Meet Azul! She is a five month old Pitbull from Redondo Beach, California here for our Three-Week Board and Train Program! Azul is a bit smaller than most her age, but she doesn't let that stop her from wreaking havoc in the household! She pees on every surface she can, she loves to chew, refuses to learn her commands, and doesn't want to walk on a leash. Despite all that, Azul is a super sweet pup, who loves her family! So, over the next three weeks, we're going to work as hard as possible to address Azul's potty training issues, work on her manners in and out of the house, help her with her basic commands, and show her how to be the best pup she can possibly be! Stay tuned for Azul's three week transformation!
Pupdate: 1/28/2024
Upon entering Azul's home, she barked at me a few times, and wanted some comfort. She did, however, let me pick her up and pet her very shortly after. She made herself at home in her crate while we drove to a park! At the park, she loved me! The only thing she didn't like was her leash. She wanted to bite the leash and didn't want to walk at all, she preferred staying in one spot and cuddling.
In the above video, I ask Azul for several basic commands. She doesn't seem to know them off the bat, but she does love when I make noise and pat my legs to get her to follow me! This is a great start!
Once we got home, I let her sniff around my home to start getting her settled in. She seems to be liking me, and seems happy so far!
One of Azul's main goals is potty training. She is off to a good start, because she held her potty the whole car ride to the park, then when we went out to the fields, she peed and pooped on the grass! As soon as she did, she got tons of praise and love from me to show her how much I appreciate that.
Pupdate: 1/29/2024
Azul and I went to Almansor Park today! Overall, she was a very good girl, however, she went through phases where she wanted to do anything but walk politely with me. She loves to chew the leash as we walk, which she thinks is a game. When she does this, I use our "Off" command and apply a bit of upward pressure on the leash until it comes out of her mouth, then continue walking in a stern, but not unfriendly manner. After a few steps, I praise her and give her lots of love! She currently thinks walking is a game, and my current goal is to show her the difference between going for a walk, and playtime! I'm glad she's a playful pup, but she needs to learn that playtime happens when I want it to, not whenever she wants. Of course, this also means making sure she gets the proper amount of exercise and playtime with me throughout the day!
Pupdate: 1/30/2024
Azul and I went to the park today! She was as playful as ever, and we mostly worked on her Heel command. For Heel, I want Azul to walk politely next to me. She loves biting the leash and playing around, which is okay, but I want her to behave when she's on her walks.
Other than that, she behaved very well! We were able to walk around the whole park with very little issue.
Pupdate: 1/31/2024
Azul walked to the park today! Some of her commands are coming along nicely, however she doesn't like walking about half the time, and still wants to pull back and bite at the leash. Going for longer walks on leash seems to be helping!
We started working on a new command today, also! The Place command. For Place, I want Azul to hop onto a raised object, such as a bench or bleachers. She seemed skeptical at first, especially with the bleachers, but after some repetition, she started having fun jumping up.
This command is great to use at home, when you want your pup to hold her position on her bed or on a blanket! She has a lot of work to do on this command, but she's picking it up fairly well!
No potty accidents today!
Pupdate: 2/1/2024
Azul and I spent most of the morning inside, avoiding the rain. Some of her commands, she is struggling with, but one that she seems to like a lot is her place command. We practiced this command on a cot, and also started working on Down, using some of her kibble to help guide her. While Placed on the cot, I want Azul to try to remain there until I either release her from command or ask her to do something else. For example, after this video, Azul finished her food and curled up on the cot for a nap while I did some cleaning. After her nap, the rain had subsided and we went walking!
Pupdate: 2/2/2024
Azul went to the Santa Monica Promenade today! She was extremely nervous for the first several minutes of being there. She did a great job of holding her potty for the whole car ride, and relieved herself once we got there.
Around this new and exciting environment, Azul took several minutes to relax a bit, but once she did, she started to realize I was still there to help her along and she behaved much better than I was expecting. In the above video, Azul and I had been out walking around for probably half an hour or so already, and you can tell she's enjoying herself a little more by her tail wags and a little bit of playfulness! Great job today!
