Meet Charlie! Charlie is a thirteen-month-old Labrador/Pit mix from Rancho Palos Verdes, CA here for our One-Week Board and Train Program. Charlie was rescued by a very special lady from a local shelter. She brought Charlie to us for training before he goes off to his future forever home. Charlie likes to jump on people and lacks impulse control. Charlie gets excited and distracted by small critters like squirrels and pulls hard on the leash. Charlie can perform a command or two, however, he lacks structure and will perform the tasks inconsistently. Over the next seven days, Charlie is going to learn to be a confident, obedient pup through consistent, clear communication, and balanced training in areas such as at home, and in discovering new people and places. Charlie will learn to perform all these things on a leash through a positive and balanced training environment. Through structure and consistency, Charlie will demonstrate how great a pup he can be! Stay tuned for Charlie’s one-week transformation!
Pupdate 2/23/25
Today Mr. Charlie came home and joined me for his one-week board and train journey. This is going to be a whirlwind week for him full of new experiences and learning opportunities. On our way back home we stopped at my local park to see what commands Mr. Charlie could perform. Unfortunately, it appears Mr. Charlie was not a fan of my driving or was not a fan of my music but he threw up all over my crate. I cleaned it up while I had Mr. Charlie hang out next to a tree. I did find something really hard in there that was either plastic or a bone. Then we practiced what he knew. It should come as no surprise that he only could do a "sit" and only when he wasn't distracted.
After a quick photoshoot for his profile picture for his Blog, we headed home to start the clean-up process and introduce him to his last home away from home. I took Mr. Charlie out and rinsed off his paws from the throw-up. He wasn't a big fan of that process but I didn't want his paws to be smelly. I let him meet Ms. Toji and Mr. Rusty through the fence outside. Once his feet were clean, I let him inside the house to explore every room and check everything out. I let him sniff Ms. Toji and Mr. Rusty again through the inside door. We then went outside and I let the dogs meet each other. Mr. Charlie got into the privates of both and checked them out. Once all that was done, I had to clean out the crates.
After the crates were clean, I took Mr. Charlie out for his walk around the neighborhood to get used to the sights, smells, and sounds of the neighborhood. I also introduced the prong collar as Mr. Charlie has been pulling me all over the place. We want to stop that as soon as possible. Afterwards, we finally got inside and I let him relax. He ate his concoction of food. I introduced the "heel", door manners, and a few other commands.
Later on in the evening, I'll introduce the e-collar and the rest of his commands. Tomorrow it will be off to the races with all the commands for the rest of the week!
Pupdate 2/24/25
Last night Mr. Charlie and I got to work! I continued the work with the prong collar, and fully introduced the e-collar. We formally introduced all of his commands which are "sit", "place", "down", "heel", and "come-to-sit". Now it is practice, practice, practice, and more practice for the next week. We practice those commands at home, in public places, in places with critters, other people, and other animals to give Mr. Charlie the best foundation possible.
I am going to just give Mr. Charlie rice instead of the wet food. I don't think his stomach is ready to process the wet food as his poops are a little runny. The general rule of thumb is wet food in, wet food out.
I kept Mr. Charlie separated from the other pups for most of the day but during socialization, he did have the e-collar on in case he got too overwhelming. We do have to let the pups give their social corrections and establish their hierarchy but we don't want fights breaking out. Mr. Charlie did well in his crate overnight.
Lastly, Mr. Charlie is showing some signs of fear, and timidness in urination. I went to bring him back in this morning after his morning break and as he was walking away from me he pittled a little bit but he didn't do anything in my house. I assured him he was fine and petted and loved on him. I have been firm but loving. He is not used to the structure and likely due to his trauma it's a little overwhelming for him at times. He can do a lot of the tasks and I can see the potential for him to be an amazing pup with a little more solid living conditions and family. With being moved around a lot recently he is probably confused and now I am coming in telling him to do all these things and he's like what is happening? This is all understandable and I am trying to be patient with him but we only have a few more days so we have to encourage Mr. Charlie to push out of his comfort zone to accomplish amazing things!
Pupdate 2/25/25
Today Mr. Charlie and I continued to reinforce all his commands. We worked on things outside in the front yard where he had the chance to make decisions on whether to listen or try to do Mr. Charlie's things. Overall, he was willing to perform the tasks I was asking of him. He seems to be coming along moderately. He is a little timid at times and other times he is a bull in a china shop. This is a sign of not being adequately socialized and understanding boundaries. He has likely spent this much of his life doing what he wants and only suffered an occasional correction from other dogs. Humans have likely given him food every once in a while but when I'm here asking him to do all these things he doesn't understand why I am not just the candy or food dispenser. I will do that for him but only once he performs the tasks.
I added rice to his food and took out the wet food and his poop looks so much better! He is even gaining a little bit more weight!
Pupdate 2/26/25
Today Mr. Charlie and I headed over to Liberty Park in Cerritos, CA. We reviewed all his commands around distractions. Overall he didn't do too bad. We focused on his "place" and "down". It's not surprising that he is reluctant to "down". It is a vulnerable position. He did start to go into the "down " after a few trials. We will have to keep at it for the next few days working on the come-to-sit and "down". A few other items we need to reinforce are his door manners as he has tried to bolt through and out the door a few times.
His diet and poop are much better now that I've moved away from the wet food. He's gaining weight and continues to eat all his food. He hasn't been too excited about his treats when doing the training but he's been good.
He has been spending a limited time with the other dogs throughout the day to slowly acclimate. My goal here is to teach him his basic obedience. He can be a little toy possessive and that will vary from pup to pup how they handle that. He can get along with my current pups but I don't want any incidents with him or my other pups so they won't be best friends in this one week but they can hang out for an hour or two.
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