Dog’s Name: Janelli
Gender: Female
Age: 1.5 years
Breed: Wire Hair Terrier Mix
Owner: Billy Guevara
Location: Houston
Trainer: Twila Johnson
Package Provided: House Call 5 Pack
Billy is legally Blind. Anita is his mother and primary caregiver. She is also the primary caregiver to her sister with Alhemzier. Anita herself is 81 and on disability. Money is tight and there are quite a few physical limitations for the clients. The clients completed a 5 pack with a primary goal of having Janelli in the house more with Billy. Janelli has been known to chew on almost anything, eat any found items on the ground, she jumps and she is very mouthy.
Billy and Anita do not expect Janelli to be a service animal. They want to enjoy her as a companion in the home. Billy has had seeing eye dogs before and did well maintaining the training for them as he could. In the first five lessons we worked on heel, turns, sit , item discernment (had to repeat this exercise multiple times), corrections for jumping and mouthing, putting on leash and collar when getting Janelli, and supervised free time without tying Janelli to a piece of heavy furniture.
Anita has been doing the walks and Item discernment. Janelli needs to finish learning her basic obedience, gain more freedom in the home, and have Billy included as much as possible.
Summary of 1st Lesson: On the first Gives Back session, we refreshed the Sit command and worked on Sit Stay. Janelli worked with Sam during her first five lessons, but did a fantastic job working with me for the first time today. Sit Stay will give both Janelli and her owners another opportunity to work on calm, focused behavior. This is also a great base before she learns Down and Down Stay – which will be a wonderful way to give her a job to do, while also staying in one place for Billy to supervise. We also discussed allowing Janelli on the couch on an invite-only basis. Lately, she has started the habit of flying onto the couch and startling Billy. By strictly keeping Janelli off the couch unless she is invited on, Billy will be able to relax on the couch again without worry of her suddenly landing in his lap
Summary of 2nd Lesson: During her second Gives Back Session, Janelli learned Down and Down Stay. She loves relaxing, so learning to lay down on command was a breeze! Holding her Down Stay was a little more challenging, but Anita was up for the task. Anita and Billy came up with some great real-life distractions to practice with Janelli without making training feel like a chore. Billy also had several opportunities to show me how they’ve been working on the couch boundaries, and how well Janelli has been responding to it! It was wonderful to hear how Janelli has been settling down over the last few weeks since she’s working her brain with training!
Summary of 3rd Lesson: Janelli learned the Come command during her third Gives Back Session. Anita mentioned that she is usually pretty good at coming when called, but Janelli can have that all too common selective hearing sometimes! Practicing a structured come command will really help her be more consistent when called. By the end of the session, Anita and Billy saw the other perk of Come command – Janelli was super tired! Practicing Come can give you a nice tired pup in only 20 or 30 minutes, which will really help Anita on the days that she needs to focus more on her human family.
Summary of 4th Lesson: Today Janelli really showed off her obedience skills! We worked through all 5 commands and talked about the best times to use each in real life situations. Anita’s 5-year old great-granddaughter even stepped in to help Janelli work on her Down Stay! We also worked on correcting Janelli when she barks at dogs she hears outside by using YouTube on a phone sitting in the window. Setting up the situation will make it much easier for Billy to correct her, which will ultimately set Janelli up for success when it happens at random. Finally, we talked about ways to be both pro-active and re-active towards Janelli’s fear of thunderstorms. Houston is going to have a rainy week, so it’s a perfect time to see what best works for her.
Summary of 5th Lesson: Today was my last day working with Janelli, and it was bittersweet! She has shown so much improvement in our five lessons together. For the last lesson, we talked a lot about different products that will be useful in Anita & Billy’s lives, such as a nail grinder, super chewer toys, and ways to make the Kong Wobbler more enticing. We also worked on correcting Janelli when she barks at dogs she hears outside. She quickly realized that it was a training session, and laid down to nap! Finally, we worked on longer Down Stays that will be beneficial when Anita is busy. Janelli still gets excited when her favorite person Billy moves around, but a quick correction and she was back to being patient. Janelli is such a smart girl, and Anita & Billy are putting in the work necessary to make her a successful companion pup!