Pupdate: 2/3/2024
Azul had a super fun day at the park! She did a much better job with her commands today! I believe going to a much busier place yesterday helped her appreciate how much fun we can have at the park! A lot of our day was spent trying to build Azul's confidence, including jumping onto and off of the rocks featured in today's video. She's doing a wonderful job and I think her confidence skyrocketed yesterday and today!
Pupdate: 2/4/2024
Azul and I went to Home Depot today! It was raining quite a bit, so we decided to stay as dry as possible. I thought she was going to be very nervous when we first got to the store, but she seemed very open to the place rather immediately. That might be because she didn't like being out in the rain, even just for the walk from the car to the door. She was very friendly with the workers, and everyone wanted to say hi to her! She wagged her tail heavily whenever someone called her cute.
Azul piddled inside today, although I'm fairly certain it was because she didn't want to do so in the rain. So far, Azul's potty training has been going very well, as long as I give her plenty of opportunities to potty in places I want! She has been doing particularly well at holding her potty while in her crate. The structure she gets by utilizing the crate for sleeping is helping a lot.
Great job, either way!
Pupdate: 2/5/2024
Azul and I spent most of the day working around the house on her indoor manners. This was a very great test for Azul's potty training, since we usually get ample time outside, but today she did not. It's clear that she understands she is not supposed to potty inside, or in her crate. She did an amazing job with that! She struggled to hold her pee once we walked out the door when the rain died down, and peed in the parking lot instead of the grass, but I consider that a complete win, because she held it much longer today than she is asked to most days!
For her video, we worked on Azul's Food manners! For this exercise, I want Azul to be able to hold her sit when her food is placed in front of her. She still has a long way to go with this, but her improvement is vast! I still give her a little sample of her food when she sits to show her what a good job she's doing, but eventually, I want to be able to set her food down without her immediately going for it. This impulse control will also help in the event someone drops something while cooking that Azul shouldn't eat! So it helps with her good manners, as well as her safety!
Pupdate: 2/6/2024
Azul is still a little puppy, but she is doing very well! She didn't like the rain today, but she persevered through the wet portions and did well with her commands.
Despite her size, she kept up with a couple other dogs roughly three times her weight. Azul had a good time playing with them for the rest of the day, even when the rain limited our outside time.
Pupdate: 2/7/2024
Azul was around a lot of larger dogs today! She didn't let that stop her from succeeding! She did a great job around all these new distractions for a puppy! She did an incredible job with her decision making! Much of what I want from her at this point is for her to choose me, and my commands, over a distraction. Today she did better than she has done before. If she continues to progress like this, I will look forward to how she does as an adult!
Pupdate: 2/8/2024
Azul and I took advantage of the better weather today! We walked to the park and Azul did an amazing job! This was her best walk so far, as she didn't try to bite the leash, pull away from me, and she behaved herself the entire walk to the park. She showed some of her best progress today! Each of her basic commands went swimmingly, and her manners throughout the day were much better than most days!
Pupdate: 2/9/2024
Azul and I went to Hollywood Boulevard today! She did an excellent job for the first little while! About halfway through our training session, she started to get a bit tired and cranky, but she did so well at first, I can forgive her. We worked on extending her Place command into a more advanced, Send Away To Place command! For this, I am still asking her for the same things as with her basic Place command, but I want to increase the distance at which she goes to the place object. She loves the place command, so working on this hasn't been too difficult, however when she gets tired she sometimes wants to come back to me for attention rather than hop on the place object. Great job today, Azul!
Pupdate:2/10/2024
Azul went to Woodley Park with me today! She got to be around a lot of larger dogs and people she hadn't met yet. Everyone thought she was extremely cute and she behaved well the whole day!
For her commands, we mostly worked on her Send Away To Place, as well as her ability to hold her positions around a lot of distractions. There were plenty of times she wanted to hop up to go play with someone, but she held her positions after being reminded several times.
Pupdate: 2/11/2024
Azul and I spent the day at Almansor Park! There were a few sports games going on, and she loved watching the balls fly back and forth!
