Zoe Zoe | Boxer | Orange, CA

Meet Zoe Zoe, a very friendly 6-month old Boxer puppy in our two week Board and Train Program. She loves everyone, two legged and four legged alike. This overexuberant puppy finds it hard to keep four paws on the ground when she sees new people and is excited to meet them all. She's almost done with potty training but easily gets distracted by family and forgets to go while she's outside. Zoe Zoe has found several games that have served her well to get attention including 'nipping mom', 'steal the item' chase game, and jumping on the table. While in Board and Training, we'll be working on Zoe Zoe's manners and find new, more appropriate games for Zoe Zoe to play. Enjoy the journey with us.

Pupdate 12/17/2023

On the way home Zoe Zoe asked to stretch her legs a little and a potty break. We stopped in Simi Valley where I asked for sit, down, come, and heel during our break. Once she stopped trying to visit the kids at the baseball diamond, she gave me a solid sit, the down was a bounce right back up to me. The come was more of a run past me, and the heel was more of a I'll walk in the same direction.

When we got to the house she had a chance to meet her temporary dog family. In the kitchen she's resorting to jumping up with front feet on the counter. She's not listening to me calling her name with OFF - which I understand. That will come with time. I'm resorting to loud noises to catch her attention. The first things I'm starting to work on is OFF - used for anything you don't want her on or doing - and introducing the crate, that's her space where she can hang out.

At the time of this posting, Zoe Zoe still hasn't eaten anything. I placed her wet food in a kong toy and it's in her crate with her. I'm hoping as the house quiets, she'll relax enough to eat it.

Pupdate 12/18/23

A couple of wins, no accidents in the house, she woke me up about 2:30 AM for a potty break and that was it. Food was a little bit more challenging, she wouldn’t eat this morning. At about 12:30 PM she was whining on our travels, and I thought she needed another potty break. It was actually a request to eat.

Today we went to Camino Del Rio Park in Ventura. Turns out there were a lot more dogs being walked than there were people in general. My guess is because it was raining on and off the majority of the day.

We started our walk around the park with an attempt at heeling. Someone had three dogs off Leash when we started out, they were able to get two of them on leash, but the last one seemed to be very anxious. Zoe Zoe and I just stopped and watched the dog roam around, he never approached us and Zoe Zoe was actually very appropriate for the situation. I had her sit at my side and I think she stayed there because she was confused at this dog’s behavior.

Once we started on our walk again, Zoe Zoe returned to being a wild child. I did several stops, helped her sit so that she could focus on her job of paying attention to me. About a quarter of the way around the park she did get the message and I found a bench for her to place. Place can be a direction to use at home when you want her to go lay down instead of sitting at the table begging, jumping up on the table, or even being in the middle of the kids.

Zoe Zoe went up on the park bench, sat, and laid down when requested. Next we took a walk by the dog park where Zoe Zoe wanted to meet a local French Bulldog. I took that opportunity to work with Zoe Zoe on sits and focusing.

She finally started understanding the request of heel and to stay at my side the last quarter of our walk. I’m sure watching a Belgian Malinois work with his owner while I continue to nag her to heel/sit/focus on me tired her out and she gave in.

We headed home so she could eat. She did finish all of her lunch although it took her a while to do so - taking bites between finding toys and discovering a big white ‘thing’ staring at her. The big white ‘thing’ is an umbrella cockatoo, and I don’t know what a dog would think when they see something like that. Zoe Zoe barked for a while, and when she finally decided to get closer to investigate, the bird lifted its head crest. Zoe Zoe’s reaction was to run away as fast as she could. I couldn’t help myself, it made me laugh.

When she was done eating, it was playtime with Diego. I did not realize how similar the play styles are for these two breeds. It was fun to watch them go back-and-forth in the living room. Zoe Zoe would place a paw on Diego‘s back, and he would twirl away. I was watching him very closely to make sure he did not return the paw on the back move. When I noticed the dogs getting hyped up and/or tired out I would call an OFF command.

The OFF command is used for anything you don’t want them to do or from doing something that would keep them from working. An example for the second would be sniffing at the ground when they are in a heel command.

The idea of an OFF command at this point is for the dogs to separate and go to their crates, bed, or place position. I escorted Zoe Zoe to the water bowl and then back to her place spot to help her understand there was no free play at that time.

