Meet Elia! She's an eighteen month old Vizsla from Los Angeles, California here for our Three-Week Board and Train program! She is very friendly and sweet, but she likes to pull on her leash and jump on people, and she sometimes has trouble following basic commands. Over the next twenty one days, we will show Elia how to behave on and off leash, and show her how to be the best pup she can possibly be! Stay tuned for Elia's three week transformation!
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Pupdate: 10/2/2022
After picking up Elia, we headed to Almansor Park! We mostly relaxed and played so I could get to know her. She seemed to immediately take to me, and she even hopped right into my car with very little hesitation! Once we got home, I let her sniff around my house and get used to staying here. So far, she's been wonderful, and I'm very excited to see how she does with her training!
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Pupdate: 10/3/2022
Elia went to Pathfinder Park for her first full day of training! We worked on her Heel and her Come To Sit command. For Heel, I'd like Elia to walk on my left side, without pulling forward, or falling behind. For Come To Sit, I want her to come to my right side, go around my legs, and sit on my left side. She is picking up these commands very well, especially for her first full day! One thing we noticed was Elia has already become quite attached to me. I'm pleased that she likes me so much in such a short time, however, I want her to be able to stay calm and perform her commands even with another trainer. To help this, she worked with another trainer for a little while today, as you can see in the above video! At one point in the video, you can see me walking away to my car, and Elia seems to lose interest in her work and starts staring at me and whining. This doesn't last long, as she very quickly goes back to performing her commands, however, I'd like to get her to the point where me walking away like that is a complete nonevent.
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Pupdate: 10/4/2022
Elia and I went to Almansor Park and to another trainer's house today! She did very well all day! Even while another dog was throwing a temper tantrum, Elia remained calm and collected! We started working on her Place command today. For Place, I want Elia to hop up onto an object such as a bench, and hold her position there. She did very well with this!
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Pupdate: 10/5/2022
Elia went to Almansor Park today for most of her training, then we practiced some commands at home! She was great at the park, although she was very distracted by the geese and pigeons! This isn't surprising given her breed, but it is something we will have to work on! At home, we started working on the Down command! She wasn't a fan of this command at first, but she quickly got the hang of it, as you can see in one of the above videos!
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Pupdate: 10/6/2022
Elia went to Legg Lake today for training! She did extremely well. I was able to drop the leash and she Heeled next to me with the leash dragging. Performing commands with the leash dragging allows me to have some idea of how she might perform off leash while keeping the leash in reach if I need it. I think she did well with this because there were very few birds and squirrels around. I believe when we go back to parks with lots of small animals I will still need the leash for now, but this is definitely a great step forward!
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Pupdate: 10/7/2022
Elia went to Century City Mall today! She progressed quite well! There were several small dogs around the mall, and Elia took an interest in them. Not quite as much of a reaction as when she sees birds and squirrels, but still notable. That being said, I showed her the Under command today. For this command, I want Elia to crawl underneath an object, such as a bench, and hold her Down position there. In the above video, you see Elia performing this command within two minutes of me showing her for the first time. Her ability to understand new commands is impeccable. She isn't able to hold the position for very long, but performing the action this early is great in my book. Hopefully her exceeding my expectations with her commands will give me the time I need to work on her distractions, as this is her only major weakness at the moment.
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Pupdate: 10/8/2022
Elia and I went back to Century City Mall, and she did a great job! Other than getting over excited when we walked past some small dogs, she had no issues today. We worked on each of her commands, and also practiced holding her positions for a little longer! For her Sit, Place and Down commands, I want Elia to be able to hold her positions for at least two minutes. She's not quite at that mark yet, but she's getting closer each day.
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Pupdate: 10/9/2022
Elia and I went to Almansor Park today for training. I mostly wanted to focus on having her around the birds at the park. She got distracted by them several times. By the end of the day, however, she seemed much less interested in them and more focused on me and her commands!
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Pupdate: 10/10/2022
Elia went to Santiago Park today! She did great with all of her commands. She was leash dragging the whole time, and I almost never had to touch the leash to create tension. I believe she could have been completely off leash today, and she will be off leash at similar locations in the future!
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Pupdate: 10/11/2022
Elia and I went to the park to test her off leash skills today! We started on leash around the birds, but she quickly earned my trust enough to take the leash off. As you can see in the above video, she does still get distracted, and she wants to look at the birds a few times. However, each time she does this I use the Off command and her attention comes back to me fairly quickly. Throughout the day, there was only one time where her attention didn't easily come back to me, and that was when we walked by a squirrel only a few feet from us. This proximity raised the difficulty for Elia and I did have to grab her collar. She's still susceptible to those distractions, especially when very close, but she made a lot of progress today!
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Pupdate: 10/12/2022
Elia and I went to Maple Park today for training! She was off leash most of the time, and leash dragging some of the time. She did a great job with all of her commands! For her Place command today, there were several plastic objects on a playground that she wasn't fond of sitting on, but she ended up doing a great job!
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Pupdate: 10/13/2022
Elia went to Wilderness Park today for training! She was off leash most of the day, and she did a great job! We mostly worked on her Send Away To Place command. I'm attempting to increase the distance between us and her Place object while still having her understand exactly where I want her! She's doing a good job with this!
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Pupdate: 10/14/2022
Elia and I went to the Outlets at Orange today! She did great with her commands as usual! This was the most exciting place she's been with me, so we kept the leash attached just in case. We got there fairly early, so not many people were around, but even when the crowds started showing up, Elia didn't seem to mind at all!
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Pupdate: 10/15/2022
Elia and I went to Almansor Park today for training! She was off leash all day and had zero issues! We go to this park quite frequently, so I think she's very comfortable there. In today's video, I'm working on Send Away To Place with a place object that Elia hasn't been on before. We start by walking all the way up to the rocks with Elia, then slowly creating more distance over time! When she performs very well, I give her a pet and praise her, if she doesn't quite make it, we try again!
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Pupdate: 10/16/2022
Elia went to The Block of Orange today! We mostly worked on her ability to be separated from me. We did this by having another trainer handle Elia while I walk around at various distances from them. Overall, she did much better today than she had before with this exercise, but she still whined a bit when I first walked away. That being said, she was fully capable of holding her positions and performing all of her commands!
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Pupdate: 10/17/2022
Elia and I went to Wilderness Park today for training! She was off leash the whole day, and performed very well. She met a new dog who she was particularly enamored with, but even around her Elia was able to perform each of her commands reliably. Elia only stopped to Stare at her new friend every once in a while.
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Pupdate: 10/18/2022
Elia went to Almansor Park today for training! She was off leash all day and performed very well! She got the opportunity to see the dog she's smitten with and work around her for a little while. It seemed like she had a really fun time today!
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Pupdate: 10/19/2022
Elia went to Legg Lake today! She was off leash all day, and behaved very well! She went through all of her commands with ease! She got plenty of exercise running around today as well!
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Pupdate: 10/20/2022
Elia went to Citadel Outlets today for training! It was too hot to stay very long, but the work she did there was just as good as it's been in other places! After the outlets, we went home to train in the AC, and Elia did a great job with that too!
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Pupdate: 10/21/2022
Elia and I went back to Citadel Outlets today. It was much more crowded today, but Elia maintained her composure and behaved very well all day! Elia will be going home tomorrow, and I will miss her very much, she's been such a pleasure to work with!
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