Kuma | Australian Shepherd | Chino, CA | In-Training
- graceatoffleashk9
- Oct 9, 2022
- 9 min read
Updated: Apr 8, 2024
Meet Kuma, the Australian Shepherd from Chino, CA, who is here for a Two-Week Board and Train Program. Kuma is here because he potties indoors, chews on anything he can find, steals food from other dogs in his house, plays rough and attempts to begin his career at being an escape artist! Over the next two weeks, we will be working on potty training, house manners, food manners and basic obedience. Stay tuned for Kuma's progress!
Pupdate 10/9/2022
Kuma and I took the afternoon to get acquainted with lots of treats and encouragement. He was a little confused with the change of environment but that is okay because every dog takes time to adjust. Like his pawrents predicted, he did whine quite a bit from the crate in the beginning but settled in well. We took a couple of walks in my neighborhood just to introduce him to the new smells and I noticed he was not a huge fan of the Bird scooters. But as he is such a sweet and smart pup, I have no doubt he will get used to things quickly. Oh and his pawrents were right on about the appetite. Didn't even hesitate to eat his dinner! Stay tuned for our progress!
Daily Training Notes: Kuma is adjusting well to his new environment
Pupdate 10/10/2022
Today Kuma and I took a nice long walk in the city to get him used to walking on a different collar because the harness he came with doesn’t stop him from pulling. He was a little uncomfortable with it in the beginning but settled in quite well by the end. He wanted to stop every time we passed by a person on the sidewalk so we began working on our “heel” exercise. Whenever he pulled the brakes on me to try to greet the stranger or when he crossed in front of me to begin his zigzagging, I made a u-turn and encouraged him with treats and leash guidance to keep him at heel. At the end of our walk, we practiced a little bit of doorway manners on the way into the house and even began working on "place" on the elevated beds in the living room. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on Heel and Doorway manners.
Today's Weigh In: 30.4LBS
Pupdate 10/11/2022
Today Kuma and I walked to the park to begin working on “place” outside of the house. It was trash pick-up day and he was feeling slightly overwhelmed with all the noise. But it’s a wonderful thing that he is food-driven because he was willing to accept treats and food in the environment and interact with me despite all the noise. He is such a cooperative pup and he learns very quickly. He jumped up onto a nice flat boulder for place and we repeated the movement and made it a game. His duration will need work but my goal was to get him to be excited about jumping onto “place” spots. When we got back home, we worked on “down” on the elevated bed. He is a somewhat stubborn about going into a “down” but we had a few successful ones thus far. He’s learning door manners quickly and gets rewarded with food and pets as he waits patiently for his “break” command. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on "place", down and doorway manners.
Today's Weigh In: 30.2LBS
Pupdate 10/12/2022
Today Kuma and I worked on “car load up” manners, “heel” and “come to sit”. Kuma is surprisingly stubborn about leash guidance and will put the brakes on. I was able to encourage him up the pet ramp into the crate with treats and praise afterwards. We worked on heeling during our walks and recall whenever he forged ahead. His doorway manners are also coming along nicely. Soon, we will be moving over to the e-collar to slowly begin fading out the use of the leash. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on car load up manners, heel and come to sit.
Today's Weigh In: 30.3LBS
Pupdate 10/13/2022
Today Kuma and I had an exciting day! Another Offleash SoCal trainer came by to work together on Kuma’s transition to the e-collar. Being that he was a little resistant to the regular collar and leash, we decided he might be more responsive to the e-collar. And he was! We went on a nice walk around the city and worked on “heel, come to sit, doorway manners and down”. He seems to be a little wary of strangers because he avoided walking by a pedestrian during our walk but relaxed when he was able to meet them and be pet. Our next goal is to have him begin jumping up into the car (but carried down to prevent joint damage), work on our exercises at more populated parks, and “place” on benches and other objects. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Introduced e-collar and worked on heel, come to sit and down.
Today's Weigh In: 30.1 LBS
Pupdate 10/14/2022
Today Kuma and I finished our evening training session at a local park where there was a soccer game taking place. There was quite a crowd and it was the perfect time for Kuma to begin working on his exercises with different distractions. We worked on place on different objects at the park, extended sits by the field and heel within a crowd. He even got to meet a 4 month old cane corso puppy who really liked Kuma! Our heel is improving immensely but still needs a bit of work as he still tries to walk in front of me to move to the right side. We focused more on ecollar work today and he is adjusting well. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on heel, come to sit, place and down on e-collar.
Today's weigh in: 30.2 LBS
Pupdate 10/15/2022
So Kuma and I did something different today. We had our usual morning training session in the house because of the rain but I felt like we needed to begin working more off-leash. As mentioned previously, he would pull the brakes on me when being guided by the leash and I wanted to decrease that happening. I didn’t want to start his off-leash training out in public where he’d get overwhelmed and I wanted to work on tightening up his “heel” exercise. So during our evening session, I chose a narrow pathway to work on our exercises. The benefits to this were to get him used to walking at “heel” closer to me without the use of a leash to guide him. It was certainly helpful in encouraging him to walk closer to me and it provided a nice boundary to limit how far he’d turn for a “come to sit”. Our “come to sit” exercise needs the most work so that will be something we polish up on the next few days. He tends to get distracted by different smells so we practiced “off” to help maintain his focus during our exercises. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on tightening up our heel and come to sit.
