Meet Zelda! She's a ten-month old Lab Mix from Pasadena, California here for our Two-Week Board and Train Program! She's extremely friendly, however, she takes her caring overboard by jumping on people, pulling on the leash, and vocalizing some of her frustrations. Zelda may know a command or two, however, she is highly inconsistent and can be easily distracted. Zelda has been known to chew up the couches at home! Over the next fourteen days, Zelda is going to learn a lot of structure and consistency through basic obedience tasks and proper manners in areas such as at home, in the car, and in meeting new people Zelda is going to learn how to do all these things on and off leash and demonstrate how great of a pup she can be! Stay tuned for Zelda's two-week transformation!
Pupdate 10/13/2024
Today, Zelda came home to meet my family and start her two-week board and train with me and my family! Unfortunately, Ms. Zelda did get car sick and threw up in her crate on the way home. She was still full of energy and excitement when I took her out of the car so I don't think it's anything too serious. I gave her a little rinse down in the backyard with my mini-trainer, my five year old daughter. Ms. Zelda let us rinse her off, dry, and brush her hair without any issues. I then put her in her crate for a little bit. She took a nap while I cleaned up the mess in the vehicle and crate. Once everything was cleaned up, my mini-trainer, Ms. Zelda, and I went on a familiarization walk around the neighborhood. She was actually pretty good! This will be her one and only "free" walk where I don't ask much of her. She gently investigated the neighborhood trees and made sure to avoid my little one. Towards the end, I started asking her to heel and stay a little closer to me and she didn't mind that. I also started introducing door manners where she has to sit prior to going in or out of a door. This will be reinforced when exiting her crate, leaving the house and when entering and exiting the vehicle. I look forward to working with her over the next two weeks!
Please note that Kiba's trainer, Tanner, will be posting an e-collar tutorial video. This same tutorial video can be used for Zelda as well!
Pupdate 10/14/24
I've gotten to know Ms. Zelda a little better over the last 24 hours. You can truly see that Ms. Zelda is a lab mix. She is friendly like a lab and very sociable. However, she doesn't go after a lot of random food or toys which is uncommon for being a lab. She does whine a lot in her crate and when I put her outside to use the restroom. She does like me which is good but she is still learning her new environment. I have decided to keep her and Ms. Toji separated. It happens from time to time when the pups don't get along. They are not fighting but rather Ms. Zelda doesn't want anything to do with Ms. Toji and Ms. Toji wants to play and this makes it stressful for Ms. Zelda.
For today's training, I decided to introduce the e-collar. I was a little hesitant to introduce the pinch due to her resistance to the slip lead yesterday during the pickup. I started at 0 and worked up to 20 as you can see in the video. This is when I got her attention. Once she realized what it was, I turned it down to see where I could keep her attention. She started to have a tantrum. I expected this based on her reaction when I put the slip lead on yesterday as you saw. Overall, Ms. Zelda does not like being told what to do. The new structure is a little challenging for her. I ended the training with the e-collar after a few minutes because I didn't feel it was very productive. We will come back to the e-collar after she understands a few more
commands.
I switched over to the pinch collar. Once again, Ms. Zelda was not comfortable with the pressure at first. As soon as I let go of the pressure, she was much more willing to work with me. She didn't pull or have any tantrums regarding the pressure of the pinch collar. The training went 100% better once we switched over! We worked on her heel and come-to-sit. I even had my mini-trainer walk her and Ms. Zelda did a great job being kind and gentle with her.
I have also introduced door manners by having her sit at every door before I open it. She can't go through until I go through or release her. I have reinforced her food manners. She is doing good on those which shows the training you put in.
Lastly, we took a little walk over to the neighborhood park on the pinch collar practicing her heel the whole way over, her sitting when I stop, and varied the pace of my walk from slow to fast to see if she would keep up. It seems like she is understanding what I am asking of her and wants to please me as her priority. She checks in with me and is sometimes just staring at me looking for feedback on if she's doing well. She is kind of obsessed with what I am doing at all times. She's doing well for Day 2! I'll try to have my family or Tanner work with her so that shes not just cueing in on me and that she's actually understanding the commands.
Speaking of Tanner! We will be seeing Tanner and Kiba tomorrow and check in on how they are doing together. I expect Zelda to do amazing over the next few weeks from what I have seen already.
Pupdate 10/15/24
Today Ms. Zelda and I headed over to Whittier Narrows Park to meet up with our fellow Off Leash SoCal trainers. She did well around the other dogs. The only pulling on the leash that Ms. Zelda is performing is when she is asked to do something she doesn't want to do. She's turning into an anchor and not fully participating. We will continue to work on this with her so that she understands that the pressure will be released and she will be free to be her playful self when she carries out the tasks we are asking for. We brought back the ecollar again to try to get her more conditioned to the feeling of the stimulation. We started around 10 on the stimulation and that seems to be a good number for her. 10 is the level where I can start to feel the stimulation on my hand so this is a good low number. This number is subject to change based on her behavior but it is a decent starting point.
