Its the first week of January, happy 2023. I started the year off with 18 muddy trail miles, 3 of them with Mia and my sister who was visiting for the new year.
This week was busy!
Total miles run:58
Total miles hiked: 5
Elevation: 5,100
Strength: 90 min
Time:10hr 25 min
Mondays are rest days, but we had a big dog training day. We met with Tracy, a herding dog specialist to help assess Mia’s timidness. Up until this day we had been exercising Mia in the backyard with fetch, a flirt pole, and tug of war games. In the house we had dog puzzles, and the two of them like to play wrestle. Every time we took her out to walk she would tuck her tail, duck her head and overall seemed unhappy. We had tried a variety of harnesses and collars and she panicked every time. Tracy suggested a prong collar, and it was so helpful! I know these things are controversial, however, if they are used properly they are a good training tool. Have you ever seen a dog wearing a regular collar or even martingale, pulling so hard they choke themselves or breathe funny? The flat collar when pulled against their neck will put pressure down on their windpipe. Over time that pressure can cause the tissue to weaken and collapse. There is little that can be done to fix this when it happens and the dog ends up unable to breathe normally. This does not happen with a prong collar so its used until the dog is calm enough to start training with a normal collar or harness. We learned how to fit it right up under her chin and ears, keep her loose leash walking and it was a GAME CHANGER! Not only have we been able to walk her, but I have even gotten out for two runs with her, for a total of almost 10 Mia miles! What a relief. Some of the other training tips are practicing walking on a slip lead around the house, not pulling but body blocking to lead her where we want. The most important training tip was around her crating and leash pressure. A little pressure on to sit or come or turn, pressure off the minute the behavior happens. Also, rather than bribe her with food to go into her crate we tell her once and then lead her in with a leash, same thing, pressure on, pressure off. Its a much better way to establish a hierarchy than the old methods that people used like dominance rolling their dogs, or overusing words and praise that a new dog doesn’t understand anyway. I also spent more time teaching her “drop” because that also establishes hierarchy in a fun way that is also tiring! Why teach hierarchy? If you can let your dog know that you are taking care of things, they can relax more and worry about sniffing, playing and just being a dog as well as following commands you need to keep them safe.
Tuesday 3*12 Lactate Threshold effort run, PM strength training
Wednesday easy 6 miles
Thursday 10 miles easy/2 miles with Mia and PM heavy lifting/plyo combo
Friday I was exhausted because on Monday when they dogs barked at 6am Drew went and let them out…so they did the same, but earlier on tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday as well…so by Friday I was a bit sleep deprived. Friday afternoon we began re-crate training them with no barking as the focus.
Saturday they let me sleep a full 8 hours! Joy! Easy 6 miles; 4 with mia, 2 uphill on the TM
Sunday 18 muddy trail miles
Trail Wisp(erings) 
Love the training you are doing with the pups and Mia in particular. We used a prong collar on Hobbes when he was young with too much blowback from so many. It worked wonders with him too and I rarely use it now, usually just in situations where the excitement is uncontrollable for him (getting onto the dog beach). Did you buy the flirt pole or make it? I would love to try it with Hobbes.
I did see how some of my neighbors looked at her, even the pet store employee gave me a look but it’s such a helpful tool and it’s giving her lots of confidence she didn’t have just a few days ago. We will switch to a harness eventually and we don’t run fast or far with the training collar.