Meet Bumi! Bumi is a 16-month-old Rottweiler Mix from Newport, CA. Bumi comes to Off Leash for our Three-Week-Board and Train Program. Bumi is a delightful, fun pup who loves to play and be around humans. Bumi does pull on the leash, likes to nip, mouth people for attention, and jump on people big and small. Bumi comes to us being inconsistent with commands and is here to learn structure and manners. Bumi will be learning several new commands and how to be a good pup while with me for the next three weeks through consistency, patience, and balanced training. Stay tuned for Bumi's 21-day transformation!
Pupdate 6/4/23
Today I brought Mr. Bumi back to my house to start his training. Mr. Bumi was fantastic on the ride home. We stopped at a local park to see what Mr. Bumi knows. Big hint - not too much but that's great! I have a nice blank slate to work with. Mr. Bumi was super friendly with the kids and family. I introduced Mr. Bumi to Ms. Toji, my German Shorthaired Pointer. They were ok until Mr. Bumi investigated Ms. Toji's food. There's one thing Ms. Toji doesn't tolerate is other pups eating her food. I took Mr. Bumi on a walk around the neighborhood with my little one and he didn't pay her too much attention. He investigated a lot of trees but isn't much of a marker. He ate all his food and overall is adjusting well. Tomorrow we start his training and he gets going full speed!
Pupdate 6/5/23
Today we kicked off Bumi's training by getting him used to the e-collar and learning how to "heel" and "sit". Also, we work on performing the "sit" whenever I stop moving. This ensures that Bumi is being cognizant and aware of where I am and what I am doing and not just turning into a robot. Bumi picked up on everything so quickly! He really is so lovable and fun! He's been having a blast with my other board and train, Mars, as well as with Ms. Toji. His levels were good on the e-collar and he was willing to learn. Bumi is looking like a good student so far and I can't wait to see how well he does with the more complicated tasks. He is quite strong and burned my hands up yesterday on my nylon leash so for now I'll be using my shorter leather leashes until I know he's a bit more under control. The good news is that he hasn't really jumped on my kids or anyone yet. If he does give me that behavior, those will be great opportunities for learning.
Pupdate 6/6/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I hit the lab aka my backyard for a very productive day. I had my mini-trainer on hand although sometimes I think she's my supervisor! Mr. Bumi is amazing around the little ones. He's lovable and obedient. Also, Mr. Bumi is picking up on the training quickly. I am impressed at how quickly he is picking up on everything and responding well. Today we introduced several more commands: down, place, come to sit. We reinforced "heel" and "sit". I used a few treats today along with his pinch collar so we could have a nice balance. He seems to be responding well to the tools. I even let my little one practice the "heel" with him and he did amazing.
There are always days with a little bit of regression and when those happen, even after you get him back, remember a few things:
1) Be consistent and persistent. Do not ask Mr. Bumi to do something such as "sit" or "down" and allow him to not complete the task. Sometimes all it takes is that one time for him to realize that mom won't make me do it so do I have to do it? Dogs take the path of least resistance just like us and all it takes is once or twice and you have made a lot of work for yourself.
2) If you don't use it, you lose it. It's important to practice a few minutes a day and to positively reinforce as much as possible. Mr. Bumi responds well to positive feedback and we should take advantage of that as much as possible. Do we really need much of a reason to love and praise Mr. Bumi? Not really, so when he does something we want him to do, it just gives us another chance to praise him for being a good pup.
3) Lastly, if there is any regression, maybe something else is going on and we should take a break or stop the training. He is your pup for his entire pup life and you'll have plenty of chances to try again if it's not going well or he's overwhelmed. So give him a break, let him be a pup, and try again another time. No big deal.
Good job today Mr. Bumi!
