #2
Starting the foundation of walking nicely in a heel position and working on excessive barking in the first lesson paved the way for Hank. He quickly learned to sit on command in the second lesson and to not go through doors without permission! Lindsey and Tanya both laughed at how quickly Hank & Goby have been catching on and even said, “ It’s really pleasant to walk Goby now!”
Lindsey and Tanya both laughed at how quickly Hank & Goby have been catching on and even said, “ It’s actually really pleasant to walk Goby now!”
Lessons #3
Hank & Goby have been busy! In this lesson, their trainers decided to focus a little more on Hank to bring his obedience up to speed. Hank officially learned the stay command. To break up the third lesson a bit, Hank got to run around with his trainer’s new puppy, Mookie! Not only was playtime a reward, but it was also training in disguise for them both! Socialization is very important for all dogs, but especially for younger dogs and puppies. This type of socialization helps all dogs grow and also teaches them how to interact with other dogs.
After some playtime, they headed out to a public park where Hank practiced walking nicely, sit, and sit-stay. Not only did he do a great job listening with these natural distractions, but his new best friend Mookie came along to be an added distraction! And Hank KILLED IT! 🔥🔥
Lesson #4
If you haven’t noticed, Hank has been practicing his selfies since he heard he’s all over the internet now and is getting a fan following!
Hank officially knows all of his basic obedience (heel, sit, down, stay, and come) in just four lessons! Those four lessons have been shared with Goby as well, so Hank is showing off how much of a quick learner he is.
Lesson #5
Wait until you hear how well Hank and Goby have been doing! Hank has taken to, what we like to call, counter surfing aka putting his paws up on the countertops and stealing the food off of them. Even though he is a persistent guy, he was told ‘no’ one time and didn’t attempt it again after that!
Food control is something we work on with almost every dog we train. It’s an easy way to repetitively work on self-control and most dogs love food and treats. Hank was able to stay in a down-stay while his sister, Goby, was hard at work learning to sit when told. She’s a stubborn girl, but she’s getting there!
They ended the lesson by checking in to see how Hank was doing with not stealing things. He barely batted an eye!!
Lesson #6
As most of you know, we as dog trainers work hard to train calm, well behaved and well socialized dogs. However, what you may not know is that a huge part of a dog’s success with training comes from the “homework” their owners do in between our lessons. Goby & Hank’s trainer can easily tell that the Terry’s have been putting in the work to get them better behaved and calmed down.
Today Hank worked on, what we call, unstructured off leash obedience in his backyard. Unstructured just means that he was randomly given commands in between sniffing around and playing, as opposed to doing the same commands repetitively without breaks. And he did such an amazing job, all the while he wasn’t tethered to a leash! Hank also showed off at the end and walked around the neighborhood like a champ!
Goby wanted to show her brother that he wasn’t the only one who could impress everyone and decided she’d sit the moment she was asked AND she learned the stay command all in one lesson. Not only did she learn it quickly but she also stayed while her favorite person, Lindsey Terry, kept walking around her and away from her while getting dinner ready.
Lindsey and Tanya both say how much their neighbors are noticing the change in Hank’s behavior! He is politely greeting people instead of jumping on them when saying hi. They live in a very social neighborhood and they love showing off all of Hank’s skills. They were at a neighborhood get together and Hank held his down stay with several of his absolute favorite people around, kids running around, food, the whole nine yards! The neighbors were and are impressed!
Lesson #7
During lesson seven, Hank got to go on a field trip to his trainer, Erin’s house. This field trip allowed Hank to experience a new environment and train around many distractions and other dogs. He even held a 30 minute down stay while Erin got some work done!
He also worked hard on his come command around a handful of distractions! Some of those distractions consisted of a million treats, his new toy, and being away from a good fur-buddy of his! Not only is Hank flying through his training, but he is enjoying it! He also loves that he gets praised for doing the things he’s asked to do!
Goby has also started to fly through training and learning that she is not the boss! Their parents are both so impressed and cannot wait for the next lesson.
Lesson #8
Today was a jammed packed training session! Hank and Goby worked on proper calm manners when people entered the home. Goby let out an acceptable bark when the doorbell rang, and as soon as Tanya got to the door and told her to shut it off, she did and didn’t make one more peep! Meanwhile, Hank held back and didn’t even try to jump as the guest came inside! HUGE improvement for both pups!
Hank has been super sneaky lately about trying to steal things off countertops when no one was looking. They even tried to set him up so they could work on it, but he was on to them and acted as the perfect angle!
Goby finally got to learn the down command to finish out learning her obedience. She learned in a quick 20 minutes and was being incredibly successful around distractions! Tanya and Lindsey have been so impressed with Goby. They knew that with some calming down that Hank could be very successful, but Goby has her level of stubbornness. They were worried she wouldn’t take to training too well. But she has blown them away and their entire neighborhood! It turns out that Goby enjoys knowing her obedience and being good at it!
Lesson #9
Today Hank learned to properly greet another dog on a leash, meaning no jumping on them or pulling over to them very quickly. He did very well with the process and was able to move on to listening to obedience while he played with a group of dogs. Talk about the ultimate distraction! It was a learning process, and he ended up being quite successful!
As you can see in the picture, Hank always enjoys quite a nap after his training sessions!
Lesson #10
What a way to end their training package! One of Hank’s biggest weaknesses is their family friend, Carol, and her two kids. He gets incredibly excited for them and can’t contain himself or listen very well around them. Hank was able to hold his stay command as Carol and her kids came barging in the door! He was able to greet them without jumping on them, as well.
When all four kids are running around the backyard, Hank likes to think he is on a football team and works on his tackling skills. Even though he was excited to chase them around, he contained himself, and no tackling occurred! And when he was asked to come, he listened very well and left the kids alone!
To top off a great ending to an already great last training session, their daughter Eleanor was able to take Hank on a walk all by herself!