We met up with Tanner and Mr. Kiba! As you can see in my video and in Tanner's video for Kiba, they are making excellent progress. We started by walking next to each other to see how they would behave. It was pretty good! At times Ms. Zelda would break off behind me when given a stimulation on the e-collar. This is avoidance behavior and she's trying to get away from me in those moments. However, with some encouragement, she comes back to the correct position where I give her verbal praise and a little rub on the head. She loves the physical touch and a lot of praise for performing well. This is great because this is a free payment plan for her! You have unlimited pets and your voice goes with you everywhere.
After a little practice of place, extended down, and extended sit around the other pups, Tanner introduced Ms. Zelda and Mr. Kiba to heeling together. He even gave them a chance on the come-to-sit command. They tried but we are still refining the come-to-sit for both.
We continue to work on food manners, door manners and car manners. All of these entail Ms. Zelda sitting and waiting to be allowed to move onto the next task. Ms. Zelda's biggest issue is going to be her impulsiveness. She reminds me of a pre-schooler who is listening and paying attention but can't sit still in their seat. When she is in the down, she is less likely to behave like this but we'll keep working on it and shaping the behavior. We did introduce the place at the park today so now we just have to reinforce all her commands over the next two weeks!
Pupdate 10/16/24
I have officially introduced every command that Ms. Zelda will need for the remainder of her time with me. We practiced everything in my backyard one more time with no distractions around. I hope you can see in the video how much she enjoys being with me. She is such a sweet pup with a lot of that puppy energy. She has many loving lab characteristics and she must have inherited her vocal cords from a husky the way she whines and howls like one. Overall, she is doing great with all her commands.
You will see in the video that there are times when she isn't fully doing the task or goes to scratch her neck. This is related to the e-collar. I had started with the setting around 7 but I think it was too low where it becomes more of a tickle. She wasn't adverse to that level which tells me that it might be too low. I went back to 10 for the rest of the time and it seemed to be much better and more clear to her.
Let's discuss the "off" command. When Ms. Zelda performs unwanted behavior, I tell her "off" + stimulation on the remote. This is to let her know that she is performing unwanted behavior. The level doesn't go up. So on her first "off" command, everything is the same as asking her to sit, place, or heel. She is getting more and more accustomed to the sensation and current low level. However; if we ask her to "off" one time and she does not follow through, we simply move up a few numbers on the e-collar remote, say "off" + press the stimulation again. If she doesn't stop, we continue to move up until she stops the unwanted behavior, repeating "off" while moving up on the remote. As soon as she is done with the unwanted behavior, we reset the remote back to the level we started at. Ms. Zelda will be very familiar with the "off" command by the time you receive her back. Just remember that if you are giving her "off" commands without the stimulation, she will eventually learn that "off" means nothing and there are no consequences associated with it and the command will lose its value. We call this extinction.
Let's go Ms. Zelda! Now we practice, practice, practice everywhere we go!
Pupdate 10/17/24
Last night Ms. Zelda and I headed over to the Downey Promenade and Discovery Park in Downey, CA. According to the City of Downey website: "The Columbia Memorial Space Center is owned and operated by the City of Downey and was built on the site of the former NASA Downey facility. It is named the official national memorial to the Space Shuttle Columbia by a joint resolution of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The Space Center honors the crew of STS-107 lost on February 1, 2003 – Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark and IIan Ramon."
Ms. Zelda took a few pictures near the Apollo monuments which decorate the Downey Promenade. We then headed to Discovery Park where the Columbia Memorial Space Center is located which is also next to several sports fields. Ms. Zelda was fantastic around softball practice, a friendly soccer game, and even a youth flag football game! We focused on her place and come-to-sit from the place. Ms. Zelda was a little reluctant to go up on the benches and it took some coaxing but she made it up there. Once comfortable in the down position, she was perfectly content to hang out there. She was not distracted by all the events happening around her. We will be focusing on the place and come-to-sit a lot over the next few days. I will also introduce the leash drag heel on the flat collar which is the last step before giving her a chance off-leash (we will practice off-leash work in my backyard before we go to a public space).
Lastly, I gave Ms. Zelda and Ms. Toji another chance to hang out together. They seem to be doing much better now that they have had time to greet each other through my fence divider a few times. You'll see a picture of them both hanging out in our converted dog house. Keep up the good work Ms. Zelda!
Pupdate 10/18/24
Last night, Ms. Zelda and I headed to Rhynerson Park in Lakewood, CA to work on a few commands. The most challenging tasks for her are the place to down and the come-to-sit. We practiced the down on the cot and she is pretty good at this once she is in position. She was able to stay there in a low-distraction environment for more than two minutes. We tried the "place" command on a few of the benches. She is doing better on going up on the raised objects or benches but getting into the "down" is sometimes challenging. She was a little reactive towards a small dog that went by. A few "off" commands and resetting her got her back on track. I found some other small pups to walk by to see if she would do better and she did! I gave her a chance to work on the flat collar + e-collar. Unless she has a major setback, we will only be walking on the flat collar. I had her perform an extended sit and she stayed for more than two minutes again! What a great pup! We need to polish the come-to-sit and "place" command but she's on track!