As Zoe Zoe goes in and out of the front door, I am working on teaching her to wait until released. The goal is two minutes but I’m also trying to be fair in case we’re going out for a potty break.

Pupdate 12/19/2023

The rain has hit and Zoe Zoe and I agreed that we wanted to play inside, so no parks for us today. I planned out a structured balanced day for her, with 20 minute trainings, 30 minute down times to think about the training, 10 minute play dates with my Belgium - he's 15 months old, and then another 30 minutes down time in the kitchen to eat, chill, etc.

The trainings were originally 30 minutes, until I discovered it was just too much for her at this time. We worked on heeling, and mainly come to sit. She's being trained so that every time you call her to come to you, she will come to your right side, go behind you and sit on the left. This will set the two of you up for heeling.

In the house Zoe Zoe quickly balked at doing this exercise multiple times. During our second training session she started avoiding the requests. At that point I changed the game plan to do more heeling, and tried to play more with her. The ten minute play times with another dog helped her destress and blow off some steam.

We went to Lowe's later in the day to give her some new environment experience. Zoe Zoe was so excited that my main goal was to keep her moving forward, not jumping on people or items in the store, and to give her a chance to smell and take in the area. We started in the lumber area and by the time we finished the second aisle Zoe Zoe was checking in and listening, I was even able to get some completed come to sits. She received many compliments from people, and if anyone paid attention to her directly, I lost her focus because she was trying hard to go say hello.

At that point we went to a more populated area of the store and of course it's hit or miss. Had a few dogs come through, and Zoe Zoe's focus was gone. Now practicing the word OFF and being a little more direct to remind her we are working.

Pupdate 12/20/23

In between rain drops - literally - we did some training around town. In the first picture during an extended sit, Zoe Zoe was dripped on by the tree. I love her looking up, trying to figure out where it came from.

The places we've visited today are new to Zoe Zoe, and the rain added an extra layer of distractions. Overall, she did good with the rain and mud at the ranch we stopped by, and in the pasture, she found sheep droppings - an additional training opportunity. Zoe Zoe is quickly learning what the word OFF means.

The Come to Sits had more distance to them because of the open space. Zoe Zoe is learning that I don't need to be next to her pulling the leash to get her attention. Today she started racing towards me when called, and on the correct side. As a puppy she still hasn't learned to judge distances and ran past me. It took her a while to slow down but when she was able to turn, she stopped in a sit in close proximity to me. Not exact, but definitely starting to get the idea.

Zoe Zoe is doing a good job of getting my attention to go outside when she needs to pee. Sometimes it's in the middle of the night and I hear her whining. Unfortunately the defecating is still a hit or miss. This morning she had to go but she didn't tell me until I was already in the bathroom myself.

Pupdate 12/21/23

Zoe Zoe's morning started off with me while I was fixing everyone's breakfast. I've learned that when I hear Zoe Zoe sniffing around, that's a sign that she needs to go out. I'm two for two with that technique, but once we get outside she needs a minute to check her surroundings and know that she can take the time to defecate.

After that we played the Yes / No game, or Break / Off game. Basically, you start with some of her food and tell her Yes or Break. Originally when I learned this game, it was introduced to me as Yes / No. But recently I had a dog who did not understand the words or meaning of the game, so I changed it to the Break / Off game. Break means they can have the food, Off means they cannot take it, UNTIL you say they can, using Break.

Zoe Zoe picked up the rules of the game pretty fast, although she'll wait a few seconds and thinking that's long enough, will try again. This game will help her build duration while learning to wait to be released to eat.

Today was the worst day of the rain so we found a nice dry mall to walk and train in, Burbank Towne Center. It's a three-story mall and Zoe Zoe got to check everything out. The elevator looked interesting and she seemed to enjoy it when we rode it from the second to third floor. Zoe Zoe also enjoyed all the kids that were there and wasn't afraid or reactive of all the kid noises of screaming, laughing, and even crying around the play areas. I had her place right outside of the children's area in the video and she was willing to stay there during all the kid noises.

You'll see in the video that Zoe Zoe is scratching at her neck, it's due to the extra weight of the ecollar and how it tickles her when used if needed. I'm working at stopping her from scratching because I don't want her to move it to a less desirable place on her neck, for example the esophagus or spine. Those places would be uncomfortable for her.