Pupdate 6/7/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I went over to Mayfair Park in Lakewood, CA. We reviewed all the commands. I still have to introduce him to the "under" but to my surprise, there was a summer camp going on at my usually quiet park. There were intense pickleball games, basketball games, and all kinds of other activities. Mr. Bumi did really well around the distractions. We were able to work on his extended "down" and "sit" around the distractions which was good. I was able to work him on the flat collar for the most part. I started with the pinch collar but he was trying to scratch it or shake it off too much so I just took it off. There were even some squirrels running around that tried to distract Mr. Bumi. Overall, it was a lot of stimulus for Mr. Bumi in one shot after practicing in my backyard with little to no distractions. Mr. Bumi is attentive and continues to pick up on things well and is willing to please. Another good day for Mr. Bumi!
Pupdate 6/8/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I headed over to Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA to work on his "under" and introduce leash dragging. I was going to use my nylon, lightweight long lead, similar to the one I gave you but Mr. Bumi can still pull pretty hard when he wants and to save my hands, I used the leather lead. Tomorrow, I will definitely be giving him a chance to perform some leash dragging with the lighter nylon leash. He is attentive to me when performing the "heel". He has a really good extended "sit" and "down" at this time which is awesome. But oddly enough, it's so good that he won't break it for the "break!" command or for the recall to "heel" or for any reason. This isn't a bad situation but I'll have to use the leash a little more to guide him and help him understand what I am asking him to do. Most pups are excited to break the commands and play and jump around which Mr. Bumi does enjoy but once he's locked in he is reluctant to break the command. I feel like a treat or two will help entice him enough to be more willing to come to me but we aren't going to rely on those treats because you can run out of treats and carrying around a bag of treats is a lot to ask.
Pupdate 6/9/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I headed over to Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, CA. We practiced working in an area with distractions. Mr. Bumi was trained by our Training Manager Ms. Sheena today. Mr. Bumi worked on the slip lead for the day. Mr. Bumi was a little resistant to the slip collar only but Ms. Sheena is good at what she does. Mr. Bumi did seem to get a little possessive of Ms. Sheena as when she tried to let Mr. Bumi be greeted he was a little reactive. Ms. Sheena corrected him for this behavior. He then started to show a little bit more of this behavior at the end of the training session. I will work on this with him and have my oldest in-house trainer aka my daughter work with him while I manage the stimulation from the e-collar. He hasn't shown that behavior with me and has been friendly toward everyone.
Another thing to note about Mr. Bumi is that he has a kind of anxious scratching behavior. If you remember, I mentioned that I thought he was scratching at the pinch collar the other day (speaking of pinch collars - I fixed yours) so I took it off but it turns out this is just something that he does frequently. He didn't have the collar on today, nor was he being trained on a flat collar so this is just something that he does. He does it for both sides too. And he's not scratching at his ears so it's just a thing he does but we will try to mitigate it.
Pupdate 6/10/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I worked on his door manners and car manners. His manners were easy peezy. Mr. Bumi loves going into the car and going places. He just has to manage his impulse to just jump in right away but other than that he is agile and more than happy to jump in.
Door manners are where the pup has to wait nicely at each door before opening it or the pup should "place", "down" or "sit" politely at the door while you step out to take care of something like checking the mail. Also, Mr. Bumi shouldn't be jumping up on people as they come into the house so we have the pup perform a task such as "sit" or "down". Mr. Bumi did have a few hiccups at first but this is how learning occurs. First, he decided to just get up and leave which is fine. I increased the stimulation levels, 5 at a time, and kept repeating "come" until he found his way back over to me. Then I had him reset and "place" again and praised him for doing that and we tried again. Then I had my mini-dog trainer run by him as a high-value distraction. Mr. Bumi got up again to try to play with her. Once again, we reset and tried again. This time Mr. Bumi was much better behaved. We all learn through our mistakes, even our pups. Overall, I am happy with how he performed and he is resilient when he makes a mistake. He's willing to overcome it and continue the task. Good job Mr. Bumi!
