
Meet Charlotte! She’s a one-and-a-half-year-old German Shorthair Pointer from Los Angeles, California here for our Two-Week-Board and Train Program! Charlotte is a friendly and playful pup! Charlotte was rescued by her pup parents. Sometimes Charlotte can jump on furniture, people all while ignoring basic obedience commands. Charlotte can perform a command or two, however, it is highly inconsistent. Over the next fourteen days, Charlotte is going to learn to be a confident, brave pup through consistent, clear communication, and balanced training in areas such as at home, in the car, and in discovering new people and places. Charlotte is going to learn how to do all these things on and off leash in a positive and balanced training environment. Through structure and consistency, Charlotte will demonstrate how great a pup she can be! Stay tuned for Charlotte’s two-week transformation!
Pupdate 12/22/24



Today Ms. Charlotte came home to join my pack. We stopped at my local park to see what Ms. Charlotte knows and to have a quick photoshoot for her Blog. When we got home we went for a nice long walk around the block to get used to the sights, sounds, and smells of her temporary neighborhood. This is the only "free" walk that she will get over the next two weeks. This first walk is to allow them to get to know me. After today, we start the training with lots of repetitions and practice.
Then I introduced Ms. Charlotte to the other board and train pups along with Ms. Toji. Ms. Charlotte is getting along well and will be given plenty of time to hang out with all the other pups. I look forward to training with Ms. Charlotte. Stay tuned for her transformation!

Pupdate 12/23/24
Today I introduced the e-collar to Ms. Charlotte. It is apparent in the video that she is not a big fan of the e-collar. Ms. Toji does not like it very much either—another GSP similarity. The good news is that Ms. Charlotte is working around a 10 or less on the e-collar. The bad part is that she is hyper-sensitive and wants to hide behind me. This is avoidance behavior. The pup is unclear or unsure what to do so they avoid anything and everything in the hopes that they don't receive the stimulation. I can barely feel the e-collar at 10. As you know from Ms. Senga, the e-collar is effective in communicating with the pups. We will have to work on conditioning Ms. Charlotte to the e-collar more.
I have attached the e-collar video to this update for your reference. Please refer to it and study it. It is available for you to review whenever you need a refresher on how to use the e-collar system.
I did introduce all the commands she will need to be successful over the next two weeks. We introduced sit and extended sit (she didn't make it to two minutes but we'll get there), heel, come-to-sit, place, and down. She was not a fan of performing the "down" but I think it's because it is a little unclear to her. I don't expect perfection on the day. I'm ok with 50% and we will build on that. We will make it clear to her what our expectations are and she will get on board. I also introduced the door manners which is where Ms. Charlotte has to sit and wait until I allow her to cross through the door. We should always go through the door first.
Also, she hasn't eaten much of her food yet. I will keep presenting it to her and giving her all the chances to consume it. I do keep track of her weight and she's doing fine right now. Sometimes it takes a day or two before they get comfortable.
Lastly, I observed Ms. Charlotte's jumping ability yesterday. It is concerning how low my fence is, so she will only have monitored backyard and front yard breaks. The rest of the time I'll let her hang out in the crate or my office with me. She kept me company yesterday in the office. I noticed her nose nudging as you mentioned. We will work on that with the e-collar. As I mentioned, if you are just a little too firm with a GSP, they will shut down. This does not make for good training or a learning environment so I have to be careful and balance everything. It is important to be firm, fair, and consistent.

Pupdate 12/24/24
Today Ms. Charlotte and I loaded up and headed over to Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA to start practicing and reviewing her commands in public places. Ms. Charlotte is a hyper-sensitive GSP. I have seen sensitivity in these dogs before but maybe from being lost in the street to finding a new home, she is a little more timid than your average GSP. With that being said, she perks right up into bird-dog mode when she sees a squirrel or bird. What I want from Ms. Charlotte is to be a confident and obedient pup. Right now, she is intimidated by basic commands. I had her practice the "sit" at the park and she was trembling. I came in and gave her some love and assured her that it was ok.
As far as today's training went, she does not want to do the "down" on her own. We are going to keep working on this non-stop. She can do the come-to-sit about 25-50% of the time. We will get there. But the down is 0% performance of the task right now. I did switch over to my slip lead to try to use a little more pressure instead of the e-collar to help encourage her to perform some of these tasks. Ms. Charlotte is reactive to anything above a 12 on the e-collar. The leash pressure is something she can handle a little more so that I can make the tasks clear for her. I don't want her walking around with her nose glued to the ground as it's an incentive for her to break away from the "heel" if she finds something interesting to go after.
After the video, we went for a nice long walk around the park while she practiced the "heel", sitting when I stopped and staying in the "heel" whether I turned into her or away from her. We reinforced the come-to-sit a few times. Overall, a nice, productive training walk.
Today she finally ate all her food! This is good as she becomes more and more comfortable with me and my family.