Zoe Zoe's heels, although they look nice, are not quite positioned correctly. It's like she's on a race and I have her sit often to redirect that focus. I'll be using more turns and changing the speed of our walks to help correct that.

Pupdate 12/22/2023

Today Zoe Zoe practiced her manners . . . food / door / greeting . . . surprisingly, food manners are doing pretty good. She didn't approach the bowl until given the release word break - this word is what you would use to tell her that she doesn't have to sit, down, anything working. She can go around and sniff, lay down, ect. This is also what I use to release her from a heel to sit, to use the bathroom. The only issue we had with the food manners is that when she was sitting, she wanted to go into a down. When she was down, she wanted to be in a sit. I think the bottom line is that she wanted to be on a blanket while she waited.

The door manners are coming along, the hardest thing is that usually she uses the door to run out and go to the bathroom, and I hate to have her wait for that. Still a work in progress. Greeting, she is so excited and such a whirlwind that I'm being a little more inventive. People are not allowed to come directly up to her and talk to her. She seems to be better when they're talking to me. Also I'm trying to have her between the two of us before she gets a pet. But she is showing promise in that area.

She had a great extended sit in the house today while I moved gates around. I was very proud of her. And her play time with Diego isn't so wild, now they're playing around together carrying a toy. The Akita is able to stay in the room without fear of being run over.

12/23/2023 Pupdate

Here's a day in the life of Zoe Zoe training. We're at the local tennis courts and on the other side of the courts are six people taking turns playing doubles. Zoe Zoe is so involved in their game that she's having difficulty training, and oh, that bouncy BALL!! Which makes a great time for us to train.

Some of the gaps in the frame are due to being out of the camera or too far into the court that it's difficult to see what's going on. We're doing Heeling, Come to Sits, Extended Sits, and Extended Downs. Usually Zoe Zoe's downs are pretty good, but this distraction is just too much. I'm using a variety of techniques to get her attention - voice, hand signals, leash pressure, ecollar, and placing her into the position. All of them work at different times, and not one of them worked all the time.

Some of the Heeling includes quick turns to the right and left, speeding up and slowing down. I use these to help engage Zoe Zoe and make her concentrate on working. Even when Zoe Zoe is distracted, she's trying hard to work with me as she's making the sweeping turns around me for the Come to Sit. This practice will especially help in a less distracting environment.

Later in the day we were training at Whittier Narrows in El Monte. There were several enthusiastic teams playing cricket, dogs walking, and dogs training. She was very distracted and had a tough time focusing on basic commands. On an extended down she decided she was bored and starting eating leaves, her leash, anything she pleased. When corrected, she started with temper tantrums. I would say overtired; as I’m writing this, she is sound asleep in her crate for the ride home.

Pupdate 12/24/2023

We did a pack walk this morning and Zoe Zoe is trying to ‘win’ the race, which got her more heeling, as well as extended sits and downs at the tennis courts. One of the pictures above is Zoe Zoe is patiently hanging out on a bench at the tennis courts. While we were walking home from the courts, the cat in the picture surprised us by coming from its backyard and straight for Zoe Zoe. I was please with Zoe Zoe's response and then her sit and down when asked in the presence of the cat.

Working on food manners today. Zoe Zoe is funny, she thinks she’s fine if she gets up and goes away from the food, misses the concept of an extended down stay.

The last picture is Zoe Zoe with Diego during some down time. Over the next few days I’ll be using Diego as a distractor. Should prove interesting. My plan is to have him working or ball chasing or something in the background while Zoe Zoe works on her obedience.

I’ve started keeping a log as to when Zoe Zoe goes to the bathroom. The idea is to help me know when I should wait her out OR be able to interpret her signals better. For example, she had already gone out and peed and I thought she was done for an hour. Kiki, my Akita, is play bowing and engaging through the xpen that’s blocking the kitchen into the living room while I’m fixing everybody’s dinner. Zoe Zoe is in the kitchen with me and doing heavy sniffing at the xpen, facing Kiki. I would normally think this is a reaction to Kiki’s playing. I decided not to take a chance and took Zoe Zoe outside, and she defecated as soon as we got outside. Making progress.

