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Harlee | Bull Terrier | Hawthorne, CA | In-Training
Meet Harley, the Bull Terrier from Hawthorne,CA who is here for a Two-Week Board and Train Program. Harlee is here because she is a serious play biter who breaks skin, extremely energetic and easily overly excited, jumps on everyone she meets, runs through doorways, pulls on her leash and lacks basic obedience and manners. Over the next two weeks, we will be working on leash manners, house manners, doorway manners, greeting manners and general obedience. Stay tuned for Harley's progress!
Pupdate 11/6/2022
Harlee and I met for the first time today and she is taking the rest of the day to acclimate to her new temporary home! She is very well-behaved in her crate. During my first assessment of her Harlee, she became excited and attempted to bite my ankle. She did tear a hole in my favorite leggings but nothing more as I was able to use leash tension to prevent her from getting too close. She does have play biting tendencies but she also redirects when she doesn't like something. Once we got home, We took a nice stroll around the neighborhood to help her soak in her new environment and she was very happy to see the new sights and smell the new smells! Stay tuned for our progress!
Pupdate 11/7/2022
Today Harlee and I went to Home Depot to meet with other Offleash SoCal trainers and their pups! Harlee is a very confident puppy and didn’t seem to be bothered by the foot traffic inside the store. She did, however, get nervous about carts passing by her so we focused on proper introductions to the cart and desensitizing her to the rattling by walking her beside one. We began working on “sit, down and place” and she did very well. There is little to no duration with her exercises yet as she is quick to be distracted but we will also be working on that at home. For a dog who is so agile, she does hesitate to jump onto higher places so we will work on more confidence building on that. Stay tuned for more!
Pupate 11/8/2022
Today Harlee and I had our training sessions indoors because of the rain but we made the most of our time together. We started off with doorway manners, sit, down and heel. She has been doing very well at controlling her energy levels and not pulling on the leash so I will be introducing the e-collar to her tomorrow. I introduced the command “place” on an elevated bed which is a great tool as it is off the ground, portable and provides a clear boundary of where she needs to remain. Harlee often changes positions from “sit” to “down” and vice versa when she sees or hears a distraction, but we will be working on durations for each exercise. I hope to teach her to relax and enjoy her bone on the elevated bed so that she can spend more time with me in the living room. Stay tuned for more!
Pupdate 11/9/2022
Today Harlee and I practiced “heel, sit, down, place and come to sit”. For our heel exercise, I had Harlee walk by my left side with her front two paws aligned with my left foot. I introduced the “come to sit” exercise where I would recall her from her “place” and guide her around from my right side to the left to end on a sit by my left side. She is very quick to understand concepts and doesn’t need very much leash guidance as she is so active and ready to move. Her redirecting and play biting have calmed down as I have maintained calmer energy for our learning sessions. I would like to introduce her to a healthier method of play to dissuade her from using her teeth to communicate her excitement. Stay tuned for more!
Pupdate 11/10/2022
Today Harlee and I went to a beautiful and scenic park to practice our “heel, sit, down and come to sit” and introduce the e-collar on low stim. I could not help but just laugh at her sassy attitude during the e-collar introduction. She would whip her head to the side to figure out what she was feeling and then stare at me as if she was incredibly offended that I hid the Halloween candy. The e-collar introductions always take a few days and I will continue to use the e-collar and the leash to help her get familiar with the e-collar and guide her through the exercises. Harlee still tends to redirect on my hands so for our “down” exercise, I prefer to slowly add leash pressure with my foot on the leash. Her “come to sit” exercise is coming along very nicely and soon, we will begin adding more distance for recall to a “come to sit”. The durations for her sit and down need improvement so we will continue to work on that. Stay tuned for more!
Pupdate 11/11/2022
Today Harlee and I practiced “heel, sit, down and come to sit” with different various uses of the leash and the e-collar. Harlee is certainly doing better with the e-collar today than yesterday and is requiring less leash guidance. I noticed that Harlee sometimes comes to a sit by coming directly from my left side and backing up into proper position and other times, she likes to come to sit by coming in from my right side to the left. We’ll be experimenting to see which method she prefers and sticking to that. Her durations are slowly improving but she certainly likes to be right by me and so we’ll continue to work on that. Stay tuned for more!
Pupdate 11/12/2022
Today Harlee and I worked on our doorway manners after a nice 2 mile walk in the morning with her roommate, Maisy Moose the chocolate lab! My favorite thing to do with Harlee is to have her practice place during our walks so that her duration improves for her exercises. She did so well by the door for both her extended sit and extended down so I know our practices on our walks are paying off. We will continue to work on longer durations in more chaotic environments since distractions make staying still very difficult for Harlee. Stay tuned for more!
Pupdate 11/13/2022
Today Harlee and I practiced our car load up manners! This exercise was fun and a lot easier than I expected it to be! Until today, I had to lift Harlee up into the crate in the car so I introduced her jumping up into the cargo area without the crate whilst practicing duration with an elevated bed. The crate set up in my cargo area is a challenge for many dogs because my car is just a tad bit higher than your normal sedan and the crate in the cargo area tends to stick out past the bumper. Once Harlee became comfortable with the idea of jumping into the cargo area, I added the crate in the same spot and she went in flawlessly! She is a very willing, energetic, smart pup who makes training so much fun. Stay tuned for more!
Pupdate 11/14/2022
Today Harlee and I went to Home Depot to work on "heel, extended sit, extended down and come to sit". Harlee is being transitioned to off-leash work so we are no longer going to use the leash to guide her as she already understands the motions of every exercise. I let her drag the leash behind her through some of the aisles and she did great! She responds very well to the e-collar and I am excited to take her to an outdoor mall tomorrow to practice our exercises in a more crowded environment. Stay tuned for more!
Pupdate 11/15/2022
Today Harlee and I went to a park to work on longer durations of sit and down on different place spots. She did well with all the other children around her in the playground area but got distracted by the other dogs at the park while we were practicing our “heel” exercise. We will be working on that tomorrow with other Offleash SoCal trainers and their pups and if she demonstrates that she can complete her exercises around all the other dogs, I will be moving her to being fully off-leash! Stay tuned for more!
Pupdate 11/16/2022
Today Harlee and I met with other Offleash SoCal Trainers and their pups at the park. Harlee and I practiced on all of our exercises with little to no leash guidance. The only reason why I did not put Harlee fully off-leash is because there were a lot of other dogs running around off-leash and I felt that Harlee was not ready to be off-leash in that kind of environment. Other than that, she did really well and only got up from her extended down once! We will be working on adding much more duration on her extended sits and downs from here on out. Stay tuned for more!
Pupdate 11/17/2022
Today Harlee and I went to Home Depot to work on all of our exercises fully off-leash! Harlee did so well and she's doing a great job had holding her positions now. She is ready for a Citadel Outlets visit so we will be making a trip out tomorrow! We also had the amazing opportunity to practice greeting manners with some of the staff at Home Depot because everyone wanted to say hello to her! Stay tuned for more.
Pupdate 11/18/2022
Today Harlee and I went to the Citadel Outlets to practice on all of our exercises off-leash. Harlee struggled. She had a hard time focusing with the new environment and all the people walking around her. She was certainly just having an off day with lower energy and lack of focus. So we will be going back to another mall in hopes of helping her overcome this challenge. Also, she managed to bite my hand today while I was taking her water bowl out of the crate. She hasn't attempted to redirect or bite since the first week she was living here. Stay tuned for more!
