Meet Roxie! Roxie is a 4 year old Belgian Malinois coming from Orange, CA who has joined us for our 2 week Board and Train program work on her obedience and improvement with her temperament. Roxie has moved into a new home and has been adjusting but has shown aggression towards the men of the house except the women. Roxie knows her obedience well when she's not distracted but if something comes into her sights she doesn't like she will become reactive. Over the next fourteen days, we will be working to improve Roxie's obedience and manners, as well as address her reactivity, to set her on the right track to becoming a well-behaved pup! Stay tuned for her transformation!
Pupdate 2/19/2025
Today, I began Roxie's obedience journey, focusing on addressing some challenges we've encountered together. Roxie and I have worked together before, and I’m happy to report that her owners have been putting in a lot of effort with her. As a result, she seemed very confident during our outing to Hillcrest Park in Downtown Fullerton. We took a lap around the park, allowing Roxie to roam and express herself freely. She remained calm, even when people passed by, but I kept her close just to prevent any potential lunging. Throughout the walk, Roxie showed affection by rolling over, sitting in my lap, or resting her head on me—all signs of submissive behavior. I decided to remove her muzzle, and she was overjoyed, accepting face rubs from me, something she hasn’t done much lately. I left the muzzle in my car and continued to work on her obedience as we walked, confident that she wouldn’t nip at me.
Once we returned to my house, I gave Roxie the opportunity to explore and familiarize herself with her surroundings. When we entered my side of the house, I let her sniff my dog Hunter through his crate. She spent just a few seconds sniffing him before walking away, and I praised her for that calm response. While I worked on the computer, I placed a mat next to my chair for Roxie, where she quickly settled down and fell asleep. She stayed on the mat without getting up, even while I went into the kitchen and returned. Later, I placed her in her crate, where she fell asleep easily, undisturbed by the other dogs playing outside.
I'm already seeing significant progress with Roxie, and I’m excited about the next two weeks of training. Stay tuned for more updates on her board and train program!
Pupdate 2/20/2025
Today, I took Roxie to a park near my house for exposure and to work on our training. Before we left, I took her out of her crate, and although she wasn’t having any issues, she quickly became excited. I decided to use a slip leash to keep her close, rather than letting her run freely around my room.
Once we were at the park, Roxie was very enthusiastic about sniffing around and exploring. This seemed to help desensitize her, but when I acted happy or excited, she interpreted it as an invitation to play and started jumping on me. To redirect her, I used her e-collar only when she jumped. In the video above, we began practicing the "place" command, which Roxie is already familiar with. However, she was so excited that she got a bit confused about what to do, even though she’s performed the command before. Since she was overstimulated, I focused on helping her perfect the command to avoid her stopping just before completing it. I tried to ask her to perform the command without using the leash, but due to her excitement, I had to assist by guiding her with the leash to prevent jumping.
After the training session, we went to the outside of the dog park to see how Roxie would respond to the dogs inside. To my surprise, she didn’t bark or lunge at any of the dogs that passed by us. At one point, a Doberman stood at the gate, showing interest in Roxie. I gave Roxie the chance to say hello if she wanted, and they sniffed each other for about 10 seconds before Roxie walked away. I praised her for calmly interacting with the other dog. We stayed for about 15 minutes, practicing obedience while Roxie had the opportunity to observe the dogs playing inside the park.
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