Pupdate 12/25/23

This morning was a lazy morning, we all slept in until 7am, when my version of a rooster - an umbrella cockatoo - announced to all of us that it was time to get up. We practiced food manners this morning. I had Zoe Zoe in a sit while I delivered food to my two. It was difficult for her to not follow me. I adjusted it to where the gate was closed between the rooms but Zoe Zoe could still watch me. She was able to stay in a sit then.

I tried looking for parks with distractions of kids with toys, dogs, etc. I decided to work on door manners with Diego as my distraction. It took a couple of tries but Zoe Zoe received the message that it didn't matter what was going on around her, she needs to stay in a down. The 2nd part of the attached video shows the door manners. I have Diego chasing a ball in and out of the house. My last two attempts I had Zoe Zoe attached to the table to understand she was to stay where she was placed. She is not attached in this video, but the leash is placed by the table leg.

I'm getting closer to zeroing in on Zoe Zoe's bathroom habits. It appears that 30 - 45 minutes from when she drinks a lot of water, she needs to go out again. I'm working on getting a more exact number to help her at home.

Pupdate 12/26/2023

Today's focus was working around other dogs and small children. It actually started out with a bushy tail squirrel that was curious about Zoe Zoe and didn't rush up the tree right away. Maybe because they're similar coloring? I don't know, but I certainly didn't expect it. Zoe Zoe immediately spotted it running across the grass from tree to tree as she jumped out of the van, I answered with a quick OFF to keep Zoe Zoe from chasing it down. Zoe Zoe was agreeable and started sniffing around this new park.

As other dogs started showing up, it seemed like all the work Zoe Zoe and I had been doing went right out the window. I had to remind myself that dogs go through this with new environments. For Zoe Zoe, she becomes anxious because she wants to smell everything all at once and quickly gets overwhelmed. It takes 20 to 25 minutes to warm up to get her over that and in a place where she is able to process the smells, sounds, and what's being asked of her.

A reminder, when we first started this Board and Train, Zoe Zoe could only handle 20 to 25 minutes of training before she shut down. She has grown past that and now just needs that processing / warm up time. As she matures and gets to experience more new environments, that warm up time will reduce. The way to help her is through heeling exercises, left and right turns, weaving, speeding up and slowing down, starting and stopping, things to help make her think. Also helping her to focus on you versus the environment around her - small kids running, bouncing balls, other dogs barking. I watch her very closely and if she starts focusing on something else, she gets an OFF verbal call with a small nudge from the ecollar.

When she's in that anxious state, it's easy for her not to hear verbal commands. They are more like a distant whisper. The nudge from the ecollar is like a tap on the shoulder, "Hey, I'm trying to talk to you."

The pictures started as areas to place. The stone was an unexpected find and Zoe Zoe was up it like a mountain goat. I asked for the down, and she just plopped down like this. I decided to take what she gave me because if I tried to change it, she would probably say never mind. I thought the tree would be an easy one for her, but it was just enough of an angle that she wasn't comfortable to sit on it. Her facial expressions were priceless and had to be shared!! And the last photo has a little story behind it. Today there were two Great Danes at the park, both were puppies. As Zoe Zoe and I walked by the other puppy, she glued herself to my leg. Both dogs were in a heel, under control with no lunging or playing. This wasn't the behavior I was expecting from Zoe Zoe because I have walked her past large dogs and have been working on keeping her from trying to engage them into playing. The one in the picture is MUCH larger than the first, although he's only a few months older. Zoe Zoe would steal a glance when he wasn't watching. We walked the dogs around each other to help Zoe Zoe be more confident and behave correctly around other dogs.

Pupdate 12/27/2023

Zoe Zoe is really improving on her heeling exercises. At times she walks a little too far from the side so we're working on that. At the beginning of the video, the Come to Sits are not consistent, but as we continued working, Zoe Zoe was more accurate as to where she was sitting. One of the things to work on is that when she sits, she is not to be standing on your foot or leaning on you. When she does that, she's making it so she doesn't have to listen. She's standing on the foot or leaning on you so she knows where you are instead of looking at you and checking in. This is one of those boundary pushing areas.

