Athena | Lab\Pit Mix | Los Angeles, Ca | In-Training
Meet Athena! An nine year old Lab\Pit mix from Los Angeles Ca, has joined us for our Two week board and train program! Athena is a loving dog that loves affection, along with a big loving smile! Athena is good with people and kids, along with most small dogs. However, Athena does have a bit of anxiety with other dogs that are bigger than her. Athena's owners enrolled her with us because Athena does have a couple bad habits such as, pawing for attention, attention barking and whining , leash pulling, and barking at leaf blowers and other neighborhood sounds. Over the next two weeks Athena and I will be working on, on and off leash obedience, desensitization to different sounds and environments, along with socialization! I'm excited to work with this sweet loving girl! Tune in daily to keep up with Athena's progress!
Pupdate 4-16-2023
Today Athena and I went to the local park by my house in San Dimas Ca, to get some training in! Today we focused on teaching her leash pressure for the prong collar, along with the commands sit ,down, and heel for the leash pressure as well! Athena did an amazing job at responding to the leash pressure and followed through with the pressures with ease! We also worked and hung out next to my personal pup Kisa!
Pupdate 4-17-2023
Today Athena and I met up with some of the OffLeash Socal trainers at a local park in Whittier Ca, to get some training alongside each other! Today I saw Athena’s aggression with bigger dogs, it’s not all the time but it’s very sudden. Today we worked on an intro to the Ecollar stim, just teaching her what it means and to come into my space whenever she felt it! Athena did a great job at responding to the ecollar tool. At times Athena likes to just throw herself in the ground and be stubborn. Whenever she decides to do so, I just utilize the ecollar stimulation to break her stubbornness and have her come into my space! Over Athena did a great job today at the intro to the stem!
Pupdate 4-18-2023
Today Athena and I went to the local mall in Santa Anita Ca, to get some training in! Today we focused on only using the ecollar for her to respond as well as the slip lead. We are no longer using the prong to communicate, only ecollar and verbal cues to help her, along with hand gestures and leash pressure from the slip lead. Today she tried to throw herself on the floor to avoid some training but I just utilized the ecollar stem to help get her up! Today we demonstrated all of her commands on camera such as, heel, sit, down, and place. During the place, she was a bit stubborn about downing in the cot for the place command. After about 20 seconds she ended up giving into the ecollar stem and downing on the cot! Teaching ecollar is all about communication, letting them know what the feeling means and how to properly avoid it! As soon as Athena’s head went down and she fully went down on the cot, all pressures including the ecollar stem completely stops! Overall Athena did a great job at picking up the ecollar command and stimulation!
PUpdate 4-19-2023
Today Athena and I went to visit and hangout with my friend in Rancho Cucamonga Ca! During our hangout we worked on our obedience commands around distractions from people around the apartment and kids running around! Athena did a great job at responding to the ecollar a lot better than yesterday! Her down command she follows through a lot faster than before! I’m proud of Athena and will continue to add more and more distractions to our training!
Pupdate 4-20-2023
Today Athena and I worked on all of our obedience commands on my driveway! Utilizing the loud cars passing by as distractions! We worked on making sure Athena had a clear understanding of all of her commands such as Heel, sit, down, and place. Athena is doing a lot better now on the place command and downing alot quicker on the cot than before! I’m proud of Athena and will continue to add more and more distractions to our training next week!
Pupdate 4-21-2023
Today Athena and I went to our local park in San Dimas Ca, to get some additional training in. During our afternoon session we focused on working next to another dog. Yesterday night and today I’ve seen Athena’s aggression come out. It’s very sudden and random, she just randomly gets triggered and goes after another dog. Sometimes just approaching another dog, she may seem friendly, but as soon as she gets close enough she tries to nip/bite the other dog. Athena also resource guards her food and water, only from other dogs though not humans, and it’s all dogs not just big dogs. So today all we worked on was having her work next to another dog and stopping her as soon as she shows any type of aggression with the ecollar stimulation. Athena is also doing a lot better on her heel command now along with the rest of her obedience commands such as sit, down, and place.
