Kiki | Husky/Lab Mix | Woodland Hills, CA | In-Training
- graceatoffleashk9
- Sep 1, 2022
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 11, 2022
Meet Kiki, the Husky/Lab mix, from Woodland Hills, CA, who is here for a one-week boarding and train program. Kiki is here because she pulls on the leash, fixates and reacts to dogs, jumps on people excitedly during greetings and is very vocal about her opinions! Over the next seven days we will be working on leash manners, neutrality in the presence of other dogs, proper greeting methods and house manners. Stay tuned for to Kiki's progress!
Pupdate 9/1/2022
Kiki is a puppy with lots of energy and playful behavior such as pulling on the leash, running through the door for a day of adventure and jumping on people to show how happy she is to meet them. Kiki is settling well into her new environment and loving the blasting AC during the first heat wave of this month. She is slowly understanding the concept of doorway manners before heading out on her potty breaks and training sessions. The bustling of the city is very stimulating for her but she got to walk alongside buses and see lots of dogs walking around the neighborhood from afar. She understands sit quite well but will be working on duration as everything is super distracting and new to her. Stay tuned for more!
Overall training notes: Picked up today. Kiki settled into my home and settled in with her new environment.
Pupdate 9/2/2022
Today Kiki was introduced to the e-collar and she responded very well. She is a willing student and learns quite quickly! It was extremely hot early on in the day, so most of our training was done indoors. She was able to practice her door manners, place, sit and down. We practiced “place” on a dog bed and crate today but we will be applying this to other elevated objects easily found around a park once it gets cooler. I noticed that Kiki displayed some nervous and fearful behavior during our morning walk but understandably so, since I live by a busy road. “Place” is a great confidence building exercise because it challenges her to think about feet placement, builds a bond with me as a trainer guiding her through the exercise and makes her feel like she has accomplished something really cool! This exercise will also prove to be useful when guests are over as she will visually familiarize herself with them before actually being able to physically greet them. As a result, this will reduce her over-excited jumping on people as a way of saying hello by keeping her in a spot until she has calmed down enough to say hi. To put it in practice, I had my dog-loving roommate stand next to us while we practiced this exercise. Only when she was calm, was she given the opportunity to meet and greet! There was a noticeable change in her energy and she did not jump up to say hello! I did take note that she is very vocal about her needs and opinions from within the crate in the mornings and evenings. I think that this may stem from anxiety and will continue to work on her confidence! Stay tuned for more!
Overall Training Notes: Kiki did a lot of indoor work today on place, down and sit. Loves treatos and has a moderate drive for her food.
Today's weigh in: 51.2 pounds.
Pupdate 9/2/2022
Today was too hot to do any work outside so once again, we did a lot of work indoors. I took Kiki to a pet shop where they had a backroom available for us to practice some duration on her commands. She did very well and is understanding the concept of place nicely. Some of the things I have noticed about Kiki is that her food drive is low; she likes treats but she prefers touch and praise as a reward instead. She also is very hesitant to jump onto things for “place” and needs assistance loading up in the vehicle. At night, we slowly begin moving up to taller objects like short benches at the park to build up to more elevated objects for her confidence. There were some dogs in the front of the pet store and she did react initially. After walking her away and coming back to a “sit”, she was able to remain in a neutral heel in the presence of the other dogs. Stay tuned for more!
Overall Training Notes: Kiki practiced place and neutrality around other dogs today. She is coming together with her "come to sit", "place", doorway manners and down.
Today's Weigh In: 49.8 LBS
Pupdate 9/4/2022
Today Kiki did immensely well. We went to Petco and worked on heeling and come to sit in a more chaotic environment. There were a couple of dogs in the store and today, she stayed at heel and was engaged with me all around the store! Even when a 5 year old cane corso started barking her, she chose to follow me instead of reacting and pulling at the leash. We also went to Pan Pacific Park to work on place and she jumped onto ledges and benches with confidence. As we were loading up to leave the park, she jumped into the crate in the car all by herself! This is a huge milestone for Kiki because I have always had to help her load up into the vehicle but she did it all on her own! So she got yummy cheese treats as a reward! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Kiki came back with a good hearty appetite today and worked hard today on heeling.