Zoe Zoe is staying in her extended downs better. I'm in the background doing funny things, she usually would break the down and come running to me to join in. This is the first time she's continued to lay there and just watch me.

I tend to use poles or columns as markers for heeling to help me stay more focused on a direction. I think it tends to help the dogs because it keeps me from giving mixed signals - should I turn left, oh, maybe an about face. At times I will just start running to the next pole and Zoe Zoe will immediately start running at my side in the heel position. Those are types of games that you can play with her and make obedience more fun.

Pupdate 12/28/2023

Zoe Zoe had a busy day out at Santa Monica Pier today, where there were so many people and a few dogs to join them. We did our usual warm up of about 20 to 25 minutes. During that time, Zoe Zoe had a dog bark at her and she felt that was an invite to go say hi and play. Only problem, she forgot she was working. After some additional time of refocusing, Zoe Zoe was back to business.

Part of her work today was practicing greeting manners. That was really hard for her. As you know, she wants to jump up and lick everyone. She tried her best to sit there but couldn't resist placing a front paw on people.

The majority of the morning Zoe Zoe was off leash, heeling, she did her extended stays, and place with extended down. There were a few times on her extended sits or downs that I would step in to support her - maybe someone didn't see her and I would block to make sure Zoe Zoe didn't get stepped on. Unexpected sounds like a large container for one of the restaurants was being pushed along the pier, even had bicycles up on the pier unexpectedly. Zoe Zoe took it all in stride.

What I should have expected was her attention to the pigeons, she likes to watch my little birds in their cage. I will be working on that over the next few days.

The pictures are at the Santa Rosa Club House in Camarillo. We stopped there on the way home to take a regular walk and some play time.

Potty training update, I'm taking Zoe Zoe out consistently 20 to 30 minutes after she drinks water. Also I take her out first thing in the morning, and right before I turn in for the night. I have no accidents when I follow that schedule.

Defecating - my tracking hasn't uncovered an actual schedule yet. For example, I expected her to go first thing this morning, she didn't go until 1:20pm. I tried to get her to go three times before we left for training, stopped on the way to training because I thought she had to go, and then at the grass area before we went onto the pier for training. I didn't expect her to go while we were at the club house because she had just gone two hours previously, but I tried. She also refused to go since we've returned home. She just went about fifteen minutes before my posting and is now playing with Diego. There have been days when she's gone four times.

Still working on it, and will update.

Pupdate 12/29/23

After yesterday's realization that Zoe Zoe could have an issue with birds, I decided that Friday's visit was going to be at a park with lots of them, and that would be Walter B Moranda Park in Port Hueneme. The locals call it Duck Park.

When we started out, Zoe Zoe was excited to be in a new environment. It took about ten minutes to get her into working mode. As we were making our way to the creek of ducks, I was allowing her to get acquainted with the area while I looked for a place to video tape. When we went over the rise and saw all the birds in the creek, Zoe Zoe immediately went on overload, and that's where the training started.

I was using the OFF command along with the ecollar to make sure she was focusing on me versus the birds. The ecollar feels like a TENS unit for massage, and is used to notify the dog that we're trying to communicate. I increased the strength of the 'nag' to get through all the sensory overload. Once I found a place for the tripod we started focusing on approaching the birds in a controlled manner. Overall, she did really well. While we were hanging out with the variety of ducks, there were children running around, people feeding the ducks, and clean up crews to take care of the debris from the high ocean tides.

By the end of our training Zoe Zoe was playing and ignoring the birds, that was the result I was looking for.

Pupdate 12/30/2023

Today we went to Balboa Park as a new environment and tested the bird training. Zoe Zoe did really well and ignored the birds.

With the recent rain, Zoe Zoe was checking out all the new fresh scents and gave us another opportunity to practice OFF and focused heeling.

While we were there, a dad was teaching his daughter how to ride a bicycle and Zoe Zoe was very focused on the frustrated little girl while we were practicing car manners / loading up. I was thankful that the small family was willing to give us a distraction for training. After several refocuses Zoe Zoe did an awesome job in listening and loading up.

Potty training seems to have gotten better - but we still have one more night. She has learned there is no play time or roaming the house until after she goes potty - no exceptions. We’ll discuss more tomorrow.

Zoe Zoe | Boxer | Orange, CA | In-Training

Recent Posts

Comments