From our trainer, Andrew, who had two sessions with Kathy, who suffers from PTSD and anxiety, and her SDIT, Olla:
During this session, Kathy expressed to me that Olla has been having focusing issues. So, for the first part of the session, we did warm up exercises to get Olla’s energy a little spent. Next, we worked on heeling, and our basic obedience. Then we worked on some passive attention; allowing Olla to look at other things and rewarding her for returning her focus to Kathy. We then worked on engagement and more behavior conditioning . We wrapped up our session practicing a lot of “leave it” and obedience, including “watch me”s.
At our next session, we worked on more complicated forms of the warm ups, and then I introduced them to the reorienting exercises. Then we had Olla rest in the park for a few minutes. After a short reprieve, we continued with heeling and focus sessions and then went back inside to practice “find your place” and then some basic obedience. I brought my dog Penelope as both of them get along famously. They got to play a little in the end as a reward for performing beautifully… Olla is progressing slowly but surely!