Sophie

Sophie is a German Shorthair Pointer/ Boxer mix. This mix of hunting and working dogs gave Sophie a very high drive with lots of independence. She loves using her nose to find and follow things but didn’t have a good off button for that yet and would totally ignore her owner when she needed to recall.

Nick began with basic obedience and e-collar conditioning. Sophie’s owner uses an electronic training collar so Nick used one as well with commands she already knew so that it would be easier to use it to teach her new things.

I worked some basic obedience with her as well because she was much better at listening to her male owner than female and we wanted her to have better balance. Since she loved to use her nose I also began using scent training games with her as a reward after her obedience sessions. I also began to transition that into an appropriate time to use her nose and an inappropriate time.

One thing that Nick and I did together was train her with a game of tag. We stood about 20 yards apart and would take turns calling her to us and then asking her to either sit or down. We did this with and without distractions. She was soon able to follow both of our commands with the same level of obedience.

Sophie is doing well back at home but still has issues with distractions. We hope to have Sophie and her owner back with us in the Spring for our group classes.