Chakra, a Tamaskan from Santa Monica, CA went through the Balanced Canine Training SoCal Board and Train dog training program . Chakra was trained by Tanner Strong in Alhambra, CA.
Chakra came to Balanced Canine Training SoCal with varying behavioral issues, including pulling on the leash, squirrel chasing, jumping up when greeting, counter surfing, generally not listening to commands, and barking at strangers. Balanced Canine Training SoCal was successful in transforming Chakra into a well-managed pup.
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Pupdates:
Meet Chakra! She's a fifteen month old Tamaskan from Santa Monica, California here for our Two Week Board and Train Program! Chakra can be a little standoffish at first, but she's very sweet and loyal. She is fairly familiar with some basic commands, but often decides whether or not to listen, especially with her recall! When out of the house, she gets distracted by squirrels, other critters, and most of all, other dogs. She will pull towards them or even try to chase after them. Over the next fourteen days, we will work on Chakra's obedience skills on and off leash, help her learn to ignore distractions and build her impulse control, teach her manners in and out of the house, and show her how to be the best pup she can possibly be! Stay tuned for Chakra's two week transformation!
Pupdate: 8/11/2024
After picking up Chakra, we stayed at the park for a few minutes to get to know each other! We've met before so she seemed to recognize my smell and we got off to a good start! While walking around the park, she followed me on a loose leash for a lot of the time, but would pull whenever something interesting appeared. She wanted to explore and sniff the area, but did well to stick with me while we walked. When we stopped walking, she would tend to pull more to try to get to new smells. I asked her for some basic commands, which you can see in the above video. She sometimes would come to me when asked, but usually when she did, she would immediately go off to start sniffing more. Similarly, she would sit when asked some of the time, but didn't want to hold it for more than a couple seconds at a time. When I asked her to place on the rock, she did so with a little bit of coaxing! She is at a pretty good starting point, but we need to tighten up those commands and definitely work on her impulse control.
Back at home, I let Chakra sniff around my house for a little while to help her get comfortable. After a few minutes of exploring the new space, she quickly found my place cot, hopped on and layed down to relax. I think it's safe to say she is settling in well so far!
In addition to her starting video today, I'm adding a tutorial and picture for the E-collar we'll be using with Chakra.
Pupdate: 8/12/2024
Chakra and I went to Almansor Park today for training! We began working on her Come To Sit command. This is our recall command and I'd like her to respond to it whether she is holding a position such as Sit, playing, or just relaxing. Since Chakra will be heeling on our right hand side, I want Chakra to come to my left side, walk around my legs, and sit at my right side with her ears in line with my knee. She got the motion quickly, however she has a very low sense of urgency and contemplates whether she's going to follow through with the command each time I ask. As soon as I notice her stopping, ignoring me, or walking the other direction, we repeat the verbal command along with a low level stimulation with her E collar. I also mark her correct choices with a "yes!" and offer her praise when she follows through with her command, although she's been just a bit stoic while working. I'd like her to enjoy working, and when we're at home she opens up a little more and has some fun, but out and about, it takes a lot of encouragement to get her excited! We felt a relatively strong earthquake today, but Chakra didn't seem phased at all!
Pupdate: 8/13/2024
Chakra and I went to the park today to continue her training! We continued working on her Come To Sit, which is coming along nicely, as well as her Heel! For Heel, I want Chakra to walk politely at my side with her ears in line with my knee. She is getting good with this as well, although she still gets distracted by small animals and wants to get to them. To help with this, as well as her general obedience and impulse control, we spent a lot of time practicing holding her positions, especially with squirrels running around! I also use the Off command whenever she gets distracted. Off is our "do not do" command, and can be used in a variety of circumstances. When she alerts to a distraction, in today's case, squirrels, I don't want her to hyperfocus on them for more than a second or two. The longer she is allowed to fixate, the greater the chance she will succumb to the temptation and chase the distractions. When she does focus on a distraction, I use Off and I'm looking for her attention to come back to me. When her attention comes back to me, I can mark it with a "yes" and give her praise. This Off command can also be used for other unwanted behaviors, such as jumping, chewing, or trying to eat something she shouldn't! Her commands are surely improving and her attention span and impulse control are getting much better each time we go for a workout! We'll be going back out to the park this evening once the temperature cools down a bit.
Pupdate: 8/14/2024
Chakra and I went to Garfield Park today for training! We worked on each of her commands throughout the day and she's doing well. She was Heeling on a loose leash the whole time and we even walked by several squirrels and barking puppy's with her only reaction being a quick glance. Everything was much better than even just yesterday! I'm still struggling to get her excited and engaged, but her commands were very much on point.