Today, Ms. Zelda and I headed over to meet up with Tanner and Mr. Kiba at the Santa Anita Mall. They were happy to see each other and it appears they are tracking on the same pace! How awesome! We reviewed all her commands and let the leash drag while we practiced a few of them.
Lastly, there's a little bump on her left ear. Looks like a scab from scratching at it. I'll keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't turn into anything.
Pupdate 10/19/24
Today Ms. Zelda and I focused on her door manners. It was a great day to focus on that because we had several guests to our house today for my oldest daughter's last Homecoming. When one family member arrived, she got up at first to say hi. However, I reset her and had her stay in the "place" and "down" and then she understood to not get up until I asked her to do something else. We performed the sequence of events again and Ms. Zelda nailed it! Then, as each guest arrived, I had Ms. Zelda wait in the "place" at the door. She did great! I even squeezed in a chance for me to leave the door open and I went and walked around for a minute without her bolting out the door. The reason why this is successful is that, we as the trainers, have made clear delineations on what the pup can or cannot do. The moment they do something unwanted such as breaking the "sit" or "down" we reset them and let them know we want them to remain in that position. Similar to the advice I gave on the "off" command, if you ask your pup to "sit" and they get up every time after 5 seconds when we have trained your pup to "sit" for at least two minutes or more. They will learn that when you ask them to "sit" they only have to do it for 5 seconds and then they can get up and do whatever they want. Until we give them the "break" command or another command, it is expected for them to follow through. With that being said, you can't expect your pup to "down", "sit" or "place" forever unless you train with them. This is part of your journey with your pups when you get them back.
The next couple of days will be practicing around distractions, performing all the commands off-leash in my backyard, and then working off-leash in public areas. Since we "heel" everywhere we go, this is currently her strongest command. We need to clean up the come-to-sit but that will come with a lot more repetitions. Her "place" is good but sometimes getting her to "down" is challenging because she is usually the same size as most benches. As long as we point or show her the space to "down" she has no issues!
As far as Ms. Zelda's food, please do not be too concerned at this point that she skipped breakfast. She usually eats a little bit of her food outside of the crate and then when I put her up for about an hour in the morning, she will finish her food. She has been very active the past week or so and is playing and hanging out with Ms. Toji every day. At night, she comes in and lays on the cot then falls asleep pretty quickly. I'm pleased with her progress.
Pupdate 10/20/24
Today Ms. Zelda and I headed to Los Cerritos Center to start working on her commands around distractions. I was so proud of her!! She was able to perform all commands with little issue. Even after the recording we walked throughout the whole mall working on her extended sit and come-to-sit. We were even able to have some strangers pet her and say hi without her jumping on anyone. What a great job Ms. Zelda!
This upcoming week is a lot of practice and ensuring she has all the commands locked in so that she can successfully perform them off-leash! I'm really excited to see how well she's going to do!
Pupdate 10/21/24
Today Ms. Zelda and I headed over to Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA to review all her commands. My goal today was to get Ms. Zelda off-leash for her commands. We didn't quite make it there today but that's ok! As you can see in today's video, we reviewed all her commands, specifically we need to focus on the "come-to-sit". This time in the training is when the pups usually have a slight regression and resistance to some of the training. We got what we could get done today which included some good leash dragging "heel" and her "place" and extended "down". I worked with her a lot on the "come-to-sit". This will be our primary focus all week. After the video ended, we went and walked around the park with the leash dragging the entire time and she was really good as usual at the "heel". No hard pulling and distractions like when you dropped off her, so she is making great progress!
Let's touch on your pup's mental status when conducting training. We are asking a lot of your pup back-to-back. For your everyday training and walks, she will only need to focus on one or two commands at a time. I am asking a lot out of her in rapid succession, so sometimes she might get confused, which is what happened today. No worries. We don't want to create conflict with the pup and you as the owner. So sometimes it's okay if we back off a little bit and ask them to do something else where we can praise them and recognize their good behavior. Just remember that we can't always give them what they want and we can practice again next time and get them to perform the task better. So today, I got the best "come-to-sit" I could get out of her and we will try again tomorrow.
As far as her food consumption, it has become a little irregular and she does like to make a mess and eat it off the floor. I'll either get her to eat right away or she is not interested at all. Her stool is normal and her weight looks good. I'll keep doing what I can to keep her consistent and keep you updated.
Last note, I was working on her "place" today while eating lunch and she was watching my wife and actually followed her to see what she was doing! I was happy that she was getting along with everyone so well but we had to have her go back to "place" and relax. She is a sweet pup and has been getting along with everyone so well.
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