Yesterday, Ace and Grâce, his 5 month old Boxer puppy girlfriend, spent close to two hours playing and chasing each other around. They get along splendidly and Ace loves to be chased and rolled around by his long-legged lady. She is an extremely high-drive dog and her intensity is sometimes frustrating for her owner, a friend of ours who works very odd hours. As such, he does not often have time to work with her, and I have seen some of the damage she's done in his flat as a result of her excitement.

Because I love to work with Ace and have experienced significantly more success than I thought I'd ever achieve with him, I decided yesterday that I'd also try to work with Grâce, even if it was just for a little while. I'm not a professional trainer by any means, but I think I'm one of the few people in my region that knows anything about clicker training at all. France in general is still very 'old-school' in many ways regarding dogs, including discipline and training. I watched in horror as I saw an obedience trainer jerk the pinch collar on her dog until he bowed down in submission. I used a check chain (NEVER a pinch collar) with Ace very briefly when proofing his loose-leash walking, and that's only because I was very used to using them from showing my Basenji so many years ago. I know exactly how dangerous they can become, should they be used aggressively and improperly.

Anyway, so I am a huge supporter of clicker training. I enjoy all aspects of it - luring, free-shaping, and capturing - equally, and adapt what method I use to the behavior I want and what I've got to work with. Grâce was far too excited at first to do anything at all, so I started by capturing calmness. She went from intense snuffling to quietly lying at my feet within just 5~ clicks for calmness. She was an extremely capable dog, I found - she just needed direction. I asked her owner what basic behavior he wanted her to learn for today - baby steps! He said that Grâce had issues with the command to lie down - she was often way too excited to get past a brief Sit. A couple dozen clicks later, she was lying down on command and staying there, her attention completely on my gaze. Amazing!

I felt a great sense of personal success as well - this was the first time I'd ever worked with a dog not my own. And it went so well! She was a great student, of course, so I was spoiled; but it felt fantastic to see that I could get results from a dog other than Ace. I'd love to pursue this further and keep working with her, should her owner let me, just to see what I can accomplish with this great pup. :)