Pupdate 6/11/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I worked on all of his commands Off-Leash! I wanted to get him off-leash today so that he can start to make the decision to perform the correct task without input from me. He is intelligent and is picking up on things very well. Although he did break off a few times to try to go to the dog run area, I maintained my calmness, raised the stimulation up by 5, and said "Come", and then raised the stimulation up by 5 and said "Come" again. I would check to see if he was trying to come to me. I feel that going up 3-4x is usually something going wrong and the pup isn't understanding so I like to try to get eyes on and see what they are doing. Sometimes they are overwhelmed and just looking for us, so if you see that, it's better to just be comforting and get their attention to come back to you. If you are yelling and angry, why would they want to come back to you? Although the e-collar has a 1/2 mile range, it doesn't mean you want them that far away unless you can yell "Come" or "Bumi, Come" loud enough for them to hear and know what to do. This brings me to my last point for today, it is to remember to turn the stimulation back down once we raise it for any reason. Don't stay in the higher stimulation zones once Mr. Bumi is performing the task properly. We want to do the opposite of high stimulation, we want to be positive, positive, and more positive.
Overall, good job today Mr. Bumi. We will continue to work on his commands. He doesn't need too many treats for the tasks but I just used them today as he skipped breakfast and wanted to reward him for his first full off-leash session.
Pupdate 6/12/23
Today Bumi and I headed over to Liberty Park in Cerritos, CA. Mr. Bumi got to meet Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Bumi made sure to let him know how well he is doing in his training and how much he likes being a good pup. We reviewed all of his commands today with leash-dragging around a small number of distractors such as pickle ball, the number one fastest-growing sport in America,a few kids on the playground, and people taking their morning jogs and walks around the track. I was focused on his recall to "heel", come to "sit" and send away to "place". His recall to "heel" went really well and his come to "sit" is pretty solid. His send away to "place" is going to be a little more challenging as Mr. Bumi hasn't learned to generalize enough raised items to "place" on. Generalization is a great thing that dogs are capable of but there are others who say that if you teach a pup to "place" on one bench then they only know how to "place" on that one bench so it's important to meet in the middle somewhere and expose him to as many different types of benches and raised platforms as possible. He performed everything else well including the "heel". He is so attentive and responds well to positive reinforcement. I small pet on the head or smile and "good boy" is all he wants for affirmation. As you can also see from today's video, his extended "sit" and "down" are looking nice.
Today's training tip! Remember that everything you allow or don't allow, the dog is paying attention and will capitalize on this. A big issue I see is that people allow unwanted behavior too often. An example of unwanted behavior is pulling on the leash but the biggest culprit is when puppy parents say "sit,sit,sit,sit,sit,sit" and the dog never sits! This seems small but it is the cornerstone of consistent obedience. If you ask your pup to "sit" and allow him not to perform the task then he has learned that he doesn't have to "sit". So next time when you actually need him to "sit" or you want him to, he's like why should I do that if you didn't make me do it last time? Allowing unwanted behavior is a bad habit. So even though Mr. Bumi is performing everything pretty well, if you get him back and allow him to slack off and not perform the task, then you are hampering his obedience. Keep in mind that if you ask him to perform something, you need to be ready to follow through and ensure that he performs the task. This could mean getting up or stopping what you are doing to follow through. Once he performs the task, you can release him with a "break" and let him go back to being a pup. This should help with one of your concerns about ensuring that he knows you are in charge, not him.
Everything should be looking really sharp by the time you get him back. Hope you are enjoying his progress as much as I am!
Pupdate 6/13/23
Today Bumi and I headed over to Rhynerson Park in Lakewood, CA for a full off-leash training session! Mr. Bumi did amazing! I started off with a small photo shoot for today's update but then decided to test his recall. I left the sound on the video for today so that you can hear and see everything in real time. He did get up to chase some birds and you could see him get interested in those things. You can also see when the e-collar disrupted his focus and I was able to get his attention. I only went up about one time to get his attention and recall him. This is a great sign of his obedience and ability to be recalled which was also one of your concerns. The only major hurdle we have to get over with Mr. Bumi is his send away to "place" as he isn't generalizing enough but I have a good game for that in my backyard we can practice. Good job today Mr. Bumi!
