Meet Iggy, she's a two-year-old Sheepadoodle from Studio City, California! This sweet and intelligent pup is back with us for a One Week Board and Train Program. She recently completed a Two Week Board and Train Program with us about a month ago, and now she is back to continue her training journey here at OffLeash SoCal. Our goals for this week will be to advance her obedience, improve her basic commands and manners, as well as elevate her skills by teaching her some brand-new commands! Stay tuned for her seven-day transformation!
Pupdate 11/17/2024
Iggy and I visited a park today after her pick up! We began our session by practicing each of her basic obedience commands around distractions. She did great with this, and seems to remember each command well! Later in the session, we began introducing the new advanced commands! These commands include Come to Heel, Under, and Send Away to Place.
The Come to Heel command is another variant of a recall command, though instead of having her perform the Come to Sit maneuver, the goal is for her to come over from a distance, and immediately begin walking alongside her handler in the Heel position. Since this is a different command than Come to Sit, instead of using the "Come" verbal cue, we will use the "Heel" verbal cue to provide distinct instruction on what form of recall is being asked. To introduce this command, we had Iggy hold a stationary position, then walked away a few feet and faced away from her. We then asked for the Heel cue, encouraging her to get up from the position and enter into a Heel as we began walking together. We started out with a small distance from her for today, though as we practice more we will gradually increase the distance from which she is recalled into a Heel.
The Under command is an advanced variation of the Down command, where the goal is for Iggy to crawl or lower herself underneath a suitable object, such as a bench or table, and perform and hold the Down position. Since Iggy is a larger dog, finding an accessible object she can physically fit underneath is important to ensure her success. We found a bench that worked well for today's introduction, and throughout her training we will continue practicing with different kinds of objects to continue building her understanding of the new command. To introduce this command, we used a hand signal and a bit of leash pressure to guide her under the object, pairing it with the "Under" verbal cue. Once she was under the object, she was then asked to perform Down. She was a natural at this command, and had no trouble crawling under the bench when prompted once she began to understand the concept!
The Send Away to Place command is similar to the normal Place command, though the goal is to have Iggy be able to independently walk over to an object and Place on it, while she and her handler are physically distanced from the desired object. We introduced this command by practicing Place as normal with familiar objects using the "Place" verbal cue, though with each repetition slowly added more distance between myself and the place object while asking her to Place. Today, I was able to get about three feet away from the object without her getting confused about what to do. If I went too far away, she didn't quite feel comfortable walking by herself all the way to the object and Placing on it, and needed me to come a bit closer before she understood what to do. We will continue practicing this with gradually increasing distances to improve her understanding and reliability at greater distances.
Comments