We spent most of the day working on her heeling, which is improving little by little. We also worked on a new command for Azul; the Under command! For Under I want her to simply crawl under a bench or chair and lay down when asked. This can be useful if you ever want to take Azul to restaurants or cafés, so that she can stay under your chair while you eat. It takes a few tries for Azul to get comfortable with each new under location, but she seems quite happy in the cozy little areas once she realizes that's what she is supposed to do!
Pupdate: 2/12/2024
Azul went to Rio De Los Angeles Park today for training! We met up with some other trainers, and she had a fun time!
Azul piddled inside this morning, but it wasn't her fault, because I'm trying to push the amounts of time she can hold her potty between being let out. For example, she needs to be allowed to pee by 7am due to her tiny bladder, but I'm trying to slowly see if she can hold it for longer. Her potty training is generally going extremely well, but she does need to be on a very routine schedule, with lots of opportunities to potty outside to succeed!
Pupdate: 2/13/2024
Azul went to Almansor Park today! She was on her best behavior all day, and even got a little bit of time to play with her new roommate!
While at the park, we mostly worked on her Come To Sit command around distractions. This is her weakest command, although it is one of our basics. She hits the nail on the head roughly half the time, but the other half she needs to be guided with the leash in order to follow through.
Azul had zero potty accidents today. She was let out first thing this morning, and peed and pooped in the grass. She pottied outside the whole rest of the day! These are some of our adventures and potty times, when she happened to potty today. We went to the park for most of the day where she peed once at around 11am, then again at 1pm, and pooped at around that same time. We went home for a break, where she took a nap, then went back out to the park in the afternoon/evening, where she peed at about 4pm. Her last out will be right before I go to sleep! Tomorrow morning she will be let out between 6am and 7am.
Pupdate: 2/14/2024
Azul and I went to Garfield Park today for training! There were other dogs there who wanted to come up to us, but Azul got along very well with them. We worked mostly on her place command, which she loves.
After the park, we went home, but continued working on place. We've talked about how useful Place can be, but you can also use it to ask her to go in and out of her crate as well! The idea is exactly the same and we can practice it in similar ways, except using the verbal command, "Crate." Very useful for when it's time for her to go to bed!
Pupdate: 2/15/2024
Azul and I went to Santa Monica Pier today! For the first half of our time, she did an amazing job! She performed each command with proficiency. After she started getting tired, however, she started to get a little grumpy and didn't want to perform as well. This is fine, and only helps us understand her time limits as far as her outdoor activities go!
For her potty training, Azul peed and pooped as soon as I took her out for her first walk. This was at around 6:45am. Same as always, whenever she potties in a spot I like, I make sure she knows by praising her and celebrating with her. We drove to Santa Monica later in the morning, and she peed again once we got there, which would have been around 9:45am. She peed once more at pier at around noon. We stuck around Santa Monica for a bit longer into the afternoon, however, she didn't relieve herself again until we got home, at which point she peed and pooped at around 4:00pm. As of time of writing, she still has a little bit longer before I take her for another walk, but I imagine she will go pee again at 7:00pm, and then again at 10:00-11:00pm. As long as we keep a relatively good track of when she probably will need to go, it makes it much easier to avoid potty accidents!
Pupdate: 2/16/2024
Azul and I walked to Almansor Park this morning! It's hard to believe that only a few weeks ago she could barely walk a few feet without biting my leash and throwing a fit. Now we walked the whole way there, worked around the park, and then walked back without any issue!
By the time we walked home, Azul was nice and tired and curled up for a nap. We went back to the park later in the afternoon, but we drove there instead of walking to give Azul's legs a break!
Pupdate: 2/17/2024
Azul and I went to Woodley Park today! She got to be around a lot of larger dogs, but she was still expected to behave herself. She barked a couple times, but actually did a great job, especially considering she was around about a dozen working dogs!
For her video today, I wanted to show her door manners! For door manners, I want Azul to respect the boundaries or doors and other thresholds. I'd like her to be able to hold her sit when I open the door, without trying to run through before me. Then, when I'm ready to walk out with her, she will be invited with a Heel!
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