From our wonderful trainer, Kendra, in Houston, who is working with Marissa, who suffers from severe mobility issues and anxiety, and her SDIT, gorgeous Cane Corso, Titan!

“We had a two hour training session. At first Titan is very intimidating from his pure size but he is so well behaved! He already knows “sit”, “down”, “leave it”, “stay”, “bracing”, and firm “covers”. He does get too excited at times so we started training “go lay down”. It’s a certain spot where he can go to just chill out and calm down. This spot will also be used for door manners. Titan will alert to the door, then be placed in his spot and taught to stay there until released. I talked with Marissa about being the pack leader and not letting Titan in front. I taught her how to claim her space and not just let Titan run in the doors ahead or through her. And she did beautifully! I told her to open the door fully instead of just cracking it open and stand in the door way (claiming her space) and tell him to sit once, then “Wait” for him to listen. This will build respect and Titan will learn to look to Marissa for direction on his next move. Once he was sitting calm and looking at her, he could enter in a calm manner. After she did this, Titan came in nice and calmly. We worked on “watch me” with distraction, and “stay” until released; we also worked on “sit/stay” at a distance. I also started to work on him leaving my hands alone if I have a treat in them; not nibbling on my hands. Marissa and Titan will continue to work on duration with the commands he knows well, will continue to teach “go lay down”, and Marissa will make Titan calmer by doing state of mind training with him. They will continue work on Titan’s door manners as well. Our next session will be outside.”