Pupdate 6/14/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I headed over to Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, CA. We practiced all of his commands off-leash. Mr. Bumi did a great job today! He even did a decent job of doing his send away to "place". We tried to work on his greeting manners and it was ok but it was a little awkward, and Mr. Bumi didn't respond too well but he was able to still perform the sit and wait calmly. I rubbed his head and tried to keep him calm. We will have to work on this some more and see how he does. Lastly, he was a little confused about the "under" because he had done the "place" on the same benches. This is a common mistake and I tried using my hands to get his attention to go "under". In the end, I didn't want to confuse him after he actually did a send-away to "place" earlier. But it was good to see him try to do the "under" once I got his attention. Overall I am very pleased with his progress and over the next week, we can advance him and reinforce all these good behaviors.
Pupdate 6/15/23
Mr. Bumi and I headed over to Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, CA to enjoy some June gloom today! Mr. Bumi is a ham and loves being out and around all the people and things. We even met up with some of our fellow SoCal Off Leash trainers and their pups in training. Mr. Bumi was well-behaved around them and mostly wanted to say hi. Overall, Mr. Bumi did a great job of being in and around the myriad of distractions and noises and including the different surfaces of the wood and the height of being on the pier above the water. He paid it no mind and carried on being the well-behaved pup that he has evolved into. I enjoy going places with Mr. Bumi and I hope he is enjoying all the places we get to go together. Great work Mr. Bumi!
Pupdate 6/16/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I focused on his send away to "place" and a little "under" every once in a while to mix it up. I had my mini-trainer assist me. Mr. Bumi is doing great and when we approach a bench head-on, he does fine with going to the "place". He has done a great job generalizing on the benches for "place." For the "under" command, we need to get his attention with our hands to guide him to where we want him. Mr. Bumi is very attentive and can handle this pretty well as long as we are clear to him what we want him to do. Good job today Mr. Bumi!
Pupdate 6/17/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I headed over to Mayfair Park in Lakewood, CA. It appears that there were some sort of baseball/softball opening or closing day ceremonies as many families were showing up. Mr. Bumi did great. He got into an open field and started doing the zoomies. No problem. He did finally get excited enough to try to nip at me. What a great training opportunity! I used this excitement to work with him on this without diminishing his fun time. He can still have fun, he just can't nip at my arm or other parts of my body. I just put my arm out and he decided to take a nip at it, then I responded with an "Off!" and a stim. He stopped. Then I ran around with him and got him amped up again. He went for it again, and once again "Off!" with a stim. We did this about 3 or 4 times but every time I either ran around with him some more or gave him the "Break!" command after I used a correction. Other than that, Mr. Bumi does well with his recall, listening around distractions, and being a good pup. Just remember to be consistent with his commands. If you allow him to disobey or be "free", he may understand that he can do whatever he wants so try to make that line clear.
Pupdate 6/18/23
Today I took Mr. Bumi over to Bolivar Park in Lakewood, CA. I tried to recreate the situation where Mr. Bumi was amped up again and tried to nip at me. Looks like I couldn't get him that amped up again or he learned from his last experience because he wasn't willing to jump up and nip at me. He was a little confused or guessing when I asked him to "down" away from the cot but I stayed persistent when asking him for what I wanted. Eventually, I was able to get him into the correct position and I helped guide him into the "down" to make it clear what I was requesting. Mr. Bumi has done well and over the next week, we will be conducting trainings that push Mr. Bumi.