We practiced her Place command today as well. For Place, I want Chakra to hop on a raised object, such as a bench, and remain there until I either release her from command or ask her to perform a different command. At the park, she hesitated when I first asked her to hop on a new bench or object, but quickly got more adjusted to the idea and started responding quickly. Place is a great command for confidence building, and she's starting to get a bit more comfortable!
Place is also a great command to use at home. Whenever I need to clean, cook, or have guests over, having a Place for the dogs inside can make everyday activities go much more smoothly! Chakra has already been practicing Place in my home, and she had zero difficulty. In fact, she sometimes prefers the place cot when we get home from a workout and she wants to take a nap!
Pupdate: 8/15/2024
Chakra and I went to Santa Monica Pier today for training! Her commands went very well, although she was a bit nervous around the large groups of people. One of the reasons we go to these highly populated areas is to get our dogs as comfortable as possible around crowds. While Chakra did a great job with each command, she gave several indicators of her discomfort while we were in the areas with the most people. She had her ears pinned back when large numbers of people crowded us, and she shied away from a few people pushing carts around. I'm optimistic since her feelings only affected her accuracy with the commands a small amount, but she will definitely need more time and practice around these distractions.
For today, we spent a lot of time practicing holding her positions, especially around people. She did much better than previously, although there were a few times she wanted to lay down or stand up from the sit position. If she wants to lay down, we can acquiesce by having her get back into a seated position, then ask for the Down command. This way she gets to lay down, but without breaking an already expressed command.
Chakra was happy to be home, and actually opened up and played with me a little bit upon our return! Overall, she did really well today, she just needs some more work in populated areas!
Pupdate: 8/16/2024
Chakra and I went to Home Depot today for training! This allowed us to get around some people, as well as noisy carts. When we first got to the store, Chakra definitely tried to avoid the squeak of the carts. One of the first things we did was ask Chakra to Sit and Down, then push a cart by her several times to show her that the carts might sound spooky, but they really aren't a threat to her. The more time she spent around then, the less likely she was to shy away and try to avoid them. This is all with the leash in hand. What I found was Chakra was much more comfortable when the leash was in my hand, even if it was extremely loose.
I began dropping the leash at several points today. Allowing the leash to drag gives me some idea of how she might perform off leash while still having access to the leash should I need it. When the leash was dragging on the ground, Chakra would sometimes take as much space as possible to perform her commands. For example, when asked for her Come To Sit, she would give me a wide berth and hesitate, but usually still end up in the correct position. I'm not a huge fan of this because it indicates that she would try to take even more space if off leash. We need to be steadfast with each repetition of her commands, making sure to have her follow through each time so she knows that completing the request is expected. After quite a few repetitions, Chakra was getting fairly accurate with all of her commands even with the leash dragging, which gives me a great amount of hope. Because she now knows each command quite well, her path forward will be entirely focused on having her perform these commands quickly and enthusiastically, around distractions, going from leash-in-hand to leash dragging with smaller and lighter leashes in an effort to get her closer and closer to her off leash goal, while ensuring her safety. She did a great job today! We just need to keep at it each and every day to help her succeed!
Pupdate: 8/17/1024
Chakra and I went back to Home Depot today for more work! We worked on her commands with her leash dragging, and today her commands started to tighten up. Yesterday it took quite a while for Chakra to warm up and perform each command with accuracy. Today she settled in much more quickly. She also didn't have any times today when I felt like I needed to step on her leash because she was getting too far from me, which is a great improvement. For her Come To Sit, she stopped trying to go wide around me and came straight to me every time! She is still sometimes slowing down, especially with her Heel, but not as often as yesterday. A big improvement today.
Pupdate: 8/18/2024
Chakra and I went to Almansor Park this morning for training! We used a much smaller and lighter leash in order to further replicate the sensation of being off leash. She did extremely well. There were far fewer human distractions around the park today, but there were squirrels and flocks of geese. She noticed those distractions, but was much better about ignoring them than previously. Much of our morning session was spent trying to get Chakra a little more excited about working. I had her Heeling while I jogged around the park, which she did well with, so I tried implementing that into her Come To Sit and Place commands which you can see some of in today's video. This seemed to help a bit. I also worked on extending her recall distance. She did well with this too. There were only one or two times when she went way wide with her Come To Sit, and she fixed it immediately when asked.
After the park, we went home to work on her manners inside, before going back out to the park in the evening! She's doing great, I'm just hoping she will give me a similar performance when we go back to more populated spots!