Today's weigh In: 30.7Lbs
Pupdate 10/16/2022
Today was absolutely phenomenal for Kuma and me. I finally introduced Kuma to my other board and train, Luna, the black Labrador retriever. We skipped our evening training session (we had our morning and afternoon training session) and just focused on Kuma having fun with another puppy. Luna struggles a bit with being outside while Kuma is confident and usually unbothered by the city chaos. However Kuma tends to be a little stubborn about things while Luna is cooperative. The two balance each other out well and we ended up having an amazing walk and play time. I noticed Kuma likes to hog all the treats so we’ll be working on him waiting his turn when getting treats. Stay tuned for more!
Daily training notes: Worked on heel, come to sit, down, doorway manners and met Luna.
Today's Weigh in: 30.5 LBS
Pupdate 10/17/2022
Today Kuma and I went to the park to join other Offleash SoCal Trainers and their pups for our morning session! It was a lot of fun to watch Kuma work with another handler because he could be a little stubborn. He was able to practice “come to sit” with the other trainers and we worked on him jumping up to place! As athletic as he may be, Kuma is a little fearful about jumping up onto higher surfaces so we worked on that quite a bit! He did incredibly well with “place” and “heel”. We have to add in duration to his extended sits as he does tend to slump from a sit to a down. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on Place, Heel and Come to Sit.
Today's Weigh In: 30.3 LBS
Pupdate 10/18/2022
Today Kuma and I went to the park to meet with another Offleash SoCal Trainer for our morning session. Kuma’s “come to sit” is coming together and now we’re going to begin working towards an off-leash goal. We have been using the leash quite a bit on Kuma but after seeing how well he did today, I think he might be ready to move forward. He also jumped up on the park bench today for the first time!! This is a huge win for us because of how hesitant Kuma usually is with heights. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on Heel, come to sit, place, down.
Today's Weigh In: 30.3 LBS
Pupdate 10/19/2022
Today Kuma and I went to the park to meet with other Offleash SoCal trainers for our morning session and we have slowly transitioned to practicing our exercises with little leash use or just having it drag along! There were so many distractions with other trainers working with their pups but Kuma did amazing!!! Our “come to sit” is really coming together and I am super excited to begin polishing up all of our exercises completely off-leash. We do need to work on adding more duration to our extended sits and downs but we will work on that tomorrow. Despite still being slightly hesitant to jump onto different things, he followed me up the playground and even stayed in a nice sit as I bounced around the wobbly bridge. After the park, I had to give Kuma a bath because he had a potty accident in the crate in the car on the way home and I did not want him to marinate in the scent. During his bath, I noticed that he had rear dew claws!! I did not notice this because of the fur on his back legs. I had a moment of concern when I realized how overgrown his dew claws were and how close they were to growing into his paw pad. I managed to trim them down and hope that whenever he does get groomed, these are trimmed accordingly. There is a high risk of infection if they become overgrown and embedded into his paw pad. Afterwards, Kuma was a happy and clean dog. Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on heel, come to sit, sit, down and place.
Today's Weigh In: 30.7 LBS
Pupdate 10/20/2022
Today Kuma and I went to the park to practice his “place” and extended sits and downs. Little Kuma is more confident now about jumping onto the park benches and his ability to push through the challenge warms my heart. He is really coming together with his other exercises and was able to do them despite all the distractions at the park. He most certainly prefers to “down” in the shade and I am okay with that! He is now able to have fun with his exercises and I am able to see how proud he is of himself! Stay tuned for more!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on Place and all other exercises. Today's Weigh in: 31.4 LBS
Pupdate 10/21/2022
Today Kuma and I went to the Citadel Outlets to work on our final video. He did SO WELL and I am beyond proud of his progress. We completed all of our exercises off-leash and even walked through immense crowds! It has been quite the journey to get to where we are as Kuma is so young but we made it!! Kuma was very good for his greeting manners and his duration practice from yesterday really paid off. Kuma and I will be polishing up all of his commands, doorway manners and food manners until his turnover on Sunday! Looking forward to showing you Kuma’s new exercises!
Daily Training Notes: Went to the Citadel Outlets to complete our final video and worked on all of our exercises off-leash!
Today's Weigh in: 31.7 LBS
Pupdate 10/22/2022
Today Kuma and I finished up polishing up our exercises for the last time. Sweet Kuma goes home tomorrow and he will be missed! His off-leash exercises have really been coming along and we finished up practicing our doorway manners and food manners today! He even jumped into the crate in the car on his own! Building his confidence for jumping has truly made a huge difference in his energy. I feel that he would benefit greatly if he had the opportunity to do some agility exercises at home with his parents. He is a willing learner and happy to please his handler. We will see you all tomorrow!
Daily Training Notes: Worked on off-leash exercises and manners.
Today's Weigh in: 32.5 LBS
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