Meet Finn, a 2 year old Picardy Spaniel from Whittier,CA! Finn will be joining Offleash SoCal for our Two Week Board and Train Program. Finn loves to use his strength to pull his owners during walks and making it very difficult to enjoy walking. While on walks, Finn gets very distracted by small animals and other dogs to the point where he will start whining and barking if he can’t get to them. When greeting people, Finn gets very excited and will jump to say hello! During his stay, Finn will be learning Leash Manners, Greeting Manners, Basic Obedience, and Door Manners! Stay tuned for his progress!
Pupdate 6/26/22
This afternoon, Finn and I went on multiple walks around the neighborhood so he could adjust to his new surroundings! He was very strong on the leash during our walk so I decided to put a prong collar on to nip the pulling in the rear as soon as possible! He responded extremely fast and stopped pulling immediately! On our second walk, I let Finn spend most of the time exploring and smelling things while giving him lots of praise for when he didn’t pull! He did have a hard time going in the crate when we got home but I believe this is due to him not feeling completely relaxed in an unfamiliar location. I will be starting his training tomorrow because I want him to decompress today and get acclimated properly!
Pupdate 6/27/22
Today Finn and I started the morning with a walk around the neighborhood to start working on Heel and Sit! He did fairly well but would sometimes get distracted by his surroundings. When this happened, I gave him a small correction and reminded him to heel. After 20 minutes of working on his Heel, Finn was walking very well right next to me and making eye contact most of the time! Later we went to a park and introduced Place, Down, and Come! He did very well and even walked past a few dogs without any issues or crying! Good progress for his first day!
Pupdate 6/28/22
Today Finn and I started the morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Come, and Sit! He was very well behaved during our training session and needed little to no reminders! He is a very smart boy and wants to do the right thing! Later we went to a park and worked on Place, Down, and Come! Again he has very little issues with his commands and was very calm while around other dogs!
Pupdate 6/29/22
Today Finn and I started our morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Come, and Sit. Finn did fairly well with his morning training but struggled with his come. When he performs the command, he tends to jump on me when he gets closer. Later in the day we stopped at a Mall and worked on Heel, Come, Sit, Place, and Down. He tends to shake his head while walking even if I am not using the remote. He still struggled with his come to sit due to his desire to jump on me when he gets excited or nervous. Later in the afternoon, Finn and I spent some time relaxing in my yard to let Finn decompress from the long day of training!
Pupdate 6/30/22
Today Finn and I started the morning with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Come, and Down. He struggled a bit with come due to him wanting to jump on me when he got closer to me. He did shake his head quite a lot during our training session even if I wasn’t using any tools besides a leash attached to his collar. He struggled with his duration commands because he would get anxious anytime I would walk farther away from him. Later we went to the park and focused on Heel, Down, Place, and Come. He did ok with his Heel but sometimes would veer off if he caught a scent. Anytime he would try and smell the ground or veer away from me, I would give him a firm reminder and tell him Heel.
Pupdate 7/1/22
Today Finn and I started the morning with our routine structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Sit, and Come. He had a very hard time performing his Heel command because every few steps he would get a scent and try and follow it. Anytime this happened I would give him a firm correction with the leash and ecollar to try and get him to stop tracking. However sometimes he would completely ignore the collar and keep following his nose. If he got into that mindset, I usually turn around and walk the other way until he paid attention back to me. This usually would happen multiple times throughout our walks. Later we stopped at an outdoor park with a pond and worked on Heel, Come, Place, and Sit. He did pretty good with most of his command but again struggled quite a bit with his Heel. There were ducks at the pond and I believe he was trying to track them. Later we spent some time hanging out in yard and letting him decompress from his training!
Pupdate 7/2/22
Today Finn and I started the morning with our routine structured walk around the neighborhood to focus on Heel, Down, and Come! He does very well being patient when we are at the front door and doesn’t pull me through in a rush! His heel is still a work in progress due to his getting side tracked with smelling stuff. He will walk really nicely by my side for a few minutes and then all of a sudden he will just veer off and follow his nose. I give him a firm reminder and guide him back into position. Later we stopped at a mall and worked on duration place and down. He did very well for majority of the time but had one mess up during place where he tried to scoot close to me and fell off the object. Other than that he was very well behaved!
Pupdate 7/3/22
Today Finn and I started the morning with our routine structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Down, Come, and Sit! He did pretty well with most of his commands and was very focused! His heel was pretty good for most of our walk but had some moments where we could veer away following a scent. Later we went to a park and focused primarily on greeting manners due to his desire to jump when he gets excited. He did very well overall and only jumped on me twice! He quickly understood that jumping on people gets no attention!
Pupdate 7/4/22
Today Finn and I started our day with a structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Down, Come, and Sit! He was pretty good for the most part and only tried to veer away from me 2 times! Since Finn has been shaking his head quite a bit, I got some ear wash and wipes to give his ears a good cleaning! Later we stopped at Lowes and worked on Heel, Come, Place, and Sit! He did very well and stayed focused for the majority of our session! I did clean out Finn’s ears with ear wash and wipes and saw they were both very dirty!
Pupdate 7/5/22
Today Finn and I started our morning with our routine structured walk around the neighborhood and worked on Heel, Down, Come, and Sit! He did fairly well and stayed focused for majority of the time. He did get distracted by some smells twice during our session. Later we stopped at an outdoor mall and worked on Place, Heel, Sit, and Down. When performing the place command, he got very vocal and barked almost the entire time of doing the command. He still is shaking his head quite a bit even after cleaning his ears yesterday.
Pupdate 7/6/22
Today Finn and I started the day with our routine structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Down, Come, and Sit. He was pretty focused for the majority of the time we were walking but got a bit overly excited when a squirrel ran past. I quickly told him off and gave a correction. He quickly got back into the heel and stayed focused the rest of the walk! Later we stopped at a tennis court to work on Place, Heel, and Come. He did well but gets vocal if he sits in a stationary command for an extended period of time. His vocalizing really depends on his anxiety level, distractions, and just overall boredom that he is feeling in the moment.
Pupdate 7/7/22
Today we started with our routine structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on Heel, Down, Come, and Sit. He did pretty good with all of his commands but did get pretty vocal while performing his down command. Later we went to Janns Marketplace and worked on all of his commands! He did pretty good for the most part but struggled with his down command because he was becoming restless and started to whine and bark. Later we spent some time relaxing in my yard and sunbathing!
Pupdate 7/8/22
Today Finn and I had a relaxing day and did a bunch of walks around the neighborhood! We started the day with our routine walk around my neighborhood and worked on Heel, Down, Come, and Place! He was pretty good and had a lot of energy. Later we went to an outdoor mall and focused on his Heel, Come, Down, and Place! He was a bit overwhelmed with the crowds of people but still listened to the commands! Later we spent some time hanging out in my yard and playing with my personal dogs!
Pupdate 7/9/22
Today Finn and I had a mostly relaxing last day due to all the hard work he has been doing the past two weeks! We did start with our routine structured walk around the neighborhood and focused on fine tuning any of the commands! He was overall well behaved and stayed pretty focused and only got distracted a few times! Later we spent some time at the park to let Finn explore and enjoy smelling the grass! We then went home and worked on finalizing his Door and Food manners! He did very well and was super patient while waiting to be released!