Pupdate 6/19/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I worked on his ability to maintain his obedience around distractions. The biggest distraction was a soccer ball. Mr. Bumi isn't a fan of soccer the way my son and I are but he did have quite a few chances to maintain his place for about two minutes. That's pretty good considering he wasn't really that comfortable with the soccer ball. Obviously, he didn't like the ball coming right at him, most of us wouldn't. I also purposely put my son closer to him so that he had to make a decision to stay or move when I was far enough away that I couldn't close the distance on him to reset him right away. I was pleased with his temperament during this exercise. He also did well when I sent him to a "place" away from me. As I said, we'll just keep trying to see what Mr. Bumi is capable of this week while keeping his skills sharp.
Pupdate 6/20/23
Last night Mr. Bumi and I headed over to Norwalk Park in Norwalk, CA. We went over his commands. There was good and bad. It was bad but also good. It was bad because Mr. Bumi decided to get the zoomies. He decided to take off and run around the field. He took off without my guidance. He wasn't going anywhere in particular but he did run through a kids' practice and they didn't really appreciate that. The good is that he did come back after using the stimulation on the e-collar to recall him. I used the leash for most of the remainder of the training but he was fine after he got out his zoomies. Just use this as a lesson that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should do something. Just because Mr. Bumi is well-trained and a lovable pup doesn't mean that everyone knows that. Nobody cared that a tiny chihuahua was running around the whole time but Mr. Bumi was there enjoying his freedom and they didn't really like that. So always be aware of where you are and survey the area and observe all leash laws.
Pupdate 6/21/23
Last night Mr. Bumi and I went and checked out softball practice at Discovery Park in Downey, CA. Mr. Bumi got to meet several of the players and hang out and watch softball practice. Once again, Mr. Bumi wasn't trying to go anywhere but he was good at resetting when he got up too early. I enjoy taking him places and introducing him to the world. Today we are going to focus on the basics and get him tuned up for when you get home.
Mr. Bumi, Ms. Toji, and Ms. Summer have been playing a little rough the last few days so I'm going to keep an eye on them. Ms. Toji did suffer an injury this morning and I am not sure why or how she got it but I treated it. I gave Mr. Bumi a detailed nose-to-tail health inspection and I didn't observe any injuries or anything with him. I will make sure you get Mr. Bumi back the same way you gave him to me - but just much better behaved.
Pupdate 6/22/23
Me and Mr. Bumi headed to Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, CA today. Mr. Bumi is doing well out and about amongst many distractions. We got to meet up with some of our fellow Off Leash trainers and their pups. As you can see in the video, Mr. Bumi has no problem hanging out in the "down" or "sit" as all kinds of people and distractions go by him. What a great pup! We can't wait to show you how well-behaved Mr. Bumi can be after all this time away from you.
Pupdate 6/23/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I worked on his manners.around the house. We worked on his door manners, waiting patiently at the door while I go out and check the mail. Then we.went.over car manners where he once again politely waits to go "load up" once I allow him. Lastly, we worked on his food manners. Mr. Bumi isn't exactly the most hungry for.his.food so we worked on food denial where he can't pick up junk food off the floor. He did pretty well with this. It's important to stop. him and disrupt him. when he is going to perform unwanted behavior. Redirect him before that happens or be ready for an "Off!" Either way, we have to be consistent with Mr. Bumi. Two more days and you get Mr. Bumi back!
Pupdate 6/24/23
Today Mr. Bumi and I headed to Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, CA to review all of his commands off-leash around distractors. I would say that Bumi did AMAZING. Mr. Bumi was able to "heel" everywhere around the mall and did a great job ignoring distractors like other people, loud noises, and even other pups. Mr. Bumi does enjoy sniffing trash cans and food off the ground but I kept focused and he did great. As a reminder here are all the commands he learned while he was with me-all off-leash:
Sit/Extended Sit
Down/Extended Down
Place/Extended Place
Heel
Come to "Sit"
Come to "Heel"
Under
"Off!"
"Break!"
Send away to "Place"
Greeting Manners
Door Manners
Car Manners
Food Manners/Food Denial
Mr. Bumi has been a pleasure to train and work with. We look forward to showing you everything he has learned over the past 21 days!