Pupdate 12/25/24
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! I hope you and your family are doing well and your travels are going well. Today I worked on reinforcing the "down" and the "sit". I was hanging out with Ms. Charlotte in the office and she was giving me the "down" in exchange for belly rubs. I figured I would take advantage of this and see if she would do it for me on the "place". That didn't work out. She is doing ok with the other commands. We didn't review the come-to-sit because we were focused on other tasks for today. We took a small break and got back to the "down". It is important to be consistent and persistent when it comes to obedience tasks. This is why I didn't give up until Ms. Charlotte was able to give me a "down" a few times. She did!
I did set the slip-lead aside for today's training as she was doing well without it. I'll save that if we need it again.
I know that asking her to perform the "down" seemed to make her unhappy, so I took her on a long walk around the neighborhood. No e-collar, no stress, just a pup-friendly walk. She was out at the end of the leash, smelling everything, pointing at birds, and just being a typical GSP. Once she went potty a few times, I asked her to be in the "heel" and she did well for about the last 25% of our walk. Overall it was a good day of training!

Pupdate 12/26/24
Ms. Charlotte and I headed over to Liberty Park in Cerritos, CA. We reviewed all her commands in a medium distractor environment. I think she did pretty well today. She is still highly anxious and nervous when performing her extended sit. I hope with more practice she starts to calm down a little bit. She did great on her "place" and "down" on the bench. I have been practicing her "down" with her in my office. She wants my attention constantly so I use that as an opportunity to get her to perform "down". When she does the "down", she gets my attention, and the back and belly rubs. Her coming up and nudging me and attempts to force me to love her or give her attention are ignored. She has caught on to this and has learned to relax in her crate and when it's time, I will play with her and give her attention. I was happy she performed the "down" on her own. I will have to continue to practice the come-to-sit to get that cleaned up a little bit. She is operating at about a 7-10 on the e-collar which is extraordinarily low. Sometimes even the vibrate feature makes her nervous and panicky. We don't want that. We only want the e-collar to be an attention grabber the same as if we apply pressure to the collar to encourage the pup to come with us.
As you can see in the first part of the video, I didn't have the e-collar on her and she was sniffing and exploring around. Once I put the e-collar on, she goes into her shell. This is good in that she understands there is a new set of rules in place when the e-collar is on. She understands that when it is off, she can be herself and do mostly whatever she wants. However, this can also work against me in that she is too timid to perform anything and is in fear of messing up. That makes learning challenging. I have to work to counter condition the negative affiliation with e-collar in that regard. I also have to be careful because too much stimulation and she will likely take off on me and we don't want her to do that. I'll be keeping on eye out for overstimulation signs as our goal is to be off-leash but with these numbers and her reactivity towards them, it's going to be challenging.