Pupdate: 8/19/2024
Chakra and I went to Santa Anita Mall today for training! While she wasn't quite as responsive as at the park, she did a great job! She seemed fairly comfortable after the first few minutes, and performed all of her commands in various locations around the mall. Her biggest challenge was actually the stairs around the mall. She would sometimes hesitate, then want to climb them as fast as she could, breaking her Heel position. This was unexpected since she has zero issue with my stairs at home. It could be the combination of the other people there and the glass windows lining the stairs, allowing her to see down to the lower floors. Either way, once I noticed this, we spent some time Heeling up and down the stairs and her nerves around them almost completely disappeared. She did much better holding her Sit, Place, and Down positions today, sometimes holding them for minutes at a time, even with people walking close by us. If a particularly loud child, or a dog came by, she would perk her ears up at them, but ultimately do well to ignore them. Really good progress today from Chakra!
Pupdate: 8/20/2024
Chakra and I went back to the mall this afternoon to continue working, while avoiding the hottest parts of the day. It wasn't quite as busy today, but there were still plenty of people, and Chakra seemed pretty happy! She wasn't pinning her ears back, and she warmed up to the environment much faster. Much like yesterday, we used a small leash and worked on each command, as well as holding her positions. The main thing she had trouble with today, was laying down on the floor. She loves laying on place objects, but laying directly on the floor is a little tougher, so we spent time working on that. Once she was comfortable enough to lay on the floor with distractions around, she didn't have much trouble holding the position. Whether she is laying on a place object or the floor, I want her to be able to hold the position for about two minutes around distractions, which she was able to do pretty well! Back at home on the place cot, the time she should be able to stay on the cot should be more or less indefinite, which she hasn't had trouble with since the place cot is one of her favorite spots to relax anyway!
Pupdate: 8/21/2024
Chakra and I went to the park today to work on her off leash commands! She nailed each command on and off leash. We started slow to get her warmed up with her leash on, but she quickly showed that she was going to behave. Even extending the distance and duration of her commands off leash went well. She spent roughly half the time at the park today off leash and she gave me zero issues. We'll be going back this evening for more practice. Very proud of her!
Pupdate: 8/22/2024
Chakra and I went to Santa Monica Pier today! We warmed up with her leash on but after that she spent most of the time off leash! She was polite and well behaved the whole time. More importantly, she stuck with me and responded to each command when asked! I think the toughest part for her was still holding a Sit when people were walking right next to her, but she nailed it today! Several people wanted to pet her throughout the day, and it was similarly tough for her, but she did an excellent job sitting politely while someone greeted her.
After the pier, we went home to get cool, then out to the park in the evening where she can enjoy herself a little more! Excellent job today!
Pupdate: 8/23/2024
Chakra and I went to Santa Anita Mall today for training! She was allowed off leash about half the time, and did very well. She's getting pretty comfortable in these types of environments, and I'm seeing much less of a difference in her demeanor from home to high distraction areas. There were a few other dogs walking around the mall, some of which barked at us, but Chakra hardly noticed and stuck next to me. I'm going to try to find some squirrels to work her around, because we haven't seen them in a while, and I remember her being heavily distracted by them! She loves hiking, and will likely be around tons of squirrels so I want to make sure she can resist her instincts around them. We'll be going to the park this evening, and hopefully we'll see some!
Pupdate: 8/24/2024
Chakra and I went to Garfield Park today for training! She did well on and off leash all day! Luckily, there were a few squirrels that she noticed. She did a good job leaving them alone and sticking with me, although it did look tougher for her than other distractions like the dogs and people.
For her video today, I wanted to show some of the manners we're working on! For food manners and food refusal, I want Chakra to refrain from trying to gobble up any food from the ground (or anywhere else for that matter) even if she is off leash and I walk away. This makes feeding time a little easier, but is also a very important safety measure to prevent her from potentially eating something harmful. Her food manners, where I put her own food in front of her and want her to wait before digging in, were already pretty good, and it didn't take much time before she was waiting patiently at each meal. She had a slightly more difficult time with human food, like the corn dogs and egg rolls in the above video, but practicing a little at a time has done wonders for her impulse control!
For door manners, I want to be able to open the door without Chakra trying to rush through. Again, this is an important safety measure and really demands a lot of impulse control! We practice this each time we go in or out of the door, and she's done well with that. We also practice this at other thresholds that she needs to respect, such as gates, fences, the edge of a side walk, and even something more simple like the threshold between my kitchen and living room.
Chakra will be going home tomorrow, and I couldn't be happier with her progress! She's a great dog and I will miss her once she leaves!
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