Rhino is a 4-6 Year-old Saint Bernard from Denver, CO who attended our 3-Week Off-Leash Training.
Rhino lives in the heart of Denver in an urban neighborhood with his family. His family struggled with keeping him in control as well as following commands. He is a very large dog, so walks were very difficult as he would pull his owner’s across the street to greet other dogs and people.
Rhino was taught come, sit, down, place, let’s go, free, leave it, yes, and no. He was taught these commands initially through verbal praise and food rewards. When he understood the criteria of these commands, we then introduced corrections through a prong first. Once he understood that stay was implied, and that he had to wait for the release command before getting up, we worked on implementing the remote collar. He is very soft in nature and was worked solely on levels 5 to 20. He took to every command well, but did struggle most with laying down due to his size. We were more lenient with Rhino when we asked him to perform commands as he took a moment to process what was said, and also had a hard time moving quickly.
Rhino made significant progress. He no longer pulls on-lead, comes when called, and is overall quicker to respond to commands than he was previously. He learned new concepts quickly so there were no issues for him when going through the program.