Pupdate 12/27/24
Today Ms. Charlotte and I stuck around the house and worked on her house manners. It rained a little bit this morning so going to the park wasn't the best idea. I worked on her door manners and car manners. I demonstrated two different ways to perform her door manners. The first is where she has to sit and wait for me to open the door, go through the door, and then say "ok" to let her follow me out the door. The second way is to put her in a "place" and "down" and she has to wait until I give her either the "break" command or ask her to perform something else. She is coming along well with all her manners. Once again, the e-collar is only running around 7-10 with Ms. Charlotte. She loves to perform her tasks for some love and attention. We have unlimited amounts of those to give out!
Next, we worked on her door manners. Door manners consist of her sitting and waiting for me to open the car door, open the crate, and then say "load up" + a low-level stimulation. Ms. Charlotte is athletic and able to perform this task with little effort. The issue is that it has to be when we ask her to, not when she anticipates or expects us to ask it of her. She tried to jump in a few times without me asking her to which is why we had to reset a few times. It is a work in progress but the great news is that we get to work on it every time we leave the house.
Lastly, to work on diminishing the negative association with the e-collar, I took Ms. Charlotte on a short walk around the block. I started without the e-collar on and encouraged her to go be herself. She happily obliged. Then I put the e-collar loosely around her neck and encouraged her to go be her happy self again. She was hesitant but when she realized I wasn't using the e-collar or asking her to do anything, she went to the end of the leash. She was sniffing and checking out birds all by herself. Lastly, I put the e-collar back on nice and snug and let her be herself again. She was still hesitant but did it again! I need to keep doing this so that she does not have a negative association with the device. We want her to understand that she needs to behave when it is on but it doesn't mean we want her to be sad and that she still can't be herself.

12/28/24
Today Ms. Charlotte and I headed over to Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA. It was a little busier today with a few parties happening at the park. Kids were enjoying all their new Christmas presents such as E-Bikes, scooters, and regular bikes. Pup-parents were walking their pups. Pretty good distractions for today's training. Ms. Charlotte did well overall. We walked over to the park from the parking lot while performing a leash drag "heel". She went up and performed the "place" and "down" without issue while I set up to record our training. I was impressed at how well Ms. Charlotte performed today!
Ms. Charlotte still needs to work on her "come-to-sit". Her "heel" was nice and when I would give her the "off" command for sniffing and being distracted, she came right back to the "heel" showing little signs of adversity. She was more happy and looked like a good, happy pup. She even went potty and pooped with the e-collar on nice and snug and was allowed to be "free" for her "break". She understands that just because the e-collar is on, doesn't mean she can't be her playful self and do Ms. Charlotte's things.
Overall, we just need to practice, practice, and more practice. We are looking good to start going to the mall this week and see how she does around the higher stimulus.

Pupdate 12/29/24
Today Ms. Charlotte and I headed over to El Dorado Park in Long Beach, CA to review all the commands in a different environment. Ms. Charlotte did great! We reviewed all of our commands with the leash-dragging. She nailed them all! We have to work on extending her "down" and "sit" in back-to-back situations like the ones I present her with but I am happy with her progress! Today, we operated around a 7-10 on the e-collar for the whole session.
After the video, we watched some kids practicing skateboarding, scooters, and bikes at the skatepark. She wasn't bothered by any of it and performed well!

Pupdate 12/30/24




Today Ms. Charlotte and I met with some of our fellow Off-Leash trainers and their pups at Whittier Narrows Park in El Monte, CA. We got to hang around pups and other distractions at the park such as e-bikes, other dogs running around, and squirrels. Ms. Charlotte is doing well in these different medium distractor environments. I think we will try going to the mall a few times this week and see how she does in a higher stimulus environment. We need to continue to practice come-to-sit. We also need to work on her anticipation of commands. It's a good sign that she understands everything but we want her to perform the tasks when we ask her to, not when she wants to.

Pupdate 12/31/25
Today Ms. Charlotte and I had our first full off-leash session! Overall she did amazing! We have to shape her off-leash "heel" and "come-to-sit" a little more but overall she's doing amazing! She is comfortable being her playful self with the e-collar, which means she doesn't associate it with a negative experience. We are still working around a 7-10 which has been good. I will put the 5/8" hypoallergenic contact points on her collar when it comes in. I think she's ready for some higher stimulus areas like the mall to see how well she will do. Ms. Charlotte performed all her commands in one session which were "heel", and "place", "down", "come-to-sit", and "sit". The "down", "sit" and "place" were all for over two minutes!
Ms. Charlotte wishes you a happy and safe New Year!