Pupdate 4-22-2023
Today Athena and I worked at home and worked on our place command, having her hold her place as I cleaned the entry way around her! The place is the most important command other than heel, only because she needs to learn to down on an object and hold her composure no matter the distractions around her nor the environment! The place command can be used anywhere and at anytime, it just needs to be a clear spot for her to follow through with the command on! Next week we will be adding more and more distractions to our training. Tomorrow we will be having our afternoon session at my local Lowes!
Pupdate 4-23-2023
Today Athena and I went to the local Lowe’s in San Dimas near my house, to get some training alongside the people shopping around as distractions. Today we worked on having her hold her position and adding distance in between us, along with our distance “come” command. The come command directs Athena to stop whatever she’s doing and come directly to me and loop around my right side and sit on my left heel side. Athena has a good understanding of the command, but we still need to work more on making the command more clear for her to follow. Along with that we proofed the rest of her obedience commands such as Heel, sit, and down. Athena does great without any dog nearby, but once a bigger dog is in her sight she becomes unpredictable. She loves all people elderly to little kids, it’s just the bigger dogs that make her unpredictable. It’s a habit that she’s been doing for a long time now, and that’s something that takes months if year's to fix depending on how bad the case is, along with micromanagement from the moment she wakes up, psychology in dogs takes longer than obedience to fix. Only because it’s all in the mindset of the dog. Other than that, Athena is an awesome dog, she’s really just a love bug that loves affection from everyone!
Pupdate 4-24-2023
Today Athena and I worked on our Obedience commands at a park in LA, around distractions from a lot of animals and people around, along with distractions from kisa as well! Athena did a great job at responding to the ecollar tool along with following through with commands. She at times does get stubborn to the stimulation, only when a random dog approaches us. When we that happens I just let the owners know my dog is in training right now and is not allow to be approached at the moment. All I’m looking for is for Athena to be able to coexist around other dogs, no matter the size of them. She doesn’t need dog friends, realistically we are all she needs! Overall Athena did a great job at following through with all of her commands along with holding her position as well!
This morning brining in Athena and Finn, I noticed Athena had a small scratch on the top of her head. Her and Finn play a lot and. since Finn is a puppy I think one of his puppy teeth had accidentally nicked Athena on the top of the head, she doesn't even know she had gotten a scratch on her head, it doesn't effect her one bit, she still played with Finn and chase each other around!
Pupdate 4-25-2023
Today for our second session of the day, Athena and I had a pack walk around my neighborhood! During our walk we focused on structure walking, not pulling nor lagging behind me, only matching my pace. Along with obedience, we focused on giving Athena the release command teaching her when to go potty and when to not! During our walks, she isn’t allowed to just go potty whenever she sees something. She’s only allowed to go potty when I give her to “break” command to go release herself! Overall Athena did a great job on our pack walk. This week Athena and I will be adding more distractions to our training by going to more and more populated places!
Pupdate 4-26-2023
Today Athena and I went back to Santa Anita Mall to proof all of her commands, around distractions! Today we focused on checking all of her commands making sure she had a clear understanding of everything and seeing if she needed work on any of her commands. Athena did great, she has a full understanding of everything I’m asking for. The only thing is, she at times like to take things a bit slow. Which is perfectly fine with me, knowing her age I’m not looking for her to be super fast and urgent. All I’m looking for is for her to fully understand everything I’m asking for along with holding her positions while other dogs are passing by. Overall Athena did great and I couldn’t be more proud of her progress!
Pupdate 4-27-2023
Today Athena had a relaxing morning. This morning I had woke up with a sore throat, so I wasn’t able to take the pups to Santa Monica pier. During the morning I had taken that time to recover and feel a bit better. Later on in the evening Athena and I will be going back to our local Lowe’s and Petco to get some more training in. During the morning Athena was able to chill and hangout with my other board and train Finn! Finn and Athena get along really well , they love to play and hangout and sun bath together!
Pupdate 4-28-2023
Today for our afternoon session, Athena and I went back to the local Lowes in San Dimas ca, to get some more training around loud noises. Today Athen and I worked on proofing all of her obedience commands around a loud forklift and noises from the lumber being cut in the back. Athena did a great job at Lowe’s and later tonight we will be going to Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga to proof more of our training, it’s an outdoor mall so there will be lots of heavy distractions. During our Lowes trip, Athena did a great job at responding to everything I was asking of her along with holding positions as I pushed a cart around her!