Today's Weigh In: 49.9 LBS
Pupdate 9/5/2022
Today Kiki and I went to the park early in the morning and worked a lot on coming to a sit. She is easily distracted in a park environment with all the smells of other dogs. She has come to understand that seeing another dog does not mean introduction or play with that particular dog. We will continue to work on her checking in with me for cues in the presence of other dogs. She understands “come” very well and the practice from a front sit to a heel is slowly bearing fruit. I see that she prefers heeling by the right hand but in order to keep our dominant hand free, we have dogs heel on the left hand side. She thrives with praise and physical touch and I see that she has a higher drive for soft toys than food so I will be implementing that into our play after training. On a side note, I did not have to lift Kiki in her crate in my car at all today! She hopped right on in and it was such a proud moment for me!! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Went to South Weddington Park to train come to sit.
Today's Weigh In: 50.1 LBS
Pupdate 9/6/2022
Today Kiki and I went to the park again! We worked on all the commands just to evaluate where she was at in a distracting environment. I am proud of her for disengaging from other dogs during walks and training. I have noticed that she also fixates on people and prefers to sit or heel in their direction. It is all coming together and we will challenge ourselves to go to more populated areas to reinforce her focus and obedience we have achieved so far. I used a ball today to create some distance with her for a longer “come to sit” command and noticed that her recall on a long line needs work when playing with toys (especially when the zoomies begin). Her “come to sit” on a regular leash is great! She is coming nice and tight to heel position so now we will challenge her to do so from a greater distance. Kiki prefers “sit” over “down” and will paw at my hand when directing her to a down so we will continue to work on that as well. Also, her appetite is improving and I have noticed that she prefers to eat less in the mornings but will eat her whole meal in the evenings. Perhaps she is getting to the age where she needs only one meal now but as of right now, because of all the physical activity, she will need as much food as she can get! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Kiki worked on reviewing her commands and started a longer recall to a sit.
Today's Weigh In: 50.6 LBS
Pupdate 9/7/2022
Today Kiki and I joined in on a group session with other Offleash SoCal trainers and their dogs at the park. We worked on all of our commands with other dogs present and Kiki did extremely well. She very much likes to have her nose on the ground to sniff everything around her which distracts her from our training but we will continue to work on that. I was very happy with her heel around other dogs and her incredible process with reactivity.
Daily Training Notes: Kiki worked on all of her commands in the presence of other trainers and dogs.
Today's Weigh In: 49.2 LBS
Pupdate 9/8/2022
Today Kiki and I took a nice long stroll in the busy city on her normal collar! We are now working on fading out different guiding tools like the slip lead and just using the collar that she normally wears at home. I wanted to see how well she would do walking by people, dogs and children and she did great. She is very attentive to strangers and is eager to meet everyone but with encouragement, is quick to engage back into heel. We walked past construction sites, moving trucks, public buses, garbage trucks and restaurants and ended our session at a park where we worked on place, sit and down. Kiki is still a very curious young pup but is growing and learning rapidly. She is doing great with jumping onto different things for “place”. Her “come to sit” needs more work in busy environments on a regular collar so we will continue to work on that tomorrow! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Transitioned Kiki back to her normal collar and worked on all of her commands walking around the city and park.
Today's Weigh In: 50.0 LBS
Pupdate 9/9/2022
Today Kiki and I worked on door manners and food refusal in addition to all of her other exercises she has learned. We are now strictly working her on just the normal collar and the e-collar. We do need to touch up on more duration in her positioning in public as she tires easily and will struggle to maintain her positioning. Kiki will be going home soon and we are excited to show you all that we have worked on and learned in just a week! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Kiki is polishing up all of her commands and implementing place exercise to food refusal.
Today's Weigh In: 49.4 LBS
Pupdate 9/10/2022
Today Kiki and I went to the Santa Monica Pier to continue working on heel, place, down, sit, recall and come to sit. She did well in a new environment with different sounds, smells and people. We worked on adding duration to her positions and have achieved good results! A challenge we faced today was helping Kiki jump onto an elevated surface on the pier by the crashing waves. It seemed like it was her first time seeing the ocean from that perspective so in order to help her feel confident around the waves, we continued to walk to and from the end of the pier. She needs a bit of encouragement when going onto different surfaces when working on place and does better when it is elevated as it gives her a marker to remain. She goes home tomorrow and we are looking forward to showing off Kiki’s new look! Stay tuned for our final video!
Daily Training Notes: Kiki practiced all of her commands in at the Santa Monica Pier in preparation for her pick up!
Today's Weigh In: 49.6 LBS
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