Pupdate 1/1/25




Today Ms. Charlotte and I headed over to Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, CA to see how well she would do around lots of people in a public place like the mall. Ms. Charlotte did amazing! Why wouldn't she? She's been on her best behavior recently. I am proud of her progress. We continued to work on her "heel" and "come-to-sit'. The "come-to-sit" is going well if I take a drop step and guide her into the position but I don't want her to rely on that. We will fade that out with plenty of practice. The mall was still full of festive decorations but a lot fewer people. It has been pretty packed the last two weeks. I used my lightest and shortest leash to simulate being off-leash and Ms. Charlotte did amazing! Great job!
A quick note: You guys have to decide to be all-in or all-out on some of Ms. Charlotte's unwanted behavior. You mentioned she nudges your hands or begs for attention. She jumps on the couches and other behaviors. She used to jump on my recliner but now she doesn't because I don't let her and when she has tried I give her a firm "off". When she nudges my hands or me, I push her away, I tell her "off" or I ignore her altogether. I have started to build that into her but if you allow her to nudge you or join you on the couch even one time, she's going to think it's ok again. Then when you don't want her to, she's going to be confused as to why you are upset when it was allowed previously. As a family, you guys need to be on the same page. If you reward that behavior by allowing it or giving her what she wants when she asks for it, she wins. She can get all the love and attention when she does what we ask her to do.
Ms. Charlotte says Happy New Year and Welcome to 2025!!

Pupdate 1/2/25
Today Ms. Charlotte and I headed over to Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, CA to work on Ms. Charlotte's ability to work off-leash in a public place with medium to high distractions. Ms. Charlotte did well overall! I am proud of the progress she has made. She is still sensitive to the e-collar stimulation but that doesn't mean it's ineffective. She operates at a 7-15 range. Anything below 7 she can't feel it and anything above a 15, she starts to panic a little bit. A lot of encouragement with our voices and she is willing to do a lot. Ms. Charlotte is a German Shorthaired Pointer through and through. She likes to paw at and put her paws on or around us when we love her. She is still young but you must stay consistent. She may never break the habit, my 5-year-old GSP still does it but not as much, but it doesn't mean we have to give in to the behavior or allow it. When she puts her paws on me, I just remove them or move her over.
Great job today Ms. Charlotte!

Pupdate 1/3/25
Today Ms. Charlotte and I worked on her door manners and food manners. I think it was a little rocky because we hadn't practiced too many commands around the house. We stayed persistent and consistent and were able to make it clear to Ms. Charlotte. Once she understood what I asked her, she was more on the game. She responds more to praising her and encouragement than the e-collar stimulation. Once again, the stimulation isn't negative as you experienced with Ms. Senga. It is simply another form of communication with the pup just like leash pressure. The difference is that we aim to be off-leash and the e-collar is our wireless communication device to the pup. Two more days and Ms. Charlotte goes home a new pup!
She did run out of food today, I will give her some of Ms. Toji's food for tomorrow's meals. She seems to be more interested in Ms. Harriet and Ms. Toji's food and tries to eat them every day.

Pupdate 1/4/25





Today Ms. Charlotte and I headed over to Discovery Park in Downey, CA to watch a softball game. Ms. Charlotte has been doing so well around the distractions. She was getting a little bit more pushy today but a low-level stimulation is enough to refocus her attention. I'm glad she's showing that the e-collar is not an adversive tool and that she can still be herself while wearing it. Be careful how long you leave it on for as it can cause irritations to her neck. Her e-collar came in today, the picture with the 5/8" hypoallergenic contact points is above. We can't wait to show you all the wonderful things she has learned how to do!
As a reminder, here are the obedience commands that she has learned while with me:
Sit/Extended Sit: Press the black "S" button + say "Sit"
Down/Extended Down: Press the black "S" button + say "Down"
Place/Extended Place: Press the black "S" button + say "Place"
Come-To-Sit: Press the black "S" button + say "Come" + use your hands to guide into place
Heel: Press the black "S" button + say "Heel"
Car Manners: Have her "sit", open the doors, then say "Load up!" + black "S" button
Food Manners/Refusal: The pup must patiently wait in either a "sit" or "down" while you prepare the food and then say "break" allowing the pup to access the food.
Greeting Manners: Pup must be in "sit" and then allow strangers to say hi
"Off" + black button "S" to stop the pup from performing unwanted behavior
"Break!" - no stimulation and pup can be free to sniff or go potty
We will be reviewing how to perform all these tomorrow during the turnover!

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